Ronnie Simpson—brimmed hat ­backward, eyes forward, a light touch on the tiller extension of his borrowed Open 50 Sparrow—is in his element. It’s a radiant September day with a pumping south­westerly raking Rhode Island Sound, and I’ve joined a pickup crew for a shakedown sail aboard the spartan 50-footer that he is just starting to get a feel for. “Learning,” he says repeatedly. “That’s what we’re doing here today. Learning.”

Sparrow is the latest handle for the well-traveled 50-footer, which began life as Newcastle Australia when Aussie Alan Nebauer commissioned it for the 1994‑95 BOC Challenge; it was rechristened Balance Bar after American Brad Van Liew took it for a second around-the-world spin in the Around Alone race four years later; it became Pegasus when tech mogul and sailing enthusiast Philippe Kahn took command shortly thereafter; and, ultimately, it was dubbed Sparrow after Simpson’s friend Whitall Stokes acquired it. Stokes still owns it, but he has basically given the keys to Simpson; the pair met while competing in the 2012 edition of the Singlehanded Transpac Race from San Francisco to Hawaii.

With Stokes’ blessing, Simpson has launched a bid to race Sparrow in the upcoming Global Solo Challenge, an eclectic, nonstop, singlehanded around-the-world contest scheduled to begin from A Coruña, Spain, in September 2023. For Simpson, however, racing in the GSC is hardly the point of the exercise—far from it. No, he is very clear this is a steppingstone to a much larger goal: to fulfill his longtime dream of nailing significant sponsorship for a full-on Vendée Globe campaign on a competitive IMOCA 60.

“If I’m being honest, I’m in way over my head financially,” Simpson tells me before we set sail. “I’m rolling the dice in a really huge manner. If doing (the GSC) on an Open 50 was the endgame, I probably wouldn’t be here. I consider this my shot for the Vendée. I don’t know why I’m so driven to do that race, but I wake up every day and I want to do it, and I go to sleep every night and I want to do it.”

Sparrow has a long and well-traveled history, but it pales to Simpson’s personal odyssey. Now 37, he has sailed more than 130,000 nautical miles and worked professionally as a racing sailor, delivery captain, charter captain, sailboat rigger and race-boat preparateur. Which is saying something, since he admits, “I never sailed a boat a day in my life until I was 23.” Which may never have happened had he not joined the Marine Corps and been nearly blown to bits in the Iraq War.

Which, indirectly, is how and why I met the man. A talented writer, long after his service he began submitting sailing articles to the magazine I was then working for, Cruising World, and I became his editor. His early submissions were pretty straightforward voyaging yarns, but his first major feature was a blockbuster, flagged on the publication’s November 2015 cover with this title: “From Fallujah to Fiji: An Iraq Veteran’s Odyssey of Redemption.”

A summary: Caught up in the patriotic fervor following 9/11, nine days after graduating from high school in Atlanta, Georgia, Simpson enlisted in the Corps, and on June 30, 2004, he was riding in a Humvee outside Fallujah when it came under heavy fire and a rocket-propelled grenade detonated just yards away. Simpson sustained major impact injuries to his body, brain and eyes, and inhaled enough of the explosion’s rapidly expanding gas to shred his left lung. He was put into a medically induced coma and woke up 18 days later—in San Antonio, Texas. He spent the next three years there, more or less recovering, but also feeling aimless and “unfulfilled.”

“I was rolling the dice in ways they should not be rolled,” he wrote. “Then one night, I discovered sailing on the internet. Within 90 days, I’d dropped out of college, quit my job, sold my house and, for $30,000, bought a 41-foot bluewater cruising boat in San Diego and moved aboard. I’d never before set foot on a sailboat, but I was resolved to sail around the world.”

In October 2008, he set forth by ­himself, bound for Hawaii. A little over a week later, he was rolled by Hurricane Norbert. He abandoned the boat and was picked up by a freighter that deposited him in the Chinese port of Shanghai. (“Twenty-one days across the Pacific!” he said.) He was out a boat, but he was also outward-bound on a cleansing adventure, which continued over the next seven months on a 9,000-mile bike trip through nine countries in Southeast Asia. For much of it, all he thought about was the Vendée Globe.

In August 2009, he flew back to California with $500 in his pocket and a single obsession in his mind: to race across oceans alone.

For $1,000, Simpson found a Cal 25 for the 2010 Singlehanded Transpac. Fatefully, a Vietnam veteran named Don Gray, who ran a nonprofit for wounded vets called Hope for the Warriors, offered him the use of his Mount Gay 30 for the race, which Simpson gratefully accepted. A repeat arrangement on a second boat called Warrior’s Wish, this time a Moore 24, was procured for the 2012 race (where he met Sparrow’s Stokes, then sailing a Tartan 10), aboard which Simpson won his class by a mere 90 minutes.

