To offer you a topic in order to calm down a bit after all the political passage of arms, here's:

http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en

The most famous round the world single-handed sail contest.

This time there is also a Dutch sailor in the fleet who is the eldest contestant (65).
He is multimillionair and pays everything out of his own pocket.

This is really extreme. 3 months non-stop sailing on your own...

Is this a monohull only race? where are the multihulls in the picture?

Ellen Macarther did it alone in 71 days on a big trimaran:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/sailing/4229079.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40803000/jpg/_40803487_ellengetty300.jpg

Sorry Timbo, I have to correct you a bit.

First, yes there only monohulls (Imoca type).

Ellen Macarthur did indeed a separate recordchase in 2004 solo round the world in a very big trimaran B/Q Castorama in 71 days.
Her round-the-world course is however not the same as now in the Vendeeglobe race.

Still, a lot off the boats who sail now, are equipped with foils (see the vids) and will need probably round the same time or less.

P.S. Macarthur did join a Vendee race in 2004 and finished second in 94 days

I just can't comprehend how they do that on no sleep....

As far as I've understood, they sleep naps no more then 15 minutes without a pause.
Especially in areas where there is a lot of seatraffic and in times with difficult weathersituations the number of naps will decrease.

On the long run, on the wide big oceans, they take longer and more naps if the situation allows that.

Sleep-deprivation is a well known problem in these races.

But it remains racesailing..... Always at maximum speed, at the edge.

After reading the book, The Race, about the 100' cats racing around the world, I reconsidered my need for that kind of 'fun'.

Even fully crewed, it sounded like a lot more work that fun, and the descriptions of the noise down below at 30knots, not to mention the wave jumping and crash landings, would have made sleeping just about impossible for me.

After three or four days, you'll find ways to get a little sleep in just about anything. It's amazing how, at the brink of exhaustion, how just laying down and just closing your eyes does recharge you a bit.

You should know, Mr. EC challenge

And Timbo, was that book the one with Randy on Team Adventure when their boat almost broke up off South America? I think I remember reading it, but should probably turn those pages again...

Yeah, that is the book. One guy got off Randy's boat because he was sure he was going to die. He said that even when down below trying to sleep, you could always tell when Randy was driving! (extra noisy from the increased speed)

Except when you're being eaten alive by mosquitos at Everglades City?

You reconsider fun when on hour 36 of no sleep, sewing needle in hand, about 100 miles from the spot the titanic sunk with 2,000nm more to go and no mainsail. Racing across oceans is real work, and I think it takes a crazy frenchmen or once in a while crazy brit to continue thinking its fun! Love all the tech in the boat, and applaud all the shore teams and skippers for getting their boats this far with no major breakages (a first I think for this race).

For really witnissing this round the world race, you have to click on the link "daily motion" somewhere at the outsite or down below videos.

What you get are small vids taken each day by the skippers on their boats. Very enjoyable .

Not shure if this link keeps working

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5...-aux-iles-du-cap-vert-vendee-globe_sport

Great stuff Ronald, thanks for the links!

And here's another kind of wild sailing, the Australian 18' skiffs, their season is getting underway down under, they have a live streaming You Tube Chanel, I was watching their Sunday race late last night (Saturday night in the States), check this out, it starts with the fleet leaving the launch area, the Double Bay Sailing Club, there's about no wind because it's in a sheltered cove, but as soon as they get out past the point, into Sydney Harbor, it's game on with 20kt gusts.

Skip ahead to 9 minutes in, check out how fast the white boat is going under kite after the gybe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwOnVzACTIM&feature=em-lss

You have to watch Alex Thomson in the second part of the the next vid:


http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5...r-la-marine-nationale-vendee-globe_sport

Wow! He's pushing that boat hard since he doesn't have the SB board anymore. Does the foiler help with righting moment? I thought he was going to broach a couple of times in that video.

The foil is quite a bit off the centerline of the boat so I would guess that it adds quite a lot to the righting moment of the boat. I thought it might have been a little odd that his keel seemed to be nearly centered - they have the ability to cant that thing quite a lot. Perhaps he discovered that he needed it to prevent leeway in the absence of that foil. That would also further decrease righting moment. He sure was flying a lot of sail!

http://cdn.sailingscuttlebutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/unnamed-1.jpg

Here's an explanation for your answer Jake.

Maybe he's using his extreme heeling of the boat for anti drift. He lacks the foil!

I think that showes the exceptional art of Alex Thomson.

