Down by the ice gates, it’s getting colder and there have been periods of strong wind. The skippers with well-tried and tuned boats that they have already sailed in all possible conditions are making it look straightforward, but it isn’t really. Listen to Jonny Malbon, a competent skipper with a powerful boat that he hasn’t had time to get to know, and you’ll get a feel for all the things that you need to have under control before you can push your boat as hard and continuously as the first six, who are still only 100 miles apart, and swapping places almost every time one decides to relax a little.
It’s interesting to compare two very different single-handed craft that have passed the south of Africa during the last few days, sailing much the same course in the same weather system:
- the top Vendée boats, Ocean 60 monohulls with canting keels, have been making about 400 miles a day.
- Thomas Coville’s Sodeb’O, a 105-foot trimaran, has just beaten her own 24-hour world sailing record to make 620.8 miles. After a slow start, he now looks capable of beating the current round-the-world record.
Gone are the days of displacement hull speeds proportional to the square root of waterline length. The ratio here is nearly linear.