Next, he wrangled a writing assignment to cover that year’s start of the Vendée, and afterward traveled to Switzerland in hopes of making contacts to at least score a used Open 60 for the event’s next running. But he realized for the time being that raising the funds was a bridge too far, and he was itching to keep sailing. Returning to Hawaii, he landed a gig delivering a cruising boat back to the mainland, and then plonked down four of the five grand for a Cal 2-27 he found in Seattle that he named Mongo. He slapped on a solar panel and wind vane, and pointed the engineless 27-footer into the Pacific.

On his approach to Fiji in that summer of 2014, he notched an important anniversary. Precisely 10 years earlier, he had nearly lost his life in the desert. From Fallujah to Fiji indeed.

For the next several years, Simpson used both Fiji and Hawaii as bases of operation, surfing as much as possible. He upgraded his ride to a Peterson 34 called Quiver and continued to cruise the Pacific. Using the GI Bill, he earned his undergraduate degree in multimedia from Hawaii Pacific University. He handled press duties for events like the Pacific Cup and Transpac, and continued delivering yachts and racing offshore. Most importantly, he launched a business in Fiji running day charters and offering other watersports for the tourist set, which looked like a long-term plan for funding a Vendée campaign.

Until COVID-19 hit, and that scheme came to a sudden, crashing halt.

Simpson’s one tangible asset was Quiver, which he described as “all my eggs in one basket.” There was, however, no possible way to sell it in Fiji during a pandemic, so he hopped aboard, sheeted everything home, and spent 29 days hard on the trade winds to reach Honolulu, where he sold the 34-footer for $30,000. After yet another delivery to the mainland and a stint back in Hawaii running charters and earning his captain’s ticket, he flew to Los Angeles. There, he purchased a Peterson-designed Serendipity 43 cruising boat and signed up for the Baja Ha-Ha Cruisers Rally from San Diego to Mexico. His new plan was ultimately to return to Fiji and employ his new boat to relaunch his charter business.

And then he got that fateful call from his old mate, Whitall Stokes, and everything flew out the window.

Stokes had spent a good stretch of the COVID-19 years on his own excellent solo adventure, sailing Sparrow from the Pacific to the Atlantic via Cape Horn, a 17,000-­nautical mile voyage that concluded in Portland, Maine, at the Maine Yacht Center, a boatyard well-known in shorthanded circles for its exceptional refits and maintenance work. Stokes then put the boat up for sale. But finding scant interest, he decided to see if one of his mates might be interested in campaigning it. His first call was to Ryan Finn, fresh off a record-setting trip from New York to San Francisco on his proa, but he was already involved in another project. The second call was to Simpson, who did not need to be asked twice. “I immediately just said, ‘Yeah, I’m into it,’” he said.

Hasta la vista, Ha-Ha.

Right off the bat, Simpson sold the Serendipity 43 and launched a GoFundMe page that raised nearly $15,000 in a matter of hours, money that went directly into promotion and a website (ronnie​simpson​racing.com). He sailed to Newport, where we spent that epic afternoon putting Sparrow through the ringer, and then on to Annapolis, Maryland, for the US Sailboat Show, where he again put the boat on display. He scored some important sponsorships with New England Ropes, Ronstan and Wichard. He caught a plane to Amsterdam for the gigantic Marine Equipment Trade Show, the necessary hustle now in full flight.

What’s next? On to the Caribbean for a fully crewed entry in the Caribbean 600, then a qualifying Transatlantic sail to France, and the GSC in September, a unique event with a rolling start over 11 weeks for singlehanded boats from 32 to 55 feet. Hopefully, a tremendous race result attracts the notice of a deep-pocketed sponsor wishing to back a tenacious American competitor.

“I’m going to really try making this into a professional campaign,” he tells me. “I want to take everything I’ve learned from the French professionals and try to emulate that. I’m so incredibly grateful to Whitall for giving me this opportunity. Sometimes I curse him because it’s so stressful, but I’m just joking around. I’m so grateful.”

You could certainly say, in this latest chapter of what’s already a remarkable life story, Ronnie Simpson has hit the ground running. But the truth of the matter is, from the moment he landed at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune as a raw teenage recruit, he’s never, ever stopped pounding the pavement. That is a good thing because he has now stepped off on the ultramarathon of his life.

The post Simpson Spreads Sparrow’s Wings appeared first on Sailing World.

He’s going around, again. That’s the plan at least, for Joe Harris, 60, the American solo racer who completed a 2016 solo circumnavigation record attempt onboard his Class 40 GryphonSolo2 (“What was supposed to take four months took six,” he says). For Harris, a semi-retired real estate financier and father of three, enough time has passed since he last pulled into Newport, R.I. on May 15, 2016, tired and salt encrusted, for him to seriously consider another lap of the planet.

