Space Launch System

At NASA facilities around the country, engineers are developing America's first exploration-class rocket since the Saturn V launched astronauts to the moon. The Space Launch System (SLS) will provide an entirely new capability for science and human exploration beyond Earth's orbit to destinations such as an asteroid and eventually Mars. To enable some of these new capabilities, members of the Aeroelasticity Branch of NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. tested a ten-foot-long buffet model of the Space Launch System in Langley's Transonic Dynamics Tunnel (TDT).

"This is a critical milestone for the design of the vehicle," said Langley research engineer, Dave Piatak.

Data retrieved will help prepare SLS for its first mission in 2017, Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), which will deliver an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to lunar orbit to check out the vehicle's systems.

But before SLS's first flight, the safety vehicle must be demonstrated through analysis and testing. An important step in ensuring a safe flight to orbit is buffet wind-tunnel testing to help determine launch vehicle structural margins.

To do this, a wind-tunnel model is put through its paces at transonic and low supersonic speeds reaching up to Mach 1.2. Testing aerodynamics at these speeds is essential to understanding the structural interaction to the flow field around the vehicle and determining loads on the flight vehicle.

"The test includes the largest integrated vehicle model to be tested in a wind tunnel for SLS," John Blevins, SLS Lead Engineer for Aerodynamics and Acoustics. "It will simulate the environment of transonic flight that the SLS rocket will navigate during its flight. The Transonic Dynamics Tunnel at Langley affords a unique simulation capability among national facilities."

The amount of data acquired from the SLS model is enormous. To be exact, 360 miniature unsteady pressure transducers on the model's surface are measured using a data acquisition system scanning at thirteen thousand scans-per-second.

That's a lot of scans.

These transducers are like tiny microphones, which allow engineers to measure the unsteady flow that exposes the vehicle to rapidly changing forces during its flight through the atmosphere.

Unlike the rigid SLS buffet wind-tunnel model, the real launch vehicle is quite flexible.

The rocket will bend and shake in response to forces during flight, and engineers use tests like this to determine that the resulting bending loads and vibrations are within the launch vehicle’s safe limits.

They will use the data from this test to determine the structural safety margins of the vehicle. Buffet forces measured during wind-tunnel testing will be applied to a computational structural model of the launch vehicle to determine what kind of bending forces and accelerations the vehicle can handle.

"A structural dynamic analysis will predict the response of the launch vehicle due to dynamic events such as liftoff, buffet, wind gusts at high altitudes, staging, and engine start up and shut down," Piatak explained. "It is an important process for ensuring a safe flight for not only the launch vehicle but also any payload that it carries to orbit."

Once the data is retrieved and analyzed, NASA's engineers can refine the design of the SLS vehicle using the buffet model before the full-size rocket is built for flight tests.

After completing EM-1, SLS will perform its second mission in 2021, Exploration Mission-2, launching Orion with its first crew of astronauts to demonstrate orbit around the moon.

"This is the greatest job," Piatak said. "To be working on rockets that will launch the next era of exploration is very exciting and the stuff of children's dreams. I can't wait to see this fly."

Cassini and Saturn's polar regions

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been traveling the Saturnian system in a set of inclined, or tilted, orbits that give mission scientists a vertigo-inducing view of Saturn's polar regions. This perspective has yielded images of roiling storm clouds and a swirling vortex at the center of Saturn's famed north polar hexagon.

These phenomena mimic what Cassini found at Saturn's south pole a number of years ago. Cassini has also seen storms circling Saturn's north pole in the past, but only in infrared wavelengths because the north pole was in darkness. But, with the change of the Saturnian seasons, the sun has begun to creep over the planet's north pole. This particular set of raw, unprocessed images was taken on Nov. 27, 2012, from a distance of about 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) from Saturn.

Some more of the Vendee...

For the first time since the race started, Vendée race fans have a split fleet to watch. With a split-high scenario setting up over the next couple of days, Jean-Pierre Dick on Virbac-Paprec 3 has made a ballsy move and gybed onto starboard and away from the rest of the lead pack on Monday morning. Owning the West and sailing almost due South, the two-time Barcelona World Race champ hopes to be the first sailor in the fleet to hook into the strong Westerlies that will propel the fleet into the Southern Ocean. Race leader Armel Le Cleac’h has opted to work east, stay north and attempt to sail straight for the Aigulles Ice Gate; the first ice gate of the race. MACIF skipper Francois Gabart stuck to Cleac’h’s hip and attempted to follow the race veteran but eventually gybed to cover Dick, setting up this split-fleet scenario. Given all of the chaos at the front of the fleet, Alex Thomson has followed Banque Pop and has moved into second place on the tracker, with Bernard Stamm on Cheminees Poujoulat, maintaining a similar heading, some 50 miles West. Important to note is that at this point, the tracker positions are somewhat irrelevant and probably short-lived.

After a miserably slow crossing of the doldrums, Arnaud Boissieres on Akenda Verandas has had a ripping ride ever since. Consistently posting 24-hour runs either near or at the top of the fleet, “Cali” has been on a tear, moving up to just west of Spaniard Javier “Bubi” Sanso on Acciona 100% Ecopowered, who is still playing catch up in his new-generation Owen Clarke designed boat after his pit stop in the Canary Islands to ascend his rig. Tanguy de Lamotte continues to wow fans around the world with his jaw-dropping performance on his three-generation old Lombard designed Initiatives-couer, still holding onto tenth place on the leaderboard, although this will probably be short-lived as his Easterly course becomes less favored in the next 24 to 48 hours, as Acciona and Akena Verandas hook into northerlies and begin a sleigh ride that should take them towards Gough Island and the Roaring 40’s in rapid fashion. Bertrand de Broc on Votre nom Autour du Monde is finally re-gaining his step after joining Boissieres in an equally miserable crossing of the doldrums.

After hitting a floating metal “harbor buoy” that had presumably broken loose and was left to drift around the Atlantic, ’04-’05 Vendée Champ Vincent Riou onboard PRB has officially abandoned the Vendée Globe and is slowly limping into port in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. With a 1-meter long tear near the bow of his VPLP/ Verdier designed Open 60, there was significant delamination to the outer skin of the hull, with crushed-in honeycomb core. Riou, a composites expert, was able to fix the tear in the hull, but was unable to fix the real problem; a damaged outrigger shroud. Shockingly, as if some sort of bad joke, Vincent Riou has now abandoned two consecutive Vendée Globes after sustaining damage to an outrigger. In the ’08-’09 race, Riou turned around to rescue the capsized, keel bulb-less Jean Le Cam, damaging his outrigger on Le Cam’s keel fin in the process. A day later, Riou’s yacht dismasted and he was awarded a share of third place as re-dress. I’ll bet he goes with a classic rig next time!

Stay tuned for our next update in 3-4 days, this is turning into an epic race!

