Vendée Globe 2020, all hail Jean Le Cam!
Great to see an AIS MOB device helping with the amazing rescue of Vendée Globe solo racer Kevin Escoffier early this morning (Universal Time). At 14:00 UTC yesterday afternoon, he’d had to transition from surfing his foiling IMOCA 60 PRB at 25+ knots in 10-13 foot seas about 840 miles southwest of Cape Town — 3rd in what was then a 32-boat fleet — to grabbing a survival suit and jumping into his liferaft, all in about two minutes. Yike!
But with guidance from race headquarters and MRCC Cape Town, Jean Le Cam on Yes we Cam! diverted course and located Escoffier a few hours later, though it took much of the night to find him again and also get slowed down and close enough that Escoffier could grab a tossed life ring and join Le Cam aboard. Hero!
Actually, I and many other Vendee fans, plus the racers, have already been admiring Le Cam for weeks. For most of the race the aging Yes we Cam! has been the only non-foiling boat in the top ten — check this Nov 13 homage — while 61-year-old Jean is easily the oldest skipper among them (I’m pretty sure). And, look, he was right back at it earlier this evening, making 17 knots while his new passenger Escoffier presumably stays out of the way. Kevin, in fact, may well be sleeping, given that PRB’s “Retired” designation on the Vendee Globe tracking map seems rather understated.
The screenshots above are from a must-see video showing an understandably exhilarated Escoffier talking with nearby racers on VHF while an exhausted-looking Le Cam was apparently sending the scene ashore via a Skype/satellite connection. The communications on these boats is also remarkable (and great for fans), but what happened to PRB is definitely “something {they} need to look at” (maybe said a little stronger in the original French?):
It’s unbelievable what happened. The boat folded up on a wave at 27 knots. I heard a bang, but to be honest, I didn’t need to hear that to know what had happened. I looked at the bow. It was at 90°. In a few seconds, there was water everywhere. The stern was under water and the bow was pointing up to the sky. The boat split in half in front of the mast bulkhead. It was as if she folded up. I promise. I’m not exaggerating. There was an angle of 90° between the stern and the bow.
At any rate, there’s good coverage of the rescue at the Vendée Globe site, Yachting World, the Guardian, and many other places I’m sure. But I’m still not clear about what combination of EPIRB, AIS MOB, and satellite texting/phone helped the racers and rescue centers coordinate. Then again they are just tools exceptionally well used by Escoffier, who seemed to do everything fast and right, and Le Cam(!). I hope we’ll learn more about the details of his heroic seamanship, and it only seems sweeter that Jean himself was similarly rescued in the 2008 Vendée.
I’ve been following the Vendée and other ocean races for years, especially when I’m home in winter dark just when the Roaring Forties are somewhat reasonable for relatively small racing sailboats. The 2004 race was especially memorable because my friend (and battery guy) Bruce Schwab was able to blog from Ocean Planet, including how he monkeyed himself aloft and way, way aft to fix his PC radar mount, underway and alone.
While there are no Americans in this year’s Vendée, the content coming off the boats is ever better. And there’s no better place to see what’s possible than the Alex Thomson Racing Hub. Well, “was” is more accurate now that they’ve taken down all the live boat and human sensor info, like the decibel level measured where Thomson tries to sleep on his latest Hugo Boss… often a roaring 110 at speed in a seaway.
But you can watch Thomson talking about the noise from “The Beast’s” indoor cockpit, or up on deck, as he romped to first place as Boss crossed the Equator. Then he had to spend days repairing structural damage in the bow, successfully, and I was still excited. Except then one rudder got damaged irreparably, and now he’s headed to Cape Town, obviously knackered. Drat!
But there are also three English women on the Vendée course during my very hunkered down December, and I’ll certainly keep an eye on Jean Le Cam (while trying to recall all those French classes I did poorly in). Are you watching? Have a favorite racer? Or a favorite site for following the race?
Dang, I managed to publish this just after midnight, so my “today” perspective actually means Tuesday, December 1.
