Could the 40-day around the world record fall? Helen Fretter talks to this year\u2019s Jules Verne challengersCharles Caudrelier at the bow of his flying Gitana 17 gives some perspective as to the huge size of these incredible foiling trimarans. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut\/PolaRYSE\/GitanaForty days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds: that is the time that is embedded in the psyche of crews currently challenging for the Jules Verne trophy.
\nThe clock will mercilessly count down 983 hours as they attempt the near-impossible: to beat Francis Joyon\u2019s blistering time set on Idec Sport three years ago; to become the first foiling trimarans to fly around the world; and maybe, just maybe, to break the incredible 40-day barrier.
\nThe odds are stacked against them. Thomas Coville, skipper of Sodebo, says the chance of success is \u201conly 20 to 25%\u201d.
\nSodebo training in strong winds in the Gulf of Morbihan. Photo: Pierre Bouras\/DPPI
\nCharles Caudrelier, co-skipper of rival challenger Gitana 17, ranks his fortunes similarly. \u201cI was surprised, I think the statistics are very optimistic, and in the statistics the boats never break, but it\u2019s around a 30% chance to beat the record [based on] the polars. \u201cWhich is quite good,\u201d he adds sanguinely.
\nOn November 25, both trimarans set off within hours of each other\u00a0on their first Jules Verne record attempt of 2020. Gitana had to turn back after three days after colliding with a \u2018UFO\u2019 (unidentified floating object), but the team has vowed to repair and restart as soon as possible.
\nSodebo, meanwhile, was having a great run \u2013 extending to over 200 miles ahead of Idec Sport\u2019s position, and regularly posting days with 30-35-knot averages. But on 11 December they too had to retire, after colliding with an underwater object and damaging the starboard rudder. Skipper Thomas Coville explained: \u201cI\u00a0am very disappointed, but I am not downcast because it is obvious: we will come back.\u00a0We have a group and a boat to do it, we have a partner who wants to go back too, so the future is in front of us\u2026.\u00a0it got off to a good start, [and] it\u2019s not over yet!\u201d
\nBut how do you plan to attack something with such a gossamer thin margin, when you have at best a 1 in 4 chance of success?
\nMan versus machine
\nThere are two teams hoping to defy the improbable. Franck Cammas is looking to claim his second Jules Verne trophy with Gitana 17, the Edmond de Rothschild trimaran he co-skippers with Charles Caudrelier. Gitana will be sailing with a crew of just six.
\nThe Verdier-designed Gitana was launched in 2017 and was originally part of the embryonic Ultime class, but the team wanted to incorporate more automation than Ultime rules permitted and this year stepped out of the class. For the Jules Verne, they have a flight control \u2018servo loop\u2019 that automatically trims some of the foils.
\nArticle continues below\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tBattle of the giants: The inside story of the Brest Atlantiques Race<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn Tuesday 5 November four giant trimarans \u2013 Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, Macif, Sodebo and Actual Leader, and their double-handed\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tTrying to break the 40-day barrier: Thomas Coville and the most radical Ultime yet<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThis week solo yachtsman Thomas Coville opened the doors to the build of his Sodebo Ultim 3, the newest Ultime\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a race, so we are allowed to use an auto-trim for the appendages,\u201d explained Caudrelier. \u201cWe don\u2019t have enough energy to [use it] to move the foils, but all the flaps of the rudders and the daggerboards can be managed by the pilot. It\u2019s new, and it\u2019s quite efficient.
\n\u201cThe question is: how much energy do we want to spend on that, [how much] weight of fuel do we carry? So we have to find a balance, but we think we\u2019ll use it probably 50% of the time, because in certain conditions it\u2019s really another jump of performance.\u201d The gain can be as much as 5%.
\nThe Gitana team will be sailing with two crew on deck on watch, and a third on standby. \u201cWith two guys we can have one driver and one adjusting all the appendages. On these big boats you don\u2019t trim the sails so much, you find an average and you don\u2019t spend your time trimming because you would kill your rigging very quickly,\u201d says Caudrelier.
