Our Mate Alex Thomson’s Races

[Graeme]

+1.

He should stop wasting time eyeing up the Winter 2016 Iron Heart releases, and get back to beating those Frenchies.

[Graeme]

The weather isn't great in the middle of the Atlantic right now…

[Graeme]

Alex is in the lead again, just! But with a 2.5 mile margin, I suspect that he'll lose it again.

[Giles]

Alex is doing 1.5knots at the moment, the other 2 out the front are doing 10knots.  And Alex is now in 3rd.  Looks like he has an issue…..

[Aetas]

37° and 1.3 knots sounds not promising. Hopefully only a wind problem.

[Giles]

He's actually on a completely different (and what looks like better - to me anyway) course, maybe he knows something we don't….

[Graeme]

It's really to do with the wind. When looked at the weather on the tracker earlier, it was very week.

Alex said in one of the podcasts that he got separated from the other leaders when he wiped out with the GPS failure. So now he's sailing in a different bit of the sea.

Fingers crossed that he finds some breeze.

[Aetas]

Sails can take in more wind, thus helping him to sail faster.

[Graeme]

Alex came in third, unfortunately the gods of wind weren't with him at the end.

Looks like the new Hugo Boss is very quick, he didn't break anything, and he led the race for a fair chunk of time. Good result all round.

Now onto beating the Frenchies in the Vendée.

[Giles]

Alex, if this is not a sponsor obligation I'd be very worried….

https://www.facebook.com/AlexThomsonRacing/videos/1439553842725330/

[Graeme]

An article about the new Hugo Boss. Doesn't sound like a pleasant place to spend 80 days.

http://www.yachtingworld.com/extraordinary-boats/92713-92713

[Graeme]

The Vendée Globe kicks off this weekend.

Yachting World have posted an article about Alex's boat, along with a video interview of Stewart Hosford, MD of Alex Thomson Racing.

There's also a tour of Edmond de Rothschild by Sébastien Josse. She's sort of a sistership to Hugo Boss, though Alex's boat is more radical.

[Graeme]

Sailing Anarchy walks the docks.

[Graeme]

Vendée Globe start now live.

Alex has "massive support in Gosport" according to the commentator. (Dee Caffari?)

[Giles]

Er, well he would, he lives here…...

[Graeme]

I know, I'm just amused by Gosvegas featuring in the commentary of a major sporting event.

Dee also said that she wasn't initially too confident for Alex's chances, but all the French are scared of him, so she thinks that he might be in the running.

[Giles]

I am sure that if Alex's boat holds up, he will cream this race. I know the boat is seriously fast, he started building it so late, that it is like a 0.5 rev further ahead than the French.  But is is fragile, he's broken in badly once already and is not 100% sure why it broke, so he has just added a shit load of strengthening up the front…...If he keeps this together, I predict a 7 day  or better circumnavigation.....

[Giles]

@Graeme:

I know, I'm just amused by Gosvegas featuring in the commentary of a major sporting event.

Dee's team used to be based about 70 yards from our house, so she's a little pro Gozza, I did tell her once, when I had had a few, that I wanted her babies, that probably put her off…

[Graeme]

I think that there's always an element of the unknown with structural loads on the IMOCAs. There have been a spate of keels falling off in recent years, and the foilers are at a bottom of a learning curve. Maybe Riou's decision to stick with a conventional design will prove to be smart.

If the boats get a sub seventy day circumnavigation, then that will be really impressive. Ellen MacArthur's record in 2005 was 71 days on board a larger trimaran. (For non-sailors, trimarans are faster than monohulls, and boat speed is proportional to length.)

Should be a good race to follow. I'm looking forward to seeing how the foilers go.

Incidentally, this was one of the spectators at the start, and described as James Bond's boat. It's pretty cool.

[Graeme]

Alex is currently in the lead of the race.