Also, I just watched a good video rundown of the rescue details at Sea Wolves TV…
https://youtu.be/dpx0i0hjRtk
… where the same well-informed Captain Flo frequently posts Vendee videos:
http://seawolvestv.com/
Interesting! It turns out that racers Samantha Davies and Romain Attanasio are a couple with a nine-year-old son at home, and she’s currently ahead:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/sports/sailing/sailing-vendee-globe-yachts.html
Wish I hadn’t even mentioned Sam Davies yesterday, as she hit a UFO soon after and is now limping north hoping for calmer conditions to assess the damage:
https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/20770/sam-davies-i-was-as-as-if-i-had-run-aground-on-a-rock-the-boatspeed-went-from-20kts-to-zero
But Jean Le Cam moved up to #6 position despite the hours of delay picking up Escoffier.
Hello Ben, cool to see this iconic event finds its fans in the US too while Macron chatskypes with Jean and Kevin about the rescue to pay respect about this french event of highest national importance 🙂 Me being german following it full on since 2012 edition ( VG does not have too many spectators in GER either ), Alex professional media work lured me into it while myself I’m really far from being a racer… I’m into relaxed classic champagne sailing … so sad to have Alex dropping out, not checking the 4h00 UTC tracker anymore since then … still it remains pulsating fun to watch all theese small vlogs uploaded via sat. Even when the skippers try hard to come across professionl, cool, calm and collected, it tells so much between the lines about this massive hardcore challenge they’ve put themselves in.
Its an analogy about life itself, racing is just one stone of the mosaic.
Beyou mentally putting himself back together to go offshore again way behind everyone else, Pip who fights so hard to race with her charming old bucket while writing this beautiful deeply philosophical emails in the middle of the night. Alex to loose 20 years of blood sweat and tears within a blink right after this heroic repair, Louis Burton who pushes so hard with his small funds in the background with Armel’s racewinning boat from 2016.. and his wife as teammanager… Jean, Kevin, Thomas, Charlie, Sam … I was really worried all night when Jean lost sight of Kevins life raft and more boats were called in to help with SAR ops one by one… I feel deeply connected with them on my sofa… and last but not least Boris holding up the german flag for the first time in this race, doing a steady job. In his initial vlogs he came across a litte bit too german and slightly arrogant I thought but now I feel he found the right authentic style to really let us know about his planet.
I’m really hooked to all this drama trickling thru in steady drops for 80 days… while I consider myself very far from being a guy who frequentliy watches sports events. Well, I started following sailing races once a while since 2012 … VG for me is a deeply philosophical event.
Wow.
Very good to hear from you, Jan. I was feeling a little lonely with my Vendee obsession!
I’m watching the latest “Vendee Live {EN}” right now, and heart’s out to Sam as she arrives in Cape Town with the intention of fixing her boat and finishing the course as an unofficial racer. Also, toward the end, they go live with your countryman Boris Herrmann, who seems amazingly relaxed. Also some interesting info about how he’s using his autopilot.
https://youtu.be/MUUjYDGE_O8
But you’ve probably already watched 😉
PS My interest in offshore solo racing goes back to the early 70’s and got intensified by a very lucky encounter with Eric Tabarly just as he won the ’76 OSTAR, by surprise after weeks of no radio contact. I happened to up on deck at dawn in Newport Harbor (because we were on a mooring for a much smaller boat 😉 when Pen Duick VI glided in, all sails dropped to the deck, and Tabarly’s shore team came alongside and helped him to a dock.
So I rowed over and was among about 15 people — mostly European press — who greeted him (after he walked over to a phone booth and apparently called his mom). I even tagged along and got to see where he navigated the big ketch, along with the large crocks of butter and jam in his galley.
It’s a story I might write up someday because it left an indelible impression. In fact, he became a hero to me and for the days afterward I would occasionally yell out “Éric!”
https://rwyc.org/club-history/ostar-history/ostar-1976/
https://www.morganscloud.com/2013/06/12/eric-tabarly/
Great story, Ben !
Yes, heartbreaking indeed how Sam lost the russian UFO roulette, she and her well prepped boat package were totally ready to make it all the way up possibly onto a top three podium as the first female solo sailor, now the pressure is on for Isabelle Joschke.
Only two out of eight brand new and well funded 2gen foilers still in competition with a reasonable chance for the podium and only Apivia is without greater damage at this point.
PRB / Escoffier pushed too hard and broke the boat in two pieces.
Juicy sidenote from 2008/9 VG when Vincent Riuo / PRB rescued Le Cam:
https://www.yachtingworld.com/blogs/elaine-bunting/prb-goes-to-court-for-rescue-costs-14100
King Jean.
