The Vendée Globe will likely see a new record time set in the edition which starts this Sunday 8 November, with Hugo Boss skipper Alex Thomson suggesting a finish “between 59 and 70 days depending on the weather”.
Such a result would more the smash the 74 days it took Armel Le Cléac’h to round the globe in his IMOCA 60 Banque Populaire in the 2016-17 edition.
In the three years since that achievement, the Vendée Globe website says that IMOCA 60 package has improved in three crucial aspects: foils, data and skipper safety.
“The obvious evolution of foils is in their size,” Le Cléac’h says. “Four years ago we were just in the early stages of these new appendages. But the surface areas have changed a lot.
“In the end it is logical that, as with every Vendée Globe cycle, speeds increase and so everything progresses. Autopilots, data sensors and closed cockpits — everything is targeting at delivering or living with more speed.
“But at these speeds, the boats are transmitting big slams and shocks and the skippers have to adapt to this extreme level of discomfort.”
Aiding them in this respect will be the new fibre optic sensors installed on all boat elements that are under stress. These will transmit vital information to each skipper’s onboard data centre.
But perhaps the biggest difference is in the AI systems driving the boat’s autopilots, giving skippers more freedom to concentrate on the fine adjustments that could be the clincher for a new world record.
And in the case of Thomson and his array of screens that monitor every key part of his boat, that can all be done while being protected from the elements.
The Vendée Globe website has more on the story HERE.