World Sailing Speed Record

"We hit it hard and the acceleration was rapid," "We went straight into the 60s. The pod was instantly high and I sheeted in as hard as I could to try and get it down. I was now adding a pre-fix to 'fast'. It was now 'This is fucking fast'. That word is there for moments like this. I believe it ceases to be swearing." No kidding!

http://youtu.be/pipGWQmerEQ

Surfing Super Bowl is Paddle Only

Here is a story from the San Francisco Chronicle: As a surfer, there has been a back and forth ever since the advent of the tow-in launch (a jet ski pulls a surfer rather than just using arms to paddle) as to whether it constitutes a true achievement. Some think it is cheating to tow-in, it takes more strength and guts to paddle for a twenty foot wave than to be towed in. I have never towed, but I see why it helps on big waves, but it is not true surfing. It would be like riding a bike in a marathon. The issue is the tow will get you up to speed and in position to catch the wave, verses paddling. The wave is going faster than you can paddle so it is harder to catch the wave, so you have to be in a position that puts you at greater risk of having the wave crash on top of you or 'going over the falls'.

The Northern California surf season is here, in all its glory. Crisp, clear days in between the rainstorms, with favorable offshore winds and sublime options from Humboldt County to Santa Cruz. Mavericks broke off the coast of Half Moon Bay last week, at a sort of medium-range size, with the biggest swells yet to come.

When that happens, it will mark the latest phase of a revolution. Big-wave surfing has undergone a major shift in philosophy, and there are no more serious practitioners than those preparing for the Mavericks contest, slated to take place during the most optimum conditions between now and March 31.

This contest has become something of a myth, gone missing for two years. "Lack of surf" was the official reason, but there were other roadblocks, notably the film crews shooting "Chasing Mavericks" - a surprisingly tolerable Hollywood treatment of the late Jay Moriarity and the Santa Cruz surfing community - and issues within the event's organizational structure, from internal squabbling to the struggles to obtain sponsorship.

Everything seems to be in place this time, but whether the contest goes off or not, rest assured that there will be giant waves at Mavericks, challenged by competitors intent on restoring the essence and purity of big-wave riding.

That is to say, no more cheap thrills.

"I vividly remember walking away from some tow sessions feeling so unfulfilled," said Greg Long, who got in some warm-up sessions at Mavericks last week and will be among the favorites to win the contest. "Like I didn't really push or challenge myself. You might go faster, get deeper, catch a thousand more, but it's not about the quantity. Maybe you'll wait hours for just one wave, but when it comes, and you turn and go, and it's the most hair-raising drop and a race to the channel, and when you kick out, you'll remember that wave for the rest of your life."

The advent of tow-in surfing changed the sport in the early '90s. Thanks to Jet Skis, tow-ropes, smaller boards and foot straps, surfers were whipped into waves previously deemed too big - or at the very least, too dangerous - for anyone who dared to paddle his or her way in.

This was a wondrous development for several years, left in the capable hands of such teams as Laird Hamilton-Darrick Doerner, Ken Bradshaw-Dan Moore, Peter Mel-Kenny Collins and Moriarity-Jeff Clark. It was wild, adventurous and new, and it was plainly shocking to watch surfers carving huge turns and setting up for tube rides on wave faces up to 70 feet. The ultimate testing ground was Peahi (or "Jaws") on Maui, but the trend spread worldwide, especially noteworthy on the biggest days at Mavericks.

There were fundamental issues, however, that could not be ignored. It was bad enough to see previously empty lineups filled with noisy, gas-guzzling machines, all revved-up and jostling for position. The process became unsatisfying, as well. Getting towed into these waves, like a carefree water skier, was just too easy.

There's a long-standing rule in surfing: If surfers are paddling in, the tow crews aren't welcome.

The game changer for riding big waves, some say, came on a foggy day in December 2008. Several tow-in crews were on hand at Mavericks, for it was a nasty, frightening day deemed too big to paddle. But a handful of surfers, including Nathan Fletcher and Kohl Christensen, gave it a shot - and pulled it off. "Definitely one of the pivotal moments in the paddle-in movement," Long said. "We were all thinking, what else is possible?"

Later that winter, a handful of Brazilian surfers, including the esteemed Danilo Couto, began paddling into waves at Jaws - initially on smaller days, but breaking new ground with each ensuing session. Shane Dorian, widely considered the most talented big-wave rider in the world, has led the way since then. Much of their success is due to refinement of their big-wave "gun" boards, now sleeker and shorter (in the range of 10 feet, 4 inches to 10-6) and with a four-fin alignment.

But an essential element was simple bravado: a sense that old-school thinking was passe, and that a barrier was there to be broken. Jaws became the epicenter of the revolution, the Jet Skis largely vanished, and under the right conditions - relatively smooth seas on that notoriously windy part of Maui - historically successful rides are going down with the arrival of each big swell, most recently in the second week of October.

"You're talking about guys who have always been enthusiastic about paddling, guys who spent years heading to the outer reefs (of Oahu's North Shore) to do it all by themselves," said Dave Wassel, a North Shore lifeguard who finished fourth in the 2010 Mavericks contest. "I don't think you should ever put your life on the line with a machine, anyhow. It's electric, and that doesn't mix with saltwater. You should learn to depend on yourself and nothing else."

To get a true grasp of the brand of surfer in question, consider what occurred five months ago when the pro surfing tour arrived in Fiji. The legendary Cloudbreak was going off with faces up to 40 feet and beyond, and yet with surrealistic perfection over a shallow reef. It looked like a video game, or some kind of cartoon. The pro contest was launched, but only for an hour or so. Thanks to a bit of wind-chop, it looked entirely too crazy. "Everyone would have gone out there and done their best," said 10-time tour champion Kelly Slater. "Someone would have drowned, that's all."

As it happened, some two dozen of the world's best big-wave riders were on the scene, hoping to catch that swell in some form. They wound up taking over, grateful for the opportunity, and as the evil wind subsided, they spent a full day enjoying what the well-traveled Hawaiian, Ian Walsh, called "the best waves I've ever seen anywhere in the world." Without a Jet Ski or a tow-rope in sight.

Weighing the elements of size, consequence, length of ride and performance level, this was unquestionably the greatest day in the history of big-wave surfing.

Mavericks is a paddle-in contest - always was, always will be - and if you check the list of invitees and alternates, you'll find Fletcher, Christensen, Wassel, Couto, Dorian, Grant (Twiggy) Baker, Mark Healey, the Long brothers (Greg and Rusty), Garrett McNamara, Jamie Mitchell and Carlos Burle, all of whom recently made their paddle-in mark at Jaws or on that insane day at Cloudbreak - or both - not to mention the hardy mainstays of the Northern California crew.

A revolution is at hand, with integrity at its core.

Golden Gate Bridge view trail

Perched on a bluff west of the Golden Gate Bridge, you'll find the foundation of Battery Godfrey (1895-1943); fantastic views of the bridge, Marin Headlands and entrance to the bay; and a trailhead for the Coastal Trail. Set in the Presidio, Battery Godfrey was a turn-of-the-century military site armed with three 12-inch guns that could fire 1,000-pound shells 10 miles. What's left is the concrete structure that supported the cannons.