Writing history with his small partially self-fund-raised campaign on an old and on paper utterly non-competitive daggerboard boat perfectly keeping the pace with the high end campaigns,
mainly because the mostly high seastates until now have not allowed full throttle for the foilers very often.
And Jean has shown swift routing always close to the shortest route.
The boat name YES WE CAM ! was born when he could’nt find a main sponsor for the boat name.
Jean’s campaign well under one million.
This was final funding for 2016 on the very last minute :
https://www.boatsnews.com/story/23042/support-jean-le-cam-in-his-participation-in-the-vendee-globe
For comparison, Boris campaign with Yacht club de Monaco and a 2nd gen foil-pimped boat from 2015 is at approx 15million, campaigns with new builds like HUGO BOSS or APIVIA are estimated to be double at least.
++++++
Louis Burton now with autopilot problems, loosing plenty miles, sigh.
++++++
Speaking of, AP’s are on a mindblowingly hole new level in this edition,
massive amount of sensor data which can be used to drive the boat.
Alex AP’s most likely were the most sophisticated ones :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azHMHj3zax0&t=1s
Boris showing AP options:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBiKHe8kx5w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS6-wfao0Fo
B&G H5000 pilots as a hardware base, running hardcore racing software :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAQzos_EMlA&t=2s
No false alarms with Halo :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9lzyvWkwRU
Anti-collision system OSCAR also plugged into AP’s
https://www.oscar-navigation.com
P.S.
VG for a intro fix….45min documentary RELENTLESS on Alex’ 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puIgYu7q7ck
Usage of digital distress beacons.
There’s some mixed information about the usage of the EPIRP but this is what I think I gathered how the tools at hand got used perfectly:
– a short text distress message via regular satcomms to his team
– manages to grabs survival suit, EPIRP, and emergency grab bag
– manages to free life raft container from cockpit floor already under water
-activates EPIRP in life raft
-also activates AIS MOB beacon he’s used to carry in his foul weather gear pockets under the survival suit
-Le cam is the first to pick up the AIS beacon locally before EPIRP gets picked up by MRCC’s
-my understanding EPIRP signal is overlayed onto drift models later into rescue ops by Meteo france /VG race direction / MRCC’s
VG live english Dec 1st:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGdROVw3Rac
interview VG race director, english subtitles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnASA6Pjjuo
in french:
Kevin’s account of activation sequence of the beacons 4:10 – 4:35 min into the vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojFCUzsWGVo
Louis Burton does not want to disclose the bouquet of problems which slowed him down but he seems to be very happy and back in the race again… his etmal is back to “normal” …YT automatic subtitles are a bit messy like my rusty french skills…and like his boat after frantic repairs….also pressing thumbs for him while he’s not shooting so many vlogs… Louis also is capable to keep the pace on continously impressive levels with an underdog-budget like Le Cam. Hats off!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSF2Bf-uKQs
Jan, I love your posts and am slowing working my way through all the interesting links. THANKS!
My little detail of the day was when the French Navy picked up Escoffier in a RIB and…
“Le Cam’s request for additional food to replace that required to feed shipwrecked Escoffier was granted and the 61 year old Le Cam who enjoys fine food took a bag containing dry crisprolls, salted butter and fine Henaff Breton pate.”
It turned out easy to buy various Henaff pates plus Pommery Meaux mustard and Petits Toasts online, so I should be able to toast Jean in style soon.
A good website to get info on the Vendee Globe is a youtube channel called “Sea Wolves” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2nxFvnRF7w
Its run by a fellow from Amsterdam and he gives good guidence to the race with respect to technical aspects like weather routing, sail selection autopilot etc.
I should have read all the comments first. Sorry you guys are allready watching Seawolves
No problem, Graham. Sea Wolves is worth promoting, I think. Also, I found out that his name is Florian Rooz, aka Captain Flo, and it’s sometimes possible to go sailing with him:
http://seawolvestv.com/product/sea-wolves-crew-november-2020/
Jean Le Cam recently powered into 5th place this morning — so cool for us old guys — but according to Vendee Live #30 he won’t get to ride the front that may put the leading pair way ahead (or cause them regret)…
Plus if it weren’t for Sea Wolves (Dec 6 & 7 shows), I might not have realized that two fully crewed Ultima tris are now blasting past the Vendee fleet. Sodebo Ultim3 has averaged 28k since the start, and 32 in the last 24 hrs. But while IDEC Sport is behind, it averaged 37k over the last 24. Holy Cow!
