November 15

The Vendee Globe Web Site – Two Thumbs Up

Racing

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I am spending a lot of time on the Vendee Globe Web site. I think it's one of the best race sites ever. It's well-designed, easy to navigate and full of short, well-written info about the race and the racers. It's got photos, videos, a virtual race tracker and of course the latest virtual race game. Yes you too can get the feel of what it's like to blast through the Southern Oceans at 15 kts in a 50kt gale. Riiiiggggght! I started subscribing to he news feed by adding it to my iGoogle which I use as my home page. Every time I open up my browser, the latest news is right there. A lot of the sailing news feeds are a bit boring or read like they have written by a PR hack. With the Vendee Globe feed you get short, pithy updates from the racers. They really give you a sense of what's happening in the race and what the racers are facing. Here's one from today from Dominique Wavre on Temenos.
Fine night, choppy to begin with, but steady trade wind with a moon lighting the way. Broad reaching with automatic pilot and big gennaker.  I start to snooze, keeping one eye on the dials, as frequently surfing at 20-22 knots, and heeling over occasionally.  All of a sudden the pilot alarm went off.  I rushed outside and saw we were broaching.  I leapt to the helm without my foul weather gear on, with tons of water crashing down.  We were under gennaker (300 m2), staysail and mainsail and heeled over at 50°. I turned the alarm off and bore away and to my surprise, Temenos righted herself.  We were still sailing quickly and the leeward rudder stayed in the water.  Got the boat back on track and put the pilot back on and it seemed to work....Hurried back inside to start up the engine to charge the batteries, as sometimes the problem can be electrical (I'm a bit wary after the problem at the start).  I stayed up for a couple of hours and all seems well.  Waiting to see whether pushing the boat so hard has paid off and whether I've narrowed the gap."
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