Vendee 2020

[ahun]

Expect that this is NOT the leading edge of the STARBOARD foil.

[Franziska]

Interesting enough, the skippers tend to rarely look out in front, at least that's what I gather from the videos.

Alex Thompson had fairly big, forward facing windows and lots of cameras in his "office" though.
Most, if not all, have bubble style conning stations to port and starboard.

Does anyone have an educated guess as to what percentage of a day the IMOCA skippers would actually spend on a lookout towards the front?
I guess they are far to busy for that and really have to rely on the alarms.

Originally Posted by MicHughV

yes, I agree, that the photo above does not indicate damage from water. Sam Davies, said something hit the keel, plus the damage shown above at the foil, appears to indicate an impact from an "object".....whatever makes a Vendee boat go from 20 to 0 knots is obviously not a twig in the water...but what ??? Won't really know until the boat is hauled.

I can't think of too much fishing action that far south of the continent of Africa...whatever it was had to have come from elsewhere ??

I wonder if that boat was fitted with the all-seeing eye....??

Nonetheless, at the rate these Vendee boats are hitting UFO's seems to be a clear indication of a lot of " stuff" out there.

Even a fully crewed yacht is not likely to see something in the dark...

Some kind of forward looking sonar needs to be thought out here....not a masthead unit...but something in the bow of the boat....no wait, that would not work as the bow is out of the water half the time...it would have to positioned near the forward part of the keel...

Next few weeks will be telling...

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by ahun

Expect that this is NOT the leading edge of the STARBOARD foil.

That’s definitely the trailing edge of a foil.

But it probably got jammed hard in the case/trunk by whatever impact and the leading edge took damage lower down.

The damage in the pic is from it jamming in the case.

It’s possible no other damage exists. If he hit a fishing net for instance. That would stop the foil and boat and jam the foil in the case causing this damage with no other damage.

It he hit something harder and has damage lower on the foil.

[jmh2002]

Originally Posted by ahun

Expect that this is NOT the leading edge of the STARBOARD foil.

You are quite right, and my wording was poor. Here is a better photo.

As I understood it from the reports the starboard foil hit something and the force pushed the foil (like a lever) aft, and the visible damage in the photos was created at the junction of the foil and the 'foil box/foil casing', where it enters the boat.

The impact was such that this entry point was also damaged and detached from the structure of the hull, also causing some water to enter.

Sébastien Simon tacked over to starboard to heel that section of the hull out of the water, retract the foil as much as possible, and assess the damage and what repairs could be done to limit the water ingress.

[Chotu]

The foil is supposed to break off before the trunk is ruptured. It’s unfortunate they pushed the design this hard. That small of damage on the foil really shouldn’t be enough to rupture the trunk/case.

Originally Posted by jmh2002

You are quite right, and my wording was poor. Here is a better photo.

As I understood it from the reports the starboard foil hit something and the force pushed the foil (like a lever) aft, and the visible damage in the photos was created at the junction of the foil and the 'foil box/foil casing', where it enters the boat.

The impact was such that this entry point was also damaged and detached from the structure of the hull, also causing some water to enter.

Sébastien Simon tacked over to starboard to heel that section of the hull out of the water, retract the foil as much as possible, and assess the damage and what repairs could be done to limit the water ingress.

[MicHughV]

interesting that you would say so, ahun, that bite in the foil seemed....to my eye....to be on the trailing edge of the foil, the photo appears to indicate the edge of the hull right behind the foil...indicate that it is, indeed, the trailing edge of the starboard foil......further compounded the " wtf happened here ?"

would be nice to see a pic of the whole foil....

but, that damage could have come from the boat itself....ie, if that starboard foil hit something....it would want to move backwards, inside the foil case....maybe that damage we see in the photo is not the impact from a UFO....rather an impact within the foil casing or some or other foil mechanism......there seems to be all sort of "stuff" inside that foil aperture...that could have caused that bite in the foil plus the crack...

[MicHughV]

seems like many of us all think the same thing here....

[jmh2002]

Another new update for the Regadata plugin has just been released enabling multiple routing tracks to be displayed at the same time. From the developer:

...I have just published v1.2.0 with quite some changes: it now shows a sidebar on the left with the current ranking and check boxes for each boat, allowing you to select which route you want to display. (because of a bug i'm still fighting against, I had to disable the "uncheck" option, so once a route is selected you cannot hide it unless you refresh the page and the plugin.