Note that the English version of the Trophee Jules Verne site is very limited, but Google translate in Chrome works for me here:
https://www.tropheejulesverne.org/actualites/
Except for the tracking map which I can only see here:
https://nautica.news/jules-verne-trophy-tracking-map-in-real-time/
…and with my comment about the first women on VG podium I unfortunately forgot about Ellen Mc Arthur who made it to second place in 2001..at the age of 24….so its less pressure for Isabelle Joschke in 2020 after all…
“MacArthur first came to general prominence in 2001 when she came second in the Vendée Globe solo round-the-world sailing race in her Owen Clarke/Rob Humphreys designed Kingfisher(named after her sponsors, Kingfisher plc), and subsequently MacArthur was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to sport. At 24, she was the youngest competitor to complete the voyage.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_MacArthur
Didac Costa, a spanish firefighter from Barcelona is sailing former Imoca Kingfisher also in this years edition with a underdog budget
+++
http://www.gitana-team.com/en/news_actu.aspx
One of the Ultimes hit an ufo and damaged rudder or foil north of Cape Verde Islands and turned back to home port so unfortunately, the ultimaitve match race on Jules Verne trophy 🙁
Boris Herrmann used to be part of the Idec Sport crew, the Ultime Trimaran who holds Jules Verne trophy to date.
Sodebo still 600nm ahead of Idec Sort record from 2017.
https://tropheejulesverne.sodebo.com/#cartographie
+++
Whale collision:
This might have happened to Sam Davies…
Kito de Pavant, another french sailing legend had to abandon his Imoca during 2016 edition,
Kito took the videodisks with him so on a rare occasion the collision opponent, a whale could be identified :
2:29 into the vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsbp2hRZCf4
But I think that Idec Sport just clocked a 24 hour run of about 883 nautical miles. I don’t know how the record certification works, that’s way better than what she did as Groupama 3, and nearly the crewed multihull all-time record set in 131 foot tri:
https://www.sailspeedrecords.com/24-hour-distance
https://www.idecsport.com/en/the-maxi-trimaran/
Idec Sport is quite an old Ultim Tri with famous skippers.
This link gives a good overview of the status of Ultime projects in and out of water, also good reference for keeping track with boats histories and skippers.
https://www.ultimboat.com/solo-banque-populaire-vii
Breymeier who’s hosting VGlive this week has Ultim background too.
Is it only me or is he cracking jokes a bit on the decades old Imoca-boats still going on the race track ? 🙂
Kind of amazing that crewed around the world record has gone from 64 to 41 days since 2002, but do I understand correctly that the last three winners are actually all the same boat?
https://www.ultimboat.com/ultim-records
Think I got Banque Populaires mixed up but was also reminded of when my transatlantic friend Tom talked to Loïck Peyron as he blasted by on solo delivery back to France:
https://panbo.com/fob-to-finland-class-b-spot-onboard/
See how Damien Seguin celebrates successful AP repairs with tribute to Le Cam.
Damien is a true single handed sailor, paralympic medal winner… he races in steady pace with only one hand.
Le Cam helped him extensively getting his boat ready.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4x3_7YroDM
Wonderful story, and my appreciation of Le Cam keeps growing. Also found out I can get actual CrispRolls from Amazon, so my Le Cam toasts will be even more authentic 😉
Idec Sport may also be old but Joyan has put Sodebo in his wake and continues to knock off 850nm+ days.
And I found out today that Boris Hermann is first to try OSCAR autopilot interface:
https://panbo.com/oscar-artificial-intelligence-at-your-masthead/
Thanks Ben, did’nt know Malizia is the only VG 2020 project to plug OSCAR into AP,
also thanks for the nice round up on OSCAR and very interesting comments on the Oscar-thread.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-glEzGsJwlc
VGlive english from today, a french mental coach with strong sailing background finding the right powerful and equally humble words, describing the beauty of this wholistic planet of blue water sailing embedded in this race / event.
And he perfectly describes the apologues/allegories to every day life challenges on land.
Things change so fast, another comment draft which I did’nt send became outdated within 12hours,
the majory down to UFO’s russian roulette.
Both Jule Verne attempts stopped after unrepairable damages to foils and rudders,
Sodebo Ultim in the indian ocean at arround 40% of total distance.
