If anyone here is a fan of sailing this year’s Vendeé Globe has been one to watch. This year brings the introduction of foiling monohulls to the race (the IMOCA 60 class).
These things are crazy (warning, loud music)
These boats are at the bleeding edge of boat design and building. And on the bleeding edge, there can be issues. The one time race leader, the Hugo Boss with skipper Alex Thomson, initially discovered cracks in the bow after possibly striking a submerged object. The poor guy spent hours in a tiny, humid, bow compartment making repairs. He finished the repairs and rejoined the race only to have one of his rudders fail. These boats have twin rudders, but with one stuck the boat became difficult to manage and he had to drop out of the race.
Last night another IMOCA 60, the PRB skippered by Kevin Escoffier who was in third place at the time, literally cracked in half in heavy seas and rapidly sunk. Fortunately the skipper was able to get into his survival suit and deploy his raft and EPIRB (rescue beacon) and the race turned into a rescue operation. Fortunately another skipper, Jean Le Cam from team “Yes We Cam!” who is sailing a traditional non-foiling monohull and has been leading his division, was able to locate and rescue Kevin.
This is really cool and yeah, this sort of thing totally interests me. I’ve always enjoyed sailing and even participated in some races but obviously nothing on this scale. And even on my local and (relatively) more casual sailing scene the drives and egos involved can be a bit, shall we say, stifling so it’s hard to imagine what goes on behind the scenes of one of these races. Still, lots of fun watching from a safe distance.
The hero of the moment, Jean Le Cam, was himself rescued when in the 2008 Vendeé Globe he lost his keel and capsized off Cape Horn. The boat that rescued him was PRB (not the same literal boat of course) though then under skipper Vincent Riou. As performing a rescue in huge wind and seas is not easy, during that rescue PRB was dismasted in a collision. Though unable to finish the race jury gave PRB 3rd place as credit for the rescue.
This time Le Cam is still racing, and is third in his class at last update. The way he’s been sailing he may still win the class outright even before the jury gives him some credit for the time taken in the rescue.
