Solo Round The World

Louis Robein’s unintended landfall

colin bastable 1 Comment

https://globalsolochallenge.com/louis-robeins-argentina-en/

The hero of the Global Solo Challenge, Frenchman Louis Robein, went aground in a sandy bay on the southern Argentinian coast, having rounded Cape Horn. He was given a ride to a navy base and his boat was towed to safety with him, after 50kt winds had him pinned to a sandbar but kept him off the shore.

Towing off sandbar

Hopefully he will get his autopilot fixed and head back to sea pronto. Sea is safer than shore. Marco’s purple prose (link above) clearly wants Louis to surrender, the guy being obsessed with safety. I mean, everyone who sails solo around Cape Horn is thinking safety first, aren’t they?

Takeaways for when I eventually do my own solo rtw:

  • Autopilot: have spares
  • Make sure windvane works and has spares
  • Follow the winning track
  • Minimize advice (it dilutes energy)
  • Replace Iridium satcom with Star link
  • One rudder, heavy displacement and double skin is preferable to twin rudders light surfing hull.
  • Stay away from land.
  • Don’t let images like this get published:
Louis Robein arm-wrestles two Argie sailors

Courage, Louis!

Sailing: A Business Case Study

colin bastable 2 Comments

Philippe Delamare posted this last week and I have been meaning to put it up as a superb case study. For sailing. For business. For life.

“Let me explain: we all start with a strategy, a roadmap, a certain level of aggression versus a degree of caution, ambition, a vision of what we came for. It’s really great to have tons of messages of support, words of encouragement, signs of friendship. But they are often also opinions, advice, especially caution and safety. Paradoxically, all of this can become anxiety-inducing – discreetly – which is very bad of course, and can influence you or make you lose sight of the direction of your initial energy.”

Link here Straight Line

Global Solo Challenger Abandons Yacht

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Ronnie Simpson, who was lying 3rd in what I term the Solo Race Around Antartica, was dismasted early on Feb 12th 2024 when his yacht Shipyard Brewing fell off a big wave and almost pitchpoled: the boat took a nosedive into the trough of the wave. The boat stayed right side up, but the G froces of the sudden halt put tremendous strain on the standing rig, dismasting Shipyard Brewing.

A dismasted yacht is an unstable and dangerous platform. Without the mast to counterbalance the keel, it and its crew are going to suffer from wild gyrations from waves and wind.

So Ronnie requested help, and was rescued by a Taiwanese freighter, Sakizaya Youth. Shipyard Brewing was scuttled, to avoid endangering other vessels.

Ronnie had recently rounded Cape Horn, and must have thought that the worst was in his rearview mirror. More here: Ronnie Simpson Safe

Optimum Route on GSC

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Displacement boats, like Frank, rely on the length of hull in the water to counterbalance the wind in the sails & generate movement through the sea. Planing boats use forwards momentum through the water to lift the hull dynamically out of the water, reducing resistance and increasing speed with a direct transfer of wind power from the sails to the boat’s direction.

So a displacement boat has a speed limiter. Its length of hull in the water determines the max amount of wind power that it can convert into movement.

Great job by Philippe Delamare: he “has sailed only 800 Nautical miles in excess of the theoretical route with a “wastage” of just 3.2%”

https://globalsolochallenge.com/100-days-everest/

Mowgli.
Philippe Delamare ahead of the GSC pack.

New Sails

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I bought this new fully-battened mainsail last year. These pics are from the local UK Sails guy, Doug Weakly, in Corpus.

Doug ran the mainsail up the newly-installed tracking, installed by Matt Sebring at Coastal Bend, who also arranged the sail making. UK Sails’ loft in in Houston.

UK Sails – https://www.uksailmakers.com/lofts/texas/

Coastal Bend Yacht Services: Matthew Sebring cbyscc@gmail.com 361-461-4067

The sail is strengthened to give protection against high winds. The full battens will provide extra stiffness. Hopefully I’ll get out to sea next spring, to try them out!

Stern View
View from Starboard

GSC – S&S 34

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Amongst the entrants for the Global Solo Challenge (GSC), you may have noticed a yacht to be skippered by Daffyd Hughes, an S&S 34.

One of the smallest yachts in the fleet that will set off on the circumnavigation next year. This yacht is only 34 feet in length, but it was designed by the great designer Olin Stephens of the American Company Sparkman & Stephens.

Continue on the GSC site.. https://globalsolochallenge.com/sparkman-stephens-en/