Vendee Globe 2008/09

NewsNovember 06. 2008
Britain fields a record seven entrants in the 30 boat Vendée Globe field from.
Mike Golding is the only skipper of the magnificent seven to have finished twice, third in 2005.
Alex Thomson started in 2004 and had to retire.

Of the seven boats, no fewer than five of the 18 new builds are new for this Vendée Globe cycle: ECOVER 3, AVIVA, Artemis, Bahrain Team Pindar, and Hugo Boss, not including the British owned BT.

Mike Golding was asked at his press conference today what he considered to be his influence in the growth of the British Open 60 fleet, and, more crucially if he thought this edition would see a British winner?

“ I think we played some part in it, both in terms of providing some continuity of the IMOCA 60 Class in the UK, and of the six who are here I have a pretty strong connection to most of them. I have sailed with Brian on the Transat Jacques Vabre, Jonny Malbon used to work with me, Dee Caffari used to work with me many years ago. Alex and I have known each other for many years, so I’d like to think I have played an influence and now the seven of us are making an even bigger influence that I hope will inspire more to come.” Said Golding, “ I think this is a very difficult year to sit here with some many good boats and say this person or that person is going to be the winner. It is fun for the bookmakers and the sweepstakes. I think it is possible in particular, other than ourselves, you’d have to look at Brian and Alex as both potential winners. Alex because he is very fast. If he can keep going and not break he will be fast. Brian because we know him to be a very talented sailor. We know his skills and with a boat with unknown potential, that is a real dark horse.

The British design team Owen Clark contribute four designs to the fold, twins AVIVA and ECOVER 3, Temenos and Algimouss Spirit of Canada. Merf Owen, of the partnership explains:
“I think all our boats are in good shape actually, I got to see all of them within the last two weeks and they are all in excellent shape. I think the reality is that the push for Derek Hatfield has been to just get to the start, I think the story with Derek is very much that he has been short of money and that usually means short on time.
“ With Dominic we discussed stuff and we have had plenty of time with him and he knows the boat really well, he has a platform which has sailed more than 30,000 miles on so he is in good shape. Mike has had more of a battle than Dee but his boat has proven reliable the last six months, since he has been back in the water. The obvious changes are there is a carbon fin now to replace the steel fin. The boat was always going to have a second fin but instead of putting a steel fin he has had a second carbon fin, the same as Dominic’s. Mike’ s investment in the race has been in the R&D and he has got what is the quicker boat.”

“ Dominic’s investment has been to get on the water early and to get to know the boat better. That is the two difference between the two boats – Dominic’s and Mike’s – and Dee’s boat has gained from the knowledge of the two boat alliance. They have both gained in the two boat testing. That has helped them accelerate the learning process and their knowledge of their boats.”

“ AVIVA and Ecover 3 are both better than my best thoughts. Look at what Mike did in the TJV, literally that was the sixth time he was off the dock in the TJV and he lead for more than half the race. He lost it in the Doldrums. Litereally six times off the dock from the point the boat was launched. So the boats, AVIVA and Ecover 3 have huge potential and Dominic’s boat is not that far behind. He has done a lot of work on the boat, it is lighter than when it was launched, it has had some more money spent on it. The thing with Dominic’s boat is that he did not have that much money in the pot to start with, but he has been able to add money to that pot as he has gone on. The sails are more developed, he has had a new rig and a new keel, the boat is a quicker boat than it was in the Barcelona World Race. All in all I am pretty happy where we are, given that this is the Vendée Globe, and as a designer I could not really be much happier….unless we had another three boats in the race!”

“ You always want more time. Dominic is not saying that, maybe he would have gone for a later generation boat but the reality is this is the Vendée Globe and so I more time would have been more beneficial. Another three months, if we could have started earlier, if the funding would have been available earlier we would have been three months better off.”

“ We actually started the programme (Ecover) only about a month later than we started the Ecover 2 project, but you have to imagine also that Mike’s old boat is a perfectly fast boat, and so making the choice to have a new boat wasn’t cut and dried. Ecover 2 with a few tweaks like we have done with the Dominic’s boat would absolutely be a player for this race.”

He considers the ECOVER 3/AVIVA pair are good allround boats:
“ They are polyvalents. They are reaching boats from the old Ecover 2. And good upwind, and faster running boats as well. I guess the driver has been to make a more powerful boat, but with a lot less drag in the hydrodynamic and aerodynamic areas. So it wasn’t just a case of putting a big engine in the boat. We tried to put a powerful engine in the boat and reduce the drag.”

“The interceptors reduce hull drag by more than ten per cent. And we have done a lot of work on foils, fin and the rig, so the reduction in drag is a lot.

I think it is still the view of us as designers that you go fast down the Atlantic to get the westerlies early, you survive the south, and you are there or thereabouts at Cape Horn, and you win the race on the way home. Upwind, so the boat has to be in good nick at Cape Horn and the you have to be up one of the leaders, and the race starts at Cape Horn.

And with 30 boats I still think that will be the same. AVIVA and ECOVER are still down at the 8.2 to 8.3 tonnes mark so they are still among the lightest boats, but they are very powerful boats.”

His opinions on the ‘big boat’ challenges, Bahrain Team Pindar and Artemis?
“The big boat was offered to Mike. We called it the Nuclear Option because thought it would get banned, and you would end up with a boat you could do one race with. And we turned away from that and we went for reliability and an increase in power, but not too much.”
“My gut feeling is how can a boat which is X more powerful be easier to sail and as reliable. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. In reality there can be three types of boat on the podium. There is the light boat. The medium weight medium power or the high power boats. But if you speak with the sailors like Alex Thomson and Mike, they will tell you that their boats are pretty much as much as they think they can handle. And the very high power boats, Pindar and Artemis, they are above what the experienced Vendée sailors reckon that they can handle. I would perhaps agree that Artemis is a ‘designer’ boat but I would say that Pindar is very much a Mike Sanderson/Juan K boat.

We will see. We will know by February. There are so many good boats, so many good players. It is the Vendée Globe. It’s the Vendée Globe. It is impossible to say.”