Vendée Globe 2020

Alex Thomson day 2 :

 

Wild West (to have sooner North-West winds) or safer South (to avoid rough sea state) ? the dilemma that split the fleet in two groups, next 12 hours will be decisive for the lead, more details in this news :
News - Wild West or Safer South? - Vendée Globe - En https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/20161/wild-west-or-safer-south
The Ventusky prediction to illustrate :
Ventusky - Weather Forecast Maps https://www.ventusky.com/?p=43.8;-18.0;4&l=wind-10m
And the tracking map :
Tracking map - Vendée Globe - En https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/tracking-map

 

A strange course from L'Occitane overnight,has there been any news of a problem?The conditions of the last day or two have certainly shaken the assumptions about which boats might do well.I know it is likely to change dramatically once they get beyond the Canaries,but it is quite refreshing to see some different boats occupying the top positions-however briefly it may be.

 

About Occitane : " Armel Tripon has decided to set sail for the Spanish coast. The skipper of L’Occitane en Provence suffered a broken hook on his J3 overnight. "The sail has fallen on board but it is recoverable, there is work to be done", explains the race director. It was decided with his team that Armel Tripon approached La Coruña in order to anchor and repair alone, close to the coast."
About PRB , a water intake this morning but managable : " I noticed this earlier. Obviously, it’s easy to manage when there is 5 knots of wind, but not when there is 40 knots. I went to do my usual front zone check when I found this out. Here I am mopping up. " In question ? A water evacuation valve in the foil well which would have given way. Kevin nevertheless wants to be reassuring: “but it should be fine. Technically, I have to hold out for an hour before tacking and I could fix that on starboard tack. "

 

It seems that Jeremie Beyou also has a problem.Could it have been a bad batch of components?Such a shame to see potentially front running boats struck by these problems,but perhaps there could have been worse locations for equipment problems.

 

Chevalier & Taglang - YOU'RE THE BEST !!
Chevalier Taglang: VENDEE GLOBE CHALLENGE 2020-2021 - YACHT DESIGN http://chevaliertaglang.blogspot.com/2020/11/vendee-globe-challenge-2020-2021-yacht.html

 

Hit on a rudder, causing serious damage, back to Les Sables unfortunately. Hitting floating objects is really the cruel unfair side of the game, and high speed adds at square (kinetic energy) to the misfortune :
News - Charal Heading To Les Sables d'Olonne - Vendée Globe - En https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/20185/charal-heading-to-les-sables-d-olonne

 

The west's and the south's finally converge, no clear winner from this sequence but the opportunity for Alex Thomson to hit the leaderboard presentl and the foilers have for the coming hours more favorable conditions to go fast. More details in the News in English :

And the tracking :
Tracking map - Vendée Globe - En https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/tracking-map

 

News of Samantha Davies :
News - Sam Davies, https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/20233/sam-davies-i-deserve-my-dinner
Message of Alex about Jeremie terrible U turn to les Sables :
News - The Fifth Dimension - Vendée Globe - En https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/20230/the-fifth-dimension
Occitane finally continue his route, Armel will repair as soon as the sea state can allow him to climb the mast, the idea is to put the stormy jib instead of the J3.
Tracking : Tracking map - Vendée Globe - En https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/tracking-map

 

Alex Thomson and Jean Le Cam (each in their 5th participation!) show their mastery of the strategy, but now with a deep tropical low Theta to come :
News - HUGO BOSS Leads As Theta Threatens - Vendée Globe - En https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/20238/hugo-boss-leads-as-theta-threatens

 

Interesting video by Boris Herrmann :

 

News of the day :
News - HUGO BOSS leads and ‘Papy fait de la resistance’ - Vendée Globe - En https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/20258/hugo-boss-leads-and-papy-fait-de-la-resistance
Interview of Marcus Hutchinson, the team manager of Linkedout / Thomas Ruyant :

Tracking :
Tracking map - Vendée Globe - En https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/tracking-map

 

Occitane / Armel Tripon in the mast to reinstall a staysail (what I understand) :

 

As often happens,I watched one of the youtube videos and then found another quite interesting and then another..... . I eventually found myself watching this analysis of the recent boats and their systems.



First of all I have to say how much admiration I have for a man who can discuss such technical matters in a second or third language.I can just about manage to organise food and order beer in a couple of other languages.The only slip up he seems to make is referring to the headsail clew as the tack a couple of times.

I don't know whether we would be entirely in agreement about the use of the rounded scow bow;yes it has the least surface area for the volume enclosed.It also serves to take the hull lines astern of it out in the manner that they would be drawn for a longer boat,while keeping the overall length within the class limits.The other thing that it permits is the lateral spread of the soft,rounded chine that the boats all seem to have.I remember reading an article in a British sailing magazine quite a long time ago by the Moth designer Chris Eyre,which illustrated the gain to be had by increasing the righting moment if the chine was a long way from the centreline and the boat heeled a bit.He was actually using the Australian scow Moths for the example as they performed better than the skiffs in lively conditions.The same thing seems to be the case with foiling IMOCAS-further aided by the foil lift.

One thing I am now curious about is the axis on which the ballast keel pivots.If the forward end is a little distance above the aft end,would it not effectively give the foil section of the fin a positive angle of attack as the keel cants and thus additional lift?

 

You are right, they have relatively large keel pin axis incline angles of as much as 8°, this value should be carefully choosen in order that the advantage of additionnal lift overcomes the drawback of more heeling moment, as it is detailed in this article :
Leading edge - Seahorse Magazine https://www.seahorsemagazine.com/current-issue/24-content/august-2013/134-leading-edge