[DomPerignon]

Here,s a tough one . If Kevin Escoffier ( rescued by Le Cam ) makes a cup of coffee for the skipper does Le Cam gets disqualified ?

[MicHughV]

I notice a black steel bracket (frame) in the photo from Chotu, this frame seems to have an opposite side to it on the other side of the foil....these frames appear to be held together by a bolt or pin at the trailing edge.......it seems reasonable to assume that this is what caused the " bite" out of the trailing edge of that foil...ie, that frame bolt/pin....the foil appears to be have been lifted "up" since that impact, as the " bite" impact is a bit higher than the frame..

fixable ?.....I wonder...???...the foil maybe....the casing ???...Sebastion appears to be heading for Cape Town...so that is probably that.....

[carlosproa]

Originally Posted by DomPerignon

Here,s a tough one . If Kevin Escoffier ( rescued by Le Cam ) makes a cup of coffee for the skipper does Le Cam gets disqualified ?

He would be disqualified. However he can eat and drink anything offered to him, and at the time of his transfer out to probably a French military frigate, if Le Can ask for additional food or provisions, he would not be disqualified as long as the amount is similar to what he shared with Kevin.
Interesting Le Can is doing so well in an older boat design

[ahun]

What happens on the boat stays on the boat...

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

yes, I agree, that the photo above does not indicate damage from water. Sam Davies, said something hit the keel, plus the damage shown above at the foil, appears to indicate an impact from an "object".....whatever makes a Vendee boat go from 20 to 0 knots is obviously not a twig in the water...but what ??? Won't really know until the boat is hauled.

I can't think of too much fishing action that far south of the continent of Africa...whatever it was had to have come from elsewhere ??

I wonder if that boat was fitted with the all-seeing eye....??

Nonetheless, at the rate these Vendee boats are hitting UFO's seems to be a clear indication of a lot of " stuff" out there.

Even a fully crewed yacht is not likely to see something in the dark...

Some kind of forward looking sonar needs to be thought out here....not a masthead unit...but something in the bow of the boat....no wait, that would not work as the bow is out of the water half the time...it would have to positioned near the forward part of the keel...

Next few weeks will be telling...

Take a look at my earlier post about the OSCAR camera system. It was developed for IMOCA racers and first trialed a few editions ago. For most floating or semi-submerged objects the system provides from 150m to 1500m of warning. The 2x FLIR cameras provide effective night vision and the RGB camera for day and non-thermal objects.

Not perfect to rely on cameras, but with all the spray and deck sweeper sails I’d say the cameras are more effective than eyeballs.

Forward looking sonar with some giant transducer would have to be mounted behind the keel root (on the foilers at least) and would be too power hungry and heavy to be at all useful.

The VG site says the Cape of Good Hope is used by plenty of ships and cargo losses due to the seas and the Algulhas Current are likely to end up in the area the fleet. There is lots of pirate fishing on both sides of the cape and the Indian Ocean on ships that shouldn’t be there and aren’t really suitable, so I can imagine gear losses floating around.

They have pretty much minimised the risks from ice, but other than sweeping the course with an Ocean Cleanup Interceptor I don’t know what more can be done. Surely they wouldn’t mandate maximum speeds?

[DomPerignon]

Originally Posted by carlosproa

Interesting Le Can is doing so well in an older boat design

Looks like the foilers reduced their speed, probably for safety. They’re all doing around 18 knots right now in 25 to 30 knots wind. Le Cam is actually going faster then some of them.

[MicHughV]

These Vendee boats are festooned with electronics....take a look inside any Vendee boat and you will see a plethora of screens, radio's, and other electronic gear, that look to be on 24/7......I see all of the Vendee boats sport solar panels, and a lot of them...I also see some small wind generators here and there, plus the diesel engine can be run to charge the batteries and the ever present hydro-generators, usually at least a pair of them.

It would be interesting the know the battery capacity of these boats...it's gotta be pretty large.....I've read that the battery management systems for these boats is quite involved

The auto-pilot for these boats must suck a serious amount of juice every day....as they are on 24/7

Having said all that, the juice to run a forward looking sonar can probably be added in the mix I would think.