The changes in sailing had been on the horizon for a while. The turning point we can all point to was the last America’s Cup with foiling catamarans.In the Vendee Globe, the boats which have foils are clearly faster.
I believe I read that Joyon cut the jig down on Idec for this attempt; making it an easier boat to handle. Just look at the numbers he is putting up.
Francois Gabart rounded Cape Horn on New Year’s day more than four days ahead of the previous record. 7000 miles to the finish. They left New York shoveling snow and ice off the deck.
Bernard Stamm (4th place) has been disqualified from the Vendee Globe for having accepted outside assistance.
Giovanni Soldini and “Maserati” (volvo 70) set sail on an attempt to break the record from New York to San Francisco set by Yves Parliez.
The Vendee Globe non-stop single-handed around the world race is in it’s third week. Speeds are high; a new 24 hour record of 483 miles for a single-handed boat was set and re-broken the next day. Francois Gabart is the new record holder.
I grew up with the legend of the Yacht Atlantic crossing the atlantic in 1905 in 12 days, with a 24 hour run of 341 miles. A record that stood for years, but it is a new world.
The photograph above I took around 1973 in Norfolk, VA. The Atlantic was as you see her and the USS United States was still there as well. Speaking of records, the USS United States
held the Blue Ribbon (record across the atlantic for a passenger ship)