This one is a 10, worth the trip no matter where you live. It's often best when turbulent skies offer textures to the setting. To your right is a magazine-cover-quality view of the Golden Gate Bridge. From the Coastal Trail, the cliffs plunge to the water and extend to the entrance of the bay, where ships, fishing boats and sailboats pass. Directly across are the Marin Headlands, topped by Hawk Hill and tipped by Point Bonita and its lighthouse.

The payoff spot on the Coastal Trail is a spot called "Overlook," with a bench set perfectly for a view of the bridge. The trail extends north a short distance to the toll plaza, where you can walk under the road to the well known designated overlook near the southern foot of the bridge above Fort Point. If you instead venture south on the Coastal Trail, it is routed along Lincoln Boulevard to Battery Chamberlain and Baker Beach, and beyond to China Beach.

Vendée Globe update...

There's no denying that the Vendée Globe is a race of attrition. Twenty skippers started from Les Sables d'Olonne on November 10, and before the fleet was even 25% of the way around the course, 35% had retired from damage to their fragile boats, the latest being Vincent Riou on PRB.
This weekend Riou, the winner of the '04-05 edition of the race, reported he'd hit a wayward navigation buoy in the middle of the Atlantic. "It was a huge metal buoy, something you find in a commercial port," he reported. "Because it was almost submerged it must have been at sea a long time. I think the buoy was half air and half water. The Vendée Globe turns on very small details like rubbish you can find on the water.”
Initially, he thought he'd be able to continue the race after he repaired the hull, but closer inspection of the carbon-fiber outrigger shroud revealed the damage was too great. He announced his retirement yesterday. "I thought really hard before making the decision, I wanted to make sure there was no other possibility for me to be able to continue in the race," he said. "But at one point you have to be resigned, I just couldn’t continue with a boat in that state."
That leaves 13 boats on the course in three packs and one straggler. The lead pack — Armel Le Cléac'h (Banque Populaire), Fraçois Gabart (MACIF), Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac Paprec), Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) and Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat) — have passed Rio and are on their way to the Cape of Good Hope, while the straggler — Alessandro Di Benedetto (Team Plastique) — just crossed the equator this morning.

Portland Hike

 Sunday started with fog and cold. A stop at a coffee shop for something to get me ready for an 8 mile hike. Of course being Portland, the service was terrible. I finally got my stuff and walked to the meeting location, at a near by park. Here I would meet up with the rest of the group and start up the hill into Forest Park. The total distance for this hike was seven miles and we would go up and down. I don't hike with groups much, but I heard they were doing this hike and I decided to tag along.

 Typical Portland, wet and muddy but it wasn't to bad and the walking took care of the cold. The last part of the trail followed a nice stream and the sound of running water is nice to have. A lot more people on the lower part of the trail, not as many up in the hills.

 Lots of water and streams but this is the largest one.

After the walk, the fog was gone and it finally cleared up, still cold but not to bad and no rain...

Vestas Sailrocket new record

68 knots!!!! 65.45 average 68.01 knots for 1 second. I am... speechless. Performance sailing has entered a new era.

Vendee Update

Leaders are now off the coast of Brazil

Now two weeks into this Vendée Globe race, the dust is beginning to settle on an ever-shrinking fleet of Open 60’s that is rapidly reaching South, the equator in their wakes and Roaring 40’s over the horizon. A definite pecking order has been established by this point of the race with the fleet compressing in the doldrums, only to stretch back out in it’s original formation. At the top of the fleet, the sisterships “Banque Populaire” and “MACIF” still lead with the fleet’s other two VPLP’s, “PRB” and “Virbac-Paprec 3”still in hot pursuit. The latter 3 boats quickly legged out on the Juan K designed “Cheminees Poujoulat” and previous generation Farr “Hugo Boss” after the 5 boats found themselves virtually re-starting the Vendée in the doldrums, oftentimes drifting around as one 5-boat cluster of carbon and flogging racing sails.

Bernard Stamm’s “Cheminees Poujoulat” even flogged a genoa so hard in the light-air mess after a squall that the sail ripped itself on a daggerboard! Meanwhile, the 3 oldest skippers in the fleet continue to sail in close formation some 300 miles back of the leaders, while Acciona and skipper “Bubi” Sanso attempt to bridge the gap and re-engage the middle of the pack, having cleared the doldrums while the fleet’s backmarkers are still floundering in the dreaded ITCZ, called “the worst ever” by previous Vendée winner Vincent Riou. And in an unfortunate announcement that many of us saw coming, Polish skipper “Gutek” has officially abandoned the race on “Energa”, and has sailed to port in the Canary Islands. The leaders are now approaching a complex Saint Helena High which will create opportunities to gain miles on competitors.

BREAKING NEWS: Vincent Riou on “PRB” has hit a floating metal “buoy” and has sustained damage to the bow of his Open 60. He will be evaluating the situation and making necessary repairs if feasible. The hull has become torn and delaminated for about one meter on the starboard side of the bow. This comes just a week after Riou’s last scare, when he hit a floating tree trunk at 18 knots.

7 skippers penalized for violating Traffic Separation Scheme off Finisterre

Following the protest by both “Hugo Boss” and the Race Committee, 7 boats in the fleet have been penalized for violating the Finisterre Traffic Separation scheme. Seeing as how two fishing boats were hit by screaming Open 60’s with presumably sleeping skippers, this is an issue that the Vendée Globe is taking very seriously. The penalized boats were “Synerciel, Mirabaud, Acciona, Initiatives-couer and Energa”, who were all given 2-hour time penalties. “Gamesa” was given a 30-minute penalty and “Virbac-Paprec 3” was given a 20-minute penalty. Javier Sanso on “Acciona” and Tanguy de Lamotte on “Initiatives-couer” both appealed the jury’s ruling, but lost their appeals. Per race rules, the skippers had two days to take their penalties, and all have now done so.

Gutek officially retires

Polish skipper Zbigniew “Gutek” Gutkowski has retired to Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. The previous generation Finot/ Conq design (ex-Hugo Boss) had been plagued with problems since Day 1, and most recently had sustained autopilot failures which reported in his crash-gybing and badly wrapping a gennaker around his forestay. Sailing East to test both of his autopilots after updating the software, he had to resign himself to his inner thoughts:

“Today I need to officially announce what I’ve been thinking about for days.. Being brave is not only about fighting, it is also about knowing where to stop. I know I did everything I could, working on my electronics issues for many days. I know my team and friends did their best as well. And I am extremely grateful for the huge support I got. But I can’t carry on like that. When there is big wind and when the boat is going over 15 knots the autopilot starts to live a second life, doing whatever it wants.... Having no autopilot means I can’t race, and if I can’t race, I have to retire.”

Beyou’s keel jack failure...

