Leg One updates

[SloopJohnB 322]

From SA

[Jon 360]

Another one down

Moose is heading for port with hull damage

 

What's with Group are they on a LTO or a winner ?

[Battleship 100]

Looks like Sanya hit something. Looks to me like Groupama has decided to get in the Lee of the land for some reprieve from the heavy seas.

[Atom Ant 0]

Crikey that 1/3 of the fleet damaged in less than 1/2 a day! I hope these are teething problems and not indicative of things to come. The start was bloody good to watch though!

[Guest]

Heres the full press conference with Mike Sanderson about what happened. This is very enlightening as they could have lost the boat if things got a little bit worse. Theres some photos of the damage and of Sanya sailing.

 

 

and in case you missed the one I put up early this morning here the full press conference with Ian walker.

 

photos are from Paul Todd and Ian Roman

[Guest]

I heard on the radio on the way to the orifice, Sanya had encountered a 'small issue with the boat' so had headed to a port to check.

 

Looking at the photo Willow put up I am struggling to see the 'small' part. That looks pretty damn nasty.

[Guest]

After a punishing first 24 hours which saw two of the competitors suspend racing with major damage, Camper has been the first boat to reach the straight after being at or near the front in this first 30 odd hours. Telefonica so far has been the biggest surprise for me as they have shown good boat speed to be in third (but it will be second at the next update). Puma havnt been as quick as I would have thought, but its only early so we will see over the next several weeks if they were as fast as what we thought they could be.

 

[Guest]

I heard on the radio on the way to the orifice, Sanya had encountered a 'small issue with the boat' so had headed to a port to check.

 

Looking at the photo Willow put up I am struggling to see the 'small' part. That looks pretty damn nasty.

 

Check the Press conference out KM that I posted just above you. It sounds like they could have lost the boat if things got a little bit worse for them.

[Guest]

From Groupama on their first day of racing and strategy.

 

Exiting the strait!

 

Groupama in the Volvo Ocean Race

 

Around thirty miles from the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, Groupama 4 has taken a different option to her three rivals by dipping down towards the coast of Morocco, whilst the other VOR-70s are picking their way along the Costa Brava... In fourth position, Franck Cammas and his men believe they will benefit from a more favourable air flow in the Strait.

 

Saturday night proved to be very tough for all the crews competing in this first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race bound for Cape Town. Indeed the very strong wind (more than 40 knots at times) and short, violent seas in the Alboran Sea put paid to Abu Dhabi's mast at 1915 GMT on Saturday, and then Sanya's hull on Sunday at 0830 GMT... Ian Walker and his crew have already motored back to Alicante and are having to pick up a new mast for Abu Dhabi at which point they intend to set off again, in approximately three to four days' time. As for Mike Sanderson and his men, the punctured, partly delaminated hull on Sanya will call for major repairs and the Chinese team is waiting till they make the port of Motril before deciding how they will proceed with the race.

 

It has to be said that the Mediterranean has been serving up some very tough conditions for the VOR-70s, with over thirty knots of westerly wind on the nose and above all increasingly big seas where the waves are in excess of five metres! Taking even greater care after the news of these two serious cases of damage, which the UAE and Chinese teams are likely to promptly resolve and quickly get back on the racetrack, the crews are focusing primarily on safety and preserving gear. They are currently contending with a gale which is set to ease progressively as they approach the Strait of Gibraltar.

 

Two options before Gibraltar

 

 

 

Though the four prototypes still racing were on virtually the same trajectory after rounding the Gata headland, the same cannot be said as the fleet tracked along the Costa del Sol: the Spaniards on Telefonica and the Americans on Puma opted to reposition themselves in the bay of Malaga, where they hoped they would have smaller waves once the wind began to ease, whilst the New Zealanders on Camper and the French on Groupama 4 preferred to traverse the Alboran Sea so they could approach the Strait of Gibraltar via the South. Early this afternoon, Chris Nicholson then decided to put in another tack to line up with the entrance to the strait, whilst Franck Cammas opted for a course taking his team towards Morocco... Midway through the afternoon it was Camper which appeared to have taken the best option, four miles ahead of Telefonica.

