Dongfeng Race Team is second Team for VolvoOceanRace 2017-1018

Dongfeng Race Team, has registered into the VolvoOceanRace 2017-2018 as 2nd team, after the new Team AkzoNobel. 

Dongfeng, the first Boat that was upgraded and ready to sail.

Dongfeng a New Team during the previous VOR version, performed remarkable well, by taking the 3rd place in the Overall End Ranking. Under the skipper, Charles Caudrelier, they sailed often different strategy that brought their surprise success in the VOR 2014-15. Had they not suffered a demasting, Dongfeng could possible have ended higher up. 

With 11 Month to go till the Start on 22 October 2017 in Alicante, there are now 2 Boats confirmed; still 5 less than in previous VOR. Lets hope that more Boats has started their preparations and on the point of confirmation.

VOR is now sailing the OneDesign VO65 Boat, of which 7 were build before and sailed before. One More Boat is under construction and ready before next VOR, but would this also bring us a "8 Boat" race?; lets hope for.
 

Vendee Globe, Solo RoundtheWorld Sailing Race starts!

For those Sailing and Virtual sailing enthusiasts, some information on an alternative famous Round the World Sailing Race. 

The Vendee Globe is a Solo Non-stop Sailing race around the World. The VG Race starts today, Sunday 6 November at 1202GMT in Les Sable , France. 

Sailors sail solo, mostly on Imoca Boats, mono-hulls and have no stops en route, a non-stop race. The first back in Les Sable, after rounding Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwing and Cape Horn is the winner, it is as simple as that.
Some Boats have foiling capabilities , some not; so I expect there will be a kind of handicap, though I am not sure. 

You can get all details on the Vendee Globe website. 

For Virtual Sailing enthousiasts, and maybe a good training for the coming VolvoOceanRaceGame, you can also sail comfortable in your armchair, in Virtual Regatta the Vendee Globe alongside the 29 participants. 

Fair Winds and Safe Sailing.

VolvoOceanRace, Interesting Latest News.

New Hydro-Generator for VO65

Over the last week VolvoOceanRace management has made a number of very interesting changes, additions and news to what we know as the VOR races.

I reported already on the change in Crew gender rules, see my former post.

There is a new shake up of OBR (OnBoardReporter) style of working. With the improved communication systems (see later) the OBR is thought to have to become more a live reporter of issues, challenges and stories from the Boats. The idea is that a bit more raw and direct stories from the teams is shared and that it will come faster than before to us. A thought is even to have a team of OBR's that could rotate leg-by-leg or after some legs over the different Boats. This, I am afraid, could work also negative as the bonding between team and OBR could be lost, on the other hand it will give different views on the Boats over different legs.

The VO65 will be equipped with Hydropower generators. This is a kind of propel alike an outboard motor, but now the water will push the propeller, while sailing with some speed. The propeller will with a generator deliver the power required for the electronics on-board and fill the batteries and thus reducing the use of a diesel-generator.  It will of course add some draft to slow the boats, but a trial is reporting as the impact is negligible. I trust that the unit and support is sturdy enough, as in a previous race, (I think it was the Vendee Globe) showed some breakages.

The Scoring system will be changed with the intention to challenge the Boats in taking some risks e.g. in choosing alternative routes.

• The scoring will become a High score system, Boats with maximum points will win.
• Three Legs will score you a double amount of points, these Legs are the 2 Southern Ocean legs and the North Atlantic Leg.
• The Winner of each Leg will earn one bonus point
• To honor the importance of rounding Cape Horn, there is a bonus point for that Boat that round this Cape as first
• A bonus is given to the Boat with the best total elapsed time overall in the race
• The In-Port races will have a separate scorecard, that will only be of influence to break a tie int eh standings. 

Sailors on Board can use the Social Media to communicate their adventures with their friends and followers, all possible by the improved communication Hardware and Satellite systems. This could improve drastically the information from the boats and Sailors will have to ability to keep their followers abreast of their challenges and performances, though, I guess that for competitive reasons not all that much information on sailing strategies will be posted. 
The system, however, is made such that no outside communication can be send to the Sailors, as not to allow outsider assistance to profit the different Boats. 
I hope that either VOR improves a regular strategic view on performance and preview as last VOR had a lousy story on that; or we do need  regular reports from Mike Chisnell, who is writing fantastic good reviews and previews and strategies given the wind conditions.

New Crew Rules to enhance opportuniities for best World's female Sailors.

The Success of SCA-Team in the previous VolvoOceanRace, 3rd in In-Port Racing and winner in an Off-shore Leg, have been pushing the idea to offer more opportunities for the World's best Female Sailors. It was felt the SCA-Team was stuck to a ceiling not able to gain more experiences to up their sailing game.

This Rules change, will offer different options to form a crew, either for an all Men or for an all Female or for a mixed Team. The last option will allow female Sailors to sail alongside the Male Sailors and to learn and experience professional sailing in order to elevate the experience level in Female Sailors. 

New Crew Rules offer different options, some on a Leg-Leg bases

The optional choices in the 2nd row, would influence the crew for the In-Port sailing as well, as the In-Port crew shall be the same to either the crew in the previous or the subsequent off shore Leg. (exception for a 7_male team, that can have 1 female sailor extra during the In-Port race).

This way Female Sailors can sail and train with the Best Sailors. 

Btw the rule for under-30 crew to promote youth sailing is continued: 2 crew members must be under the age of 30 at the end of the race.

see also Mark's comments on this video

Good Future for Volvo Ocean Race

Last week informed us, that the VolvoOceanRace will continue 2 more versions after the coming one, with the Start from Alicante, Spain.

That is good news for Alicante, as the city enjoys the attention from many Sailors. It is also good news for the VOR Museum, as those additional starts will bring big numbers  of visitors that can enjoy the museum.

The Best message however, imho, is that we will enjoy at least 3 more versions for the VolvoOceanRace, till the VOR 2023-2024 one. 

This is also good news for Virtual Sailors as it is expected that all VOR races will have the VORG(VolvoOceanRaceGame) to sail alongside the professional sailors in your armchair. :) 

For some training on Virtual Sailing, I can recommend LiveSkipper . This is a modern virtual sailing player , with nice interface and quiet easy to learn. It is free as well, including all modern navigational aids ,like auto heading, auto-sail, programmer, WP's , different sails and a lot of enthousiast sailors that will battle it out with you on the waters in different types of boats. Liveskipper has some short sailing races during the weekend, and mostly some long distance Ocean races. Try it out, you will love it!

 

AkzoNobel: First Team announced for VolvoOceanRace 2017-2018

The next VolvoOceanRace 2017-2018 is going to get real. 

Last week, I was learning that the Route for VOR 2017-2018  is agreed and it is promising to become a very challenging version of this VOR. Some new Cities are announced and the number of nautical miles through the Southern Ocean has never been as large. 

This morning, the 1st participating team TEAM AkzoNobel was published. 

Skipper will be the dutchman Simeon Tienpont, who participated 3 times before in the VolvoOceanRace.

Start of Blog for VolvoOceanRace 2017-2018

Seeing this video of the Next VolvoOceanRace (VOR) route, made it clear:

The next VOR 2017-2018 is coming and I have started to prepare my Blog for it.

I intend to give some details on the Vor, the Boats, the Route, the Teams and during the VOR will try to follow the progress of the Boats and let you enjoy some of the Highlights, or lowlights.

I will also included some information on Virtual Sailing that normally goes alongside the real race but from the comfort of your armchair or computer desk-chair .

You may bookmark my blog or register in order not to miss any.