Jeremie Beyou, skipper of “Maitre CoQ”, has discovered what may be an explanation for his keel jack failure: “It probably happened as we were leaving the front off the Canary Islands. There was a 40-knot wind and a very rough cross sea. As I was going down after surfing a wave, I must have hit a UFO with the side of my keel bulb, because you can clearly see an impact there. This probably put an unusual pressure on the keel head. And then time passed and a couple of days later, the jack head broke because it had been weakened by the shock. After a thorough analysis of the part and discussions with experts, that's te likeliest explanation”, says the two-time Figaro winner.

ESO 499-G37: A Loose Spiral Galaxy

The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted the spiral galaxy ESO 499-G37, seen here against a backdrop of distant galaxies, scattered with nearby stars.

The galaxy is viewed from an angle, allowing Hubble to reveal its spiral nature clearly. The faint, loose spiral arms can be distinguished as bluish features swirling around the galaxy’s nucleus. This blue tinge emanates from the hot, young stars located in the spiral arms. The arms of a spiral galaxy have large amounts of gas and dust, and are often areas where new stars are constantly forming.

The galaxy’s most characteristic feature is a bright elongated nucleus. The bulging central core usually contains the highest density of stars in the galaxy, where typically a large group of comparatively cool old stars are packed in this compact, spheroidal region.

One feature common to many spiral galaxies is the presence of a bar running across the center of the galaxy. These bars are thought to act as a mechanism that channels gas from the spiral arms to the center, enhancing the star formation.

Vendee updates

News Flash:

Stamm still suffering from the Doldrums

Le Cam vows to attack the British

Fleet News:

Thomson closes Atlantic Workshop after fixing hydrogenerator

Boissières’s Doldrums nightmare is over

News Flash:

The Doldrums can continue to bite long after you have left them and Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat) revealed on Friday that he has been struggling to keep pace in the lead group because he has been unable to use his genoa.

The large genoa sail would be the one out of the nine allowed in a skipper’s sail wardrobe he would be using in these reaching conditions, with the boat heeled over 30 degrees.

“The sea was pretty chaotic and in a windless area, the boat was shaken really hard, one of the centreboards went up and it tore up the genoa,” Stamm said. “In order to keep progressing, I had to take a route that goes further east than the others, otherwise it would have slowed me down a lot.”

Stamm has also been busy taking care of an autopilot issue and he hasn't been able to sleep much lately. “I'll soon be done with the repairs, the end of he punishment is coming.” Stamm said.

The damage and problems explains Stamm’s more easterly position compared to the rest of the boats chasing Armel Le Cléac’h (Banque Populaire). Stamm slipped to fifth on the ranking this morning, but the truth is he is behind Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) as the boats will have to head deep south before they can head east because the St Helena High is active.

Perhaps the most interesting thing was that Stamm chose to reveal his problem. Most of the skippers are masters at showing sang-froid in live broadcasts even if all hell is breaking out on their boat. Thomson was certainly very interested in Stamm’s news when he heard it on the Vendee Globe live broadcast on Friday. “Did I hear you say that Bernard has blown his genoa?” Thomson, who has been busy with his own repairs on his hydrogenerator, asked.

Meanwhile, Jean Le Cam (SynerCiel), in his inimitable fashion, was broadcasting his own message to the fleet and particularly those he believes are in his sights.

“The boat is going so fast, I left the Swiss (Dominique Wavre (Mirabaud) behind and it’s now time to attack my British friend. The next ones to pass are foreigners. First Golding, then a Swiss (Stamm), then another Brit (Thomson), I’m definitely into international hunting. The skippers after them are all from Lorient or Port-la-Forêt, not as much fun. I don’t care about my actual speed, I just want to make sure I’m faster than the others. And I am faster than Wavre and Golding.”

It was fighting talk from Le Cam and half tongue in cheek (perhaps a quarter with regard to the Brits) and he is only six miles ahead of Wavre and still 50 behind Mike Golding (Gamesa) as the second chasing group head south, losing a little ground to the leaders.

Fleet news:

Alex Thomson, after averaging a couple of knots slower than the leading boats over the last 24 hours, was 118 miles behind Le Cléac’h at the 1600hrs (French time) ranking, but has closed his Atlantic workshop after fixing his hydrogenerator.

“The hydrogenerator back down and working which is relief and it’s nice to be able to concentrate on something other than fixing stuff,” Thomson said. “The temperature wasn’t too bad but it’s a really fiddly job; drill, clean, screw, while you’re doing that stuff at a 30 degrees of heel.

“I’ve been struggling a little bit over the last 24 hours to keep the speed up, but now I’ve got a more wind. There’s no question the guys at the front will slow a little bit as they get further down towards the ridge, but in these conditions the leading boats are a little bit quicker than I am.”

After an extended nightmare in the Doldrums, Arnaud Bossières (Akena Verandas) was finally getting back up to speed in 12^th, with speeds of 9.3 knots.

He is now part of the third group of four, separated by 90 miles, led by Javier ‘Bubi’ Sansó (Acciona 100% EcoPowered) who are heading south-west in light 7-9 knot south-easterlies.

After his storming run over the last three days Alessandro Di Benedetto (Team Plastique) has hit the Doldrums to the east and stalled. He has been making just 2.6 knots over the last four hours.

Meanwhile, one of those out of the race, Sam Davies (Savéol), was trying to hitch-hike to Cascais.

Scooter ride sights

Since this is a holiday week here in the US, and I had a day off in the middle of the week, I decided to take the scooter out for a ride and enjoy a rain-free day. Though it was cold and my fingers didn't like it much, even with gloves, I took a long ride up and around town and stopped at a few places to look at the views. While up in the Counsel Crest area of Portland, I stopped and took a picture of Mount Hood with a fresh coating of snow and a cloud sitting on top. It is a very prominent feature in town and the volcano being only about fifty miles away stands out on the horizon. Most of the lower mountains don't have snow yet, but Hood is starting to collect it's yearly covering of snow. There are glaciers on the mountain and the snow helps to refresh them. In the summer the Mountain starts to look grey rather than white due to the loss of snow.

Not to be out done, Mount Saint Helens also has a new fresh coating of snow. Actually St Helens looks like a smooth round dome to the peak of Hood. Of course you may remember that St Helens erupted back in the early 80's, the major damage from that is on the north side, so the southern side is still smooth and intact, just the top is missing.

Some of the Portland skyline with Hood hiding behind the buildings, when it is clear the mountain is striking and at sunset will take on a pink color from the setting sun. But this is Oregon, lots of rain and clouds so in winter seeing Hood can be a challenge.

Vestas Sailrocket 2

The team smashed not only the nautical mile record by over 5 knots averaging over 55.3 knots... but also raised their own 'Outright speed' record* to 59.38 knots over 500 meters hitting a peak speed of 64.78 knots (74.55 mph, 120 kph). 

http://youtu.be/sZVIj5TUSKE

Kappa Andromedae super-planet

Astronomers using infrared data from the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii have discovered a "super-Jupiter" around the bright star Kappa Andromedae, which now holds the record for the most massive star known to host a directly imaged planet or lightweight brown dwarf companion.

