Crazy People...or at least very, very brave and skillful

This is from a few years ago, but the race is in progress right now.

Amazing technology, beyond state of the art. Here's a short glimpse of what they are dealing with. Cruising at 18-25+ knots, the boats are capable of 35+ knots, but lots of stuff starts breaking then.




The current Hugo Boss was in the lead, but it had a structural failure and is attempting carbon fiber repairs at sea, by himself. You see, these nuts are racing around the world at breakneck speeds SOLO.

Hugo Boss site

Lots of related vids, different boats on YT. Just wow...

Click on the Alex Thompson racing at the top of the page above for all kinds of good stuff.

One more video and I'll leave you alone.

Update on conditions he just went dealt with passing thru a front.

Well he almost has it fixed, has been sailing for a couple of days in calm weather while continuing his repairs.

Another video, this time on the latest America's Cup boats. These things are almost aircraft vs sailboats.



The tech and the skills are amazing.

I have to post a couple of more America's Cup boats vids, as they might as well be super high tech sailplanes as well as sailboats.



Also, like an aircraft, it looks like they can stall too! with no altitude for recovery...



I am going to follow the America's Cup this year. These boats are amazing. Something to do over the Christmas break.

Watched quite a few of these new designs and they do quite literally do fly like a hydroplane with they way the direct the foils to keep the hull out of the water.
And do they ever move out. Wipe outs are spectacular.

Well poor Alex Thomson is packing it in, heading for Cape Town SA with an unfixable rudder. Bad luck for him this time around.

https://www.alexthomsonracing.com/the-hub/2020/11/28/alex-thomson-ceases-racing-in-the-vendee-globe/

Meanwhile another boat reported taking on water some 550 miles from Cape Town. He has activated his Emergency beacon and the nearest racer is on the way to his last know position.

Gotta be lonely out there in a liferaft...

Crazy is a matter of perspective. Forty some-odd years ago I was watching mogul racing, which was relatively new at the time, with some friends. One of the guys said that it looked crazy and that you'd never catch him doing it and a couple others echoed the sentiment.

We were watching it because the winds were too high for us to skydive that day.

That's a massive NOPE from me. Nightmare fuel.

Agreed Ajay. Too many of those "little" tiger sharks for me.

Pretty much miraculously plucked from the sea at night, he's ok. Picked up in big seas, 30 kt winds by a very flimsy sailboat!

His boat broke in half and sunk in SECONDS!

Wow, how he hopped up onto the roof to raise that flag at speed and under waves. Wow.

That's a man right there.