Sunday 29 October 2017

Vestas wins Leg 1 in VOR 2017-2018


Vestas wins in Lisbon the VOR 2017-2018 edition first Leg from Alicante to Lisbon. Vestas continues with this Victory the win in the last Leg of the previous VOR. 

Would this be a first sign for the final Victory for this VOR? I heard some stories the last days, that told that a Boat that wins a first Leg , wins the Overall; seems indeed better chances than statistical stated.

Vestas, did earn their Victory in honor. Vestas had the courage to choose a different strategy and divert from the heard , that courage has been  rewarded with a fine win in Lisbon

See the Highlights of Leg 1 Alicante - Lisbon


The scoreboard for the VOR 2017-2018 looks as follows.


The count in this VOR is a max. score, so boats with the mosts points win. The winner of a Leg gets a bonus point so motivate more for a sharp sailing competition. (see some other deviating scoring rules in the Tab Scorecard above)

Friday 27 October 2017

Vestas adventure in Leg 1 pays off so far.


With Leg 1 the VolvoOceanRace 2017-2018 has started and though it is a short Leg to get the hang of it, it for sure is not easy sailing.

As the VO65 are One-Design boats, it does not pay off if you keep sailing in the same winds as your opponents. Vestas and Mapfre have understood this and diverted on their separate course from the main fleet.

Now Vestas has a nice lead on Mapfre, who has a nice lead on the rest of the fleet battling it out close together in the tail of the fleet. 


Leg 1 Vestas leading

A big surprise in this Leg (though announced timely) is that that has been added an extra Mark, north of the existing mark at Porto Santo. This is mainly done for commercial reasons but not for the racing events, ( there is no public at the extra Mark to see the passage of the Boats). The VOR cy. are aiming for an arrival in Lisbon at Saturday  , I guess only to get more publicity. I really do not hope that commerce will influence the VOR more than this, and the other Legs will be sailed as the course is given at the Start. 

Vestas go for it, you Adventurous strategy till now is paying off and leaves the settled and experienced VOR crews behind.

Monday 23 October 2017

VolvoOceanRace has Started


Sunday 22 October , the VolvoOceanRace (VOR) started in Alicante with the race on the Starters circuit. 
It was a fierce battle, with many lead changes, sharp sailing and strategic moves to benefit your Boat and push your competitors to the back.   
This video shows the whole Start circuit race , for you to enjoy, if you missed it.





Mapfre made a good start and got the lead in the beginning. Donfeng, did start reasonably well, but on the 1st downwind leg could pass Mapfre on pure boat speed. 
Towards the end, Dongfeng with a Starboard, pushed both Brunel and Mapfre into a late gybe for which both Boats were penalized. Thus giving Dongfeng a good begin of the VOR.
Brunel, got a problem with their spinnaker, while making the penalty 360, and lost a huge amount of time,and distance. 
Vestas and Turn the Tide benefitted from this and were both quick in the Open Waters. 

The worst situation caused, I guess , by the VOR organisation, was the dangerous passage of the VOR Boats through the anchored visitor Boats. Terrible, VOR org. should have known the potential courses for the VOR fleet and made the visitor to anchor in a safe place. This could have ended the race for a VOR boat already had it collided with a bigger visitors boat. 

Upto Gibraltar.

Saturday 21 October 2017

VolvoOceanRace starts Tomorrow 22 October 2017

After 3 years waiting (or actually some 10 month shorter for the duration of the former VOR) the time for preparation is over.

The Real Race for the VolvoOceanRace Boats will start tomorrow Sunday 22 October 2017 at 12:00 UTC.

The Leg 1 will start in Alicante with a short circuit race in front of Alicante harbour before setting sail towards Lisbon, via the Straits of Gibraltar and the Portuguese Island of Porto Santo.

Leg 1 Start circuit Alicante

The start will be broadcasted live on the Internet, check on VOR Website

For the armchair sailors, do not forget that the VOR Virtual Sailing Game will start at the same time.

Monday 16 October 2017

MAPFRE takes first Victory in Alicante In-Port race.



MAPFRE have shown in the preparation time, the Zero Leg and the Prologue already that they are a strong sailing team and now with a Victory in the Alicante In-Port Race, they have given a warning to the other Boats. 

Mapfre leads on the 1st top buoy

Allicante offered a nice Easterly breeze of about 8 Knts, a good condition for nice sailing. Mapfre had not such a good start, crossing the start line as penultimate Boat, but they had a different strategy, sailing on Port tack on the 1st leg. It paid off as they were first at the top buoy and even could make an extra tack, which costed them some boat-lengths but that played into their strategy to continue. They sailed away and had no danger from the other boats anymore; GREAT strategy, maybe due to their local knowledge.

The fight for the other Podium places was fierce with many changes in positions.
Vestas and Clean Seas had a good start.  On 1st leg, Sun Hung Kai followed Mapfre and Dongfeng was 3rd, Vestas lost some ground, Clean the Tide was last as they make some more tacks.
On the 1st downwind leg, Dongfeng sailed fast but looked to sail too far to the coast, allowing Brunel to take 2nd place from 6th , Vestas 3rd. 
Vestas tacked on the 2nd rounding of the top mark but got a problem in the tack, causing Brunel to slow down, with Dongfeng on their stern.
Dongfeng again sailed fast on the 2nd downwind leg passing Vestas and crossed just ahead of Brunel this time.
Brunel sailed well on the last upwind leg, and crossed ahead of Vestas now though the difference on rounding the mark was negligible. Such that Vestas could pass Brunel on the final donwwind leg and take the Podium.