Designated Kappa Andromedae b (Kappa And b, for short), the new object has a mass about 12.8 times greater than Jupiter's. This places it teetering on the dividing line that separates the most massive planets from the lowest-mass brown dwarfs. That ambiguity is one of the object's charms, say researchers, who call it a super-Jupiter to embrace both possibilities.

"According to conventional models of planetary formation, Kappa And b falls just shy of being able to generate energy by fusion, at which point it would be considered a brown dwarf rather than a planet," said Michael McElwain, a member of the discovery team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "But this isn't definitive, and other considerations could nudge the object across the line into brown dwarf territory."

Massive planets slowly radiate the heat leftover from their own formation. For example, the planet Jupiter emits about twice the energy it receives from the sun. But if the object is massive enough, it's able to produce energy internally by fusing a heavy form of hydrogen called deuterium. (Stars like the sun, on the other hand, produce energy through a similar process that fuses the lighter and

much more common form of hydrogen.) The theoretical mass where deuterium fusion can occur -- about 13 Jupiters -- marks the lowest possible mass for a brown dwarf.

"Kappa And b, the previously imaged planets around HR 8799 a

nd Beta Pictoris, and the most massive planets discovered by non-imaging techniques likely all represent a class of object that formed in much the same way as lower-mass exoplanets," said lead researcher Joseph Carson, an astronomer at the College of Charleston, S.C., and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany.

The discovery of Kappa And b also allows astronomers to explore another theoretical limit. Astronomers have argued that large stars likely produce large planets, but experts predict that this stellar scaling can only extend so far, perhaps to stars with just a few times the sun's mass. The more massive a young star is, the brighter and hotter it becomes, resulting in powerful radiation that could disrupt the formation of planets within a circumstellar disk of gas and dust.

"This object demonstrates that stars as large as Kappa And, with 2.5 times the sun's mass, remain fully capable of producing planets," Carson adds.

The research is part of the Strategic Explorations of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru (SEEDS), a five-year effort to directly image extrasolar planets and protoplanetary disks around several hundred nearby stars using the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Direct imaging of exoplanets is rare because the dim objects are usually lost in the star's brilliant glare. The SEEDS project images at near-infrared wavelengths using the telescope's adaptive optics system, which compensates for the smearing effects of Earth's atmosphere, in concert with its High Contrast Instrument for the Subaru Next Generation Adaptive Optics and Infrared Camera and Spectrograph.

Young star systems are attractive targets for direct exoplanet imaging because young planets have not been around long enough to lose much of the heat from their formation, which enhances their brightness in the infrared. The team focused on the star Kappa And because of its relative youth -- estimated at the tender age of 30 million years, or just 0.7 percent the age of our solar system, based on its likely membership in a stellar group known as the Columba Association. The B9-type star is located 170 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Andromeda and is visible to the unaided eye.

Kappa And b orbits its star at a projected distance of 55 times Earth's average distance from the sun and about 1.8 times as far as Neptune; the actual distance depends on how the system is oriented to our line of sight, which is not precisely known. The object has a temperature of about 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit (1,400 Celsius) and would appear bright red if seen up close by the human eye.

Carson's team detected the object in independent observations at four different infrared wavelengths in January and July of this year. Comparing the two images taken half a year apart showed that Kappa And b exhibits the same motion across the sky as its host star, which proves that the two objects are gravitationally bound and traveling together through space. Comparing the brightness of the super-Jupiter between different wavelengths revealed infrared colors similar to those observed in the handful of other gas giant planets successfully imaged around stars.

A paper describing the results has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and will appear in a future issue.

The SEEDS research team is continuing to study Kappa And b to better understand the chemistry of its atmosphere, constrain its orbit, and search for possible secondary planets.

Coincidentally, the stellar association that hosts Kappa And also includes another famous high-mass star, HR 8799, which is one of the first where astronomers directly imaged an extrasolar planet. The system hosts several gas giant planets with masses and infrared colors similar to Kappa And b.

Vendee Hell...

This morning brought the bad news that Zbigniew 'Gutek' Gutkowski on Energa has bowed out of the Vendée Globe. From day one, Gutek has been struggling to overcome problems with his autopilots. Many calls to his shoreside team and many failed efforts at fixing the situation forced him to make the tough decision.
"Having no autopilot means I can't race, and if I can't race, I have to retire," he said in his retirement email to race officials. "I cannot go without an autopilot in the Southern Ocean, that is impossible. I need to keep the boat in one piece I don’t want to lose it and maybe my life in the Southern Ocean. Being brave is not only about fighting, it is also about knowing where to stop."
Gutek's retirement follows that of Jérémie Beyou on Maître CoQ, who dropped out late on Monday after failing to find a safe fix for his broken canting keel. "The situation is clear, the way the keel head is tied right now will resist the tide and has allowed me to go find shelter," he told race officials. "But it won't be enough to stand all the pressure and weight throughout the race around the world. I've started the engine. The race is over."
So that leaves 14 racers to tear their way around the globe. Leading the pack, as he has almost since the beginning, is Armel Le Cléac'h on Banque Populaire. "I've just crossed the equator and I'm drinking champagne, with a toast to Neptune, the boat and the skipper," he said as he cross the line today. "Now going south to Brazil. I'm not too drunk. I'm happy to be ahead, but there's only a very small gap — 40 miles is nothing in the Vendée Globe."

The legendary 83' Fife schooner ADVENTURESS sets sail after a three-year restoration at Rockport Marine in Rockport, Maine.

I love these old boats, wish I could have one or just sail on one for a day..
http://vimeo.com/offcenter/adventuress

Sam Davies and the Vendee

Some good Samaritans and a hard-working shore crew have Sam Davies back at sea.  Hopefully a borrowed mast from a wrecked First Class 8 in Madeira, a Laser sail and her O60 storm jib will get her home to France.  As long as she’s out there, we’ll be watching.  Meanwhile, while Armel Le Cleach continues to hold his lead on the fleet, just 4 miles separates the five boats who trail him.  Attrition aside, it’s setting up to be a serious battle as the fleet heads into the Southern Atlantic.

SpeedDream

SpeedDream started on the back of an envelope, a series of sketches outlining an idea that would one day become, providing it all worked, the world’s fastest monohull. But it’s a long way from sketch to reality and for a while the drawings sat lifeless in a desk drawer. First sail of the dream, these guys chased their dream and caught it!!!

62.53 knots peak and 59.23 knot average....

