Transat Jacques Vabre

Pericles have posted this on other thread. It belongs here.

I did not know that Guillermo worked with big racing High-Tec boats.

Anyway I will post your comments on the proper thread, the thread from where you have taken these posts. Perhaps some of the guys that post there or that know and are interested in racing boats can comment on your ideas.

By the way, do you really think that the performance of the Groupama racing trimaran has something to do with the performance of the Gunboat 66 cruising cat?

 

Chris, curiously there is a cat, a curious boat, the Avocet 50.

She had abandonned the race near Corunha:

"Avocet 50 (Class 50)a announced she was retiring from the race due to a problem in her daggerboard and is routing to the Corogne".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FfI_hjbjlw

http://www.jacques-vabre.com/fr/s07_skippers/s07p02_fiche_bateau.php?bateau=216

Not a bad boat, when competing in normal conditions he was 5th, on 8 class 50. But among these ones " Crepes whaou!" as no rival...and that's a beautiful boat.

 

Amazing, Vega.

Amazing that you could find that tidbit... and further amazing that those guys on an Avocet would want to go do battle with the boats in Open 50 Class.

Thanks for the research and please accept my corrected notice.

Now, How about those guys on Ecover3? Could this be the boat for Golding... finally!... after all that really bad luck he's had in round the world events.

I like this guy, Golding. I like his work ethic, his modesty, as well as his focused commitment to sporting seamanship and ethics.

If the team at Ecover can keep this thing together, they will begin to look very tough for the Vendee Globe.

And then there's the Barcelona event just touching off with some of the other very hot boats in the class. Whoa Baby, it's gonna get very interesting when the clouds start to swirl for the Vendee kick-off.

 

Not my credit really. I just read it on a French Sailing magazine and check it out

 

Most of these sailors are great human beings and surprisingly, modest guys. I believe that being alone on big seas gives you modesty

Yes, Goldwing is doing a superb job on his new boat ( Ecover - Owen/clarke 2007).

Marc Guillemot, the previous leader (Safran - Verdier/VPLP 2007), has lost Saturday night, all chances of winning, when they lost the spy. They are since then under geenaker, and losing 15º for everybody. Curiously Marc is a 60 trimaran specialist without experience on Open 60’s and his boat was designed with the collaboration of VPLP, also multihulls specialists.

The other boat designed by Verdier/VPLP (2007) is also doing great. Kito the Pavan on Groupe Bell is very close to Ecover. Kito is also not very experienced on this kind of boats. He had crewed the French Class America.

Other one close to Ecover is Loick Peyron on Gitana Eighty (Farr –2007). He sails closer to the coast. I bet on this guy. He had won last edition of this race (with Jean-Pierre Dick).

And last, but not least, Grupama has already finished, with a new record: 10days and 38minutes.

Fantastic sailing. (I hope they can revitalize this class, it is a shame if these fantastic boats disappear from the racing scene ).

 

What a race

While I was looking at the real time positions map, Foncia lost the lead to VM materiaux .

Safran, even without spy, has coming back on the race and there are 10 Open60's very close. Some of the Old boats are doing very well.

On the 50 Trimarans, "Crepes whaou", had lose almost all its advantage (330 miles to 70 miles) and is a sitting duck while "Laiterie de Saint Malo" is coming at 18k.

It is a shame that so few members enjoy ocean racing.