\nPhoto: Vincent Curutchet \/ Sodebo
\nThomas Coville has taken a different approach, choosing to sail with eight. His Sodebo Ultim 3 is the newest of the big tris, and designed to be lighter, less loaded, with a smaller sailplan. It is not automated.
\n\u201cI decided to invest in humans,\u201d Coville says. \u201cI\u2019ve made the choice to be eight to have two guys \u2013 myself and Mark Keruzor\u00e9, our media man \u2013 off watch. Then two guys on stand-by and two guys off, and you can be sure that when you\u2019re off, you won\u2019t be disturbed.\u201d
\nRest will be key. \u201cThese machines need to have people who are well recovered, that are fresh and can concentrate. We\u2019re going to be potentially able to steer all the time. We\u2019ve got autopilot, but sometimes you need to be to be 100% and to push the boat,\u201d he explains.
\nAutopilot development in both the foiling multihulls and IMOCAs has made huge advances, but there are still conditions when a human on the wheel is faster, particularly in downwind VMG mode.
\nConstant crew rotation will be necessary, however, because maintaining concentration on the helm is so critical. \u201cOne hour is the maximum. When we are flying in VMG mode it\u2019s a very narrow margin on the helm and you have to be very concentrated,\u201d explains Cammas.
\nThere are other drains on the crew. Besides the workload of manoeuvres, simply existing on board is exhausting. \u201cThese boats are pretty hard on your body now,\u201d explains Sodebo crew member Sam Goodchild, \u201cWe do everything we can to avoid injuries, which includes protective gear. We\u2019ve got helmets and skullcaps and padding in basically everywhere you can have padding in foul weather gear.\u201d
\nApparent windspeeds over the deck can easily hit 50-60 knots. Photo: Martin Keruzor\u00e9
\nThe relentless noise of flying through the ocean for five weeks is also energy sapping. \u201cLife on board is quite difficult. With the foils humming and just the banging of waves going fast all the time it\u2019s quite tiring. So we take earplugs and noise cancelling headphones to help us with our off watches,\u201d explains Goodchild.
\nThe noise level is so high that a crew member in the pit, basically next to the helmsman\u2019s knees on Sodebo, would not be able to hear the helmsman in his \u2018tank commander\u2019 driving position, so they use a headset comms system.
\n\u201cIn every manoeuvre we\u2019ve got the helmsman, pitman and bowman connected and there\u2019s also a speaker in the cockpit so the whole cockpit can hear what\u2019s happening,\u201d explains Goodchild. \u201cThe apparent wind over the deck is huge; if the boat\u2019s going 30, 40 knots, which is quite normal, and we\u2019ve got 25 knots of wind you can have 50 or 60 knots of apparent wind over the deck quite easily. So fairly quickly you don\u2019t hear a lot!\u201d
\nLife at 40 knots in the cockpit. Photo: Vincent Curutchet \/ Sodebo
\n20,000 miles of foiling
\nThe trimarans are on the very edge of development and go through a constant cycle of modifications. Since last year\u2019s Brest Atlantiques race the Gitana team has worked on aerodynamics, including a new cuddy roof which endplates more closely to the boom, and altering the angles of the enormous fairings that stretch across the beams.
\nThe foil and appendages shapes have also been refined. \u201cToday our big problem is cavitation, because we reach some very high speeds, 45 or 46 knots,\u201d says Caudrelier. The jumps in performance are considerable. \u201cWe have managed to push the maximum speed before cavitation from around 40-42 knots to 44-45 knots, so that\u2019s a big step. The boat has never been so fast.\u201d
\nSodebo has also gained T-foils on the centre daggerboard and main rudder, which means that sustained flight is now possible at levels that are surpassing even Coville\u2019s expectations. \u201cLast week we were delivering the boat for sponsor sailing in Vend\u00e9e. For three hours, we were in rough seas. It was 4 or 5m on the offside and we were sailing between 35-45 knots of boat speed all the time. I have to admit that I would not have even imagined that one year ago.\u201d
\nThe central \u2018pod\u2019 is situated forward of the mast on the Sodebo Ultim 3. Photo: Martin Keruzor\u00e9
\nOver the 26,000-odd miles of their circumnavigation, how much could potentially be sailed in foiling mode? \u201cAbout a year ago, I would have told you 20%. Now, I would say it could be more like 80%,\u201d says Coville, \u201cAnd we are just at the beginning. Every day we go sailing, we\u2019re learning more. But I\u2019m pretty sure that we are going to fly for more than 50%.\u201d
\nCaudrelier agrees: \u201cIf you stop flying you lose more than 10 or 20% of performance, so it\u2019s not the same boat. And there will be strong winds where we will not really fly, but we will be in skimming mode, when the waves are too big. But still, 50 to 60% around the world in some sort of flight mode is space travel.\u201d
\nShoreside commanders
\nYet a Jules Verne record is not won on the water: a huge factor in each challenger\u2019s chances is down to their weather routing, directed by a commander on shore.
