Our Mate Alex Thomson’s Races
-
Hugo Boss is safe.
And the latest press release.
_Alex Thomson Racing are determined to succeed
2nd November 2015 – British sailor Alex Thomson and his co-skipper Guillermo Altadill are looking towards the 2016 Vendee Globe after an extraordinary sequence of events ended their participation in the Transat Jacques Vabre this weekend. The pair were rescued by the Spanish coastguard on Saturday afternoon after a rogue wave caught the new HUGO BOSS while the yacht was in a hove to position. The boat, which sustained damage to its rig in addition to taking on water while inverted, was later successfully brought to the dock in A Coruna, Spain, after a swift response from the Alex Thomson Racing Team.
The weather conditions in the first few days saw wind speeds in excess of 50 knots (75 km/h) and waves up to 10 metres high. Alex and Guillermo made the decision to take the safest route, passing the weather system to the south. Whilst travelling south west the yacht incurred some structural damage and the skippers took the decision to head for A Coruna, Spain 120 miles away.
The yacht was hove to, whilst Alex and Guillermo waited for the next weather window allowing them to proceed to port. Unexpectedly a rogue wave caught the racing yacht causing the yacht to turn upside down. Alex and Guillermo managed to close the hatches and secure the situation whilst inverted. Alex immediately hit the keel button, bringing the yacht back upright. They then alerted the rescue services and technical team of an emergency situation. The yacht had taken onboard a substantial amount of water and the rig had sustained damage requiring the skippers to leave the yacht.
Alex Thomson explains “I have never experienced anything like it. I was asleep and woke up to a boat upside down rapidly filling with water. Guillermo and I responded together as a team to the difficult situation and now that my boat’s back safely we can focus on our Vendee Globe campaign as a team. We have overcome problems before and I am as determined as ever to succeed.”
Always at the forefront of innovation, the team are pushing the boundaries with an advanced new boat design and know that race conditions provide the ultimate test.
Alex and Guillermo were aiming for a podium finish in the Transat Jacques Vabre, and remain determined to succeed in the Vendee Globe. They will now focus their energy on further improving the yacht and honing its competitive edge.CEO of Alex Thomson Racing, Stewart Hosford, explained; “We are delighted to have the boat back on the dock and I am grateful to all of our team and the coastguard for their hard work and support. The team will now be working hard to assess and resolve the issues as quickly as possible so that we can resume our training programme. We are as determined as ever to get the boat back sailing and in race condition and continue to focus on the Vendee Globe.”_
-
There are some photos of Hugo Boss in La Coruña on the Sailing Anarchy forums. She looks in decent shape from the outside, barring the missing mast.
Sailing Anarchy are scheduled to do an interview with Alex at around 16:00 GMT today, and it'll no doubt be posted a few hours later.
In the meantime Alex is talking to his insurers…
-
Downloading to watch on the plane.
I don't know what he says here, but I have talked to Alex about the IMOCA Open 60 design and the way it has been going. It is so very fragile. There are great tracts of the hulls of the current generation that you can't stand on (else you will go though the carbon fibre). Alex thinks that this is utterly stupid and has been calling for change, but to remain competitive, he had to build the latest boast to the existing regs (or thought he did….....) Perhaps he should have stuck with the older generation and watch everyone else retire though breakage....
-
Sound quality aside, it's an interesting interview. Alex is a great storyteller.
I'm really surprised how fragile the boats are getting. The ORMA trimaran class imploded after the fleet was wiped out in a couple of races, ironically one of which was the Transat Jacques Vabre, because they were unseaworthy. The IMOCAs could be heading in the same direction.
Bear in mind that the previous generation boats were even lighter. PRB is about 6.9 tonnes, versus 7.5 tonnes for the new designs. Alex would probably be best reusing the boat from his last Vendee…
Nigel Irens, who designed B&Q Castorama for Ellen MacArthur, believed a heavier, cheaper, and slightly less high-tech solution was safer. It worked out for Ellen, along with Francis Joyon, who still holds the solo round the world record.
-
Three months later and Black Is Just About Back.
-
I believe that Alex has been working with Hugh Welbourne, who developed the Dynamic Stability System foils, so I've got a rough idea where this is headed.
Let's just hope that he doesn't break the boat again in the next ten months…
-
Bring it home this time Alex….(The cup as well as the boat).....
-
Just looking at the Vendée Globe entrants, and noticed Alex's number.
-
Come on, keep it up and don't break the bloody thing….
-
Alex is still in the lead.
Jérémie Beyou is slightly behind him, by 2.8 miles. This is impressive because his boat, Maître Coq, is of the previous generation. I think that she's been upgraded with foils.
Sébastien Josse, on Edmond de Rothschild, is also in the chase, and trails Alex by 10.8 miles. He's following Beyou, though. The boat, which is occasionally referred to as Gitana (the team's name), is one of the latest generation.
Alex lost a lot of miles yesterday because his autopilot disengaged at 28 knots, and forced the boat into an emergency crash tack! There's a video on his Facebook page with all the details, but the short version is that a GPS failed, and caused the system to go down. Thankfully nothing was damaged, except his lead.
-
You can follow Alex's progress here. He's now lost the lead….
