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I see this morning they're saying Hugo boss has hit something and has foil damage. Sound alike he's fine to continue for now, but will be interesting to see how he's affected if he can't foil on one side.

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I'm going to make a prediction now, that a minimum of three sharks (or any other large marine animal such as sun fish) will be caught on the new dali foils this year.

 

Just looking at a pick of Edmond de Rothchild, those foils are ridiculous. Given the speeds those boats are achieving, it is absolutely beyond me how you could design one of those to survive an impact with an unidentified floating object.

 

http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/15603/unfinished-business

 

So Thomson has lost a foil, while in the lead and 259 m from claiming a new 24 hr speed record...

http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/16317/le-cleac-h-and-josse-close-in-on-thomson

 

Thomson now hopes that the remainder of the round the world race will be on Starboard (he has 19,265 miles to go) forever the optimist.

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This race is so much more impressive and fun to follow than the Volvo. So impressive what these guys do.

 

Must be so devastating to have years of buildup and then get knocked out by random floating crap. Poor Riou. And Alex Thomsom for that matter.

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This race is so much more impressive and fun to follow than the Volvo. So impressive what these guys do.

Must be so devastating to have years of buildup and then get knocked out by random floating crap. Poor Riou. And Alex Thomsom for that matter.

True, but floating objects are a normal hazard. To some degree, boats must be able to withstand impacts -as Alex's did, breaking the foil without compromising watertight intergrity of the boat. I struggle to get my head around the engineering to do that - it's very impressive! Those foils are amazingly strong, but the cases must be something else!!

Best of luck to them all, what they are doing is beyond the comprehension of most sailors, let alone joe public.

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actually I think you will find that the foils are amazingly well engineered to have a predefined limited strength such that they shear off when it is exceeded - thereby protecting the boat.  I reckon that's what happenned to HB.

I have no idea of some of these numbers - but lets say boat weight is 8T (bulb is 3.1T max so probably a bit light), speed on impact was 40m/s (21.6kts) and she stopped in 20m (1 boat lenth aprox) - all picked for ease!  The impact force resulting from these numbers is 320kN - 32T - otherwise known as f&^#(n huuuuuuge!!!

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anybody know what the red dotted line on the tracker page is? Southern course limit or is it the expected ice limit?

 

Impressive seeing Hugo Boss going so well - amazingly - despite having the damage. He must feel the bunny in a rabbit and dog race.

Go the bunny, teach those onion & garlic chewin' Frenchies a lesson.

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The dotted line is the ice limit, word is that the ice limit in the Indian Ocean is going to be reviewed.

A nice new feature of the giss.ee tracker is if you click the little globe to show the Lat/Lon grid there are range lines showing where the boats will be at the current speed as you move the weather slider. Great tracker.

 

Looks like Boss might get a bit of a jump in the next 6 hours as the others fall off the edge of the Low, don't know how he will manage if they get any upwind on Port tack though.

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Is there a requirement for all boats to stay above predicted ice line or are they free to run the gauntlet? Does anybody know if that line been revised and if so - what do they do if Hugo is already the wrong side of the revised position? It would be bloody unfair to see him penalised

 

Will be interesting to see what happens when (if) Hugo Boss can get to a starboard tack although speed doesn't seem to have been compromised too much by the loss of the foil.

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The line has to be kept to starboard, there are major penalties for crossing it. Pretty sure they don't revise it in the area the boats currently are.

The good news is apparently the Boss has a spare foil which can be inserted from the deck, once he trims the end off the broken one it can be removed.

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Intrigue and conspiracies.

Alex Thomson has a lead of 110 nm and is still doing 20 knots.

There are no photos of this broken foil...

So did he actually break a foil, or is he just saying that to fox his competitors?

His team now say, ta da, he has a spare on board, and he can change it out from the deck opening, which is why they designed it like that.

 

On the front they've been riding, if he foxed the chasers into backing off the gas, to preserve their boats, he can ride out a lead on the front that would be very difficult for them to get back. If you get a weather system in front, you hold all the cards.

 

Mind games are massive when you are by yourself on a big ocean.

 

Of course it could just be deep running conditions that are well suited to high speeds without foils. Either way, the guy is a genius.

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I think Maitre COQ is an older boat retro fitted with foils, the older boats don't have to comply with the one design mast and keel so are potentially much more powerful. The one design mast boats need to monitor load cells as they are righting moment limited due to the mast.

 

Pretty confident Boss lost most of a foil but he has been in better air most of the time and in heavy running the foils can be a hindrance.

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