This time around, however, Harris’ second lap will be doublehanded, as the sole American entrant (to date) in the new Globe40 Race for Class 40s. He has a year to prepare himself and his yacht before the race’s June 2021 start from Tangiers, Morocco, and as one might imagine, the to-do list is lengthy and exhaustive.

But Harris knows the drill, he has done this once before. He also knows the tug on his heart strings, of unfinished business and the allure of a competitive around-the-world race in the physically demanding Class 40. Try as he may to remain physically fit and wish to turn back the biological clock, he knows an opportunity when he sees it: this Globe40 thing is his best shot to race around the world again. “I feel lucky to have done it (a solo circumnavigation) once before,” says Harris. “I know what it requires in terms of commitment—mental, physical, financial, spiritual and family.”

Harris will partner for the race with Class 40 veteran Rob Windsor, who is highly experienced with preparing and maintaining Class 40s. GryphonSolo2 lives at the Maine Yacht Center, in Portland, Maine, where Windsor and MYC General Manager, Brian Harris, (no relation) are overseeing the boat’s refit. Last year, during a delivery from Maine to Rhode Island, the boat was struck by lightning, frying the electronics. On another outing, the headstay broke and Harris nearly lost the rig. Then, he battled with engine issues. “I was feeling kind of cursed,” Harris says, “but, in hindsight, it was as if the boat was telling me it needed an overhaul.” 

The work-list at MYC  is extensive, he says, and that should be expected of a boat with so many sea miles. Electronics are being replaced and upgraded, both keel and rudder will be removed, inspected and refurbished while the rig will be improved from tip to butt, with new spreaders and standing rigging. He’s in the process of getting a new sail wardrobe, too, working with the Italy-based startup sailmaker OneSails, through their North Atlantic based team on Long Island. The list goes on.

Harris says he originally bought his boat for the 2013 edition of the Global Ocean Race, which was ultimately cancelled, leaving a void in the Class 40 doublehanded round-the-world space, with no true global test, non-stop or otherwise. So, in 2015, Harris made his own solo, non-stop, around-the-world record attempt, and while he did not break the record of 137 days, he did complete the solo circumnavigation—with two stops—in 152 days.

Harris says he never lost his desire to race around the world against Class 40s, and last year two organizations came forward to organize races. The first, Sirius Events, led by Manfred Ramspacher, proposed the Globe40.  The second, organized by Hugh Piggin, of Manuka SEM, which created and manages the U.S. Eastern Seaboard-based Atlantic Cup, lodged a bid for a Class 40 circumnavigation race of his own, called “The Race Around.” Faced with conflicting events, the Class 40 Class Association brokered peace between the two organizations and set the Globe40 on the 2021 calendar and The Race Around for September 2023.

With that settled, Harris confirmed his intentions: “I’ve been impressed with the management and diligence of the Globe40 team in setting the course and the calendar,” he says, “with eight stopovers, twice more than the traditional four stops, the race goes to more interesting places, which to me was one of the appeals.”

The Globe40 sets off from Tangier, Morocco in June 2021, with stops in the Cape Verde Islands, Mauritius, Auckland, Tahiti, Argentina (Ushuaia), Brazil (Recife), and Grenada before finishing in Lisbon in March 2022.

According to race organizers, 16 Class 40 teams have entered the race to date. It’s a truly international cast, but with an expected majority of French entrants. “I know that some people are looking for boats, and activity is beginning to pick up again after things shut down for a few months, Harris says. “Certainly, the pandemic derailed a few campaigns, but out of the ashes have risen a few more new guys.” 

 More than 160 boats have been built to the Class 40 box rule, and while in the past there has been production runs of 20 to 30 boats built by Structures/Pogo (Finot-Conq design) and Akilaria (Marc Lombard design), newer boats are million-dollar-plus one-off design/builds. “Each one takes a leap forward,” Harris says. “The newest boats are super full in the bow and just pick up and plane very easily.”

GryphonSolo2 is Hull No. 106, and it is not really on a level playing field with the latest designs.  Depending on the ultimate composition of the 2021 Globe40 fleet, there could be a “vintage class” type of trophy for boats built before 2015. While he’d love to have a new boat come next June, Harris is funding his own campaign, so he will go with his trusted steed GryphonSolo2, lighter, faster and more reliable. “With the fixed schedule of the stops, the ramifications are that if you’re a fast boat, you get in early and have more time to repair and prepare for the next leg,” Harris says. “With a slow boat, you get in late and have a lot less time to recover.”

He says he feels much better prepared today, having completed a circumnavigation once before, with the help of Windsor and Harris. “We know what we have to do,” he says, “and we will be ready.”   

