New Transat Race SBH -> Port La Forêt Departs Sunday

IMOCA Ocean Masters Transat St Barth-Port la Forêt

https://www.imoca.org/en/races/20-transat-st-barth---port-la-foret.htm

This is a 3400-mile single-handed race which will start in St Barth on Sunday morning (11AM local time) and finish in Port La Forêt in Brittany in about 2 weeks. The eight boats are IMOCA 60s, 18m/60' in length, and they can be seen on the quai today in Gustavia.

http://www.thedailysail.com/offshor...s-transat-st-barth-port-la-forêt-2015-preview

That is very exciting. Hope all is well weather wise all the way across!

More had initially registered for this single-handed race in Imoca 60's but it comes a few weeks after the "carnage" of the double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre from Lorient to Brazil in which 11 of the 20 Imocas (including 4 of 5 new generation foiling Imocas) that started were forced to abandon (envelope pushing, learning curves etc.). Of the 7 that will leave from St Barth, 3 were Jacques Vabre finishers (highest was 4th), 3 abandoned and 1 did not participate. Unfortunately for those on island, the organizers cancelled a round the island race to allow teams to continue to prepare the boats and to avoid the risk of boats being damaged in a way that would delay their departure. It was a highlight when the race was sailed as the "B to B" (Back to Brittany) from St Barth to Le Havre in 2011.

The Edmond de Rothschild, one of the new generation foilers that abandoned the Jacques Vabre, is an entry from the racing team of a family with an obvious St Barth history. One of their other boats is a foiling version of a MOD70 trimaran (i.e., adding foils to the Phaedo3 design that dominated Les Voiles). Their Gitana Fleet (St Barth connection there) can be found on the team website.

For anyone interested in the difficulties and challenges of the foiling Imoca 60's, the NYT had this article: New Yacht Technology Off to a Rough Start.

Phaedo 3 just won line honors at the RORC Transatlantic from Lanzarote to Grenada in under six days. If only Columbus had such technology. They edged out another MOD 70 by 2 hours.



http://www.sail-world.com/2015-RORC-Transatlantic-Race---Line-Honours-for-Phaedo3/140600

JoshA said:

Phaedo 3 just won line honors at the RORC Transatlantic from Lanzarote to Grenada in under six days. If only Columbus had such technology. They edged out another MOD 70 by 2 hours

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Ms Barbados (Concise 10), the second place MOD70, is a British team boat sponsored by Barbados that will be based in Bridgetown for this year's Caribbean racing series - could make for an interesting challenge in Les Voiles 2016. Not too early to start booking your charter entry and training.

Phaedo 3 is owned by an American who winters in Saint Barth... our embedded sports reporter had a chance to check her out last year during Les Voiles, when she also won her class and set all kinds of speed records.. a mean machine!

So where would someone (me) be best positioned to watch the start of the race?

Sea level?
Up at the lighthouse?
Somewhere else?

All that I know about the starting line is that it will be 300m off shore. Nothing that I've read gives any more specific information. If I were there I might take a look from Espace Meteo, next to the lighthouse, an hour or two before the start to see what I could see.

Like a dummy, I managed to leave both my binoculars and big camera home so all theses shots are from le phone. They don't look too terrible on the small screen but I haven't seen them on a full size monitor so forgive me if they are blurry.

Only 3399 miles to go as the seagull flies.

Does "single-handed" mean there's only one person on board?

Yes, one person only, in a 60-foot boat. This is a qualifying event for next year's Vendee Globe, which is a single-handed around-the-world race.

One entry remained in port yesterday afternoon with engine issues. Each boat is required to have an auxiliary engine for safety purposes, as well as a minimum amount of fuel.

Amazing. So do they just set the sails at night and hope for the best or are they (he) getting up every couple hours to check on things?

Nobody is getting a full night's sleep on these boats. Depending on conditions, they may be up all night long, or up and down. I don't know exactly how the IMOCA 60s are equipped, or what's allowed in that class, but I do know that they use autopilot technology.

http://www.thedailysail.com/offshore/12/63553/1/vendee-globe-autopilots

Bart -my real name- said:

Amazing. So do they just set the sails at night and hope for the best or are they (he) getting up every couple hours to check on things?

Click to expand...

Catnaps spaced over the day and night (aka polyphasic sleep)... generally 4-6 hours total in 24 hours - preference varies with some better with very short naps others with an hour or so...

Another issue that comes up is the apparent conflict with Colregs rules of maintaining a "proper look out by sight as well as hearing" at all times.

Electronics have made it a bit easier on many fronts for the Vendée Globe sailors than it was for Robin Knox-Johnston when he completed the first single-handed non-stop solo circumnavigation in 1969 - he did a solo transat (Route du Rhum) at age 75 in 2014.

Here's some video of the boats, the captains, and a bit of sailing"

[video=youtube;PcDpHniVzgE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=PcDpHniVzgE[/video]

After 7 days, they're spread out over 700 miles.

Paul Meilhat (with Gwénolé Gahinet) won the 2014 Transat AG2R La Mondiale that finished in St Barth... Morgan Lagravière (with Arnaud Jarlegan) won the 2014 Cata Cup... both are rising stars among the long list of outstanding French sailors... Meilhat is 33 y/o... Lagravière, 28 y/o, should be the youngest sailor in the 2016 Vendée Globe...

It's rough out there. Weather has deteriorated, and some boats are experiencing 50knot winds and 26-foot seas. Edmond de Rothschild (Sébastien Josse) has a 500-mile lead.

Paul Meilhat on SMA has been seriously injured (ribs, hip, right leg) and has called for assistance. A Portugese naval patrol boat was reported to be standing by, and he was awaiting an airlift this morning. https://www.imoca.org/en/news/1332-...an-airlift-by-helicopter-tomorrow-morning.htm


Other boats have reported delaminated sails, keel problems, autopilot problems, and a shredded rudder. https://www.imoca.org/en/news/1331-transat-st-barth-port-la-foret-60s-battered-by-gales.htm

Meilhat was evacuated off of SMA by the Portugese Navy, and picked up by a rescue helicopter. He is in the hospital, with a broken pelvis and broken ribs.