With Apivia / Charlie Dalin reporting severe foil damage at 1800 UTC yesterday EVERY pre-race favorite with potential to enter the podium with one of the eight new boat projects has been hit with severe damages beyond the daily minor ones now.
Many skippers had to climb the mast, quite a few ripped J2 head sails which needed patching and sowing.
The three non foilers with mindblowing performance lead by King Jean are stuck in light winds at the moment, five boats so close to each other within 2nm, this has never been the case in the southern ocean according to the experts.
This editions southern oceans weather continues to be very different from the regular symmetric chain of strong lows heading east, so many sailors reporting heavy lack of rhythm in wind and waves.
I’m still super hooked while I really miss the true vlog-master of the human touch in english, Alex Thomson.
Cheers,
Jan
Thanks, Jan. I hope you caught Vendee Live #36 with Loick Peyron speaking beautifully about that “wholistic planet of blue water sailing” thing. Reminded me that Loick often sails with prayer flags:
https://www.yachtingmonthly.com/news/vendee-globe-solo-racers-prayer-flags-16609
https://youtu.be/egBbd4DJ684
Also cool that Loick is hoping that the Vendee and Jules Verne are someday won by someone who is not French, and/or a woman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqLU6aMZ-LQ
Dec 15 1200 UTC tracker, five boats next to each other in the southern ocean
The latest Vendee Live #30 [EN] includes an interesting interview with Kevin Escoffier, much of it about the details of when he abandoned PRB.
https://youtu.be/scDR3FB-p8U
And happy to add that Jean Le Cam has been given a minus 16 hour 15 minute finish line time compensation for his rescue work, and so he’s even closer to a win than his current 4th place position looks.
https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2020/12/16/jury-award-for-vendee-globe-rescue/
Indeed. Watching VGlive english version gives my days its rythm to date. Andi Robertson is my priest and not-from-this-world Ryan Breymeyer performed as worthy stand-in last week.
I’m even back to check 0400 UTC tracker which I lost ambition for when Alex had to retire.
So many skippers and boats of different age and different polars still within contact to the podium in the southern oceans, this is quite new for VG.
#roijean is trending on french Twitter, he won a special price dedicated to him only during the popular french vote for the sailor of the decade hosted by french sailing association.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/RoiJean?src=hashtag_click
https://twitter.com/FFVoile/status/1339560631473762305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1339560631473762305%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lequipe.fr%2FVoile%2FActualites%2FFranck-cammas-elu-marin-de-la-decennie%2F1206849
Yes! Andi sealed the deal for me when he related race day #42 to the “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” completely straight face. But what was truly great about VGlive #43 was Ken Read’s long conversation with Boris. Read has been doing a terrific job narrating play-by-play AC36 racing, I think, and it was neat to see how familiar he also is with the Vendee, and Boris vice versa.
I only recently realized that the quite decent satellite video comms indicated by their conversation is enabled by relatively small and inexpensive Thales VesselLink hardware using Iridium Certus service (with WhatsApp often as the onboard link to the Vendee skippers’ smart phones):
https://www.imoca.org/en/news/news/iridium-certus-and-thales-vesselink-keeping-the-vendee-globe-fleet-connected-and-safe
Which reminds me that I once texted nearly real-time with a friend visiting Macquarie Island just using an Iridium handheld Garmin inReach:
https://panbo.com/two-way-testing-delorme-inreachse-plus-new-explorer-model-ocens-spotcast-weather/
I’m hoping that Louis Burton gets to see some royal penguins as he does mast head repairs in Macquarie’s lee, and I’m pretty sure that he can at least smell them 😉
Love Jean Le Cam’s “Nuit de Noël” Facebook live video:
https://fb.watch/2AzmtUOv-t/
Merry Christmas to all!
Yes, merry X-mas everyone!
Spotted two McMurdo AIS EPIRPs in Jeans noel-vid….seems strange to me its still the only one ( I think ) on the market with integrated MOB AIS…Escoffier-rescue ( again ) was a nice proof of concept for MOB AIS signals even when VHF gets blocked so fast in rough seas… dear Santa can I wish for occasional faster innovation circles in yachtie electronics please 🙂
Happy NY guys! What a great race to watch. Yes, I get nostalgic at times and wish I’d had another shot…but then I wake up.