Having an older boat is not ideal, Harris says, but being well-prepared should keep them competitive.  He will have to see what the rest of the fleet looks like when the time comes and go from there. Either way, Joe’s going again, and he’s going for the win.

The post Joe Goes, Again appeared first on Sailing World.

There’s a 60-mile stretch of France’s Brittany coast, between La Trinité-sur-Mer and Port la Forêt, where something in the drinking water causes certain individuals with high concentrations of salt water in their veins to want to go to sea, alone, aboard such monstrous and radical craft. Here, too, French corporations and private individuals, apparently drinking from the same fountain, are willing to bankroll the sailors and their Ultime 100 trimarans, which have already proved capable of 850 singlehanded miles in a day. While it seems likely six new maxi-trimarans, known in France as Ultimes, could be on the Brest Oceans start line, there are at least 10 other such large multihulls in existence, designed for singlehanded round-the-world sailing, that, in theory, could compete in the race as well. Because of severe breakages and one disastrous capsize in the Ultime fleet during the 2018 Route du Rhum, Brest Oceans organizers have good reason to pause and consider the sanity of such a contest of wits and engineering, but the future of high-speed global pursuits is now, and there is no turning back.

Ultimes have the simplest of box rules, parameters intended to create boats that are vaguely similar and capable of racing without escalating costs. Length overall must fall between 24 and 32 meters. Beam must be less than 23 meters and freeboard no less than 1.4 meters. Mast height can be no more than 120 percent of the length of the longest hull. Those that meet Brest Oceans entry requirements include Thomas Coville’s Sodebo Ultim, to be launched in 2019; Francois Gabart’s solo round-the-world and 24-hour record holder MACIF; Seb Josse’s Maxi Edmond de Rothschild; Yves le Blevec’s Actual (nee-Sodebo), which launched in 2014; and, potentially, Armel Le Cléac’h’s maxi Banque Populaire IX, launched in 2017, but which broke and capsized catastrophically in the early stages of the 2018 Route du Rhum Destination Guadeloupe and whose fate, at the time of writing, remains uncertain. One other, belonging to 62-year-old Francis Joyon (winner of the 2018 Route du Rhum), is the present Jules Verne Trophy record holder (fastest nonstop round-the-world fully crewed). Joyon has said he won’t compete in Brest Oceans, but perhaps after his Route du Rhum victory he might change his mind, or his 2006-vintage IDEC Sport will be taken round by someone else.

As an indication of how far ­multihull sailing technology has evolved in the Ultime class, along with the human ability to sail such craft, consider that it was 14 years ago when Joyon surprised everyone when he managed a solo nonstop lap in 72 days. Since then, other soloists have taken large chunks from the record, especially young Vendee Globe winner Gabart, who, in 2018, shaved a week off Coville’s previous record, reducing the time to just 42 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes and 35 seconds, maintaining an average speed of 27.2 knots.

The evolution of the Ultime shows no sign of slowing either. MACIF was the first to “fly” on foils, but Banque Populaire and Maxi Edmond de Rothschild have been pushed to new limits, capable of foiling in much lower windspeeds. The latter, skippered by Volvo Ocean Race and Vendee Globe skipper Josse, is the latest in an extensive line of multihulls and IMOCA 60s funded by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild, whose boats are also called Gitana. The boat measures in as an Ultime, with a quoted displacement of 15.5 tons, an upwind sail area of 450 square meters and a ­downwind inventory of 650 square meters.

The VPLP design firm has maintained a monopoly in such large offshore multihulls recently, but Gitana is the first Ultime from the design office of Guillaume Verdier, best known ­internationally as the naval architect behind Emirates Team New Zealand’s America’s Cup designs. The new maxi trimaran had at least as many people working on it as an America’s Cup campaign (and no doubt a budget to match), which included a mix of experts from Verdier’s design office and Gitana team’s in-house designers in their magnificent purpose-built facility in Lorient, France. They also benefited by considerable input from Emirates Team New Zealand’s technical staff.

Witnessing the Ultimes lined alongside one another in St. Malo, France, before the start of the Route du Rhum, in much the same way as they will be next year in Brest, is a sight to behold. Each has acres of netting filling the spaces between the three hulls. For the size of boat, their raked wing masts look tiny and are stepped as much as two-thirds of the way back from the bow. The reason for such mast placement is balance (Gitana is designed to sail under mainsail alone), but also to counter the multihull’s Achilles’ heel — the propensity to capsize. ORMA 60 trimarans of the past were limited in length, had a beam comparable to their length and were over-canvassed. As a result, they regularly pitch-poled, tripping over the leeward bow. The modern Ultime, however, counters this tendency by having a much longer bow and less beam for the given length. Now, if it capsizes, it does so laterally, or flips as the result of a structural failure, as occurred to Banque Populaire in the Route du Rhum. A secondary advantage of having the sail plan so far aft is that it makes it more headsail-driven. Large furling headsails are easier for the singlehanded sailor to manage than taking a reef in the massive and cumbersome mainsail.

