Our Mate Alex Thomson’s Races
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His earlier update (when he was still in 2nd)…
Holding on to second place, is Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) who said that. 'If I don’t have any more slow patches tonight I may hold on to second place for much of today but at some point I will relinquish that position to Virbac and then another to Macif. There is nothing I can do, the cards have been dealt and although I knew this when I climbed into the second place I have now got used to it and don’t want to give it up!'
He explained in his latest update that his saving grace over the last few days has been the wind angle. 'I have been sailing much tighter wind angles than the guys to the west which in the lighter winds has meant I have been able to get the best possible speed from the boat for that wind angle. Hugo Boss is also performing well and exceeding the polars (best theoretical speeds) all of the time. This is helped by the flat water and maybe by the long ocean swell which is coming at us from the south west.'
Alex wrote that in a little under two days a weather front will cross the fleet and the wind will go from the north to the south west. The fleet will gybe and continue to the ice gate and be followed by a ridge of high pressure which will probably slow them all down. He is not expecting it to last too long and is expecting the fleet to pass the ice gate of Aiguilles on the morning of the 2nd Dec.
The race routing will follow great circle to the next ice gate. There have been reports of an ice berg 500 miles south east of the first ice gate. The skippers will not be want to see their frozen enemy ice.
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It's getting hairy down there….
_Fleet News
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The southern group eats up the miles
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The elastic stretches between the front eight and the pack at the back
Breaking News
Yesterday, between 11am GMT Thursday 29th to 11am GMT Friday 30th November François Gabart (MACIF), travelled from point to point, 482.91 miles in twenty-four hours, averaging speeds of 20.1 knots. This breaks the record held previously by Alex Thomson in 2003. Confirmation of the record is subject to the WSSRC validation.
Fleet News
The fleet is hurtling along at break neck speeds on the super highway of the Roaring Forties. François Gabart (MACIF) and Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac Paprec 3) have both almost made top speeds of twenty knots in twenty-four hours, according to 3pm GMT rankings. There is talk on the racetrack of more surprises yet to be revealed. The front group of eight rushes headlong towards the first crossing point at the Gate of Aiguilles on the frozen road of the Indian Ocean. The shorts and sunglasses have been packed away and the boat husbandry has been done to ensure the skippers are as ready as they can be to enter the icy south._
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“It got light at 3am this morning and it was great to see some blue sky and the see the sun rising. Right now I have 15 knots of wind from the SW, due to go round to the west and increase this afternoon. The sea is pretty bumpy and little confused but nowhere near as bad as yesterday. With the bumps and the heel yesterday it was very difficult to type a tweet let alone write an update, but I tried my best!
At the moment, the rich are getting richer, the guys ahead are extending as I am from the guys behind. Once we all get into the same weather we will go the same speed until the 7th when the leaders and I will run into a high pressure, slow up and the fleet will compress again. It is like we are attached by a piece of bungy!
All good onboard apart from my hydro again. I got the damaged one working in the end and now it is the port hydro that is giving me grief. I am getting pretty annoyed with it now and will take the opportunity of a slight slow down today to get it working again properly. Last night I had to charge using the main engine and used up more of precious fuel onboard, there was a benefit in that the cabin was warm all night!
You can follow me on twitter @alexthomson99 for regular updates throughout the day.”
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Captains Log.
"I was surrounded by black clouds for much of the night with wind from 10 knots to 30 and varying in direction by up to 50 degrees. I thought i would have lost some miles but it seems that I had better wind still than those to the north and those to the east of me. Wind is back up to 25-30 knots and the boat is moving around violently in big uneven waves.
Last night the wind direction indicator on the anemometer at the top of the mast broke and the boat Chinese gybed, fortunately I was not in a 30 knot gust and I was awake so I was able to sort the situation quickly and without breaking anything.
I would like to start working again on the hydro generator but it is impossible to stand up at present let alone wield a screw driver
It is a very stressful environment onboard and although I am happy the speed is up I will be happy when things will calm down a little.
You can follow me on twitter @alexthomson99 for regular updates throughout the day.”
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Captains Log:
The conditions are much better on board this morning than yesterday, I’m really relieved to be clear of the ice zone which I have been in for the past couple of days, it’s very stressful knowing there are icebergs in the vicinity. After gybing North yesterday and passing the areas of ice I was able to get a couple hours sleep last night, which was good.
After a hairy couple of days with really big gusts and strong winds, it has calmed down a lot now and the breeze is down considerably this morning. I just hope that it holds out long enough for me to get to the Eastern end of the ice gate. The calmer weather will allow me to get back to work on my hydro generator which is still causing me problems. It’s starting to feel as though they are going to plague me all the way around the world, so I hope this lull in the weather today will give me a chance to get it sorted once and for all!
Being this far south it’s definitely starting to get cold on-board, for the first time last night I had to get out the heavy duty sleeping bag.
