raz88

Friends have their hull wrapped, and while it was easy to apply and looks good (although as noted above the condition of what's underneath affects this), it's not as durable as paint and does get damaged reasonably easily. I would think if it were somewhere that you walk on it wouldn't last. Would also potentially be very slippery?

Yep think so.

sounded like it was a 1020. and apparently it made a hell of a bang when it went over. I heard he had unfurled his headsail for some reason and it got caught by a puff and blown over.

Pretty sure he's lost his solent/heavy air jib too. Think it wasn't that long before the forestay/#1 incident. And I think from memory they're only able to carry 4 foresails?

He's been going backwards for a long time now. Iirc nandoor was 200ish miles ahead a day or so back and is now 600 up. Really hoping Conrad can get the boat sorted out and start making ground again.

Or this one did come back to life https://gis.ee/vg/

Tracker currently shows BP8 doing 9ish knots and HB doing 3, so looks like Alex has hit the light patch and Armel is back in a bit of breeze again. Good that it's close again.

My understanding is that they're not allowed to receive routing advice as that's considered outside assistance and the whole idea of the VG is around the world unassisted. So they access forecast data and route themselves...

It was in one of his updates the last couple of days that he's successfully retracted the broken one so that he doesn't have a stump poking out. The way the update went it seemed like he thought that was as good as he's going to get and there will be no replacement. However the expectation is that the remaining part of the race will be more starboard tack than port meaning he can use his remaining foil.

There's more in the vendee globe thread in short talk, but it sounds like he's going to make it in ok. Incredible that the boat could sustain that level of damage and stay afloat through another couple of days of southern ocean to get in.

Yep. And it's certainly not just the foilers that have been affected. Must have been a massive crash, as he says in the video it's lucky the rig didn't come down at the same time. Hope the thing holds together long enough for him to get to nz.

Another couple out in the last couple of days. Broken rig and collision with ufo causing structural damage. Sad to see, although it does bump Coleman into the top ten once he passes them. Looks possible that nz may be asked to rescue Thomas ruyant - early reports from him post the ufo hit sound like his boat is pretty badly damaged and has all his gear on deck ready to bail if she goes down. Although that could be my misunderstanding googles translation of the French updates...

Definitely. Going well too considering the boat. Given what he's producing and that he's coming up to NZ I'm surprised the media here hasn't reported anything about him. Guess they're too busy with stories of 420s capsizing in squalls in Wellington.

I'd love to grab the panama CG if still available. Could I also get it off you at the crew.org race? thanks

Would be a good time to do it while le cleach is doing 10 knots not 20. Fingers crossed that's all it is and it's not some drama.

Tracker shows Thompson doing 2 knots in plenty of breeze. Hopefully nothing major as he's been having a good run the last 24 hours

So after doing the white island race without the dss, bow caddy media have just posted a bunch of photos of the big boat sailing in oz doing pre Syd-hobart testing with the foils back on, so they must be still considering using them.

Hotrod never got his actually sailing though, right? I wonder if the use of catameringue is intentional and describes a catamaran with the fragility of a meringue...

My tracker currently shows Coleman down to 2 knots of boatspeed, with tws of 11 on the aft quarter which should see him going a fair bit faster than 2 knots. Hopefully just a tracker issue or something minor...

I'm certainly finding this much more exciting to follow than the volvo has been the last few times. Coleman has made good ground back on the guys around him since his drama a couple of days ago. Very impressive.

looks like the Japanese guy has just dropped his rig

I've used Bart and team at NZ rigging in the past and they were helpful.

As per wheels post try fng on this forum?

Looks like they finished at 14.04

Was actually a great day out. Hard work in the new boat, everything is pretty far away from everything else, and I saw between 7 and 27 knots of breeze so had a bit going on at times, but a very enjoyable experience overall. Have been meaning to post here and say thanks to the bbyc team for putting the day on for us. Sorry for not coming up the river but a beat back up the harbour on my own in 20 knots looked hard enough already without having a few beers and then having to push the tide as well.