“The 61 year old veteran on his fifth Vendée Globe crossed at 2018hrs UTC. Rounding in seventh place it is Le Cam’s seventh rounding of the Cape and his second consecutive solo rounding on the same boat.”
We celebrated Jean Le Cam’s Cape Horn rounding with a good Cabernet, Henaff French Pork Pate de Campagne, and Pagen wholegrain KrispRolls. The old dude’s got good taste too, and these long lasting items will be regulars in Gizmo’s special snacks locker:
https://www.mypanier.com/products/henaff-french-countryside-pork-pate
https://www.amazon.com/Pagen-Wholegrain-Complets-Krisprolls-225g/dp/B0886ZQ5N2/
What
an
incredible
race.
Soo many changes in rankings and close match racing, smaller budgets on consinstent competitive levels, way more high pressure / light wind challenges and statistically less boats who need to retire.
Impressed how transparent Boris, Pip and others share their mental highs and lows with us.
Miss Alex.
Wow.
Genius Jan, you alerted me to both Boris and Louis and, holy cow, either of them could win this thing. Dalin may be in the lead but both your guys are going faster. Who’s got the endurance after 79 days of racing — the thing I keep noticing in the videos is how all their eyes look — and who picked the best route? Hope you’re getting enough sleep!
Thanks Ben,
and yes, I a short but enough sleep while being up early to check the tracker.
On the edge of my seat as everyone else and all the VG experts at shore in particular.
Louis came across so destroyed in his visio yesterday, but maybe he was just bluffing.
This extremely unusal VG finish to me has the same level of exteme race finish tension as the last AC36 Round Robin race Luna Rossa vs Britannia last Saturday !
One race took less than ten minutes, the other one 80days.
Holy wow.
And Boris in his video from this morning looks like a zombie too…
Live French coverage: https://youtu.be/PBWOxD_yp7Q
English should be up soon.
80 days racing, hardly sleeping the last few because you just might win, and now the feelthy press is hitting you with searchlights as you sail the last bit!!!
English live stream on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZwLikklVVP4
Thanks
Holy Cow, Charlie finished but Boris and Yannick are bombing in at about 20k VMG and either could win with their time correction (if my math is right).
I don’t think Boris can make it, but fingers crossed. He’s equipped with custom Solbian solar panels! Which we sell of course…:-)
Depends which number you like on the tracker!
My display shows Boris was only making 7kn at 20:00 report — OR 20kn VMG — with 90nm to go.
He’s got until 1:30 am UTC tomorrow to beat Charlie, and Yannick 4.25 hours more, right?
Roger that; there’s a lot of speculation on Sailing Anarchy right now (which I’m monitoring along with the video, the tracker, and Boris’s dashboard) that Boris may have had an issue.
Thanks again. Found the dashboard and though it’s definitely struggling to keep up with heavy traffic, there’s little doubt that Boris suddenly slowed way down about 20 minutes ago. DAMN IT!
https://exocet.cloud/grafana/d/bsbc_5MGz/malizia-public-dashboard?orgId=15&refresh=5m
He may have it a fishing boat…:-(
Right, just heard. Double damn it!
Triple Damn it!!! Unfortunately, Boris made a slightly flippant video yesterday about a ship crossing incident and is getting unfairly slagged for it on the gCaptain FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/gCaptainNews/posts/10158768686133886
Tribalism in the boat world is sad, I think.
I don’t even want to read the slagging! Perhaps I’m superstitious however he may have jinxed himself a bit… But we can’t forget how sleep deprived these guys are approaching the finish over the last few days. It’s just a plain risky situation piloting these rocket ships solo in such a trafficked area. All part of the game just dangerous.
Yannick Bestaven wins the 2020 Vendee Globe. Nicely done.
Congrats to Charlie, Yannick and Louis! The ones who were always among the frontrunners deserve it the most!
Oh Boris,
what a nightmare.
I’m german, I live in Berlin, Germany.
The mediacoverage on EVERY major media, radio, TV, print and online about VG and Boris has picked up to a sureal level of “national” matter, sure also due to pandemic times and heavy lack of other hero-stories.
And now this, while he was asleep.
Every alarm was on, neither Oscar, BG Halo, AIS picked up the fishing vessel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-0iW0nRyls
Heartbreak. But at least he made it to the finish.
