Our Mate Alex Thomson’s Races
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The new Boss is getting a lot of attention for her paintwork. There's a piece at Dezeen about the design. It includes this deckplan that gives you an idea of the shape and beam - she's 60' / 18.3 metres long, and about 19' / 5.9 metres wide.
Alex always has the best looking boats, and this is no exception. The design is pretty radical, particularly around the bow section, and he's kept very quiet about the foils so far.
Apparently she's been out sailing, but no footage so far.
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Reminds me of this Zaphod Beeblebox quote:
"It's the weird colour scheme that freaks me. Every time you try to operate one of these weird black controls, which are labeled in black on a black background, a small black light lights up black to let you know you've done it. Hey, what is this, some kind of galactic hyper-hearse?"
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Here's an interview with Alex and Nandor Fa about the new boat.
http://spiritofhungary.hu/skipperek-egymas-kozott-alex-thomson-es-fa-nandor-beszelgetese-tjv2015/
Click through the link, and press play on the control.
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Alex is somewhere in the Atlantic racing in the Transat Jacques Vabre with Guillermo Altadill.
At the time of writing, he's sitting in ninth, about 95 miles behind the leaders, with 4700 miles to go.
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And he's out.
From the ATR Facebook page:
_After several hours at sea Alex Thomson and Guillermo Altadill onboard HUGO BOSS made the difficult decision to return ashore. After attempting to address the issue onboard it has not been possible to ensure a sufficient repair whilst at sea to withstand an Atlantic crossing. Alex and Guillermo have made a suitable repair to get to the nearest port where they can analyse the situation. The current sea state and weather forecast have not aided the situation onboard.
The technical team are currently enroute to Vigo, Spain, where the boat will be repaired and hope to be back racing shortly.
Technical Director Ross Daniel explains; 'It is disappointing that the current sea state and approaching weather system have forced us to return to land to make the repair. But it is early days in our training programme as we understand the new boat and work towards the start of the Vendee Globe 2016. We will do everything we can to try and return to the Transat Jacques Vabre as soon as possible.'_
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And even more bad news…
_Alex Thomson and Guillermo Altadill are now back on land after a successful rescue from the Spanish coast guard this afternoon. The Alex Thomson Racing Team is now heading back out to sea to bring HUGO BOSS safely ashore.
The skippers had made a second repair and were hove to (this is where the yacht is stationary and comfortably sits head to wind). The reason for slowing the racing yacht was to prevent any unnecessary damage. Whilst waiting for the weather to clear a rogue wave caught HUGO BOSS 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 IMOCA 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 ‘It was an incredibly unusual event and we need to understand why it happened. It was a rogue wave, but we should not have inverted the way that we did. I am now going to go with the technical team and ensure a successful recovery of our new racing yacht.’_