Ultimes have considerable freeboard compared to equivalent-size monohulls. Due to their being capable of sustained speeds of 40 knots and more, and because they are often sailed solo, the cockpits provide critical shelter. In what is effectively a pilothouse, an Ultime skipper can pad around the cockpit, protected from high-pressure saltwater douses and the constant gale of freezing apparent wind. Gitana‘s cabin and cockpit layout are traditional for these boats, with a large covered area of the cockpit and two wheels. Most often, the autopilot will drive the boat, allowing the sailor to access a complex array of hydraulic and sail controls that are located between the wheels. A narrow walkway past the pedestal grinder leads forward to the interior. As is the case with all new Ultimes, the cabin area is on deck for ease of access, the main hull’s interior used only for engines, generators, batteries and stowage.

These boats are already capable of insanely high speeds, and while once upon a time they used to invoke a certain pucker effect when flying the central hull, the latest boats are fitted with foils capable of simply elevating the Ultime’s 13- to 15-ton bulk clear of the water. Because of such high freeboard, the sensation of speed is barely perceivable — even at high boatspeeds. “It is like a four-wheel-drive vehicle,” Verdier says. “Even when you go 40 knots you are not really impressed or scared. That’s one reason you can go so fast.”

Gitana is significantly different from the other Ultimes in that it is a catamaran-trimaran hybrid, i.e., the platform has outboard hulls rather than floats, which are conceptually capable of sustaining greater loads, vital to preventing any movement around its foils. Gitana‘s main hull, although substantial, is now more akin to a beam used to counter fore and aft rig loads and on which to mount a central daggerboard.

The boat also has a unique crossbeam configuration. VPLP’s typical designs, like Banque Populaire, have two sets of beams oriented in an X-type configuration to counter the severe torsional loads these boats experience. Off the rear of the aft beam, a giant semicircular beam of the mainsheet track, the elliptical-shaped space between this and the aft beam form an enclosed area for the cockpit and cabin. Gitana, on the other hand, has two sets of roughly parallel crossbeams, the aft beam forming the aft side (rather than the forward side) of the cockpit, which saves the weight of a dedicated mainsheet track beam.

Trimaran crossbeams usually have complex compound curvature (so they’re high enough to minimize the slamming forces of waves) that then drops down to meet the floats. In comparison, Gitana‘s crossbeams are not like “bits of spaghetti,” Verdier says, but straighter, making them stronger and easier to build. This approach, however, does require the floats to have more freeboard to “meet” the beams. The floats have a U-section shape, so they’re efficient when Gitana isn’t flying. “If you want to make a boat that only foils, then you make it lighter with smaller foils,” says skipper Josse. “But the program of this boat is to sail it singlehanded around the world.”

While recent America’s Cup catamarans have a foil configuration that includes retracting main lifting foils and T-configuration rudders fitted with elevators, the modern Ultimes differ by having a center hull too. Most teams use a third T-rudder on the center hull, as well as a daggerboard, which is fitted with a trim tab to prevent leeway and provide lift when sailing upwind. Consequently, Ultimes perform well in upwind conditions. Gitana‘s daggerboard, in addition to having a trim tab, has an elevator at its base. Verdier says this is not intended to provide downforce, but rather to ­stabilize the boat.

“On the America’s Cup 50 catamaran you could move the wing very quickly,” Verdier says. “Because it was rigid and self-balanced, it was very easy to sheet in and out, plus you had accurate control of twist. On the Ultimes, it’s very inefficient, very hard to sheet in and out, so there is a big problem with roll stability.” The daggerboard’s elevator supposedly fixes this, making bear-away maneuvers much safer.

The primary foils on Gitana, obviously born from a wealth of America’s Cup experience, differ from Banque Populaire‘s in that when they’re lowered, they have some V-shape to them. The configuration helps make them relatively stable in terms of “heave” (i.e., up-down movement) because, while their rake (fore and aft rotation) can be adjusted, they can’t cant inboard/outboard (lateral rotation) like the foils on America’s Cup catamarans and Banque Populaire do. Cant-angle adjustment allows an L-shaped board (the flatter foil tip shape is faster when conditions allow it to be used) to develop some V. The downside of a cant mechanism, however, is the requirement for heavy hydraulics to operate it.

