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Macif rtw 2017

DaveH

DaveH

Mr Hedgehog
Staff member
Francois Gabart is doing something remarkable out in the Atlantic.
2 days, 8 hours in to his solo RTW record attempt, he is 245nm ahead of the reference pace set by Thomas Coville last year.

The numbers are mind boggling.
First of all, he is single handing a 31m (102') trimaran and doing it with the hammer down.
AVERAGE speed since the start: 29.5 knots.
24 hour runs are eclipsing 680 miles.

WOW. Full Stop.

Tracker here - yeah, it's in French; deal with it.
 
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DaveH said:
[/URL] - yeah, it's in French; deal with it.
Click to expand...



Day 2 / Word from the edge: Encounter off the Canary Islands
While François Gabart was on his second night at sea, he had the opportunity to get in touch with a cargo ship crossed on his way. Extract from a funny VHF exchange ...
© François Gabart / Macif

"I did not have an exchange with this cargo ship. By cons, that night, it was funny, I was just behind another cargo ship that went to Gibraltar. We talked a bit about VHF to avoid each other. He asked me several times if I was a sailing boat. I was going to 40 knots. Where are you going, he tells me? I'm going around the world and I come back as fast as possible! ... little white man and he says "Ah Great! ". I imagined rubbing his eyes at 3am! "
 
DaveH said:
Francois Gabart is doing something remarkable out in the Atlantic.
2 days, 8 hours in to his solo RTW record attempt, he is 245nm ahead of the reference pace set by Thomas Coville last year.
The numbers are mind boggling.First of all, he is single handing a 31m (102') trimaran and doing it with the hammer down.
AVERAGE speed since the start: 29.5 knots. 24 hour runs are eclipsing 680 miles.
WOW. Full Stop.
Tracker here - yeah, it's in French; deal with it.
Click to expand...

Watching MACIF under sail is beyond anything we have seen to date:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwKpeen9U4A

Just a few of MACIF's specs for consideration: 69 foot beam, with wave piercing bows. Foil assisted on hulls and rudders, with hull foils being retractable. The 114 foot wing mast not only rotates, but can be canted to windward by giant hydraulic rams. This helps reduce downward force on the leeward ama.

Here is the thing: the apparent wind in even Force 4-5 (11-21 knots TWS) likely exceeds 40 knots....I have no evidence, but would bet MACIF, with enough wind, could still haul the mail with no sails. Just the wing mast.

The stuff of dreams is here. Allez Francois!
 
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mike cunningham said:
"AVERAGE speed since the start: 29.5 knots. "

That would be the Gate to Hanalei in about three days. Sheesh.
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Or a LongPac in around 16 hours (assuming the usual extra 20 miles or so tacked on to the calculated 400 nm). Or a Farallones in just a couple of hours. Somebody needs to calculate a 3bridge start time for that beast.
 
OK, you'd never have the conditions to do it, but based on MACIF's last 24hrs, you'd be in Kauai inside of a 3 day weekend.

818nm in 24hrs.
New solo record.
holy cats!
 
Today: François Gabart beats the record of distance traveled in 24h alone! A mythical bar has just fallen: by traveling 826 * miles from Monday to Tuesday afternoon, a figure that could still evolve in the evening, François Gabart, who pressed the throttle trimaran MACIF to avoid being caught by Too strong winds in his back, is the first solo sailor to pass the 800 miles in 24 hours. He smashed his own record, which was July 3, 2016, 784 miles. His average? 34.4 knots, or 63 km / h! What does the person think? " I am delighted. Records are made to be beaten, that's how we progress. The sensations at these speeds are quite extraordinary, the boat is flying, it's a mix of power and lightness." Not one to rest on his laurels, the skipper of the MACIF trimaran immediately adds: "Now, this is not the priority objective, the idea is to finish this world tour ..."
 
Philpott said:
Today: François Gabart beats the record of distance traveled in 24h alone! A mythical bar has just fallen: by traveling 826 * miles from Monday to Tuesday afternoon, a figure that could still evolve in the evening, François Gabart, who pressed the throttle trimaran MACIF to avoid being caught by Too strong winds in his back, is the first solo sailor to pass the 800 miles in 24 hours. He smashed his own record, which was July 3, 2016, 784 miles. His average? 34.4 knots, or 63 km / h! What does the person think? " I am delighted. Records are made to be beaten, that's how we progress. The sensations at these speeds are quite extraordinary, the boat is flying, it's a mix of power and lightness." Not one to rest on his laurels, the skipper of the MACIF trimaran immediately adds: "Now, this is not the priority objective, the idea is to finish this world tour ..."
Click to expand...