 

The breeze had eased off considerably but was still coming from the West, channelled by the Strait of Gibraltar. As a result, it's shaping up to be a tricky passage as the wind will drop still further to less than ten knots, almost fading to nothing as the fleet arrive in the Atlantic Ocean... It's at the exit to this Hispano-Moroccan gulley that the first major strategic decision will have to be made: in a very light northerly breeze, sticking to the direct route towards the Canaries will run the risk of getting ensnared in zones of calm, whilst reaching westwards isn't that simple either, with a front currently taking its time to reach Spain! As such, Sunday night is promising to be calmer on the water and the crew of Groupama 4 will be able to get their strength back after the Mediterranean shaker. Getting sleep and eating well be key for continuing to react intelligently and quickly. Indeed, the crew will really need to be on the ball tonight so they can extract themselves from this first trap...

[Marshy 30]

After a punishing first 24 hours which saw two of the competitors suspend racing with major damage, Camper has been the first boat to reach the straight after being at or near the front in this first 30 odd hours. Telefonica so far has been the biggest surprise for me as they have shown good boat speed to be in third (but it will be second at the next update). Puma havnt been as quick as I would have thought, but its only early so we will see over the next several weeks if they were as fast as what we thought they could be.

 

[attachment=0]tracker update 3.jpg[/attachment]

 

Very hard to read into anything about how fast the boats actually are given the conditions they ar in. in 10.5 metre seas like Moose is talking about i think its survival mode rather than trying to inch out another half a knot of speed or 5 degrees of height? Remembering its only day 2 of leg one they will be waiting to turn the corner before opening the throttles up. And then they will be off like a bullet.

 

I think alot of the teams and skippers especially learnt a hard lesson in the Singapore to China leg last year where they broke alot of boats that you need to slow them down and chill out a bit in the heinous conditions like that?

[Guest]

Very hard to read into anything about how fast the boats actually are given the conditions they ar in. in 10.5 metre seas like Moose is talking about i think its survival mode rather than trying to inch out another half a knot of speed or 5 degrees of height? Remembering its only day 2 of leg one they will be waiting to turn the corner before opening the throttles up. And then they will be off like a bullet.

 

I don't believe this 10 m wave story. With that wheather you would expect 2 m or max. 3 m wave heights in that area. And the video Camper sent showed just that. It is still nasty and wet and all the boats were reefed a lot. They are still able to go high as you can see from the tracker. The boatspeeds are within a knot for the whole fleet.

[Marshy 30]

Yeah not sure either but i do know that piece of water has been known to cut up quite nasty. With that amount of tide in there and a narrow passage for it all to go out its not going to be pretty?

[Guest]

Great reports, screenshots and discussion. Love the work you are doing Stephen.

 

Just one thing, when you do the tracker screenshots can you turn the tracks for all the boats on before you take it please? On the little coloured triangle in the bottom right of each boat's panel in the leaderbord tab, you can click to display or hide their tracks... I reckon it's useful to see each boat's track so you can see where everyone has been, not just the leader...

 

Just an idea to consider. (I think having the weather icon on helps too, but maybe it gets a bit busy?)

[Guest]

Great reports, screenshots and discussion. Love the work you are doing Stephen.

 

Just one thing, when you do the tracker screenshots can you turn the tracks for all the boats on before you take it please? On the little coloured triangle in the bottom right of each boat's panel in the leaderbord tab, you can click to display or hide their tracks... I reckon it's useful to see each boat's track so you can see where everyone has been, not just the leader...

 

Just an idea to consider. (I think having the weather icon on helps too, but maybe it gets a bit busy?)

 

hadnt actually seen the little triangle thing that your talking about untill now. Thanks for mentioning it as it will indeed help . Ill add it to the next tracker image that I do.