The significant difference between Ultime and America’s Cup-style foils is their area of operation. AC catamarans are only ever raced inshore in flat water, whereas Ultimes must operate offshore in large waves and confused seas. Consequently, Gitana is fitted with some of the longest foils ever built, Verdier says — around 8 meters long — in order to increase the foil’s draft and thereby allowing the rudder to remain immersed. “It is unknown territory,” he admits. “There is a wave height where you have to stop using the foils. When you are going upwind into 4-meter waves, for example, you should not be foiling anymore.”

RELATED: Francois Gabart Sets New Round-the-World Record

Yet, the boards must still be strong enough to support the entire weight of the boat plus dynamic loadings of around 20 tons. On Gitana, rudders are fitted with elevators to adjust the boat’s fore and aft trim. Rudders can be raised vertically in casings (rather than flip-up) like daggerboards, and have large cowlings above the deck to reduce windage around the top of the boards when hoisted. Josse says he raises the rudders to eliminate drag as well as to prevent them from hitting anything at 40 knots.

As with hull flying on nonfoiling multihulls, Josse says he doesn’t notice the moment his boat becomes airborne. There is no sudden lurch forward as it takes off. “You don’t notice you’re flying — it’s really smooth,” he says. “People expect it to be like a turbo jet, but it isn’t. It is a big boat, and when I do 35 knots it doesn’t feel fast. I have to point out to people they are doing 40 knots.”

Liftoff windspeed, he adds, is currently as low as 15 knots of wind. The art of sailing such giant boats singlehanded requires acknowledging that one will be far from 100 percent efficient. Josse knows the moments where he can push his craft to its limits are rare. Fifteen knots and flat water make it relatively easy. “I’m not good enough to foil all of the time,” he admits. “I do what I know and no more. But just doing that, I’m already at 35 knots. I push when I feel confident in my stability.” The most difficult maneuvers on board are anything involving the boat’s biggest J-0 headsail. “Unfurling it, sheeting it on and furling the J2 takes about 40 to 50 minutes,” Josse says. A tack or jibe takes around 20 minutes (it is not just the laborious process of sheeting in, but all the appendages and their rake settings must be swapped and repeated too, as well as the mast canted to weather on the new tack.

A perpetual niggling worry at high speed is, of course, a capsize. Gitana has manual sheet releases for the headsail and mainsail (Josse sleeps clutching them), but there are also electronic programmable release systems for mainsheet, traveler and jib sheet, should the boat near its tipping point.

As a team, Gitana has been campaigning to increase ­automation that can be used on Ultimes. At present, an autopilot can steer the boat, but automatic stabilization features are banned. The ban, the team argues, makes the boats less safe and also increases the chance of equipment damage due to operator error. With automation controlling the foils, Josse says, “we would be able to sail in big waves and to fly all the time. At present, we aren’t allowed to do that.”

He considers operating the foils manually, as they must do now, far too slow. “We have three appendages — two rudders and the daggerboard,” Josse says. “To maintain good balance, we should trim them together rather than one by one.”

On Gitana, the peak speed to date is 45 knots in 22 knots of wind, but top speeds are not as important as the daily run. Josse is confident Gabart’s 24-hour solo record can be beaten, and the 1,000-mile day will be a reality within the next five years. But it won’t be easy.

“To be fast in this boat you need flat water, and 20 knots is optimum, and you need 1,000 miles of that,” Josse says. “In 30 knots, the sea state starts to get bad and your stability starts to go down — and then you’re slow.”

The post Brest Oceans 2019: Machines of Madmen appeared first on Sailing World.

North Sails has also teamed up with race veteran Sam Davies and award-winning reporter Amory Ross, both of whom will be in Les Sables to cover pre-start activity.

Join North’s on-the-ground team via the dedicated event page at NorthSails.com.

In the meantime, below are a few points to get you up to speed on the Vendée.

The Race

The Vendée Globe is the only non-stop solo around-the-world race without assistance. Since the first edition in 1989, 139 sailors have crossed the starting line in what the French public calls, “The Everest of the Seas.” Only 71 sailors have crossed the finish line. Spanning several months and nearly 22,000 nautical miles. Competitors encounter storms, windless days, the searing heat of the mid-latitudes and the icy cold and mountainous waves of the Southern Ocean. The race record is 78 days, currently held by Francois Gabart, winner of the 2012 Vendée Globe.

The Boats

The IMOCA 60 is the most powerful monohull in the world skippered by a solo sailor. They can exceed 30 knots downwind. The most significant technical advancement for this edition is the use of foils, which provide greater speeds and a smoother ride. These appendages lift the hull up and increase righting moment by up to 20 percent, which over many miles will be a dramatic improvement in efficiency. The 2016-’17 Vendée Globe will be the first round-the-world race with the use of such foil technology.