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Captains Log…
It's day 28 and I can hardly believe it’s been 4 weeks at sea already! I passed the Crozet ice gate in the early hours of this morning so I am on my way south again, it’s much warmer now, really quite pleasant. I had a good night, with the wind up and down between about 7 and 14 knots for most of it. I’m hoping the wind doesn’t get too much lighter and that we can start to pick up our speeds again, I’ll be gybing again soon to pick up a more easterly route towards the next ice gate.
After all of my hydro issues recently I’m really pleased to report that it worked for most of yesterday after finding a possible loose connection which we think may have been the cause of all the recent problems. This is really great news and a relief to me and the team back home as it was becoming very tiresome looking for solutions. This problem was separate to the breakage earlier in the race so keep your fingers crossed that I’m done with my hydro issues now!
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Hugo Boss hits object, Thomson makes rudder repair
Thomson holds fifth place, 160 miles behind the leader Francois Gabart this morning, and is back making 18-19 kts after 24 hours of enforced slow down whilst he effected the rudder repairs. He reports that he is now down to one working hydrogenrator – a primary source for generating electrical power.
Racing an older generation design Thomson has earned enormous respect for his ability to stay in the leading pack of newer IMOCA Open 60’s throughout the first month of racing. On Saturday he was lying in third place
Thomson reported this morning:
"Night before last (December 9th) at 2220 GMT I hit something in the water while travelling at 22 knots. I was at the navigation table at the time and was sailing on port gybe with solent/J2 and 2 reefs in the mainsail in 28 knots of wind. I heard a loud bang forward of where I was which i think must have been something hitting either the keel or the daggerboard. I heard a series of softer bangs as whatever I hit bumped along under the hull and a final big bang as it hit the rudder and hydro generator.By the time I got to the companionway hatch the rudder was in the air and the hydro generator was dragging in the water. The boat broached and went head to wind. I immediately rolled the J2 away and stopped the boat in a big sea.
On inspection the starboard rudder fuse had broken and the rudder had lifted with minor damage. The hydro generator blade was damaged and one of brackets was in pieces and eventually lost overboard. The rudder tie bar (the previously unbroken one) was also smashed in 3 pieces.
I set to work swapping tie bars to get the leeward rudder operational so I could steer safely in the right direction. The waves were very big and were coming up and over the transom and mainsheet traveller and were hitting the rudder blade while lifted. Both rudder cassettes sustained some damage while doing this and it was pretty dangerous hanging off the transom while being completely submerged by the waves.
Eventually I got the working rudder connected and started sailing again with the port rudder in the air. I contacted the team and started affecting a repair to the tie bar. I have been unable to sail at 100% while managing this repair. The repair has been done in a similar way to the previous tie bar but it has been more difficult and time consuming as the breaks were not clean and the conditions to affect a repair less forgiving. I will not be able to repair the cassette damage until it is dry on deck but the team feel that these repairs are not critical right now
I expect to have both rudders working bythis morning.
I lifted the starboard daggerboard as far as possible and can see no damage. The keel fin on this boat is made from solid steel so any damagethere should be cosmetic. It is impossible to inspect the outside of the hull between the daggerboard and the rudder but the inner skin looks fine.
I am gutted to have lost so many miles but fortunate that the known damage is repairable and that i am able to continue on my way.
Longer term I am now down to only one hydro generator which means in the current conditions I will have to shuteverything down into power saving mode and work hard to save power to be able to make the finish. This literally means everything off, computer, phone, GPS, etc otherwise I have no chance of making the finish.
Last night at 2030 GMT I was asleep when the pilot alarm went off. The boat was completely flat and I rushed on deck as the boat tacked. I rolled the J2 immediately and then found the working rudder had lifted and was in the air. I checked the blade for damage and all looks ok this time so I replaced the fuse and set it back down again, tacked the boat back again and got back on my way. More miles lost but again not terminal. I have had the working rudder kick up three times all year so It seems a little harsh to hit something twice in almost 1 day but I am thankful that the fuse is doing its job and the rudder is staying in one piece.
I really hope I don’t get dropped off the back of this lead group with these setbacks,"
His team comment: “ The hydro generators are the primary power supply on board and with only one of them working Alex now has to conserve his power by limiting the use of electronics on board. This will unfortunately mean a reduction in his communications, including communication with family back at home. The remaining hydro is working but only usable on one tack and will charge the batteries when the conditions allow, but it will restrict the amount of power available.”
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Crazy to read all that. I mean it must take a lot of experience and ingenuity to provide maintenance and repairs for all that equipment and just keep on truckin.
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Glad to hear that Alex is back in the game. A smashed rudder could have put him out of contention, or the race.
As for repairs, he's a complete amateur. Yves Parlier is the man when it comes to patching things up…
http://articles.cnn.com/2002-03-13/world/parlier.ppl_1_mast-vendee-globe-survival-story
