Route des Princes 2013

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Quick, quick!

If you're lucky you might see the MOD70's entering the Dun Laoghaire harbor, on its live webcam showing the harbor entrance!

The Mod70's are minutes away, and there may be a couple of masttops visible to the right in the webcams frame already...

 

...Come to think of it, the boats must be headed for Dublin itself, which means they'll just sail past in the distance?

By the way, the starting times were the same for the MOD70's and MaxiPdB, who all started 24hrs after the 50's. That they then arrive in Ireland so close together with 3 MOD70s within a 400 yards of each other, is incredible.

Actual and Fenetrea are on AIS, three miles from the harbor entrance, about a mile and a half off the shore. They've sailed a longer track than the 70's, though the intention with rounding Fastnet (for the 70's) was the opposite?

 

The Multi50's Actual and FenetreA Cardinal have had a close race Arkema was left behind with some kind of technical problems. Gilles Lamire withdrew from the leg and is going to rejoin the race at Dun Laoghaire. According to the website tracker the MOD70's and PdB Maxi are snugged away inside the harbor.

MOD70 results new article:

http://www.routedesprinces.fr/en/news-race/514/spindrift-win-leg-2-into-dun-laoghaire.html

 

Link to the AIS.

It shows that the race tracker has got a big time lag, so the MOD70's have finished already. The boats should all be obliged to have their AIS on at the finish in my opinion, there should be a rules change right away! So that the solitary person trying to follow this race closely (yours truly) can see better!



And of course they should arrange for live webcams at the finish lines, not miles away...

 

lol. The tracker had a sudden whacking great update, because race direction heard that we found them slacking off. If those 50's go through the harbor entrance now, in simultaneous agreement with AIS, it will make my morning!

Lalou's gennaker ripped in half in Biscay, after which they've had a struggle to make up the resulting deficit. PdB's genaker also ripped

 

So that was Actual coming in the harbor and later going to the right hand side of the frame. Fenetrea came in a few minutes later, but of course none of them had the presence of mind to sail closer to the webcam and wave hello to us.

I'll have to add this to my collection of Multi50 webcam photos. lol.

I think I must have the world's finest collection of Multi50 webcam photos, and the French should set up a museum in Paris for it. But then I would insist on moving the museum to La Trinité perhaps.

This RdP race tracker is ridiculous, it still shows Actual and Fenetrea miles away from the finish.

 

I see that member Hump101 is logged on!

Did you see me quoting your ancient musings yesterday on the Joyon thread, Humpy?

Good stuff!

 

Now, tied up at the dock next to the ferry terminal, the MOD70's and Actual all have their AIS units on.

Bumped into the switch while grabbing a beer, I suppose.

Where is the inshore racing to take place? In the bay on the north side of the harbor?

Now after the boats are tied up, race direction puts the 'Live Finishing line" tracker at the top of the event page with 5-minutely updates...

Looking at RdP's tweets on their front page, it sounds like the finish for the Mod70's happened about an hour before I was paying attention this morning.

The tweets are obviously what gives the best updates, for finishes.

...either that, or going back and reading Corley's post an hour before I logged on. lol

 

Thx for the updates, guyz. I'm half way around the world in Hawaii, and I appreciate it. I follow your updates as much as I follow the race...Aloha!

 

Like, we never knew you were in Hawaii... It's winter there now right? Gotta cover up your pineapples? Installed an ice shield on the front of your surfboard?

Here's Lalou coming in the harbor 20 minutes ago, since you need to start a collection of this stuff, like me.

I'll go find some webcam shots I took during the 2010 Vendée-St Petersburg Race, to distract you from having to sit indoors shivering.

 

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This was Lalou Roucayrol on his previous trimaran, entering the Gulf of Finland on a calm evening 25th May 2010, a long way behind Actual and Crepes Whaou3 who had sailed neck and neck the entire voyage.

I found a controllable webcam was mounted in the Estonian lighthouse at the western end of the Gulf; this is one of several 'webcam sets' I then posted on the French 'Cup in Europe' site (back when I was briefly the english-speaking quasi-french-writing troll on that little forum).

 

A video from Route des Princes showing the finish in Dun Laoghaire.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x111th0_clip-arrivees-a-dublin-1h-de-bonne-heure_sport#.UcI23chAp8R

detailed article on the finish in Dun Laoghaire on Sail-World

http://www.sail-world.com/Australia...rift-and-Actual-lead-across-the-finish/111009

A video summing up the race so far with point scores for each class

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1...ce-a-dun-laoghaire_sport?start=0#.UcPTfMhAp8Q

 

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Yann Guichard posted a photo on twitter yesterday, to which he added the text:

Calm sea before the storm at Dun Laoghaire.

Guichard might be suggesting that Saturday's races will be 'the storm at Don Laoghaire', or more likely he's just repeating the weather report?

Met éireann's forecast, Dublin is in the 'Malin Head to Carnsore Point' area:

It will be a good spectacle if they have strong winds and flat water for Saturday's inshore races.

 

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So what is in the local papers?

From the Irish Times today, excerpt:

The race area described, between Dun Laoghaire’s East Pier and Dalkey island, makes it sound like the best spectator place will be on the East Pier.

And here a couple of quotes from an article on Wednesday:

 

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Hey! There's a 'hidden webcam' showing the Dun Laoghaire East Pier looking towards Dalkey Island!

Got to this page and scroll down for the Web Cam Live East Pier View. It refreshes every five seconds or so.

Looks like they're beginning to set up a race village. The hosting National Yacht Club has a barbecue scheduled tonight, today being summer solstice and all.

Another webcam showing the multihull dock could have been added during the event?