\nPhoto: Martin Keruzor\u00e9
\nSodebo\u2019s weather router is Jean Luc Nelias, Coville\u2019s right hand man for many years, who also directed him to his 2016 solo around the world record. Gitana has the legendary Marcel van Triest, who has worked with Caudrelier and Cammas closely in the past on their Dongfeng and Groupama campaigns, and routed both Lo\u00efck Peyron on Banque Populaire and current record holder Francis Joyon on Idec Sport to Jules Verne wins.
\nThe first, and greatest, challenge is to choose the best weather window in which to leave Ushant. Get this wrong \u2013 even by a few hours \u2013 and a team\u2019s chances of beating the record could be over even before they have exited the Bay of Biscay.
\nWith the benchmark time to the Cape of Good Hope less than 12 days, there is a balancing act between not only finding the optimal forecast for the Atlantic, but also setting up the boat with the best chances of hooking into a favourable low pressure system roaring eastwards around the Southern Oceans.
\n\u2018These new machines are going to beat the record. It will happen\u2019 \u2013 Thomas Coville. Photo: Martin Keruzor\u00e9
\n\u201cI try to look at the situation from the start line in Ushant to more or less the point of entry to the Indian Ocean, so basically south of Cape Town,\u201d explains van Triest. \u201cWe know the reference times for that, so we can have a forecast, although in the South Altantic it will be no more than a trend.
\n\u201cThen you try to judge what happens after Cape Town, because you can have a situation with a high pressure ridge off South Africa and ice to the south, which makes the entry into the Indian Ocean really narrow. To get around it, if you see a situation that is a 600-mile wide entry into the Indian Ocean, you\u2019re willing to arrive at Cape Town a little bit slower, but it will be easier to get into the westerlies.
\n\u201cAlso, these boats are now so quick that you need a Southern Ocean weather system that is quick enough that they can stay in the same system the whole time. So you\u2019re going around at more or less at the speed that the low is.\u201d Idec Sport, van Triest says, rode a single system from Madagascar almost to New Zealand.
\nThe Atlantic may also be where the foilers make the biggest gains on the record. \u201cWhere we have most improved the speed of the boat is upwind reaching \u2013 like the parts of the Doldrums where you are upwind and slowly the wind is lifting. This is where we have the biggest difference of speed compared to boats like Idec,\u201d says Caudrelier.
\n\u201cTheir upwind speed was between 19-21, now we can achieve between 25-30 depending on the sea state.\u201d In order to determine the best window, van Triest is reanalysing historic weather data. \u201cWe have done 6,000 routings covering the last 12 years,\u201d explains Caudrelier, \u201cOne start every six hours, every day, during the standby period.\u201d
\nSeeing the unknown
\nOnce the crews are underway, the routers will fall into a twilight world of 24-7 weather analysis, endlessly programming routes further and further down the track and offering a constant stream of information to the skippers. One key decision is how far south to go, and for that the routers need to know where the icebergs are. Sailing additional mileage to avoid ice can be fatal to a record bid\u2019s chances; not avoiding ice at 35 knots doesn\u2019t bear thinking about.
\nPhoto: Eloi Stichelbaut \/ PolaRYSE \/ Gitana
\n\u201cThey\u2019re going to a part of the world no one is interested in. Further north there is commercial shipping, and further south is the ice shelf where there is lots of scientific interest, but the bit in the middle: no-one cares basically. Which means there is very, very little data available in the public domain,\u201d explains van Triest.