“I think the guys will need to start a bit cool if they want to get all the way around. When the boats are capable of over 30 knots and nearly fully foiled, it is pushing the boundaries of what man can do singlehanded.” – Guillaume Verdier, naval architect

The Sails

Carrying nine sails, including one storm jib onboard, the majority of Vendée Globe skippers chose North Sails 3Di to power them non-stop around the world. A skipper’s choices in inventory can be the largest indicator of their overall race strategy. While North Sails offers a number of options in both material and shape, 3Di is the leading sail for the offshore market.

North Sails holds the patents for 3Di technology, and its Spread Filament technology which offers maximum material efficiently and resistance to stretch. Ounce for ounce, 3Di sails have significantly more resistance to stretch than any other sail made in the world today. Factors such as thermoset glue and the absence of mylar film make 3Di the highest performing, most durable sail ever produced. North 3Di have a perfect flying shape and unmatched stability in all directions; they look and act like a sail yet perform like a foil.

Originating from Alinghi’s “Black Sails” in 2007, North 3Di has revolutionized sailmaking from the top down. It is now available to a wide range of sailors and boats. The Vendée Globe will feature 3Di ENDURANCE, 3Di RAW and 3Di FORCE.

“It’s true that with 3Di technology there is no longer a discussion about how to win races. The technological advances are such that the choice is quite simple from the moment we found the team of designers with whom we started to develop good sails and shapes. And today we are happy to continue our adventure for the next Vendée Globe with North Sails.” – Vincent Riou, PRB, former race winner and 4th participation in 2016

Skippers To Watch

North Sails’ relationship is particularly strong with a few race favorites, notably Vincent Riou (PRB), Jeremie Beyou (Maitre Coq), Armel Le Cleac’h (Banque Populaire) d and Seb Josse (Gitana).

“Our relationship with the skippers is the key to success. The most important factor is that we share the same vision of what needs to be done and what sails are required for each boat.” – Hugues Destremau, North Sails Offshore Expert

The post Your Cheat Sheet to the Vendée Globe: What, Who and How To Watch appeared first on Sailing World.

What do you learn when you sail around the world on your own? When solo sailor Ellen MacArthur circled the globe – carrying everything she needed with her – she came back with new insight into the way the world works, as a place of interlocking cycles and finite resources, where the decisions we make today affect what’s left for tomorrow. She proposes a bold new way to see the world’s economic systems: not as linear, but as circular, where everything comes around.

The post Life Lessons from Solo Sailing appeared first on Sailing World.

Webb Chiles

If you are a sailor and a wanderer, here’s someone I definitely think you should know.

Webb Chiles is an American original, a sailor, poet, and explorer who has circumnavigated the globe five times (once in an 18-foot Drascombe Lugger called _Chidiock Tickbourne_). In 1975 he became the first American to solo around Cape Horn.

In case it is not clear, he is not afraid to live a full life (he’s also been married six times), and to his credit appears to treat adventure as a basic necessity, on par with breathing. Here’s how he describes himself, and introduces his website:

“People who know of me at all probably do so as a sailor; but I have always thought of myself as an artist, and I believe that the artist’s defining responsibility is to go to the edge of human experience and send back reports. Here are my reports.”

Unsurprisingly, Chiles, now in his 70s, is not done yet. His wife, Carol, expects him to fall off a boat in the middle of some ocean at age 90. In preparation, Chiles has put together a Requiem playlist he’d like to hear in his final moments. But until that moment, and perhaps leading to that moment, he has plans.

His next adventure is another circumnavigation, naturally with an interesting wrinkle: His boat choice is a Moore 24, which he has called Gannet.

I’m inspired by what Chiles has done with his life, and I love what he is about to do. So I contacted him with some questions, and he was kind enough to respond. Here is an online Q&A. And if you would like to know more about Chiles, all his books are available here (many in Kindle format).

TZ: What is your timeline for setting off, and what route are you contemplating?

WC: Gannet, as I’ve named my Moore 24, which is hull #40, is due to be trailered from the Chicago area to San Diego, starting October 11. As you may know from my journal, I’ve gone blind in my right eye this year, and while I can drive, I don’t much like to, so I’m paying a professional for the tow.

I hope to spend about three weeks every other month this winter on the boat, and if I think she and I are ready next summer will sail to Hawaii. Beyond that I don’t know. Partially it depends on my experience on that passage. All my other voyages were planned. This one I’m making up as I go along. I don’t even know whether I’ll go east or west. I’ve gone west via Panama three times. East via Cape Horn twice. Obviously it is the Horn’s turn, but I don’t know if Gannet can survive down there.

TZ: How did you settle on the Moore 24, and what are its strengths and weaknesses for the voyage you have planned?

