With the news that Jean Piere Dick and Paprec Virbac have retired, the retirement rate in this edition of the Vendee Globe has now reached 50%. Whilst there have been no serious injuries, this must raise some questions that need to be answered before the next race takes place. The silver lining in this cloud is that Sam Davies is now in sixth place !
Never mind all the debate about whether kitesurfers are sailors or not, it seems as if the sailing speed record may fall in the not too distant future to the foiling tri L’Hydroptere. The French based vessel, notable amongst record attempts for being very recognisably a boat, hit an amazing 61 knots off Marseille last week. Unfortunately, she then capsized, but surely it can’t be too long now..?!?
At Nare, we’re continuing our sale of 2008 Gill stock. One of our best offers is the Gill Cruise Suit for just £124.95. If you’re stuck for Christmas presents, check it out, along with the rest of our amazing Gill offers here !
Their boat may have run into some well publicised problems, but Pumas Volvo Ocean Race effort is leading the way in their use of social media. The team have just launched a dedicated YouTube channel, full of videos of Il Mostro, including the one below. Well done to them for an effort that should help their attempts to promote sailing beyond its “typical” audience.
Following on from the entry below, Thomas Coville and Sodeb’O set off yesterday on their solo round the world record attempt. You can follow his journey and his rate of progress against the old record here. Yesterday also saw 16 year old Mike Perham set off aboard his Open 50 Totallymoney in his attempt to become the youngest ever circumnavigator. Perham crossed the start line off Lizard Point at 3.30pm yesterday, you can see how he’s getting on here.
The Vendee Globe and the Volvo Ocean Race are now be well and truly underway, with Leg 2 of the latter to Cochin in India now a couple of days old. The other round the world effort of note though, Thomas Coville and his monster trimaran Sodeb’O is still awaiting a suitable weather window for his shot at Francis Joyons solo circumnavigation record. He’s currently poised to depart from Brest some time in the next 24 hours, to where he will have to return in less than 57 days, 13 hours, 34 minutes and 6 seconds to break the record. For the French speakers amongst you, more details on Covilles official site.
There can be little doubt that Alex Thomson has had the most dramatic preperation for the Vendee Globe race of any of the competitors. The well publicised collision with a French trawler left Hugo Boss extensively damaged and only an incredible display of effort and organisation was able to see her repaired and back in the water. It didn’t stop there however. Sea trials yesterday resulted in severe main halyard wear as a result of corrosion on the halyard sheave following the masts time underwater. In an amazing display of manpower and ingenuity, this was solved by repeatedly hoisting halyards in hard jackets to polish the sheave. This was done last night a grand total of 1800 times (!) via a hastily organised shift system and the team are now happy with the ability of the main halyard to withstand the 26,000 miles around the world. Assuming Thomson makes the start line on Sunday, it will be testimony to the most extraordinary effort, not just by his team, but also by the Alliaura Marine boatyard in Sables d’Olonne, suppliers and an army of volunteers.
With Christmas rapidly approaching, we’re flat out at Nare putting together our Christmas gift range. We’ve a number of great products, including a lovely brass tide clock and our great value XM Offshore Suit, but possibly my favourite is the remarkable Waterbuoy. This ingenious device is a keyring that inflates on contact with water, enabling you to retrieve keys, phones, cameras etc that you drop overboard. The device first reached the public eye via the inventors appearence on TV’s Dragons Den and is to my mind the perfect stocking filler for anyone who goes near water.
I’m sure that most people with any sort of interest or involvement in single handed ocean racing are fans of Britains Sam Davies. Young, fast and media friendly she’s undoubtedly not just the top female ocean racer of the moment, but also one of the top singlehanded sailors full stop. Her Vendee Globe campaign is the logical conclusion of a career path that started in the ultra competitive French Figaro series and despite her last generation boat, she’s more than capable of springing the odd surprise in the race. Young, female, attractive and Cambridge educated, Davies is a sponsors dream and deserves every bit of success she gets. Presumably this coverage in the Daily Mail (from which the photo below is taken) that majors on her sailing naked isn’t going to harm her cause. I guess if you happen to come across a naked racer somewhere in the doldrums, rather Sam Davies than Mike Golding ! Best of luck to her for the Vendee.
The politicking continues apace in the Americas Cup, but it does at least seem that the amount of dialogue between teams is increasing. Yesterday, a competitor meeting was held at the Société Nautique de Genève to discuss getting the competition back on the water. Chaired by Brad Butterworth, the event followed on from a series of one to one meetings between Alinghi and the challenger syndicates and was attended by eleven teams including Alinghi, Desafío Español, Emirates Team New Zealand, Shosholoza and Britains Team Origin. Agenda items included cost containment ideas not least of which was the creation of a new class of boat for the event. Of course the conspicuous absentee was BMW Oracle, but the meeting did wrap up by agreeing a letter to Larry Ellisons team requesting that they cease legal action and engage around getting the competition back on track as soon as possible. Fingers crossed…. More details here.
