Vendée Globe: update 27Nov20

At the same time Alex Thomson announced ‘the BOSS is Back’ following his mammoth four days and four nights of repairs, French Thomas Ruyant and his team were deciding what to do about the damaged port foil on LinkedOut.

The danger in leaving the damaged foil as it is, is that it may break off and cause collateral damage to the hull of Ruyant’s IMOCA. Laurent Bourguès, technical director of Ruyant’s TR Racing has assembled a task force comprising the designers, engineers and builders who collaborated in the production of LinkedOut’s V2 second generation foil, including designer Guillaume Verdier and foil specialist Antoine Koch. Bourguès says: “First we need to evaluate accurately the structure of the damaged foil. Guillaume Verdier performs all the calculations to assess the level of stress safe for a foil of which the shaft structure is compromised. And therefore, in the next few hours we need to work out the acceptable level of risk to hold to a foil which is now unusable.”

Ruyant is fully prepared to get on with his race with just a single foil. His team says: “His determination to do very well is entirely intact. He knows that statistically, his starboard foil is more important than the port side. Even without a foil, his LinkedOut is very powerful, with its ballasts system in particular capable of providing all the power needed on starboard tack to perform despite the loss of the foil. He will re-learn the boat again, play with the cant of the keel and his sail combinations in order to stay in the heart of the Vendée Globe action.”

Pip Hare is in ‘crossover hell’

“I think I have analysis paralysis and it’s not going away,” Hare says on her blog (26Nov20)

“I am in crossover hell right now. It’s an agonising place to be. Staring at graphs on the computer, hoping that the wind will stabilise or an answer will leap out at me from nowhere.

“For those who have no idea what crossover hell might be; I will explain. I carry a selection of seven headsails on Medallia, each one of them has a specific range in which it provides best possible performance. That is a combination of wind angle and wind speed. The crossover is the point at which one sail becomes more efficient than another. It is normally reached either through a change in wind angle or wind speed.

“Right now, and for the last four hours, I have been relentlessly sailing first on one side then the other of my crossover between my J2 and the upwind Code Zero.”

Watch as Hare looks after her reefing lines (09.08 27Nov20)

Miranda Merron is taking advantage of the South-East trade winds

′′I see a full three quarter moon, behind the clouds. The Southern Cross is fully visible in the dark of the night. Every once in a while I spot a shooting star. Going through a busy part of the South Atlantic with many boats and cargoes en-route to Brazil. Campagne de France jumps on the waves. Everything is very wet on deck. This is life in the South East Trade Window.′′ (08.30 27Nov20)

No news from Alex Thomson or Sam Davies

Watch yesterday’s summary from race organisers

(17.59 26Nov20)

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