Vendee 2020

[psk125]

Jean Le Cam just finished. Redress time should move him up in the standings. Nice going!

[fxykty]

JLC finishes 4th after crossing 9th and BH finishes 5th just 0.5 hours ahead of TR, who crossed 3rd but lost two places to the time adjustments. Awesome race by JLC in an older boat.

It’s interesting looking at the average speeds and distances covered. Also the commentary from several skippers how the weather this race kept the race together and prevented the leaders extending out as usual. I guess the weirdness is shown by the much slower race: 80 days vs 74 days in 2017.

[MicHughV]

dang...this race is drawing to a close...now what are we going to do ??....I need my fix.....I guess it's AC time...

[jmh2002]

America's Cup Semi Final Race One starts today at 1500 NZDT. Perfect timing.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by fxykty

JLC finishes 4th after crossing 9th and BH finishes 5th just 0.5 hours ahead of TR, who crossed 3rd but lost two places to the time adjustments. Awesome race by JLC in an older boat.

It’s interesting looking at the average speeds and distances covered. Also the commentary from several skippers how the weather this race kept the race together and prevented the leaders extending out as usual. I guess the weirdness is shown by the much slower race: 80 days vs 74 days in 2017.

It is a shame that only the one Prize of (finishing order) is awarded in such a marathon of Challenges.

I hope for the next one maybe other recognitions like Seamanship, repair Inginuity or even a class winner for older designs could be awarded.

Perhaps thru votes from fans.

I see JLC as the winner of this Vendee Globe for many reasons [emoji106]

[Yellowtulip]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

It is a shame that only the one Prize of (finishing order) is awarded in such a marathon of Challenges.

I hope for the next one maybe other recognitions like Seamanship, repair Inginuity or even a class winner for older designs could be awarded.

Perhaps thru votes from fans.

I see JLC as the winner of this Vendee Globe for many reasons [emoji106]

The ethos has always been to maintain the purity of the idea; one sailor, one boat, one winner. But I’d like to see two classes, perhaps divided as foilers or non-foilers, to keep costs down. If only the multi-million euro boats can be successful it will change the race profoundly. Perhaps bring back the 40-footers. It would be tragic if the race was out of reach of “adventurers”.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by Yellowtulip

The ethos has always been to maintain the purity of the idea; one sailor, one boat, one winner. But I’d like to see two classes, perhaps divided as foilers or non-foilers, to keep costs down. If only the multi-million euro boats can be successful it will change the race profoundly. Perhaps bring back the 40-footers. It would be tragic if the race was out of reach of “adventurers”.

The race is demonstrably not out of reach of “adventurers” - at least 1/3 of the fleet starts without the dream of finishing first and their victory, as it is for all the entrants to this kind of race, is to finish.

With an all-time high number of boats, despite the pandemic, I really don’t think that the VG is risking any sort of obsolescence.

Regarding 50 footers (which were allowed as class 2 until the 2004 race), they’re too slow and spread the race out too much. Heck, even all 60 footers spread the race out.

And besides, there are now at least 30 foiling IMOCA 60s available for the next race, so that’s pretty much the entire field assuming there will be at least 10 new builds. There will also be more more than a few who look at JLC’s performance and agree that in certain years, like this one, a non-foiling boat can do just as well.

[Yellowtulip]

Originally Posted by fxykty

The race is demonstrably not out of reach of “adventurers” - at least 1/3 of the fleet starts without the dream of finishing first and their victory, as it is for all the entrants to this kind of race, is to finish.

With an all-time high number of boats, despite the pandemic, I really don’t think that the VG is risking any sort of obsolescence.

Regarding 50 footers (which were allowed as class 2 until the 2004 race), they’re too slow and spread the race out too much. Heck, even all 60 footers spread the race out.

And besides, there are now at least 30 foiling IMOCA 60s available for the next race, so that’s pretty much the entire field assuming there will be at least 10 new builds. There will also be more more than a few who look at JLC’s performance and agree that in certain years, like this one, a non-foiling boat can do just as well.

The race, at present, is still within the reach of adventurers, yes, but I’m worried that with its current success it will become another highly expensive over-commercialised elite sport as happened to the Whitbread/Volvo round-the-world race.

Your point about 50-footers being too slow is well taken.
Perhaps we need another race. (But not a nostalgia race in outdated boats.)

[steamgoat]

Looks like Armel turned back for a while to avoid the huge low ,Biscay would be seriously nasty,boat breaking conditions.

[MicHughV]

JLC had to search for a sponsor....his entry could be said to have been a bare bones one.

His finish amongst a group of foilers in an older boat attests to his sailing skill...and navigation...

He had problems with his boat though, never mentioned these during the race, but watched a video of him enumerating on the things he had to fix, repair, etc.

No question, he is a sailor's sailor...a remarkable man with a remarkable sailing portfolio....he stands with a select few notable sailors.

I'd like to see the Vendee split to split in two groups.....the modern, price is no object boats, and the hand-me-downs. Same race, but separated into two groups, will likely never happen, but hey.........???

Lost in all this is Alex Thompson, he certainly had the hammer down initially...a pre-race favorite....

For a while there, it looked like Boris might be in the running for #1, but his unfortunate collision put the kibosh on that...