I’d humbly guess he overslept the alarms as it happend to Alex Route de Rhum for instance ?
Hm, guess he would admit it given his super transparent communication all the way through.
Alex RdR18:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZVu9QBOa-4
Boris did seem honestly puzzled as to how or why the alarms didn’t go off. And he pointed out that he usually has to turn the alarm off and then it wasn’t on when he got up at the time of the collision. I’m sure he and his team will spend a lot of time figuring it all out. He’s lucky to have made it in, and that’s some very expensive damage. Whew.
Boris started very humble into the race aiming top ten. So even with this extreme mishap it still remains quite an achievement. On the positive side, maybe if he’d won it with a modified 2015 boat on the first try, YCM ( Yacht club de Monaco ) and Pierre C would’nt plan a new campaign with a new build then.
And Boris would be expelled from France :-).
Competitve offshore sailing in Germany is pretty much non existant, I can’t imagine way to have a career without strong roots in France.
Pressing thumbs we will see Boris back on the start line, hopefully he’s up for the mental challenge again.
“And Boris would be expelled from France :-).”
Nah; it was reassuring to hear the great Loïck Peyron say he’s looking forward to the day when the Vendee is won by someone other than a Frenchman, and/or a woman.
And while I didn’t pay much attention to Yannick during the race, it’s nice to remember that he’s also very much part of the marine industry as cofounder of Watt & Sea:
https://www.wattandsea.com/en/our-company
Also neat that the only literal single-hander, Damien Seguin, crossed the line in 6th place (also first without foils), and looking forward to watching his mentor Jean Le Cam finish in a few hours.
Yannick really nailed tactics and pacing when it counted.
If all goes well for King Jean then he will move up to 4th with 16 hours of time compensation, aprox 5h/100nm to the finish @ 1400UTC
While also enjoying how well his student and boatyard client Damien Seguin did. And while being a hero to old guys by even crossing the starting line at age 62. With rescuing Escoffier the cherry on top.
He should get quite a greeting and I hope to watch.
Wow
Indeed !
King Le Cam has finished! With time for rescue correction, he places an admirable 4th.
Cripes, he had to sail around for hours because it was too rough at the harbor entrance, but now he’s dancing on deck surrounded by friends and fans.
He’s certainly earned the right to party now.
Roi Jean sure is member of the almighty french sailing olymp by now.
With blessings from the french president Macron.
Hats off.
My understanding Sorel and Tripon are slowing down to wait for the storm to pass by.
Boris’ collision partner was a spanish factory trawler, not a small boat. AIS off.
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:164997/mmsi:224130870/imo:9148788/vessel:HERMANOS_BUSTO
220to.
Not mandatory to switch on AIS according to IMO I guess.
https://globalfishingwatch.org/faqs/what-vessels-are-required-to-use-ais-what-are-global-regulations-and-requirements-for-vessels-to-carry-ais/
Boris mentioned in german interview, his team suspects carbon fiber contents in his latest generation race tech gennaker headsail which may have hindered radar detection to starboard, where the collision partner was coming from.
Thanks again, Jan. I’ve never been able to get a definitive answer about carbon sails interfering with radar, especially solid-state radar, but carbon fiber is used to make war planes and similar less visible on radar.
The collision was probably Boris’s fault, but Hermanos Busto probably didn’t suffer much. Also, being required to install AIS and being required to turn it on are apparently two different things in some regulatory regions.
Boris mentioned in another interviews he had the small genaker up and the J2 inside as satysail, so it was two layers of carbon fiber sails.
Dome installations on Imocas usually are fixed mount not high at the mast, no gimbal.
Skipper of Hermanos Busto insists AIS was on all the time, team Boris says the boat is not in the AIS log.
The trawler suffered a few paint scratches and minor damage to fishery equipment, thats all.
The skippers were on the phone meanwhile exchanging excuses to settle the matter.
Boris has been really calm and professional about it.
At the end of the day its a controversy grey zone, this single handed hardcore racing involving short speed naps also routing through regions with lots of other traffic. So when accidents like this happened in the past, the blame game usually chilled out quite soon. Both sides are fully aware its not played by the rules on both sides so collisions like this become more likely. Offshore Solo-sailing peers sure have an interest there’s not too much stir in the pot, same interest for the fishing vessels who frequently switch of their AIS. It sure will be a different level of discussion and investigation when someone gets killed in such a collision.
