News Around the World
Not a situation any AC75 skipper ever wants to be in when racing – but Pete Burling’s crew is simply taking time out during practice. The early indications looked good for the Defender, but when flying straightline performance is all about foils more than hulls things could still change a lot between the Prada Christmas Series and the Cup Match. Interesting too some of the different sail trims used by the teams, with Team NZ often using more mainsail draft than their rivals – the ability to generate more righting moment being one of many possible reasons. At the other extreme are American Magic’s flying shapes which at times appear multihull-style board flat – maybe reflecting confidence in their superb boathandling and ability to maintain smooth flight. Who knows at such an early stage!
I’m really avoiding doing it. I look at the weather systems globally a week ahead; I don’t do routeing for the boats in front, I don’t tell myself that I’m going to catch them at such and such a time, I’m just trying to make my way. I don’t want to sail too hard. ‘My goal is to keep Charal in good condition.’ Actually, Charal
overtook the last boats of the race so rapidly that she looked as if she was playing in another division. Another explanation is that Jérémie finally decided to step on the gas. LinkedOut is missing part of her port foil. On 25 November in the middle of the South Atlantic Thomas Ruyant, second at the time in the wake of Charlie Dalin’s Apivia, suffered major damage on his port foil which forced him to temporarily stop racing. At 03.00 the skipper, resting inside LinkedOut, was alerted by a loud noise out- side the boat… but no shock. Thomas rushed outside where using his headlamp he immediately noticed significant cracks on the shaft of his port foil. ‘I was about 120° off the wind, sailing at 20kt when I heard a big noise,’ said Thomas. ‘I don’t really have an explanation. I pulled the foil in so it wouldn’t drag in the water. With daylight I was able to inspect the foil and its casing from top to bottom, sending film to my team and the architects ashore.’ There was no leak in the foil casing which looked OK but the foil
was cracked in many places, with its main structure clearly com- promised. A decision was made to cut the foil about 2m from the end of the tip to remove some of the power of the foil; the big risk was that the entire foil would break off and hit the outrigger, which could lead to damage to the hull or cause a dismasting or even damage the foil casing – which means a leak. ‘I no longer have issues,’ said Thomas after the rather difficult
amputation. ‘I am just missing a small bit, but that’s how it is and it is the Vendée. It is not going to stop me going fast and it is not going to stop me from racing.’ Marcus Hutchinson, LinkedOut project manager, told us: ‘Thomas
now has a new boat that has lost power on one side but the remain- ing piece of the shaft should hold out. Now he has to focus on finding the new numbers and play around with the sails and trim
22 SEAHORSE
to get the best speed on starboard with a smaller foil – which now looks like a first-generation Dalí.’ This should not be a handicap sailing in the rough weather of
the South Seas, but it will prevent him from flying as fast as Apivia back in the Atlantic. Thomas will also have to be careful not to abuse his remaining fully intact foil when sailing on port… 20 days after the surgery LinkedOut was in second place, neck and neck with Yannick Bestaven’s Maître Coq IV (the ex-Safran foiler)) less than 100nm in the wake of Apiviaand with a large bunch of hungry Imocas on his heels. And soon he would be first. ApiviaOn Monday 14 December, around 21:00 French time, while Apivia was sailing at the head of the fleet (from the middle of the South Atlantic) closely followed by Ruyant and Bestaven, Charlie Dalin rapidly slowed down after hearing an unusual noise onboard. After an initial inspection at night the skipper of Apivia was able to see that the port foil system was damaged. He did not notice more than a little water ingress (see Update, page 14). Yannick Bestaven‘Thanks to my small foils!’ On day 36 the skipper of Maître Coq IV (the ex-VPLP/Verdier Safran II, a retirement in the last VG with Morgan Lagravière) was up with Ruyant and Dalin. He told us: ‘For our small group it’s good, we never stopped. Now we’ll keep the wind as we go, and we’ll have more wind along the ice zone. We will continue to widen the gap on the group behind. ‘That is the objective. But I saw a light wind bubble that was
perhaps going to catch us, that’s why I carried on with the little gennaker… But it was not comfortable and I had to be very careful. ‘I don’t know about Charlie [Dalin], but I saw that he was slowing
down. I’m not surprised! They’re faster boats, they should have better averages than me. I knew he had a problem, but I think that Thomas [Ruyant] is still fine. My foils are not very big but they are strong!’ Yannick was an entry in the 2008 VG, but he only raced a few hours because the mast broke just after the start in Biscay… Miranda Merron ‘There is an average of one problem per day or every two days. Tiresome and tiring! I dare not try to calculate the number of worries that await me in the coming months!’ But two
GILLES MARTIN-RAGET
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