Likewise with Jeremie Beyou....another potential race winner......if you factor in his 10 day delay, he could have won this thing...by several days maybe.

The adage that in order to win the Vendee you first have to finish certainly holds true here.

And then there are the several women racers, words escape me here, a marvelous achievement by all.

I have to hand it to the race organizers. With all the electronic gadgetry, cartography, daily updates, onboard video's, a multitude of guests on the show, etc, it was a spectator show for the first time.

A grand spectacle !!!

[jmh2002]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

JLC had to search for a sponsor....his entry could be said to have been a bare bones one.

His finish amongst a group of foilers in an older boat attests to his sailing skill...and navigation...

Not to take anything away from Jean Le Cam's achievement, but you are over simplifying the situation - this year there were abnormal weather conditions that caused the fleet to compress multiple times and prevent the foilers from showing their true potential.

Normal expected weather conditions would have seen the newer foilers stretch and extend to a probably unassailable lead ahead of the non foiling boats.

But hey, that's yacht racing, JLC got lucky with the weather, it happens sometimes, and thereafter I agree that he made the most of this fortunate situation with his sailing skill to stay in touch with the leaders.

What I would be asking, especially given his age, is what on earth could he achieve in the latest modern boat with a full sponser package?

I liken him to Francis Joyon with his boat IDEC Sport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Joyon and the current holder of the Jules Verne Trophy - he is also 'old' now, and also with an 'old' boat, all relatively speaking, but some of his record achievements are unbelievable, which the newer modern foiling boats are still finding hard to beat.

They will break his records at some stage, and they will take the Jules Verne Trophy from him at some stage too, but for the moment they seem to be finding it harder than they might of expected

He also won the last Route de Rhum in 2018, again against newer and supposedly more favoured boats.

There is never one sole reason for success, it's the whole package, and normally a little bit of luck too.

[barnakiel]

Apparently, what killed Volvo was not unchained development but rather something quite opposite - going for a less expensive, monotype design (that sails like a pig).


Volvo is a dead event. It has been degraded to a joy ride between some exotic locations. A complete failure. Perhaps now that IMOCAs will participate, Volvo can get somewhat revived. But I personally doubt it.


If Volvo were sailed hard, as it used to be, it would still be alive and kicking. It basically commercialized itself out of the game. It is no longer a sailing event, it is a marketing stunt.


Vendee is doing fine though. I hope some of Le Cam's comments will be heard by the organizers. But foils can't be stopped, I think. They are simply where the development is today. Foilers ARE just faster. And racing is all about going fast.

[MicHughV]

The foils are only one aspect.....and it's interesting to note the different foil designs, as clearly there is no consensus on what is the perfect foil here for these boats. These boats are also being made lighter using various composites...but I think this is still in the development phase. Kevin's boat folding up is bound to be analyzed carefully. I expect to see a rejuvenated Hugo Boss next time round.

My only issue with the foils is the added potential of hitting an UFO and damaging not only the foil, but also the boat.

Clearly, the ability to move (or fix-in-place) the canting keel without hydraulics would be another improvement.

Curiously, Boris, with all his alarms set, still hit the fishing boat, so some work to be done here.

The big thing about the Vendee 2020 was that it was brought right into the living room, that was certainly a giant step forward, as sailing as a sport has always been out of sight, out of mind, type of thing.

Gotta agree with the Volvo event.....ho hum...

[Franziska]

The Volvo is not so exciting anymore since a single person can achieve the same without stopping or outside help.
Foiling boats in the Vendee are more spectacular for the media too.

Agree monotype design makes events less interesting.

The idea of crowning two winners, a budget class winner and a money is no issue class winner would be interesting, especially when both races happen parallel in the Vendee globe.
Wonder if we'll see helmet mounted livestreams or even 360degree camera streaming from one of the events once Starlink is up.

Communication has already come a long way and certainly helped sailing events a lot.
Interesting is though that the quality of the current livestreams are still grainy.

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Apparently, what killed Volvo was not unchained development but rather something quite opposite - going for a less expensive, monotype design (that sails like a pig).


Volvo is a dead event. It has been degraded to a joy ride between some exotic locations. A complete failure. Perhaps now that IMOCAs will participate, Volvo can get somewhat revived. But I personally doubt it.


If Volvo were sailed hard, as it used to be, it would still be alive and kicking. It basically commercialized itself out of the game. It is no longer a sailing event, it is a marketing stunt.


Vendee is doing fine though. I hope some of Le Cam's comments will be heard by the organizers. But foils can't be stopped, I think. They are simply where the development is today. Foilers ARE just faster. And racing is all about going fast.

[Yellowtulip]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Apparently, what killed Volvo was not unchained development but rather something quite opposite - going for a less expensive, monotype design (that sails like a pig).


Volvo is a dead event. It has been degraded to a joy ride between some exotic locations. A complete failure. Perhaps now that IMOCAs will participate, Volvo can get somewhat revived. But I personally doubt it.


If Volvo were sailed hard, as it used to be, it would still be alive and kicking. It basically commercialized itself out of the game. It is no longer a sailing event, it is a marketing stunt.


Vendee is doing fine though. I hope some of Le Cam's comments will be heard by the organizers. But foils can't be stopped, I think. They are simply where the development is today. Foilers ARE just faster. And racing is all about going fast.

Exactly my thoughts.