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  Foils, the Vendee Globe, ACWS—Sailing news from North America & beyond
 | | Alex Thomson on the bow of Hugo Boss during sea trials on the Atlantic Ocean © Alex Thomson Racing |
For fans of offshore sailing, the Vendee Globe holds special significance as one of sailing's hardest challenges, as this singlehanded, nonstop circumnavigation race is contested aboard wildly powerful IMOCA 60 monohulls, and the event's routing takes competitors through some of the most desolate stretches of the weather-battered Southern Ocean. To do well, sailors need to balance their need for speed with the realities of keeping their vessels in one piece, while also trying to sustain at least a few hours of rest each 24-hour period.
While the Vendee Globe is currently in its eighth edition, the 2016/2017 race is unique as it's the first time that the sailors have been allowed to use radical new foil shapes (AKA “Dali Foils”, due to their mustache-like appearance, when viewed from a bow-on perspective) that are designed to help lift the boat's bow sections from the water when sailing off-the-breeze angles.
 | | Hugo Boss shows off the radical foils used by six of the new IMOCA60 singlehanders in the Vendee Globe Race © Alex Thomson Racing |
These new foils are fast, but one of the quintessential questions raised by this year's event is whether they are robust enough to take the torture and beating of circumnavigation racing, especially given the amount of “UFOs” (unidentified floating objects) that offshore sailors now regularly report hitting, even thousands of miles from shore.
Now, just over two weeks after the start of this year's Vendee Globe, the sailing world is getting its first real acid test of this new technology, and the results are a mixed bag.
 | | Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) - Start 2016 Vendee Globe Les Sables-d'Olonne, November 6, 2016 © Olivier Blanchett / DPPI / Vendee Globe |
Skipper Alex Thomson (GBR; 42), sailing aboard his jet-black Hugo Boss, has been enjoying a solid lead in this talent-riven field for the past week, thanks to some clever routing, smart sailing, and a new design that Thomson credits as being an exceptional offshore sailing machine. In fact, Thomson came within 259 meters of breaking the 24-hour distance record sailed aboard an IMOCA 60, which was set by Francois Gabart during the 2012/2013 Vendee Globe, before calamity struck. (N.B., Thomson actually broke this record by sailing 535.34 nautical miles in 24 hours, but the official rules stipulate that a yacht must break an existing record by a full mile, and Thomson was 259 meters shy of this threshold.)
As with many of the new designs, Hugo Boss uses the new Dali foils, which were clearly helping the British singlehander, until a collision with a UFO gave a clean shave to his starboard foil, reducing a powerful lifting foil to a speed-sapping five-o'clock shadow. 'When the conditions subside, I will dive to cut the end that protrudes,” reported Thomson. “The boat still works well at this pace, and the other foil is intact. Obviously it is a disappointment but apart from that, everything goes well aboard the boat. I have to get used to a more classical IMOCA than a foiler!”
 | | Alex Thomson foiling in Hugo Boss ahead of the 2016 Vendee Globe © Alex Thomson Racing |
It will be interesting to see what kind of at-sea repair Thomson can create, and if this will be enough for him to stave off attacks from pursuing skippers, including Sebastian Josse, sailing aboard Edmond de Rothschild, and Armel Le Cleac'h, sailing aboard Banque Populaire VIII, both of whom were within 100 miles of Hugo Boss' stern at the time of this writing.
As for the big-picture question about the effectiveness of the Dali foils, there's little doubt that these new appendages are fast, but there's also little doubt that in a race of attrition like the Vendee Globe, the real goal is to win the marathon, rather than focusing on individual sprints-a goal that requires vessel strength and sustainability, rather than radical risk. Several other competing boats are also fitted with Dali foils, so this particular jury is still out, at least for now.
 | | Final day - America's Cup World Series Fukuoka © Rob Douglass / AdventuresofaSailorGirl.com |
Speaking of risk taking, Sir Ben Ainslie's Land Rover BAR team faced-down their competition and topped the leaderboard at this past weekend's Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series (ACWS) event, which was held off of Fukuoka, Japan, winning the overall ACWS and earning two precious bonus points that the British-flagged squad will take with them into next year's 35thAmerica's Cup.
'This has been a goal for us for the whole season and for this event. The guys have done an incredible job,' said Sir Ben. 'For us as a new team it sends out a strong message for all our supporters that we can do it.'
 | | Final day - America's Cup World Series Fukuoka © BMW / Carlo Borlenghi |
Oracle Team USA finished third at this weekend's ACWS regatta, astern of both Land Rover BAR and Artemis Racing, but they finished the overall ACWS season in second place, earning a single bonus point that they will carry into “AC35”, which is scheduled to take place on Bermuda's Great Sound next June.
According to Oracle, their weekend was about managing risk, and ensuring that their dreaded arch nemesis-Emirates Team New Zealand-finished astern of their hulls, both in the Fukuoka event, and in the overall ACWS. 'We wanted the points,” said Oracle's skipper, Jimmy Spithill. “We would have loved to have taken the two points, but one thing we weren't going to let happen was to have Team New Zealand take our point off us. So we ended up in a bit of match race with them at the end. And the boys did a great job to keep them behind us.'
 | | 2016 St-Barth Cata Cup - Final Day © Pierrick Contin |
Also inside this issue, be sure to get the latest news from the Viper 640 International Championships and the U.S. Disabled Championship, as well as the Saint-Barth Cata-Cup 2016.
Finally, best wishes to you and your family for a happy and healthy Thanksgiving holiday. Enjoy!
May the four winds blow you safely home,
David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor
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