Rob to be Skipper by the end?

Interesting early peek at this tri. No doubt it will be a fearsome beast. Trouble is, Gabart, despite his mono achievements is going to be on very steep learning curve. Is Desjoyeaux going to tutor him again!?

Rudder with tubercles has been speculated about already, but how about the taper on the top of the daggerboards? Just weight savings? Fore-aft cant?

The hull to deck chamfer should reduce weight and also lower the VCG.

You can actually see the beacon on the photo, slightly west and south of the middle of a line between Alvi Medical and Vestas, less than 2 miles from the wreck. It must have shown up on the Radar. A 50 metre alarm on the sounder should also have alerted the crew of the situation. I'm sorry but I do not agree this was just bad luck.

Great result. The T foils (on the 70fter!) really paid off altho it sounds as though Josse kept up a pretty high work rate. I like his analogy of flying down the trades like an albatross!

Cannot get the videos to play

Speaking from my A-cat sailing experience, the issue of light air downwind sailing is facilitated by sailing a hotter angle - even almost a beam reach to keep boat speed up. I am a believer! I can't wait to see the new boats in action.

Poor Thomas, he's fated never to beat Joyon!! But Joyon is trailing the newer boats. As is Spindrift. Maybe 130ft really is too much for one person. I'd like to see Lemonchois/Prince de Bretagne do well. 80ft plus twin foils on each float could be the right solution. But Peyron is going so well, he's a success whatever boat he's on!

 Thanks for that James. I decided against visiting St Malo this time, so your pics and potted history are most welcome.

I should add here that the configuration shown here is one that happens to work out as the most cost effective solution for this particular older generation design. T foil ends, inward L and J's, outward L's and T's all have their pros and cons - be very interesting to see what does come out eventually - BUT, they are all constrained by IMOCA rules and thats where a 'normal' DSS solution differs when outside of Imoca constraints. Some of those solutions may fall within the boundaries of our DSS patents, some will not - and there are many factors to be considered when deciding on a route to take for an IMOCA legal 60. With several new build projects on the board at the moment we have very different solutions to fit each design's requirements, and none of them will be as shown above!

Official statement from IMOCA: IMOCA class and appendages – evolution, not revolution At their General Assembly on 15 October, the members of the IMOCA class confirmed the current rule will be maintained thus allowing work to go ahead on boat appendages provided they respect the rule set out in 2013. Since the keels and masts are now one-design under the new rule, designers and engineers predictably are focussing on the appendages. Based on their multihull experience, many of the new projects are working on the introduction of foils or other appendages. It is however a very complex technology and a number of avenues for research are currently being explored. The press release issued about the Dynamic Stability System (DSS) technology and lateral foils aimed at improving the righting moment shows one such possibility. Although the company behind this concept may be dealing with certain IMOCA teams to equip some boats under construction, we know that many other solutions are being investigated. In this respect, IMOCA highlights the fact that no specific technological process has been proven, and that IMOCA’s sole function is to check that the boats conform to the rule. The DSS technology is one of the paths that might be followed, but it is not the only one. Moreover it is part of the beauty of the class that it remains open to innovation and rejects no initiative insofar as it respects the constraints of the rule.

IMOCA's official statement on their website: http://imoca.azimut.net/en/news/703-imoca-class-and-appendages--evolutio...

Ouch - apologies. Comes from his sailing with a boatload of Kiwis last time. Fortunately this is the internet and can be corrected 'like it never happened...'

Finally, someone actually reporting on the race and not the dolphins..... Bravo Mr Boyd

Chris Nicholson...NZL? Really?

hi James Are you going to be doing the daily updates like in previous ?

Congrats guys! And thanks for some competition adrenalin!