Transat Tribulations...Etchells Worlds... Vodafone32 arrives in NZ

by . on 6 Nov 2015 Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for November 6, 2015

The Transat Jacques Vabre, a two-handed trans-Atlantic race from Le Havre, France to Itajai, Brazil is expected to celebrate its first finisher in just over 24 hours.

In the race, historically we know to expect the unexpected. That is just what is playing out on the Brazilian coast as the 250nm lead by race leader Macif (Gabart and Bidegorry) has been chopped back to just 100nm by Sodebo Ultim (Colville and Nelias) in the space of 24 hours.

The second placed boat took a hitch into the South American coast, which seems to be paying an ongoing dividend as with about the distance of a Sydney Hobart Race left to sail Sodebo Ultim is running at 25kts - six knot faster than the race leader, which is approaching Itajai at a more pedestrian 19kts.

Normally we would have done some quick routing using that feature in Predictwind. But unfortunately, there is no VPP present for an 80ft trimaran (although there is just about every other boat known to man).

Some dead reckoning shows that if Sodebo can hold her breeze and speed than she will finish three hours ahead of Macif, the race leader. That means this race will go down to the wire.

The Transat Jacques Vabre has always been a race of extremes and contrasts. Known for a high attrition rate, with an average of 25% of the competitors withdrawing, this year's race has upped that average to 38% withdrawal rate.

These aren't a bunch of bunny sailors out for a trans-Atlantic cruise, but some of the best short-handed sailors on the planet, mostly from the top shorthanded offshore sailing country - France. So there is a lot of culture and experience behind the French competitors in the race.

These sailors are pushing the extremes of boats and themselves. That is the only way they learn, and it is the only way design advances are made.

Typical of these contrasts is the sight on the tracking map of two 80ft trimarans dueling off the Brazil coast at speeds of 20-25kts.

At the other is the sight of another 80ft trimaran Prince de Bretagne being towed upside down into the offshore sailing capital of the world - the old U-Boat base in Lorient, France, which is home to about 10 French sailing teams. The outstanding French sailor Eric Tabarly built three of his six Pen Duick boats at Lorient - which probably explains why things are the way they now are.

One of the technology pushes of the current Transat Jacques Vabre has been the development of foiler monohulls of which several have been featured in Sail-World. These have been designed by VPLP and Verdier and built by three different builders. Only one remains in the race.

The jury is still out on the effectiveness of the protruding foils and the boast's thin-skinned, ribbed construction.

The one remaining in the race, Banque Populaire VIII (Armel Le Cleac'h and Erwan Tabarly) is lying in fourth place in a tightly packed lead group.

So far we have not seen the blistering sustained pace of the helicopter-shot videos that lit up the internet.

The question now is whether the foils and radical construction is an advance? And whether one will be an essential weapon in the target event - the 2016 Vendee Globe singlehanded unassisted, non-stop race around the world which gets under way next year.

Or, will a more conservative design and build approach be the best option?

Bearing in mind the cliche, that to finish first, first you must finish. And also knowing that some of the antics of the Transat Jacques Vabre fleet might be survivable on a trans-Atlantic race.

But in a round the world race, it is not possible to be helicoptered off in the Southern Ocean, or have a support team on hand in 24 hours.

In this edition, we have a compilation video from Alex Thomson (GBR) showing the start and the various stages of their race leading to the rescue and salvage of Hugo Boss after her capsize, dismasting, and near-sinking.

The plan was for Hugo Boss to be raced two-handed across the Atlantic and then for Alex Thomson to sail her single-handed on the return voyage.

Sailing technology is about to be pushed closer to home with the arrival in New Zealand of the GC32 for the Simon Hull led TeamVodafoneSailing.

The 32ft foiling catamaran will be launched next Friday and is expected to be sailing soon afterwards.

Vodafone 32 as she will be known is the third major sailing concept to be bought to New Zealand by Simon Hull. The first was the TP52 V5, the Alan Andrews design that is still a top performer, particularly offshore - and triggered the establishment of a fleet of TP52's in Auckland.

Second was the ORMA60 TeamVodafoneSailing, which was a double trans-Atlantic winner under Michel Desjoyeaux (no prizes for guessing his nationality), and has gone on to set race records in almost every course in the Pacific.

Vodafone 32 is not the first foiling catamaran to be raced in New Zealand. Several SL33's are a familiar sight on the harbour. But the GC32 is a second generation foiling catamaran - designed to be much more forgiving than the first generation boats like the SL33 and AC72. So her performance should be interesting.

She will be operating out of the old Luna Rossa base and will be check by jowl with the relocated Team New Zealand - and there maybe the odd line-up when Team New Zealand get their AC45's up and running.

In this issue, we over-feature the Etchells class - with several image galleries from the Invitation series sailed on Tuesday evening, and reports and images from the Etchells Worlds currently being sailed in Hong Kong and dominated by US crews.

While out shooting the Etchells, we again tested the InSunSport sunscreen - and were not surprised by this marvelous product.

Sunscreen in the eye is the bane of very photographer's existence - more so than sailors who can usually wipe or wash the offending material out and use their other eye in the meantime.

But there was none of that with InSunSport - even having it on our eyelids was not a problem. The point was underlined several hours later after we got home rubbed our eyes and realised that there was a sunscreen there.

Normally, as soon as you step ashore after a photoshoot, the first thing is a quick trip to the nearest bathroom to wipe off remaining sunscreen - with the help of plenty of fresh water and paper towel.

The manufacturers of InSunSport are keen to have sailors try their product and have small test packs that are being sent to sailing events who request them. So click on their ad in this edition and let Mark Killip and his team know that you are keen to see InSunSport at your regatta. Once you have used it, there is nothing else that will do.

Follow all the racing and developments in major and local events on www.sail-world.com, scroll to the bottom of the site, select New Zealand, and get all the latest news and updates from the sailing world.

Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

sailworldnzl@gmail.com

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