Utterly Speechless

by John Curnow on 2 Jan 2017 Back a while ago, probably as he screamed across the Pacific, it felt like Thomas Coville’s efforts on the maxi-tri, Sodebo Ultim, were just visual. Here he was on a nice little graphic that showed how far a few thousand nautical miles ahead of the record he was, and how much further he had to run.

He made land just on Christmas, and as his own special present to himself, set a new record of 49 days 3 hours 7 minutes and 38 seconds. It was well and truly under the 58-day record and the January 3, 2017 at 4:23:57 am (local time) cut-off. His fifth attempt at the record bettered Francis Joyon’s old mark from 2008 by 8 days, 10 hours, 26 minutes, and 28 seconds. So who got the left over pizzas then? Seriously though, Joyon was of course one of the first to heap deserved praise on Coville. Note too, that it is not that long ago that this sort of mark would have been considered brilliant for a crewed assault.

Speaking of crewed adventures, IDEC Sport is after the Jules Verne title, having departed France just before Christmas (16/12/16). Joyon is of course skippering this massive tri, and at the time of writing, they were 380nm ahead of Loick Peyron’s Banque Populaire V existing record of 45 days, 13 hours, 42 minutes, and 53 seconds in 2011. They have already smashed out several 870nm 24-hour runs, with a top speed of over 37 knots. IDEC Sport is yet to crack BPV’s 41-knot top speed, but no doubt that will happen as well.

Back to single-handed and in the Vendée Globe, Alex Thomson ate the huge gap between himself and favourite prior to the start, Armel Le Cléac'h, down to just 28nm. At the time of writing this was back out to over 150nm between Banque Populaire VIII and Hugo Boss. It is totally amazing what this next generation of IMOCA 60s have done, and no doubt a new record will be set there, too. In the meantime, it will make for great reading.

So with IMOCA 60s and foiling in mind, you would think that the only ways to beat Perpetual Loyal’s terrific new mark for the Hobart of 1 day, 13 hours, 31 minutes, and 17 seconds are: to open up the size to over 100 feet; wait for another 15 years when the weather window has the same view; allow the technology curve to march on with someone who has a wallet to match; or allow the multis in. Just on that, won’t it be something to see Sean Langman’s Team Australia get under 24 hours up on ETNZ’s old AC72 L Foils.

On the technology front, we had CQS with her ailerons on her J Foils. It was early days, similar to the right stuff era. No kites at all might have been optimistic, and her port DSS only just made it out of the Heads. In motor racing parlance, she’s gone back into the pits for the propeller heads to nut out the data, and then see what is next. In F1, all the teams test in Spain for the Winter, but in yachting, it is Summer, and that will around soon enough.

So an interesting Euro season awaits, and we should expect her, or maybe even a successor, back for the 2017 haul South. As for the 2016 version, on the downside you had Comanche’s absence. Just imagine what she would have done with those conditions. Instead of five hours off, it could have been eight or more, but we will never know.

Also, no doubt WOXI are still pretty speechless. That would be hard to take, not insurmountable, but challenging. Comanche were on of the first to send their commiserations to the crew. There was much better news for the year for Richards in his role as Skipper of Grand Banks, however. So that may help a little, over the next couple of weeks or months. Hopefully the Oatley family will continue to campaign her so well.

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