Thank you! I'm doing updates like this on my own, and can turn them around pretty quickly now. It's great input Richard Gladwell's input for the routing. He's Sail-World.com's New Zealand editor.
I would advise Sebastien Simon not to try to beat again this record, because it would be a useless risk at this point. Can a solo IMOCA beats the crewed IMOCA 24 hour record ? Hard to say - the current crewed record is owned by Holcim PRB (Ocean Race 2023, 4+1 media man). Not speaking of dual crewed sailing, full crewed sailing is something very new on IMOCA, and linked to Ocean Race. Two past events : Ocean Race Europe in 2021, Ocean Race 2023. SO, we have not enough distance. With so few events we can't really know how much this performance can be improved so finally it would not be so surprising if solo IMOCA beat this record, because we have not enough references. - Full crewed authorizes constant watching so angle can be regularly adjusted. As a comparison, in solo, during sleep period the boat is only autopiloted. Yes last generation of autopilots introduced by MADINTEC few years before VDG 2020 are just incredible. Now all sailors admit that autopilot does a better job than man.... this was absolutely not the case before, autopilots were basically stupid, MADINTEC introduced for the first time AI algorithms. Anyway, this can't replace a man. The wind can change its angle, many things can happen on a boat. - Full crewed (we take Ocean Race rule as a reference) means 5 persons instead of one... yes, but on a VDG if the skipper is alone he must embark a lot of spare pieces, tools, often additional rudder... probably far more than on an Ocean Race, so I have not the answer, what is more heavy, a solo IMOCA for VDG or a crewed IMOCA for Ocean Race ? On a simple transat (generally more or less ten day) it is almost sure that solo IMOCA is lighter than full crewed IMOCA for Ocean Race because no need to embark the same quantity of spares pieces than in a VDG My guess is.... I don't think that 640.48 miles will be beaten in this edition of VDG. In my opinion we reach the limits in solo context... over this limit, this means breakage. If one day "T-Foils" (or elevator) appear perhaps we will see solo IMOCA beating this record. BUT I think that in full crewed context, the record can be improved. To avoid any breakage, I think there must be permanently a person who watches and monitors data to take corrective actions. In fact pehraps the best context to optimize such record would be a dual handed IMOCA in a transat.... lighter than full crewed, and better monitoring of the machine than in a solo.
I'm in the US and no one in the geneal public knows about what's going on these IMOCA boats and what they're capable of. It's a shame because the level of insanity (and entertainment!) is sky-high.
Offshore solo sailing will never be "sex appealing" for most of public... outside France, and this will never change. - Most public want shorter formats as inshore races or coastal races - For most public, offshore sailing is only impressive pictures of full crewed boat with million liters of water falling on men or women, they don't care at all of sport. Unfortunately, solo IMOCA being a question of safety, skipper are now in closed cockpit, this is less impressive and you hear people crying "this is not offshore sailing, give us back VO65". This won't change... for security reason, but people don't care, they wan't men women smashed by water and sometimes falling and dying in the sea, this is impossible to make understand that such things can't occur any more in modern era, sailors assume the risk of dying but are not paid to die, this is the reason why closed cockpits have been developed.on last generation IMOCA . - Most public don't want complicated race, VDG with IMOCA foiler using non natural angle (an IMOCA is optimally working in reaching) is sometimes hard to understand for a newbie, a daggerboard is much more easy to understand. So most likely IMOCA will gain some popularity in the US and elsewhere through the full crewed IMOCA circuit, this means, NEW OCEAN RACE who signed an agreement with IMOCA class which is the new official class replacing VO65 under the format of 4+1 media man. Ocean Race (now with a spanish stackholder) created two additional events : - Ocean Race Europe (first edition occured in 2021 few monthes after VDG, next in 2025 few monthes after THIS VDG) - Ocean Race Atlantic : first edition in 2026 - First new Ocean Race occurred in 2023, this has been an inaugural edition still impacted by COVID where some project has been killed upstream. Only five boats... and you know what ? This is an american team "11th hour" who won this first edition with someone well known in the US, Charlie Enright as skipper, so surprising that you ignored that. Next edition in 2027 with probably 10 boats pehraps more, this will be much more interesting. There are plenty of Ocean Race 2023 videos on youtube. Just go to the official UA-cam channel of Ocean Race with many tutorials by Niall explaining what is IMOCA. Let's be clear.... IMOCA will gain international audience only through theses new ocean race events. In return, this will probably inspire number of crew member to try the solo VDG. The problem is.... apart french companies, very few non french companies are interested in sponsoring solo offshore sailing projects. Even in UK where solo offshore sailing born before really developping in France, this is very complicated. Full crewed ocean race with theses "sexy foilers" will undoubtfully attract more international companies and little by little american public will know IMOCA... Little by little, "sexy foilers" will make forget VO65, or let's say that new Ocean race will attract a new public more inspired by speed than men and women smashed by water. The VO65 lovers will never fall in love with IMOCA But solo offshore sailing will stay a "niche" not a big event able to attract a large public For your information - New-York Vendée is a solo race created in 2016. This event is usually planned as the last qualification IMOCA solo race before the VDG. First edition occured in 2016, no edition in 2020 due to COVID, second edition in 2024 few monthes before this VDG
Do these speeds begin to make people ask about safety. It seems to me that keeping a good look out at those speeds must be difficult Hitting a container would be catastrophic.