By SpeedDream's Brian Hancock
On a chilly, blustery day in Fall 2002 I made my way to Weymouth on the south coast of England. It was a pilgrimage of sorts. I have always been a huge fan of fast boats and back then Weymouth Speed Week was a Mecca for speed enthusiasts from around the world who came to do a timed run over a 500 meter course. Before I started sailing professionally boat names like Crossbow and Slingshot were burned indelibly into my mind. They were the revolutionary speedsters of the day, radical boats capable of unheard of speeds (which back then was around 30 knots.)
By the time I got to Weymouth kite boarders and wind surfers had taken over as the fastest sailing vessels and they were ripping it up close inshore where the wind was steady and the water flat. The main reason for my trip was to write an article about a brand new boat that a good mate, Paul Larsen, had built. He called his project Sailrocket and along with his partner Helena Darvelid they had come up with the first generation of what Paul called the 60-knot sailboat. It certainly was unlike any other boat I had ever seen. The origins of the design were in a book by the renown rocket scientist Bernard Smith entitled The 40 Knot Sailboat. Without complicating this story by trying to describe Smith’s concept, suffice is to say that it was a radically new way of thinking and the boat that Paul and Helena had built was futuristic in the extreme.
I chased Paul down the short course in a fast RIB but despite the conditions being almost perfect Sailrocket was barely able to hit 30 knots top speed. I know Paul was a bit disappointed; they were aiming for 50 but were also realistic in their expectations as those were early days. “There is a ton of room for development,” Paul told me. “For starters we have a soft sail. At some point we will build a fixed wing and that will greatly improve things.” Paul is nothing if not an eternal optimistic and his engaging enthusiasm leaves no one in doubt that he is on a mission to succeed. I left Weymouth that day optimistic, but secretly feeling that kite boarding was the future and an actual sailboat was never again going to hold the record.

Fast forward a decade and here is where the story starts to get interesting. Sailrocket is as much about dedication, determination and sheer guts as it is about fast sailing. It’s not easy to find funding for relatively obscure sailing projects and money for developing Sailrocket was always hard to come by. Weymouth fell out of favor with the record setting community and they took their boats and boards to a little known place on the west coast of Africa; the German settlement of Luderitz in Namibia. There they dug a trench that was perfectly aligned with the prevailing winds and in the flat water kite boarders simply dominated the top speeds. By the end of 2010 American Rob Douglas had shredded the course at an amazing average speed of 55.65 knots. Paul and Helena also set up camp in Namibia and continued their quest for speed. They had since landed the huge wind turbine company Vestus as a sponsor, and built a bigger, more refined Sailrocket. Over the previous decade progress had been consistent and they were able to reach peak speeds over 50-knots, but it was the average over the 500 meter course that counted.

As I mentioned, Sailrocket is as much about determination as anything technical. In 2008 while on a rip off the coast of Namibia in search of a record, Sailrocket quite literally took off. Half way down the course, having just cracked 50 knots of speed, the boat became airborne flipping completely and crash landing in a dozen splintered pieces. That could have been the end of the project; broken boat, broken dreams and worse yet, potentially a skipper with a broken nerve. Setting speed records are most definitely about nerve and keeping focused on the mission at hand and it was a smiling Larsen that proclaimed, “We’ll be back.” True to his word last April Vestus Sailrocket 2 (VSR2) was launched and with it came the hope of 50-plus, possibly even 60 knots of speed.

http://youtu.be/wnjyusAgk8I

This past week has been thrilling for anyone interested in speed records as well as those who believe in the quaint notion that dreams really can come true. After months of refining VSR2 and waiting for the perfect conditions Paul and his team were poised to try and better their best time. A small computer with a GPS is installed in the boat and it would record the peak speeds for the boat as well as the average over the 500 meter course. The record they were after was still the one set by kiteboarder Rob Douglas.

If you watch the video of the day you can see that the bay is quite calm, the only obstacle being a flock of flamingos. Further offshore where Paul and Sailrocket start their run it’s a bit choppier but they need room to get up to speed before entering the 500 meter zone and even from way off Sailrocket looked to be moving fast. Onboard Paul is mic’ed up and you can hear the excitement on his voice. “That’s fast,” he keeps repeating as Sailrocket starts to fill the frame. “That’s fast. This will do it, this will do it,” Paul states almost matter-of-factly and then its clear that it has been a record breaking run. The peak speed for the day was 62.53 knots with the average over the course a new world record of 59.23 knot average. Simply amazing. Two days later, after the hangover had subsided, Sailrocket broke it’s own record peaking at 64 knots and averaging 59.38 knots.

So while Bernard Smith almost outrageously predicted a 40-knot sailboat, he probably never in his wildest dreams imagined a 60-knot sailboat, but today it’s a reality. The persistent Sailrocket team have made history and written another chapter about the power of perseverance. It’s a great story with a storybook ending, but somehow I have the feeling that the final chapter of this book is yet to be written.

Prada and Emirates out

Nice couple of shots of Prada and NZ out in the AC 72's test sailing and maybe a little friendly competition. Looks goo and at least the boats are still in one piece. They really need to sail in the conditions of SF Bay in the summer, 20 - 30 knots with wind chop and fog.....

Vendee so far...

From Sailing Anarchy:

In just the past 100 plus hours, this seventh edition of the Vendée Globe has heated from a simmer to a full boil. At the front of the fleet, Armel Le Cléac’h and “Banque Populaire” have wrestled the lead away from young prodigy Francois Gabart onboard VPLP sistership “MACIF”. The duo is leading a six-boat pack on their approach towards the doldrums and the equator at a record-threatening pace. In the middle of the fleet, 3 veterans with multiple Vendée Globes under their belt are drag-racing south at warp speed to try to stay in touch with the lead group. Two more IMOCA 60’s have retired from the race, including crowd favorite Samantha Davies following a horrific dismasting in upwards of 35 knots of breeze, while the defending Vendée winning yacht (Matire Coq, ex-Foncia) of Jeremie Beyou has suffered hydraulic keel jack problems and has now announced his retirement from the race.

At the back of the pack, Polish skipper Zbigniew “Gutek” Gutkowski is hove-to to ascend the 90+ foot tall mast of “Energa” to cut away a gennaker sail which is badly wrapped around the forestay, and Javier “Bubi” Sanso has re-joined the race after ascending his own mast for repairs. The next several days promise to be full of action as the fleet’s leaders carefully choose the best longitudinal position to cross the dreaded doldrums, or ITCZ, offering lots of opportunity to make big gains, or unfortunate losses, on their competitors.

The dismasting of Samantha Davies onboard Savéol Undoubtedly the biggest headline of the race thus far is the dismasting of the incredibly popular and charming Briton Samantha Davies, winner of 4th place in the previous edition of the Vendée Globe. Beam-reaching in a 40-knot squall, Davies, the only female skipper in the fleet, went down below to prepare to tuck in the third-reef on her mainsail when her veteran yacht (ex-Veolia Entertainment, Neutrogena) launched off of a wave and slammed down, with the rig immediately crashing down upon impact.

"It was quite difficult conditions because I had just gone through the cold front and I had a really cross sea,” Davies said. “I was getting ready to my foul weather gear on and that’s when the squall was just finishing and the wind was dropping and the boat jumped off the top of the top of a wave and that’s when I had the impact....I could hear the mast rubbing against the hull and down the whole side of the hull and under the boat, so I knew that it could damage the hull if I was unlucky, so the main thing was to close all the watertight bulkheads in case it did get pierced.”