The scorecard for In-Port Races looks like below after the 1st race. This scorecard will only help Boats in the ultimate VOR results as a tie-breaker when the score between Boats in the Legs scorecard resulted in a tie. 
Scorecard after Alicante In=Port

Next main event is the Start of Leg 1 Alicante to Lisbon on 22 October 2017 at 12:00 UTC.

Saturday 14 October 2017

Breaking News: AkzoNobel kicks Simeon Tienpont skipper out.




BREAKING NEWS

From a Dutch sailing magazine I learned that  Team AkzoNobel has removed their skipper Simeon Tienpont from their VOR-team, just one day ahead of the start of the VolvoOceanRace (VOR) 2017-2018 competition that starts with the Alicante In-Port race, today in Alicante at 12:00 UTC

Simeon Tienpont in better days.


The reason given is a contractual dispute, but no further details have been announced. I read this statement of AkzoNobel Race Team.
Whaaw this is something,  AkzoNoble's first participation on the VOR and starting without a Captain. Who will be the captian for this team in this heavy Round the World Sailing Race?

Friday 13 October 2017

VolvoOceanRace starts for real with Alicante In-Port Race tomorrow


Preparation time comes to an end as the real Sailing for results starts tomorrow with the Alicante In-Port Sailing Race , Saturday 14 October at 1200 UTC.

Till now, the Boats and crews in the upcoming VolvoOceanRace (VOR) have done some sailing, also in competitive races, but none of them were counting for the overall results. That is about to be changed, by the start of real race, like the Alicante In-Port race, followed a week later with the start of Leg 1 Alicante to Lisbon on 22 October. 

The Leg Zero , which actually consisted of 4 independent races , was  a nice opportunity for the boats to compare with the other boats, to learn and to adjust to sail closer to the performance of the other Boats. The Prologue, a race from Lisbon to the Alicante start, was a disaster , sailing crews will have learned from the light wind conditions and patchy windshits as well though. The disappointment comes mainly from the VOR cy, changes to the motoring of the boats from Lisbon in stead of the sailing and the shortening of the route, by relocating the finish from Alicante to the South coast of Spain. I really do hope that this kind of "adjustments" of route will not occur during the real VOR races. 

Alicante VOR Race Village

A Map for the In-Port race, has just been shown and for easy reference I copied it below.
Course Alicante In-Port race

Also normally there would be a live-internet coverage, but that I have not seen any information on. 
Edit 14 Oct.: there will be live coverage on internet, just before 1200 GMT check it out on website VolvoOceanRace

On the right side I have a weather wind forecast for the Winds in Alicante, trust the forecast of Easterly wind10 kts is plenty to make the event interesting to watch.

I would suggest to keep an eye on the VOR website and the VOR channel on Youtube as most likely that will show the In-Port race.


Saturday 7 October 2017

Prologue VolvoOceanRace 2017-2018 - Final Training



Sunday 8th October 2017, all 7 Boats in the VolvoOceanRace(VOR) 2017-2018 will start from Lisbon for a final training and qualifying Leg to Alicante, the Start of the VOR 2017-2018.

After the earlier common training races, Zero Leg races, this will be the final option to fine tune and test the One-Design VO65 Boats with the sail settings amongst each other before the real VOR-race will start. No doubt the skippers and sailors will observe each other on this Prologue to gain the last insights as to how to sail a little faster than the other participants.

The qualifier for the VOR 2017-18 was the Leg Zero, a combination of 4 mini-races: 

  • a race around the isle of Wight, during the Cowes week
  • The Rolex Fastnet Rock race, 
  • a race from Plymouth to Saint-Malo, 
  • a race from Saint-Malo to Lisbon, where all Boats will be inspected and where required repaired before the start of the VOR.

MAPFRE was the fastest around the Isle of Wight, which was sailed in stormy winds and tested crew, boat and sails extensively. The time differences were small, 1min.30sec to Team Brunel on 2nd place and the whole fleet finished in a 16 minutes window.


The Fastnet Race, the historic sailing race starting in the Solent, rounding the famous Fastnet Rock on the SE coast of Ireland and finishing in Plymouth, was sailed by All 7 VOR Boats as preparation and qualification race. It was a tight race, which promisse a lot of close finishes in the VOR as well. The winner was Dongfeng Race Team with just a 56 seconds lead on MAPFRE; on 6 minutes 3rd was Team Brunel followed by team AkzoNobel 7 minutes later. Vestas finish another 17 minutes later, followed by Sun Hung Kai after 4 minutes and last over the line came Turn the Tide on Plastic after 4 minutes.

The race from Plymouth to Saint-Malo accross the Channel, was won by MAPFRE , again. Differences were larger, in a low wind race where Maphre made a strategic choice that brought them Victory.

In very weak winds, the final mini-race to  Lisbon was sailed. Vestas 11th  Hour Racing won after a strategic best choice to come out of a region of weak winds to catch the North-Westerlies as a first.

The Overall ranking for the Leg Zero, which is not counting for the VOR 2017-2018, was won by MAPFRE. 
1. MAPFRE                                  29
2. Dongfeng Race Team               24
3. Team Brunel                            24
4. team AkzoNober                      22
5. Vestas 11th Hour Racing          20
6. Turn the Tide on Plastic            12
7. Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag    9

Could this be an insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the different Boats , or will there be a lot of learning from these mini-races to change rankings around during the coming 11 Legs of the real VolvoOceanRace (VOR) ?

The teams have formed(provided no changes will occur)  and you may have a look at the VOR site or look above in my blog under the Team tab.

See you in Alicante 

  • for the In-Port race on 14 October and 
  • on 22 October for the Start of the VOR 2017-2018 for the Leg1: Alicante to Lisbon.