Hitting a container at any speed has the potential to be catastrophic. The dangers of sailing around the world are real and the skippers are very aware of them. We wish them all safe passage.
there is no such thing as humans keeping lookout on these boats. you can't see the ocean in front well unless you are up on the bow a long ways away from any control tools or the tiller anyways, so if you did see something you couldn't respond in time. however they do have some detection equipment that is linked up to the steering to automatically avoid detectable objects (idk what it is technically, but i would assume its some type of sonar or radar outside the visual spectrum). pip hare talked about it briefly in her dock tour iirc
I love this minimalistic way of reporting. Great job! Cheers!
Best coverage of the race. Keep it up, really enjoying it!
Thank you! Glad you're enjoying it!
An awesome sport
Yours and your team's time and effort into these updates our spectacular! Keep it up
Thank you! I'm doing updates like this on my own, and can turn them around pretty quickly now. It's great input Richard Gladwell's input for the routing. He's Sail-World.com's New Zealand editor.
Thank you again!
Awesome!
Terrific
👌👌👌
I would advise Sebastien Simon not to try to beat again this record, because it would be a useless risk at this point.
Can a solo IMOCA beats the crewed IMOCA 24 hour record ?
Hard to say
- the current crewed record is owned by Holcim PRB (Ocean Race 2023, 4+1 media man). Not speaking of dual crewed sailing, full crewed sailing is something very new on IMOCA, and linked to Ocean Race. Two past events : Ocean Race Europe in 2021, Ocean Race 2023. SO, we have not enough distance. With so few events we can't really know how much this performance can be improved so finally it would not be so surprising if solo IMOCA beat this record, because we have not enough references.
- Full crewed authorizes constant watching so angle can be regularly adjusted. As a comparison, in solo, during sleep period the boat is only autopiloted. Yes last generation of autopilots introduced by MADINTEC few years before VDG 2020 are just incredible. Now all sailors admit that autopilot does a better job than man.... this was absolutely not the case before, autopilots were basically stupid, MADINTEC introduced for the first time AI algorithms. Anyway, this can't replace a man. The wind can change its angle, many things can happen on a boat.
- Full crewed (we take Ocean Race rule as a reference) means 5 persons instead of one... yes, but on a VDG if the skipper is alone he must embark a lot of spare pieces, tools, often additional rudder... probably far more than on an Ocean Race, so I have not the answer, what is more heavy, a solo IMOCA for VDG or a crewed IMOCA for Ocean Race ? On a simple transat (generally more or less ten day) it is almost sure that solo IMOCA is lighter than full crewed IMOCA for Ocean Race because no need to embark the same quantity of spares pieces than in a VDG
My guess is.... I don't think that 640.48 miles will be beaten in this edition of VDG. In my opinion we reach the limits in solo context... over this limit, this means breakage. If one day "T-Foils" (or elevator) appear perhaps we will see solo IMOCA beating this record.
