A downwind Transat Jacques Vabre in light airs to test the speeds of the new craft… A Transat Ecover B to B to sound out the boat in harsher conditions (not to mention the BWR) and there you have both the sailors and the shore crews confronted with the reality of the terrain. Doubtless the Christmas break will give the architects, yards, project managers and preparateurs the opportunity to give their grey matter a work-out prior to attacking the big spring clean-up operation. The crunch question is : “In terms of the quest for weight-saving and the hunt for power, how far is too far?”

The reason for this is that ocean racing today remains a domain in which the empiricism largely contends scientific calculations. This is due to the fact that though the aerodynamic models are relatively well controlled, it’s a very different matter for the passage of a sailboat at sea, water refusing to play ball with reassuring modelling... In other words, it reshuffles the cards. Behind even minor damage, there are many questions which need answering: was it the sailor who overstretched the machine? Was the scantling calculated from various working comparisons enough? Was it simply down to bad luck? Given the number of ‘limping boats’ racing this winter, there are clearly going to be a number of questions flying about, with the inevitable resulting discussions between the ‘conservatives’ and the ‘revolutionists’ and the often fine line between their own concerns and obsessions. We can bet that for a project manager haunted by the fear of broken gear leading to retirement from the race, will err towards prudence, whilst a skipper will doggedly defend the idea of snatching back a few umpteenths of a knot. One thing for sure, discussions are clearly likely to be lively over the festive period....

It’s worth remembering here that there are two elementary rules verified by generations of long-haul sailors: “The main thing which defines a tour de force is success” and secondly “in the end it’s the sea that sorts out rough from the smooth”.  Good luck to them all...

Translation KJ