WC: I chose a Moore 24 because I wanted a new-to-me experience, and, after sailing_ Chidiock Tichborne_, the 18′ Drascombe Lugger, I have a special affinity for small boats. That Moore 24s have often been raced from the West Coast to Hawaii is significant, as is their reputation for being extremely well-built, solid sea-going boats. Another Moore owner wrote to me that they will take you where you want to go and bring you back.

Even though Chidiock Tichborne weighed less than half Gannet‘s 2050 pounds, she wasn’t exactly an ULDB. I expect to sail faster in Gannet than in any other boat I’ve owned, and am looking forward to that. I also love the Moore’s idiosyncratic looks.

Gannet Below

My open boat voyage in Chidiock Tichborne is significant to my sailing Gannet. Gannet will not be comfortable, but compared to Chidiock Tichborne, she is the QE2. But then I am thirty years older, which makes it interesting.

I have no doubt that Gannet can complete a trade wind circumnavigation, within the vagaries of time and chance. No one else has ever done so, but I’ve pushed limits before. Whether she can go the other way, I don’t yet know.

One weakness is that her transom is so thin it has to be re-enforced to take a self-steering vane. I thought this to be the case and that has been confirmed by another Moore owner, who has a vane.

As I’m sure you know, most Moore 24s are on the West Coast. I’ve never seen a Moore except my own, and other owners have been very generous with advice and information via email.

TZ: This will be your sixth lap. What keeps taking you back?

WC: The flame hasn’t gone out. Both Tennyson and the Greek poet, Nikos Kazantzakis, thought Ulysses would not be content to settle down in Ithaca, and as an old man set out again. I’ve completed circumnavigations in four successive decades–two in the 2000s–and would like to make it five. Also I’d like to go around again in my 70s–I’ll be 71 in November. And I simply like sailing oceans, settling into the pure rhythms of the monastery of the sea.

TZ: What, if anything, do you tell sailors who aspire to sail around the world?

WC: I treat all questions I receive seriously and with respect, but I neither encourage nor discourage. I do try to give people the benefit of my experience, while not claiming that my way of doing things is the only way.

There is a lot more of Chiles’ thinking, writing, poetry and photography to explore here. Spend a few hours, and then read some of his books. I doubt you’ll think about life and sailing in the same way.

The post The Webb Chiles Way appeared first on Sailing World.

www.lauradekker.nl
She might Skype a lot, but she’s still alone.

It wasn’t that long ago that the sailing world was obsessed with the ambitions, preparedness, and parental strategies associated with Jessica Watson, Abby Sunderland, and the teen boys (Zac Sunderland and Mike Perham). So when then-14 year old Laura Dekker started making noises about a solo voyage, too, and got held up by a Dutch court before finally be allowed to go sailing, it seemed as if we were in for another round of kiddie craziness. Except a funny thing happened on the way to the brouhaha. Laura Dekker quietly showed she is a competent, solid, sailor. With her father’s help, she and her boat Guppy are well-prepared. And, most importantly, she has made her way across the Atlantic, through the Panama Canal, and across the Pacific to Darwin, Australia, without drama or disaster, and seems more interested in the amazing experience of sailing westabout around the world than she is in setting a record.

www.lauradekker.nl
_Teen-aged tune-up.
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In other words, this is a voyage that’s easy to applaud. No pushy, spotlight-happy, parents. No slick, conniving PR managers, angling for a big score. Sure, she is getting plenty of media attention, someone is making a film, and maybe she will end up on some version of Dancing With the Stars. But if you read her blog, what you see is a cheerful, determined, resourceful kid having an adventure that will change her life in untold ways. Her father’s faith in her ability to pull this thing off seems justified, or at least reasonable. That doesn’t mean that something terrible won’t happen. But if it does, it will happen because bad things can happen anytime someone goes to sea, not because she is a teenager.

_How many of us wish we had a slideshow like this from our teen years? (And how awesome is the Dutch version of “Piano Man”? -Ed.)
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She still has a long way to go to get back to the Atlantic and close the circle on her voyage. And she’s been honest about the tough times she has had so far, rating the crossing from Bora Bora to Tonga—where she had no wind, or tons of wind, got sick, and faced nasty seas—as her worst (she rated the Vanuatu to Darwin leg second most difficult, and the Atlantic crossing third). But she is about to turn sixteen, and she doesn’t seem in a huge rush to move on as long as there is something fun and interesting happening ashore. If nothing goes wrong, she will probably complete her circumnavigation before she turns 17, which would in fact make her the youngest ever. The beauty of it is I don’t think she will really care that much. She set out to do something very different than Abby Sunderland and Jessica Watson, who made pure record attempts (and non-stop is a completely different animal). And what Dekker’s voyage has truly been about is perfectly summed up in a recent blog entry: “The days just fly by, and I haven’t had time to be bored, not even for one second.” Too bad more teens don’t live, and talk, like that.

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