Volvo Ocean Race: A Technical Analysis

by Jamie Boag, Team Director, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing
As our skipper Ian Walker says, “One design racing is going to be very stressful but certainly better than losing miles every schedule. Everyone seems to be sailing well and quite capable of being in the lead. Time passes quickly when you have a fleet of boats all around you!”

It’s hard to believe the boats are all still within sight of each other after 125 hours of racing (as of Oct 16).

The Volvo Ocean Race fleet has been dealing with this first section of the Leg like a normal offshore race, similar to the Rolex Fastnet Race or the Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland, rather than the ocean-crossing marathon it is. Apart from the 30-knot front that came through on Monday night (Oct. 13), the winds have been light and variable. It’s been flat-out brain-wrecking stuff and I’m sure our skipper Ian and our navigator SiFi (Simon Fisher) are both mentally exhausted and all the crew are fed up with changing sails.

The game at the minute isn’t necessarily to make a big break for the lead, but simply not to get dropped by the pack. All the teams would love to be 50 miles ahead but taking the risk to pull that off, getting it wrong and ending up 20 miles behind is way too risky in the larger context of a 6,700 nautical mile leg.

With the introduction of one design, all teams are literally in the same boat. Without the luxury of raw boatspeed based on a superior design, none of the 2014/15 teams are feeling pressurised to ‘experiment’ or ‘try something different’ to win the leg; if a breakaway goes wrong there’s no chance of relying on boatspeed to catch up with the fleet. It’s too risky. This could be a very different VOR if this trend continues. Who will risk a different navigational route? SCA tried it and it worked well initially (Oct. 13 in Strait of Gibralter); Vestas tried it (Oct. 15) and are only now getting back into the race 2 days later.

Traditionally, Leg 1 of the VOR is about getting west first and then south later. The area of light and changeable winds around the equator, called the Doldrums, are generally at their narrowest in the west, and the teams would normally sail the trade winds in that direction before picking their moment to try and cross the Doldrums.

This time, however, there are no trade winds due to a low pressure front squeezing the Azores’ high pressure system and preventing them from becoming established. This means teams are having to use the thermal effects – air being heated and cooled by the land – off the African coast to get them south first and then west later. On paper, crossing the doldrums close to the African coast is possible, but would be extremely novel! But then again, if the ‘peloton’ remains intact then you can throw all conventional wisdom out of the window.

As anticipated all the teams have gone south between the Canary Islands and the African coast – and that’s the current race. Get through the Canaries in one piece, catch the weak North-easterlies on the other side and still be in touch with the fleet in 48 hours’ time. Another major potential pothole will have been avoided, and the teams can start working on the next ‘mini race’ of how to get west.