SailGP loses two drivers in a week: Canfield injured, Martine Grael out - The Foil Podcast - Ep 38

Andy, Lewis, kick us off.

What happened in the Ocean Race Atlantic in

a nutshell? There were some very different types of Imoca, some of them quite old and some of them brand new, and four of them pretty much finished tied together.

And that's how ocean racing goes sometimes.

Quite amazing, Lewis, that these boats can be so different and yet the end result so similar.

Yeah, it was a good watch.

We got a lot more racing to watch than we maybe expected with the weather.

Some lighter winds.

The actual race itself was longer than expected.

Some teams were actually running out of food by the end of it, which I thought was... pretty bonkers you know they were rationing their snacks towards the end which i thought was was pretty funny it's just another side to ocean racing that i guess you don't really get to experience but yeah there was a lot of differences between the boats um you know if you've caught uh nile and andy's video and one of our members only videos they talk uh at great length about the intricacies between the boats and and how we've got some proper wheels on the boats andy that was one of your your main points that you liked that was the difference between them And that was quite refreshing to see, I think.

Yeah, when we talk about wheels, not wheels under the boat, but wheels in the cockpit that you can actually steer the boat with, which is quite an old school thing that I've been really happy to see come back in.

And I haven't managed to speak to anybody from the Militia 4 team yet to find out how useful or otherwise they were.

But Yeah, talk is that being able to see ahead and steer the boat for the wave set that you can see ahead of you, that anticipation that even the best autopilots in the world can't yet do when you're aiming to keep the boat foiling, actually looking at what's coming at you a few wave sets ahead.

wheel steering, old school human steering seems to be a key factor.

That's really exciting to see it come back in.

But as we said, let's see.

I mean, there was just no difference between the front four.

The first boat, United by the Ocean, finished at 14.39 hours.

And the fourth boat, Team Militia, finished at 15.

1506 hours.

So, I mean, you know, less than half an hour between those boats.

And the other thing that was strange to me was that the more excited I had got about a boat in those four, the less well it did.

So United by the Ocean, I feel like I didn't do them justice because it's a bit of an old boat.

And then 11th Hour Racing, that's the old Milizia 3, was second.

DMG Mori Global, one of the brand new boats, was third.