Le roi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y7UESN76m8
Press conference, Jean really goes to court with the foilers and the high end budgets in a down-to-earth style. Unfortunately the fragile poetic moments in the language he uses to support his views on Imoca-peers are lost in the somewhat stiff simultaneous translation. My french is really rusty but Jean’s conference in original language really touched me. Again, my deepest respect what this man achieved and the other two daggerboard boats, which were prepped in Jeans shed. These storylines are the skeIeton of the Vendee Globe and very different from any other offshore regatta or shore races.
Hi Jan,
Even through the stiff English translation, I thought Jean’s talk was magical and poetic.
I may not fully agree with the concept of stifling the development of the IMOCA’s, which are the F1 of ocean racing, however his perspective is certainly vital and necessary. If for no other reason than to keep up the drive to balance the awesome speed, with safety and reliability.
However, back to his talk…he was open and thoughtful about the personal challenge…the despair balanced with the joys…his awareness of the inspiration that he sees he provides…and pure appreciation of those that followed him. Great stuff.
Fully agree, Bruce and cudos for your opinion.
Nice to read passionate expertise from someone who completed a VGlap!
The beauty of Imoca for me and sure many other fans lies in its full bandwidth and vast variety which to me includes cutting edge boat design challenges. While I personally am into old school sturdy steel and aluminium dutch bluewater high latitude cruising boats like Bestevear or Koopmans for example….for Imoca I sincerly hope we will see foiling rudders on new IMOCA builts soon…. as wished by every designer who shared his opinion in public… and also many more laps for old Imocas to come please… meanwhile I find it fascinating how little the differences in the southern oceans and every monohull had to tune into the seastate rythm…and light wind days re-compressed the fleet way more than the doldrums did…on the other hand Ultime class seems to be able put more foiling performance into their Jules Verne attempts at this point, avg speeds were well ahead of IDEC SPORT… while both, Gitana and Sodebo had to stop the lap with broken rudders in the southern ocean AFAIR….
well…
back to Imoca…
Pip and Paul Larsen walking the VG dock talking about every single boat and its history….
Part one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMxg07ktiU4&t=1s
Part two:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jI6DMl5U9I&t=1s
Part three:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPcavIfuCb4
P.S. Jean’s current boat also spent a short period as part of a german attempt by a team arround Joerg Riechers to put a VG campaign together back in 2014 but due to all sorts of problems ( not funds ) the campaign never made it to the start line in 2016 and Jean bought the boat in 2015, I think.
Boris path to enter VG has been way smarter and way more profound.
Cheers,
Jan
Beyou’s account of his journey sums planet VG. Respect.
https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/22147/jeremie-beyou-i-didn-t-lose-my-competitive-spirit-but-it-was-a-breath-of-fresh-air
Tough northern atlantic winter weather for the ones who are still out on the ocean.
https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/22157/pip-hare-aaarrrrggghhhh
I don’t know how Pip finds the time to write such thorough reports! She needs to grab as much rest as possible in between the “events”. Wishing best of luck to her and all the others striving towards the finish….
Pips emails read like tales from an embedded novelist!
Alex delivered Hugo Boss back to UK, he found his ambition and smile back but no clear commitment towards a VG 2024 campaign yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7gUKBphdHQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RYMMHJQhk8
On saturday Boris announced his ambition to continue his collaboration with Pierre C and YC Monaco, they plan to build a new boat, campaigning for VG 2024… nice !
Great stuff. So at least two we can follow in English in 2024….;-)
Mais oui! And two real 2024 contenders who are not Frenchmen.
But, geezum, Pip finally looks completely knackered in this morning’s video.
https://dai.ly/x7z6yri
Pip Hare is just to complete her 95 day solo circumnavigation, live video here:
https://www.vendeeglobe.org/
What a scene. 3 am in France and 45 degrees with drizzle, but Jean Le Cam and many others are out to greet the ultra plucky little lady.
Pip did great. Well done indeed. I’m a fan!
Me too! And someone at Vendee did a great job of summarizing her race:
vendeeglobe.org/en/news/22228/pip-hare-first-british-skipper-to-finish-the-vendee-globe-crossing-the-line-in-19th-place-on-medallia
It’s extra cool that she’s built a large fan base even in France, and there seems little doubt she’ll be back in 2024 with a more competitive boat. Go Pip!