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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 4, 2018 19:48:05 GMT
This seems to be an obsession reserved basically for the French and the British, but it is frankly amazing how huge the crowds are for each departure. Today, the Route du Rhum from Saint Malo to Guadeloupe started and there were 1.3 million spectators on the coast to see the 123 boats leave. The current record is for 7 days, but with technological advances, most people think that the winner will arrive in 6 days. However, this really isn't the point of the race. Some of the boats will take a month to arrive and they will be cheered just like the winners. One of the former winners is sailing a historic boat that won about 20 years ago and he knows that it will take him at least twice as long in 2018 to arrive as this year's winner, but he just likes the challenge. It makes no difference whatsoever, and that is the beauty of this race.
Sailing is one of the wonderful sports where just participating is considered to be as noble as winning. I know that certain cultures where only #1 counts might have difficulty understanding the concept About the only sport that I can think of that resembles this is running a marathon, where anybody who manages to finish is feted appropriately.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 27, 2018 16:03:17 GMT
This has not been a record breaking year, because the winner Sidney Gavignet arrived on November 21 after 16 days 11 hours. #2 arrived a bit more than 20 hours later. #4 just arrived today -- and there are plenty more to come, although more than half of the participants have been forced to abandon.
This is so much better than Formula 1 racing.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 28, 2021 19:14:41 GMT
Today was the arrival of the Vendée Globe race, which takes place once every 4 years. It is the only solitary round the world sailing event and it wildlu popular in parts of Europe (mostly France and Great Britain, to be honest). Now that the competitors have satellite connections to the media, it is slightly less stressful since nobody "disappears" for several days, but it is all the more poignant since the contestants often are shown in tears and in great distress at various moments.
Masts are torn off, boats capsize -- and we can all see it now. This year a boat was destroyed and the dramatic rescue of the navigator was the highlight of the race. One of the rules of the race is that the other competitors must do their best to rush to the rescue of anybody in trouble (thank god for that). This often entails changing routes for hundreds of kilometres. The guy this year was rescued by another boat and then transferred to a French naval vessel in dramatically high seas. The waves were really scary.
Bonus time is given for any of the boats that had to divert for such an operation, so this year the boat that arrived first at Les Sables d'Olonne turned out to be #3. Two other boats received enough bonus time to be classed ahead of him. Nobody complained, because there is no lack of solidarity among sailors.
Anyway, I just wanted to say that this is a really huge event in France. Usually there are 200,000 people waiting at the port for the arrival, even in the middle of the night. This year's arrival was at 4 a.m. and a grand total of 300 people were permitted to be there to cheer.
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