The Ocean Race 2023 leg 2: Cabo Verde to Capetown

[mathystuff]

The 'Wall of Death' of light winds will block the way to Cape Town, all they can do is aim for the narrowest section and hope for the best.

I think the top 4 are close enough that the leg will be won in the light winds there. Still anyones game.

 

[Herman]

You can download the image and import it under WX Data - Images - Import and than manually georeference some points with coordinates. If you then open the image it is shown over the map.

Thx for the tip, I'm importing weather images on a daily basis but this one keeps eluding me. Maybe a different map projection, although the distortion seems to suggest Mercator. I will try the Exp forum.

 

[Herman]

5 minutes of "life aboard at 20+ knots" on 11th hour. A luxury cruise it ain't...

Topsport. Period.

 

[PIL66 - XL2]

Niall mentioned briefly in one of the videos, two days ago I think, that Biotherm had a problem with the foil casing. I don’t know if our how much they slowed down because of it, haven’t heard more about it.

Ok thanks ..... this now makes sense. ... damaged cases and 2 x damaged sails would make sense... Paul and Biotherm are better than this

This is nuts, they are going to have hearing damage eventually.

Many here will relate to the violent movement of the boats and they are not even going to windward but that noise is full on... and relentless

 

[Herman]

@Herman I'm not sure the 105% Windspeed Scaling is the correct adjustment. My understanding is that boats normalize windspeed readings and polars to 10m windspeeds to match forecasts and so crew have a consistent 'feel' on various boats. Stan Honey talked about crews losing confidence in instruments if they're not calibrated/corrected to 10m, especially with tall masts, because their senses and the instruments don't line up.

Fair point. On the other hand I have no crew that can force me to walk of a plank. Except for the punters here .

Will states in the book on p. 89 on windscale; "I typical use 110-115% for wind (to account for mast heigth)".

For now I will experiment a bit with various windscale factors in order to see if the accuracy of the projections increase or not.

 

[wildbirdtoo]

Just saw that Sam Davies is joining the Biotherm team for leg 3.... not on the crew list on the IMOCA site as yet.

 

[dg_sailingfan]

11th Hour Racing Team has jibed north and if Team Malizia & Will Harris are smart they are going to plant themselves directly in front of them when we get the next Update

 

[fab156]

This update from Holcim made me laugh.. Kevin is so cheerful!

I am definitely a Kevin fan. He is always positive, funny and very competitive. I love that attitude. At the same time I can't help thinking of the last Vendee and what happened to him very close to where he is now, surfing waves again at 25 knots. That was very scary at the time.... doesn't seem to bother him at all.

 

[Herman]

Tonight's routing...
ETA 0830z the 12/02. You can see on the routing Guyot will cut his 500 milles late to just a few milles...

Nice analysis Damien. Your projected ETA is 37 minutes later than my routing half a day earlier. So very close. Guyot catching up is also in the books. Although routing with the latest generation polars could overstate their performance. And they lost their spinaker, that sail will be missed in the last part of the leg.

 

[Varan]

The dive south for Holcim-PRB didn't work out so well. In hindsight, it was a bit premature. Maybe the Capetown high will shuffle things up a bit.

 

[Slark]

The dive south for Holcim-PRB didn't work out so well. In hindsight, it was a bit premature. Maybe the Capetown high will shuffle things up a bit.

View attachment 573472
So close, probably anyone's race yet Maliz seems to be in a good position here. Excited that the racing is close. Should be fun to see how it ends with the high. Not an easy ride into CT.

Will be interesting in the S Ocean as well. Wondering if we will get to see a boat or two go on a flyer at some point. I imagine they are all using the same routing software and the bumpers to the south will keep them in the same lane.

 

[oceangeek]

Hmmm, had this problem yesterday, too: The 00:00 UTC update did not post on the tracker. The 23:00 positions are shown, and it says "next update at 01:00 UTC".

 

[climenuts]

Wow @Herman your routing had the gybes bang on around 44S 002W. Nice work. Let's see if Holcim does two more gybes

 

[Expedition]

@Herman I'm not sure the 105% Windspeed Scaling is the correct adjustment. My understanding is that boats normalize windspeed readings and polars to 10m windspeeds to match forecasts and so crew have a consistent 'feel' on various boats. Stan Honey talked about crews losing confidence in instruments if they're not calibrated/corrected to 10m, especially with tall masts, because their senses and the instruments don't line up.

I have never heard of anyone doing that.

 

[sunol]

Crazy how ~14 pages back the concern was this would be a disaster leg for Malizia. I think 11th Hour will catch them, but maybe not...
As a spectator, this sport can be a slow burn, but usually has some pretty amazing plot twists over time.

 

[Varan]

It really is fun following these adventures from the comforts of our armchairs. I do admit to being pleasantly surprised by this event while waiting for the Vendee.

 

[Varan]

Is that the pee bucket?

 

[Roleur]

Fair point. On the other hand I have no crew that can force me to walk of a plank. Except for the punters here .

Will states in the book on p. 89 on windscale; "I typical use 110-115% for wind (to account for mast heigth)".

For now I will experiment a bit with various windscale factors in order to see if the accuracy of the projections increase or not.

The scaling depends on the height of the anemometer versus 10m GRIB height. 10-15% sounds reasonable for an IMOCA. Not sure the IMOCA anemometer height, but the formula is Anemometer WS = 10m WS * (Anemometer Height(m)/10m)^.12. Variation is primarily dependent on the exponent which is a function of surface roughness and/or wind shear. Roughness being a proxy for shear. Higher roughness, higher shear.

 

[Chasm]

Is that the pee bucket?
View attachment 573495

Could be the puke bucket from leg one.

 

[Expedition]

The scaling depends on the height of the anemometer versus 10m GRIB height. 10-15% sounds reasonable for an IMOCA. Not sure the IMOCA anemometer height, but the formula is Anemometer WS = 10m WS * (Anemometer Height(m)/10m)^.12. Variation is primarily dependent on the exponent which is a function of surface roughness and/or wind shear. Roughness being a proxy for shear. Higher roughness, higher shear.

... and a very important factor in the southern ocean is that the air is a lot denser. 30kt feels a lot different than it does at the equator.