A few hours after the rig came down, conditions mellowed to 20 knots of breeze and Sam was able to cut the rig away and secure the vessel to motor to port. Davies motored Savéol to Funchal, Madeira and arrived on Saturday morning.

Burton retires The other retirement in the fleet is that of young Louis Burton on “Bureau Vallee”, (ex Delta Dore), who was forced to retire with a damaged cap shroud after hitting a fishing trawler at 18 knots of boat speed. With the damaged shroud, Burton attempted to sail back to Les Sables d’Olonne to effect repairs and restart within the 10-day window permitted by the race, but “the weather window to cross the Bay of Biscay.... closed suddenly.... making it very dangerous to return to Les Sables d’Olonne and requiring us to sail on port tack”, said Burton, the fleet’s youngest skipper at 27 years old. The Parisian has sailed into La Coruna, Spain, mast still intact. “We will be back in four years”, he added. This is like a bad case of deja vu for Burton, who just two years ago, collided with a fishing trawler in the 2010 Route du Rhum, yet managed a 20th place finish in the 44-boat strong Class 40 division.

A thrilling race at the front of the pack At the pointy end of the now 16-boat fleet, a lead pack of six yachts spanning 110 nautical miles has emerged. Of these six boats, only British skipper Alex Thomson is on a previous-generation IMOCA 60, bringing up the rear of this speedy pack. The top five boats are all new builds including 4 new VPLP/ Verdier designs and the fleet’s lone Juan K design in Bernard Stamm’s “Cheminees Poujoulat”.

Sisterships “Banque Populaire” and “MACIF”, skippered by the two immensely talented  skippers Armel Le Cléac’h and Francois Gabart respectively, have swapped the lead with the older, more experienced Le Cléac’h on “Banque Pop” routing himself brilliantly to make a move West, outside of Gabart and slip into the lead. Following in Cléac’h’s wake is the 2-time Barcelona World Race champion Jean-Pierre Dick on “Virbac-Paprec 3” who has managed to also take advantage of the stronger breeze to the west and re-engage with the lead pack, bringing Vincent Riou on “PRB” with him. After suffering a “minor scare” from hitting a “big floating tree trunk” at 18 knots of boat speed, the ’04 winner claims no damage to “PRB”.

Holding onto 2nd place for much of the first week, despite the lead changes, Bernard Stamm on the Juan K-designed “Cheminees Poujoulat” has slipped into 4th place after sailing much of day 7 at upwards of 3 knots slower than the lighter VPLP designs. The Swiss skipper and his ultra-powerful reaching machine from the famous Volvo 70 designer clearly did not like running south in the 15-knot Northeasterly tradewinds, as Stamm lost more than 40 miles in 12 hours. Interesting to note, as the breeze went 40 degrees forward to ENE, Stamm sped back up to a competitive pace and actually had the highest posted speed in the top 4 during the last position report. Stamm’s Juan K design clearly excels in upwind to beam-reaching conditions. Anything aft of that and the VPLP’s have shown a clear superiority.

The pragmatic Vincent Riou, only former Vendee winner in this fleet, has seemed content during the first week to merely stalk the front runners, stay in touch, and wait until the right time to make his move. Showing a discipline and maturity perhaps lacking in the two young hard-chargers swapping the lead, Riou has been making long-term investments since Day 1, owning the West, seemingly since rounding Finisterre more than 5 days ago. Showing the same tactical genius that allowed him to win the ’04-’05 Vendee by just 7 hours, Riou looks poised to cross the ITCZ slightly further West than the leader Armel, which should pay. Riou is currently 100 miles behind the leader with Alex Thomson on “Hugo Boss” sailing closely in his wake, despite having to undergo major repairs yesterday to a rudder tie bar.

HUGO BOSS major drama and repairs onboard Thomson explains “I was low on battery juice so I popped the hydro down and went below to see how many amps were going in.  At the time I was averaging about 18 knots and I heard a strange noise so went to the door and I could see the hydro vibrating very severely and getting worse. I realised it was going to break and rushed to pull it up but before I got there it ripped off the back of the boat and did a cartwheel and smashed the starboard tie bar. I was on port tack so the starboard rudder was not connected to anything and I knew instantly that the boat would wipe out.  It did but I managed to get the boat flat and got downwind to roll up the A3 spinnaker keeping the port rudder in the water doing all the steering.”

With no spare rudder tie bar onboard, it was critical for Alex to fix the broken steering piece. After consulting with his shore-side technical crew, Thomson was able to use a grinder onboard and cut strips of carbon with which to splint the  3-meter (10 feet) long broken rudder tie bar back together, in what was a 7-hour long repair that left the cockpit coated in carbon dust. With the starboard hydro generator still damaged, it’s critical that Alex again can effect emergency repairs. Explains Thomson, “I need the hydro back in action as I will not have enough diesel to make it round the world without it”

Despite all of the drama onboard “Hugo Boss”, Alex Thomson still managed to record the best 24-hour run in the entire fleet yesterday, with “HB” making an astounding 430.8 nautical miles at an average of nearly 18 knots. The only sailor in the fleet using Doyle Sails, he credits them in his consistently high average speeds “I’m just playing my own game and really I shouldn’t be as fast as them but somehow I seem to be, things are going right. I’ve got some great sails and I seem to be going in the right direction”.

Beyou’s keel problems Battling with AT on “Hugo Boss” all the way down the Atlantic thus far, Jeremie Beyou on “Maitre CoQ” (ex-Foncia) pulled up lame yesterday with keel problems. The hydraulic jack that allows the keel to cant, and to remain centered, has malfunctioned forcing him to sail 70 miles east to the Cape Verde Islands to further investigate the problem and try to make repairs. Sailing a boat with a Vendee win in ’08-’09, and a 2nd place in the last Barcelona World Race, this is a major blow to the 2-time Figaro winner.

3 veteran skippers battling mid-fleet In the middle of the fleet, Jean Le Cam on “Synerciel”, Mike Golding on “Gamesa” and Dominique Wavre on “Mirabaud” are engaged in a 3-way match-race for 7th place, and are virtually tied, some 340 miles behind the leader Armel Le Cleac’h. Winner of 2nd place two Vendee’s ago, Jean Le Cam speaks of the intense competition, “I haven't slept much last night, I spent a lot of time at the helm with my spinnaker up and I'm sure Mike (Golding) did the same. It's war time!!! I've just finished a sails change, I haven't had a minute of break. I've taken my t-shirt off, I'm so sweaty..... We're higher than Dominique, that should give us a better angle to sail down faster.” The three elder statesman of this fleet, all sailing last generation boats are consistently averaging 1-3 knots slower than the lead pack, which is beginning to threaten Le Cam’s own Vendee record for fastest boat to reach the equator: 10 days, 11 hours, 28 minutes.

