News Around the World
Thomas Ruyant’s Guillaume Verdier-designed LinkedOut during the speed test at the Défi Azimut in Lorient. This is a good illustration of the way in which the rake on the keel pivot turns the fin into a lift foil with the hull ‘suspended’ between that and the main foil. It also illustrates the inefficiency in overall trim and thus performance with all the lift forward and the transom left dragging in the water. The current drive to fly lower and more steadily is in part to reduce the immersion angle of the stern which is directly related to drag. More level flight also reduces the ‘spikiness’ of the performance curve between bursts of flight and violent decelerations on landing
FRANCE Records tumble (already) A new record-sized fleet will compete in the 2020 edition of the Vendée Globe as 33 competitors are now registered to be on the startline off Les Sables d’Olonne on 8 November. The strong entry underlines the sustained growing interest in the solo, non-stop round-the-world race. The field sees a return of women skippers as a record six female solo racers will take the start, while there is an almost equal balance between first-time rookies and skippers return- ing for another attempt at the ultimate solo ocean racing challenge.
Thomas Ruyant One of the great favourites of the VG, Thomas Ruyant, likes the ‘positive pressure’. He recently declared: ‘The results of the Vendée- Arctic-Les Sables race were largely positive, even though I was dreaming for better. This third place was convincing. I’ve since debriefed, dissected and analysed the race with my team. ‘LinkedOut goes fast, very fast and, above all, at the speeds and
in the important and significant wind ranges for the Vendée Globe course. I now know my strengths, and my weaknesses. We’re in the game, for sure. I am said to be one of the favourites? This is a good sign, recognition of the work done by the whole team, and for me an extra motivation to justify all of these high expectations. In both the Mini and Class40 (Thomas won both the Mini Transat and Route du Rhum) I have already been wearing this label. It is a very positive pressure, an extra energy.’ Thomas explained how he has progressed over 12 months of
sailing his Guillaume Verdier design. ‘Our navigations across the year made it possible to determine with some accuracy both our generation 2 foils and the heavily redesigned sail wardrobe we now carry. But our sailplan continues to evolve, and we know our foiler generation requires extremely specific shapes and configurations
22 SEAHORSE
of sails. We are still learning more every time we leave the port. ‘We received our second generation of foils, which will erase some
defects we identified with the V1. These new appendages, jointly developed by Antoine Koch and Guillaume Verdier, will, in short, “push” us forward more, and lift us less. By flying lower and more steadily we will keep at high speeds for longer sailing with greater stability – especially fore and aft where these boats (without rudder elevators) all struggle to stay level. This is fundamental for a round- the-world tour, being able to sail at high average speeds for long periods. We are also pursuing small improvements in all the other areas –ballasting, for example, and our ergonomics inside the boat.’
Charlie Dalin Explaining why the bow of Apivia (Verdier) is getting bigger: ‘The bow was already quite full and “scooped” when the boat was launched last year. After the Jacques Vabre we thought it would be worth going a little further with the concept. But the new design was not ready this winter so we were only able to introduce it during this summer. ‘The gain is essentially while running. It helps the forces generated
at the bow to be more vertical and so the bow to lift over the waves. In lighter conditions the forefoot should still stay in the water for maximum waterline length but will start to lift automatically as the winds and speeds increase without a great deal of retrimming as we had before. This is very efficient in terms of VMG over a long course as it avoids us having to luff so much as the wind lightens and then reset a deeper course in heavier breezes. Now the boat does a lot of these adjustments for me.’
Small changes only The Imoca class meeting marking the end of the summer holidays was held at the end of August using virtual technology. It enabled class members to carry out an early appraisal of what has happened
VINCENT CURUTCHET/DPPI
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