[Guest]

Where to from here for the boats in this very light wind? The decisions in the next 6 hours will be crucial and will shape how the next several days of this leg go. It looks like Camper and telefonica have done a great job getting out of the Gibraltar Straights and have gained nicely from it, while Groupama and puma are battling it out half way through the straights.

 

 

It still kinda hard to see the trackers on the trailing boats. ill try zooming the image in next time if its not to distorted.

[Guest]

SOL VS the actual boats

 

Just like in the volvo, the sol is being lead by a kiwi and crews very own SJB is leading the way as everyone heads south. There are also 2 other kiwis in the top 10 (also yachtyakka in 10th and does anyone know who physic is?) making us the best country early on. Just like with the Volvos the bulk of the fleet headed north to get through the Gibraltar straights while a few took groupamas approach with the rest running into shores or forgetting that their in a race. The SOL fleet is several hours ahead of the Volvos as expected as we got a head start and dont have sea states that can brake our little dots.

 

The pink boat is me and the fainter boat is SJB leading the way.

 

 

 

 

 

for more info on crews SOL fleet check out

viewtopic.php?f=44&t=17883

[chic014 0]

On the dashboard does anyone know what unit the true wind direction is? Have they got a decimal point in the wrong place? And are the boat speeds the instantaneous boat speeds at the time of the 3 hourly report or are they the average speed over the last 3 hours?

[PaulR 3]

On the dashboard does anyone know what unit the true wind direction is? Have they got a decimal point in the wrong place?

 

Don't know for certain but wind speed seems to be in that International Metric System understood by the French and Spannish of metres per second. (roughly half the speed in knots).

 

Blame Napoleon Bonaparte because had he reached Moscow, we would / could understand it.

 

Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.

 

As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815. His legal reform, the Napoleonic Code, has been a major influence on many civil law jurisdictions worldwide, but he is best remembered for his role in the wars led against France by a series of coalitions, the so-called Napoleonic Wars. He established hegemony over most of continental Europe and sought to spread the ideals of the French Revolution, while consolidating an imperial monarchy which restored aspects of the deposed ancien régime. Due to his success in these wars, often against numerically superior enemies, he is generally regarded as one of the greatest military commanders of all time.

 

Napoleon was born in Corsica to parents of noble Genoese ancestry and trained as an artillery officer in mainland France. He rose to prominence under the French First Republic and led successful campaigns against the First and Second Coalitions arrayed against France. In 1799, he staged a coup d'état and installed himself as First Consul; five years later the French Senate proclaimed him emperor. In the first decade of the 19th century, the French Empire under Napoleon engaged in a series of conflicts—the Napoleonic Wars—involving every major European power. After a streak of victories, France secured a dominant position in continental Europe, and Napoleon maintained the French sphere of influence through the formation of extensive alliances and the appointment of friends and family members to rule other European countries as French client states. Napoleon's campaigns are studied at military academies throughout much of the world.[2]

 

The fight against the guerilla in Spain and 1812 French invasion of Russia marked turning points in Napoleon's fortunes. His Grande Armée was badly damaged in the campaign and never fully recovered. In 1813, the Sixth Coalition defeated his forces at Leipzig; the following year the Coalition invaded France, forced Napoleon to abdicate and exiled him to the island of Elba. Less than a year later, he escaped Elba and returned to power, but was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Napoleon spent the last six years of his life in confinement by the British on the island of Saint Helena. An autopsy concluded he died of stomach cancer, although this claim has sparked significant debate, and some scholars have held that he was a victim of arsenic poisoning. (Thanks Wiki)

[Guest]

and does anyone know who physic is?

 

Might be Mike or one of the other crew from Psychic (S34)

[chic014 0]

 

Don't know for certain but wind speed seems to be in that International Metric System understood by the French and Spannish of metres per second. (roughly half the speed in knots).

 

What makes you say that? It says "KTS" and the boat speeds seem to be reasonable for knots.