Thanks Northsea - I understand the physics (I'm an engineer). I think the excess heal was a little "showboating" by Alex, personally...while his outboard starboard foil is gone, he still has a rather long and efficient keel that only looses grip with the additional heal - regardless, it's definitely fun to watch.

How these boats have evolved is pretty impressive. They are effectively sailing on a side-edge hull profile not unlike a multihulls on one hull. Unlike a multihull, they maintain self-righting properties.

Thanks for that diagram. It looks like the foil is one piece from side to side? Is that right? In the updates I've seen from Alex he keeps talking about needing to get down there and saw off the jagged bits and I couldn't figure out why that was necessary...but if he needs that to retract into the hull in order to extend the other foil, I can see how that might be a problem.

Yes indeed Jake, the diagram suggests that the two side foils are connected construction-wise.

In fact that would be logical, because you only need the foil on the leeside (and moreover at its utmost lenght).


Here's another explanational vid:

http://www.safran-sailingteam.com/media/new-foils-greater-speed-and-reliability-20160922
And go to the link on the right side for the video.

But this vid also doesn't mention the exact foil-construction.

Great stuff Ronald, thanks for posting.

In that video (above) both foils seem to be fully extended at the same time, so I'm guessing they are separate pieces and one or the other (or both?) can be retracted independently? Or was that just the experimental phase and for the race they have a one piece foil?

The earlier drawing you posted made it look as if it were a one piece type where when one side is out, the other side is retracted, but the video has both out at the same time.

I was surprised when the announcer said it increases the speed by... 2 knots. I would have thought it would have been much more than just 2 knots.

What about the rumors that Alex had a 'spare' on board? I believe there was a report that said his boat had some features that allowed access to the foils without going over the side...?

If the foils were joined in the center somehow, it might allow one to disconnect and remove the broken side and connect a new one in its place...

However, I would presume that these foils are have a unidirectional shape, so if you were to have a 'spare', you'd need both sides since you couldn't carry just one and use it in either direction?

They would indeed by asymmetrical - no chance you could swap one for the other from side to side.

Although that diagram looks as if it infers it, I would also be very surprised if they are connected in the middle...there's too much of a maintenance headache to maintain if it were one and there really wouldn't be much advantage to connecting them together, structurally.

And me too - 2 knots? 2 Knots is nothing to sneeze at but it looks like it's definitely more at times.

http://www.safran-sailingteam.com/fr/video/15?shadowbox=1

Hope this link works. What you see is the upside-down safetytest for the Imoca "safran".

You can see that both foils are retracted in the hull for safety and protection reasons.

Which indicates that they are not connected in the middle.

Looks kinda like the lift provided by the canting keel may at speed may only increase the heeling force. Maybe that's why Alex has his more centered.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x557cd1_yann-elies-dans-un-grain-de-40-noeuds-vendee-globe_sport

That's what sailing looks like in 40-50 kts. Even on open water the waves break.

I'm sure it's way worse than the video shows. I remember spending a November aboard a merchant marine ship in the Caribbean (not the Southern Ocean) and going through a relatively shallow low pressure system on the return. We had HUGE waves and foam streaks across the surface. I tried on several attempts to take a picture of the bigger waves and the photos were pitiful. It didn't look any worse than a fresh day in Panama City Beach. I ended up just deleting the photos.

HB's foils definitely are not connected in the middle. His boat is the only one of the foilers to have more conventional deck-side exits for the foils, though I still don't believe there is any way to replace that board while sailing; board weight #'s have varied but ~160kg is in the middle of the range quoted, with 200kg being the upper end, plus the geometry is pretty prohibitive of changes.

Certainly exciting, but a little less so now that Alex has routed himself through the middle of a low and then the middle of a high while Armel has stayed south and in pressure. A damn shame as there was a solid drag race going at the front of the fleet for near a month! Still its anyones race, Armel has been runner up twice however so his shot at winning is probably pretty solid. A HB win would be a big upset to the French however, and really crank up the design efforts!

I haven't studied it to figure out why but I agree that video / photos rarely represent the size of waves accurately!

I'd bet it has something to do with focal plane. But maybe a photographer/artist has a better definition since I've seen some amazing photo-manipulations of scale...

But that's exactly my problem too.

I've 7 vids on YouTube ( search for: ronald reeder northsea) and none of them shows what I wanted it to show.

Big waves, excitment, etc.

I would be very thankfull for the golden tip.