BUT I think that in full crewed context, the record can be improved. To avoid any breakage, I think there must be permanently a person who watches and monitors data to take corrective actions.
In fact pehraps the best context to optimize such record would be a dual handed IMOCA in a transat.... lighter than full crewed, and better monitoring of the machine than in a solo.
I'm in the US and no one in the geneal public knows about what's going on these IMOCA boats and what they're capable of. It's a shame because the level of insanity (and entertainment!) is sky-high.
Glued to UA-cam over here in Utah... So fascinating!
Hopefully this is helping spread the message in the USA as to how good the Vendee Globe is!
Offshore solo sailing will never be "sex appealing" for most of public... outside France, and this will never change.
- Most public want shorter formats as inshore races or coastal races
- For most public, offshore sailing is only impressive pictures of full crewed boat with million liters of water falling on men or women, they don't care at all of sport. Unfortunately, solo IMOCA being a question of safety, skipper are now in closed cockpit, this is less impressive and you hear people crying "this is not offshore sailing, give us back VO65". This won't change... for security reason, but people don't care, they wan't men women smashed by water and sometimes falling and dying in the sea, this is impossible to make understand that such things can't occur any more in modern era, sailors assume the risk of dying but are not paid to die, this is the reason why closed cockpits have been developed.on last generation IMOCA .
- Most public don't want complicated race, VDG with IMOCA foiler using non natural angle (an IMOCA is optimally working in reaching) is sometimes hard to understand for a newbie, a daggerboard is much more easy to understand.
So most likely IMOCA will gain some popularity in the US and elsewhere through the full crewed IMOCA circuit, this means, NEW OCEAN RACE who signed an agreement with IMOCA class which is the new official class replacing VO65 under the format of 4+1 media man.
Ocean Race (now with a spanish stackholder) created two additional events :
- Ocean Race Europe (first edition occured in 2021 few monthes after VDG, next in 2025 few monthes after THIS VDG)
- Ocean Race Atlantic : first edition in 2026
- First new Ocean Race occurred in 2023, this has been an inaugural edition still impacted by COVID where some project has been killed upstream. Only five boats... and you know what ? This is an american team "11th hour" who won this first edition with someone well known in the US, Charlie Enright as skipper, so surprising that you ignored that. Next edition in 2027 with probably 10 boats pehraps more, this will be much more interesting. There are plenty of Ocean Race 2023 videos on youtube. Just go to the official UA-cam channel of Ocean Race with many tutorials by Niall explaining what is IMOCA.
Let's be clear.... IMOCA will gain international audience only through theses new ocean race events.
In return, this will probably inspire number of crew member to try the solo VDG. The problem is.... apart french companies, very few non french companies are interested in sponsoring solo offshore sailing projects. Even in UK where solo offshore sailing born before really developping in France, this is very complicated.
Full crewed ocean race with theses "sexy foilers" will undoubtfully attract more international companies and little by little american public will know IMOCA...
Little by little, "sexy foilers" will make forget VO65, or let's say that new Ocean race will attract a new public more inspired by speed than men and women smashed by water. The VO65 lovers will never fall in love with IMOCA
But solo offshore sailing will stay a "niche" not a big event able to attract a large public
For your information
- New-York Vendée is a solo race created in 2016. This event is usually planned as the last qualification IMOCA solo race before the VDG. First edition occured in 2016, no edition in 2020 due to COVID, second edition in 2024 few monthes before this VDG
Do these speeds begin to make people ask about safety. It seems to me that keeping a good look out at those speeds must be difficult Hitting a container would be catastrophic.
Hitting a container at any speed has the potential to be catastrophic. The dangers of sailing around the world are real and the skippers are very aware of them. We wish them all safe passage.
there is no such thing as humans keeping lookout on these boats. you can't see the ocean in front well unless you are up on the bow a long ways away from any control tools or the tiller anyways, so if you did see something you couldn't respond in time. however they do have some detection equipment that is linked up to the steering to automatically avoid detectable objects (idk what it is technically, but i would assume its some type of sonar or radar outside the visual spectrum). pip hare talked about it briefly in her dock tour iirc
Must be super-amazing to sail all day at 25 knots in a monohull.