Vendee Globe 2024

A rundown of an IMOCA60. Semi-foilers at this stage. Slappers at the back, apparently the open ocean ride at 39 knots is horrendous. T foils for the rudder would fix this and are under IMOCA60 class consideration? They seem to be every bit as complex as an AC75.

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fangman said..
Why does IMOCA not like a T foil on the rudder? Might make the ride a tad smoother at times if the hull could get clear of the waves a bit more often. Tech inside the cabin was pretty impressive, I didn't realise they had load sensing in the shrouds, seems like a very good idea wheny ou are all be yourself in the Southern Ocean.

Might be a matter of how many rescues they can budget for? The big trimarans somehow arrange auto height control but I gather the failure rate of getting around the world in one piece is pretty high. The ride looks smooth though. Vendee record is 74 days, Ultime Tris 42 days.

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Sea Wolves, a youtuber who comes out of the woodwork every 4 years, has this time become an official Vendee Globe partner. Here's the first 2 editions if you want to know the who's who of it all. Will probably put out a half hour video of each day's action. (Depending on how you allocate/restrict your screen time. Hey, I didn't watch any of the Olympics )

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One week down and Jean Le Cam, on Tout Commence en Finistere, veteran of 6 Vendee Globes in his non-foiler is in the lead. 1779.9 NM down 22,495 to go. Well he's the most southerly of the fleet, he and Kiwi Conrad Coleman went east gambling on atypical weather patterns. The rest of the fleet went west for the best path through the doldrums and the best side of the St Helena High.

Watch the first few minutes of Sea Wolves report to see the drone video of Jean Le Cam.

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Louis Burton, one of the favourites has just cracked the deck of Bureau Vallee (The French Office Works). He's assessing the damage in the currently light conditions. He'll either retire or be out mixing resin and carbon fibre.

Watch the first few minutes here for drone footage of Bureau Vallee before the deck cracked.
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Repair videos are always popular with those of you who've slapped on a bit of carbon. But fixing a ding from bumping a rock vs fixing a crack appearing in normal sailing? Clarisse guarding against scurvy.

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2 weeks in now, all but 2 of the 39 still in the race have crossed the equator. Charlie Dalin is in the lead, he's 16 degrees South, 3998 NM down 20,296 to go. Currently cruising along at 25.7 knots, 58.3 NM ahead of 2nd placed Thomas Ruyant.

It was a relatively slow leg to the equator for a Vendee event, light winds. But despite that the 24 hr solo monohull speed record was broken. Twice! Yoann Richomme now holds it with 551.8 NM, an average of 23 knots in about 17 knots of wind. WSSRC to ratify it. Optimum conditions, a streak of wind in an overall relatively calm Atlantic. They'll get more wind in the Southern Ocean but I doubt they'll break the record there.

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3 weeks down, they've passed the first of the 3 capes, The Cape of Good Hope. The lead has chopped and changed a bit, Yoann Richomme is currently leading. The second half of the Atlantic was fast, the leaders surfing on a low pressure system. The 24 hour record was upped a few times, the leaders not wanting to fall behind or off the back of the low . Apparently speed is not determined by how fast the boat will go but how hard sailors are prepared to push themselves and/or the boat. Sebastion Simon now holds the record at 615.33 NM. He's a composite engineer, seems to have more faith that his boat will hold together than the others.

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Sam Goodchild is the first non-French person at 7th.
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Jean Le Cam is leading the non-foilers at 20th.

The Southern Ocean may change things. Seems some newer boats have been designed to, hopefully, do well in bigger seas. More buoyancy in the nose etc. but they have yet to be tried out down there.

In the meantime the Jules Verne Record attempt is just underway. Massive tris, crew of 6, They wait until the long range forecasts looks just right before starting. I suspect if they don't make good time in the Atlantic they'lll return to the start to await another attempt.
40 days 23 hours 30 minutes and 30 seconds is the time to beat. They are fast enough to chase weather systems, not so much waiting for the weather to come up from behind.