\nThe solution is to request the data from specialist companies. \u201cWe use a company called CLS. They\u2019ve got two techniques mainly: one is with altimeters that measures the distance from satellites to the Earth\u2019s surface, or sea level in this case, and if that is higher because there is an object there, you know it is either an iceberg or a ship.
\n\u201cThen you cross-reference that against AIS to take out any ships, and the other ones are possibly ice. The disadvantage is this has got a very narrow footprint, so it\u2019s like throwing a big fishing net to catch a small fish.
\nGitana\u2019s crew have been maximising sea trial time in preparation for the gruelling Jules Verne Trophy attempt. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut \/ PolaRYSE \/ Gitana
\n\u201cThat defines the zones that are really of interest. And then you can order pictures, which are called SAR images. They are done with a radar on a satellite: the scatter that comes back from the earth\u2019s surface gets captured, and analysed and it creates an artificial image.\u201d But the costs of this are eye-watering: a single image can easily range up to \u00a34,000. \u201cIt adds up pretty quickly,\u201d notes van Triest.
\nRequest your image at short notice and the price rises steeply, request it too early, and the ice may have drifted from its known position, rendering it useless. That the Jules Verne trimarans are likely to be in the Southern Ocean at a similar time to this year\u2019s Vend\u00e9e Globe fleet may ameliorate the costs slightly, as the Vend\u00e9e race committee will also be analysing ice position.
\nIt is not only ice that the crews need to avoid. During the Brest Atlantiques Race three-quarters of the Ultimes suffered serious foil damage, all attributed to suspected collisions with unidentified floating objects. The teams are trying to develop various solutions, but none are reliable.
\nGitana 17 training off Lorient \u2013 the new trimarans have made major upwind speed gains. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut \/ PolaRYSE \/ Gitana
\nThey include a \u2018whale pinger\u2019 \u2013 an alarm audible to sea life that is designed to scare large mammals away from the oncoming boat \u2013 and an infrared camera in the mast that interfaces with software to identify hazards. At these speeds, however, its accuracy is limited.
\n\u201cIt is supposed to send an alarm when it sees something not normal in the water, but that is very difficult and it\u2019s not working well. We are working every day on it but it\u2019s just the beginning of this system,\u201d explains Caudrelier.
\nSodebo employs similar systems, but Coville concedes that, in practical terms, \u201cWe\u2019ve got nothing, or nothing real.\u201d Rather than trying to avoid collisions, they have been trying to protect the boat against the inevitable, with hydraulics that can absorb some of the loads if the rudders or boards have a moderate impact.
\nPhoto: Yann Riou \/ polaRYSE \/ Gitana
\n\u201cYou can\u2019t avoid everything, but [the hydraulics] can absorb 10 or 15 tons sometimes. They\u2019ve been working pretty good actually, and a few times it\u2019s saved our boat already,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe want to control more and more, but at some stage you have to accept that you can\u2019t control everything.\u201d
\nBreaking 40
\nSo are this generation of foiling adventurers attempting the impossible? Marcel van Triest knows the true chances of setting an around the world record better than almost anybody, based on cold, hard data: \u201cI think sub-40 days is very realistic, given the potential of the boats.
\n\u201cTo get under 39, you need a perfect window. You need a bit of a break with the ice, and you need a bit of luck in the Atlantic coming back up. And above all, you have to keep all your bits underwater attached to the boat.\u201d
\nThe ebullient Thomas Coville is not a man who worries about things being deemed impossible.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know if we\u2019re going to beat that record this year, it\u2019s the first time that a flying boat is attempting it. But one thing I know is that it is going to be beaten. There\u2019s no doubt in my mind that these new machines are going to beat that record. It will happen.\u201d
\nFirst published in the December 2020 issue of Yachting World.
\nThe post Aiming for the impossible: The inside story of the 2020 Jules Verne contenders appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Could the 40-day around the world record fall? Helen Fretter talks to this year\u2019s Jules Verne challengersCharles Caudrelier at the bow of his flying Gitana 17 gives some perspective as to the huge size of these incredible foiling trimarans. Photo: … <\/p>\n