Vendee Globe Ocean Race 2012-2013!!

[Brian McVickers]

Tomorrow, November 10, 2012, twenty adventurers will skipper their Open 60 class sailboats around the globe through the Great Southern Ocean and the Roaring Forties!!
Their goal is to be the fastest and the first to cover roughly 24,000 (twenty four thousand!!) nautical miles as fast as possible, solo and without outside support or landfall.
The record to beat in this race is 84 days!

http://www.expeditionportal.com/adv...vendee-globe-ocean-race-2012-2013-begins.html

I'm looking forward to an incredible race ove the next three months!




Brian

 

[Brian McVickers]

The race began well with 19 of the 20 boats starting. The 20th boat, did not start on time due to returning to the pontoons to repair a hole in the hull caused by colliding with a RIB before the start. The two boats were pushed together by waves. Surprisingly there were 5 boats ove the line early.

Safran turned back to the pontoons after about 50 miles, limping slowly back at around 4 knots, likely to fix a problem.

The fleet which is still rather tightly positioned has been gaining speed throughout the day as the winds have clocked from North to East over the past 12 hours where they are forecasted to stay for the next 36 hours with an increase in wind speed. It appears that the boats that stayed high along the rum line have been seeing 12-16 knots while the two boats that went low towards land, currently positioned 17 & 18, were not as fortunate and have been seeing 7-10 knots of boat speed.

The fleet is roughly 190 nautical miles from the start after 16 hours, and is being led by Francois Gabart and his boat MACIF who was over early and is currently cranking out 19 knots of boat speed!

 

[Brian McVickers]

The first 1.5 hours of the race beginning with start preparations.

[video=dailymotion;xuzota]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xuzota_replay-vendee-globe-2012-2013-depart-en-direct-video_sport[/video]

[video]<iframe frameborder="0" width="480" height="270" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xuzota"></iframe><br /><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xuzota_replay-vendee-globe-2012-2013-depart-en-direct-video_sport" target="_blank">Replay Vendée Globe 2012-2013 (Départ en direct...</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/VendeeGlobeTV" target="_blank">VendeeGlobeTV</a></i>[/video]

 

[Brian McVickers]

It looks like the reason Safran turned back was because his keel fell off!
He reports that he hit something under water and the boat immediately heeled over drastically.
After making the boat safe he headed back to the pontoons to investigate further.
After leading the race from the start, he has unfortunately withdrawn as he does not have a spare keel.

 

[MattScott]

This is so awesome!

 

[MattScott]

I believe I can fly.

I believe I can touch the sky.