Jules Verne Trophy

The maxi trimarans of the IDEC team and Spindrift Racing are readying to start their attempt to claim the Jules Verne Trophy. It looks like they will both leave on the same weather window. The two craft are similar but different with IDEC's trimaran (the former Groupama3) somewhat shorter around 105' with a focus on lightweight and light air performance but less able to maintain high speed with heavy seastates. Spindrift2 (the former BP5) is somewhat longer at around 140' and heavier and more able to cope with heavy seastates without taking as much of a performance hit. They are not directly racing each other but they both seek to improve the record.

The IDEC tracker:

http://www.idecsport-sailing.com/?lang=en

The Spindrift tracker:

http://www.spindrift-racing.com/jules-verne/en/live

 

It's going to be fascinating watching two teams in quite different boats challenging this incredible record, it will surprise me if they come close let alone beat it.

 

The St Helena high on the return trip can be a big deciding factor and they cant really do anything about that. In the Fastnet I was surprised how close these two boats were in performance particularly when it went light. BPV did have to slow down a bit in the Southern ocean due to weather so the record is not unassailable although they did have an incredible record run through to Cape Leeuwin . It will be fascinating to watch and with both teams left at close to the same time will make for some interesting comparisons. They are both running smaller crews so fatigue could easily become an issue. The IDEC team should be right Francis on one watch everyone else on the other

 

They had to be on different trackers didn't they ! Hrumph !

 

Thanks for the links Corley.

 

At 10:30 utc:
IDEC 37°28.57'N 19°21.95'W dtf: 21642.87 nm
SD2 38 13.76' N 20 08.59' W dtf : 22599.1 nm

IDEC started 2 hours before SD2, so being 45' closer to the equator makes sense, but IDEC is 956 nm closer to the finish ?
They should have asked for the distance to sail to the same person XD

 

The universal tracker is now showing both IDEC and Spindrift2 on their Jules Verne record attempt.

http://volodiaja.net/Tracking/

 

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Corley, I've tried twice to get thru to this site-and nothing. Well, not quite nothing: on the second try a little square with 3 horizontal lines came up in the upper left corner but that's it......
UPDATE-On the third try it came thru---thanks......

 

An article from IDECsport in which they ask Loick Peyron about his thoughts on Francis Joyon and teams chance of breaking the record.

http://www.idecsport-sailing.com/loick-peyron-why-francis-joyon-can-beat-the-record/?lang=en

 

Near the doldrums 100 nm apart, let's the dice roll !

 

Both teams have crossed the equator and both have shaved a considerable margin off the previous record time. IDEC crossed the equator in a time of 5 days and 1 hour

http://www.idecsport-sailing.com/id...-the-equator-in-05-days-and-1-hour-3/?lang=en

and Spindrift racing:

Spindrift 2 (and the trimaran, IDEC Sport, departing two hours earlier) took advantage of exceptional weather conditions to cover the 3,171 nautical miles (as the crow flies) between Ushant island (Brittany) and the equator in just 4 days, 21 hours, 29 minutes and 2 seconds, averaging a remarkable 26.99 knots. - See more at: http://www.spindrift-racing.com/jul...g-book/jour-6-journal-en#sthash.nDcVeV6v.dpuf

http://www.spindrift-racing.com/jules-verne/drupal/en/log-book/jour-6-journal-en

 

Crossing the doldrums was quite fast, but now speeds are below 5 knots !
And IDEC seems to have a problem relying track data.

 

It's been an intriguing record attempt thus far with both teams in close contact with the record Spindrift being slightly ahead of record pace and IDEC slightly behind at the moment. The IDEC team have improved the Indian Ocean record achieving a new time of 6 days 23 hours and 4 minutes previously no contender has managed to do it in less than 8 days.

Unlike the previous record attempts there is a lot of media coverage with all of the articles available in English as well as French.

IDEC's frequently updated news page:

http://www.idecsport-sailing.com/news/?lang=en

and Spindrift's updates, I usually click on the logbook that compiles the daily entries.

http://www.spindrift-racing.com/jules-verne/en/home

 

Doug Try

http://volodiaja.net/Tracking/

Click on nautical charts for satellite.

They are both behind record at present position .

IDEC 531nms

Spindrift 2 321 nms and slowing all the time

wind pressure so you can track.

looks like they will be battling to windward high wind ha pressure calm conditions so mayday calls will not be sent.

Will be good conditions for cracking whiskey flasks and soda water.

https://www.windyty.com/?2015-12-14-00,-49.676,166.697,3

Move mouse on the bottom to get 10 day wind forecasts.

Click on pressure then on wind to get colour wind speeds and wave heights.

Joyon does not seem to want to break the record so the wind is helping for the a record not to happen. No new record will be made.


From island wind player wind piper.

 

Maybe no Transpac record, but for the all around they are only half a day behind... .
It's still a long way to go, barely half time... .