Elsewhere in the fleet Anarchist Javier “Bubi” Sanso on Acciona was forced to sail behind the Canary Islands to ascend his mast and retrieve his main halyard while also making a repair to the main sail track and the main sail slide at the top batten. Describing his trip up the mast, “Each time I went up a metre I was like a sack of potatoes swaying from  side to side.... When I got to the top, 30 metres above the boat, I have to admit that there was a really beautiful view and I found a way of not being shoved all over the place..... I managed to fix the line to the track that was there happily waiting for me at the top of the mast. I rested a few minutes and disconnected the system I use to haul myself up, before starting to go down.... After getting down I started working on changing one track for another and also a slide from the last main sail batten which had broken..... At 20.00 the boat was tip-top to get back into the race again 100%. The problem was that my sheltered spot in Tenerife had me trapped until 04.00 in the morning when I was finally able to move out towards the south and then gybe west.

After sailing with no main sail for more than 30 hours, Bubi lost more than two days with his mainsail issues, but is now sailing at full speed. Shortly after re-joining the race, he managed to re-pass Tanguy de Lamotte on “Initiatives-couer” and is sailing in a 3-boat formation with both Lamotte and Bertrand de Broc on “Votre nom autour du Monde” (Your name around the World), who is slowly working his way back through the fleet after turning back to port before the race’s start due to puncturing his bow on a team RIB. Bertrand is showing great speed in the ex-Brit Air (2nd place in the last Vendee under Armel Le Cleac’h). Special mention must also go to Lamotte who is sailing a 1998 model Lombard designed Open 60. Despite the vintage of his boat, he has constantly battled and often passed newer-generation boats in the early stages of this race.

Gutek’s issues continue Polish skipper Zbigniew “Gutek” Gutkowski’s issues continue into the second week of his first Vendee. A last-minute boat change just two months before the start is beginning to haunt the skipper of “Energa” (ex- Hugo Boss). Gutek’s autopilot malfunctioned while preparing to douse his gennaker and the boat suffered an accidental gybe, badly wrapping the gennaker around the forestay. Waiting for calmer weather, so that he can climb his mast, Gutek explains, “The only option is to climb up the mast and cut everything off. But it is also risky. Every free piece of rigging flying round can cause the mast damage..... But, you know, when I was steering by hand, it was really great. ENERGA was going so fast, so easy, ticking 17, 20, 22 knots, it was wonderful, the boat is fast and beautiful and I love it.”

It’s that love of the game and enthusiasm that drew both Alan and I to Gutek when in Les Sables. I very sincerely hope that Gutek can solve some of his issues onboard “Energa” before entering the Southern Ocean. Stay tuned for our Vendée Globe update coming in the next 3-4 days!

Artemis sailing

http://youtu.be/NOLhCICXUOU

Take a look at this video of the 72 out for a spin..

Planetary

This gallery shows four planetary nebulas from the first systematic survey of such objects in the solar neighborhood made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The planetary nebulas shown here are NGC 6543, also known as the Cat's Eye, NGC 7662, NGC 7009 and NGC 6826. In each case, X-ray emission from Chandra is colored purple and optical emission from the Hubble Space Telescope is colored red, green and blue.

In the first part of this survey, published in a new paper, twenty one planetary nebulas within about 5000 light years of the Earth have been observed. The paper also includes studies of fourteen other planetary nebulas, within the same distance range, that Chandra had already observed.

A planetary nebula represents a phase of stellar evolution that the sun should experience several billion years from now. When a star like the sun uses up all of the hydrogen in its core, it expands into a red giant, with a radius that increases by tens to hundreds of times. In this phase, a star sheds most of its outer layers, eventually leaving behind a hot core that will soon contract to form a dense white dwarf star. A fast wind emanating from the hot core rams into the ejected atmosphere, pushes it outward, and creates the graceful, shell-like filamentary structures seen with optical telescopes.

The diffuse X-ray emission seen in about 30% of the planetary nebulas in the new Chandra survey, and all members of the gallery, is caused by shock waves as the fast wind collides with the ejected atmosphere. The new survey data reveal that the optical images of most planetary nebulas with diffuse X-ray emission display compact shells with sharp rims, surrounded by fainter halos. All of these compact shells have observed ages that are less than about 5000 years, which therefore likely represents the timescale for the strong shock waves to occur.

About half of the planetary nebulas in the study show X-ray point sources in the center, and all but one of these point sources show high energy X-rays that may be caused by a companion star, suggesting that a high frequency of central stars responsible for ejecting planetary nebulas have companions. Future studies should help clarify the role of double stars in determining the structure and evolution of planetary nebulas.

Vendee Globe update

From the Vendee Globe site:

Jéremie Beyou (Maître CoQ):
Hi all, thanks for being here. The situation is clear, the way the keel head is tied right now will resist the tide and has allowed me to go find a shelter. But it won’t be enough to stand all the pressure and weight throughout the race around the world. I’ve started the engine. The race is over. There’s so much frustration and disappointment, for myself and people who trusted me, especially Stéphane (editor's note: Maître CoQ CEO Stéphane Sallé) and the Maître CoQ staff. I’m angry too, there are so many things than can make such parts of the boat more fragile. I’m glad I have Maître CoQ and Stéphane’s support.
We’ll need to dive under the boat to see what happened exactly. It’s too early to say.
The breakage definitely made me nervous, I was laughing hysterically, then I got really mad but remained focused on repairing. I couldn’t sleep, no way. Eventually, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep last night.
We’ll go to the port, dismantle and remove the hydraulic jack which will be studied and analysed.

Alex Thomson (HUGO BOSS):
It wasn’t the best time to be doing it (repairing the broken rudder bar) to be honest, but we didn’t really have much choice. It seems to be fine, we still have to repair the hydrogenerator bracket I might make start on that today if I can make some progress throught the Doldrums. I just managed to keep the boat going the whole time, I didn’t feel the need to stop, the boat was pretty comfortable and going fast. I just had to do what the guys told me to do.
(On Beyou retiring from the race)

That is very sad. I did suspect that might be the case when I found out that his keel (jack) had broken. I feel very sorry for Jérémie, it’s his second Vendée and second time retiring, I know how it feels. I was only saying the day before that I reckoned I was going to be saying the whole way round the world with him. It’s not only your dreams you take people with you. There is so much work and commitment that goes into it not just by him, but by his family, his friends, his team, his sponsors. Jérémie is going to be feeling absolutely gutted for all of them. It’s a tough race this one, the same with Sam Davies and all the guys who’ve had to retire like Kito (de Pavant), it’s a very sad day when it happens.

I’d say I’m in the Doldrums, I currently have about four knots of wind and I think out here to the east is a good place to be. But to some extent it’s a bit of a lottery because it can change so quickly. The priority now is to try and get south, clear of the Doldrums and into the tradewinds.

I didn’t lose the hydrogenerator, it started vibrating, getting worse and worse and it ripped off the back did a cartwheel and smashed the tie bar, but I was there and managed to get to it quick enough to save the hydrogenerator. I need to repair the bracket and I’ll have it back on the boat in the next couple of days.

Other boats are enjoying some good weather to do repairs and catch up on house keeping. Lets hope that there is no more major problems once they enter the roaring 40's in the southern ocean.