How in hell do you get any sleep moving at 35 Kts??!! It may be pretty quiet but, man, if you hit something...
 
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mike cunningham said:
How in hell do you get any sleep moving at 35 Kts??!! It may be pretty quiet but, man, if you hit something...
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Gabert noted he is getting used to sleeping flying the main hull. At 35 knots, the leeward ama is barely touching the water. Airborne sleeping....Jean Yves Bernot's routing team must be smoking their computers. First they had Gabert slow down to avoid outrunning the Mozambique low...then they turned MACIF due south for hundreds of miles to jump to a new weather system. MACIF is now down around 55 degrees south, well inside southern Indian Ocean ice limits. One wonders whether Bernot and team have satellite technology that can spot ice ahead of MACIF. I wouldn't put it out of the realm of possibility.
 
sleddog said:
MACIF is now down around 55 degrees south, well inside southern Indian Ocean ice limits. One wonders whether Bernot and team have satellite technology that can spot ice ahead of MACIF. I wouldn't put it out of the realm of possibility.
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OMG! OMG! And I worry about logs in the bay! By the way, that phone number for the Army Corps of Engineers for recovery of debris in the bay? Banker's hours, during the week only.
 
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Peering closely at a variety of photos of MACIF I see no stanchions or life lines. Maybe the Moore's have it right after all.

Brian
Redsky
 
brianb said:
Peering closely at a variety of photos of MACIF I see no stanchions or life lines.
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Um, no.
levity aside, there's a bow pulpit and double life lines on the main hull forward of the crossbeam.
Also across the transom.
And then there's the completely enclosed "cockpit", perhaps more accurately called a pilot house.
OK, there's no lifelines on the main hull between the crossbeams, where there is approximately 30' of adjacent trampoline.
 
DaveH said:
OK, there's no lifelines on the main hull between the crossbeams, where there is approximately 30' of adjacent trampoline.
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"Peering closely at a variety of photos of MACIF I see no stanchions or life lines." - Boschma

I can just imagine the chatter sitting next to you two during that Robert Redford sailing movie Lost. Deafening.

BTW, a new British film coming out in February called THE MERCY about Crowhurst and the first singlehanded Round the World race.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3319730/
 
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sleddog said:
"oh, la vache," says FG in a short video. As he goes to jibe MACIF back to port after crossing 60 degrees South, FG spots a nearby berg where no berg should be ..... good thing it was daylight. http://www.macifcourseaularge.com/actus/video-iceberg-a-vue/
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While he had just maneuvered this morning to oblique his route to the north so as not to enter a zone of cold water, François Gabart saw an iceberg. The jibe had previously been planned on the edge of this zone; the visibility being good and the conditions manageable. The sight of this iceberg at this place, confirmed, without doubt the choice of the maneuver!
 
In looking back through some of the posts on PD, I read that during his passage of the Kerguelen island he used a "routing cell" comprised of five individuals.
The final decision is ultimately up to F.G.
That would make this voyage "assisted".

Not to take anything away from the accomplishments, I just thought it would be unassisted.
 
An interesting safety problem the last few days for FG (Francois Gabert): Deep in the Southern Ocean, enroute to Cape Horn, the ocean waves, traveling at ~ 25 knots, are apparently big enough and steep enough to cause FG concern. MACIF cannot run DDW (dead downwind) and must sail deep at ~ TWA (true wind angle) of 140 degrees. FG has purposely reduced sail (3 reefs in main, smallest jib) to slow MACIF ~10 knots to less than 25 knots BS (boat speed.) This reduction in speed, coupled with the zigzagging course, has much reduced VMG (velocity made good) towards Cape Horn, currently at 16 knots. It would interesting to ask FG if there is concern of pitchpoling his hundred footer by going too fast, catching the wave ahead, and digging in the bows...

Stan Honey brings FG's dilemma into perspective by pointing out the biggest factor on these giant trimarans in choosing course is not seeking more wind, but rather finding smaller sea state..Stan should know, he navigated the 100 foot tri GROUPAMA 3 around-the-World in 48 days. Here's Stan's take, a 5 minute discussion of fascinating interest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAno7dbbDF8
 
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