The Ocean Race 2023 leg 3: Capetown to Itajaí, Brazil

[LeoV]

Good vid, that flex in the foils...
About crew cruelty, the VOR had some problems too.
In 2005, Gerd-Jan Poortman onboard Team ABN AMRO. He damaged his back due to a nose dive. He says he broke his back, but more likely a crushed part. Still he does not like the closed cockpits but understands them.

 

[tiljim]

Looking forward to March 29th, another LP is projected to start developing on the Argentinian coast. And is projected by GFS to move quickly east on the 29th across the path of the first 2 boats. Some wind barbs with 50 kts. That would be a force 10 and a storm. Sig waves (WW3) up to 5 meters at the nucleus of the LP. If boats want to play it safe they could slow down a bit, but then they would miss the 2nd elevator north.

I wonder whether this is the reason for Holcim to sail further west than TM. If the LP is going to build, TM may have a hard time later to make it west again to the left side of the LP.

 

[Herman]

Bouwe Beijkking

FIFY. Or did he relocate to China?

 

[terrafirma]

The whole "Live from the Southern Ocean" media package is a game changer - with TM team at center stage and Rosie as the star no doubt. I wonder if we will look back at this as the investment that propels the Ocean Race forward.

You make a very good point.! I think it has to ....

 

[Fiji Bitter]

FIFY. Or did he relocate to China?

I've got a Chinese tablet and spelchecker.
Fixed it an hour ago, actually.

 

[Qtrfoil]

Instead the top boats we see in the videos have one crew permanently minutely adjusting the autopilot. I know they are clever machines, and I am not sure exactly what Will is adjusting, hopefully he will tell all.

I remember Will led an excellent walk through Malizia before the start with Matt Sheahan on Planet Sail talking through the systems.

If I was the new Hugo Boss looking to sponsor a new skipper for the next Vendee Will Harris would be my favourite choice.

Here Will talks a little bit about using the autopilot. I tagged TM on one of their Instagram posts and suggested that Antoine do a piece on the autopilot, and they liked it back to me, so perhaps at some point we'll see a bit of it, if any of it is not competition sensitive.

Taking control: How modern autopilot systems can be your best helmsman

There is a school of thought in the IMOCA 60 world that a good autopilot system is worth sacrificing a few sails for in the overall campaign budget

www.yachtingworld.com

Here was Will on that superb episode of Planet Sail, incredible depth on the boat's design.

 

[NZK]

Most impressive is his technical ability understanding the systems and how to keep the IMOCA 60's sailing fast.

I have noticed, more than any other video of all the boats, that Will (and Rosalin occasionally) is continually driving the autopilot, even as he talks to the camera.

It looks like success in the foiling 60's is monitoring and adjusting the way the autopilot is reacting to changes in wind speed, wind direction, boat speed, boat heel and course all the time, especially when surfing down the waves.

I've been wondering if TMs stability (and speed) isn't a combination of some clever autopilot upgrades as well as the hull shape.
The volume in the bows clearly helps but TM often never get the bow low enough for it to get close to burying - in comparison if you look at some of the Holcim drone vids they sometimes seem 'stuck' to the water well forward of the keel.
This might also be a result of extra rocker in the stern letting the hull 'release' better from the waves but it's harder to see that interaction from drone videos

 

[Swanno]

Geovoile just added the spherical projection !
At least on this link :

The Ocean Race 2023

theoceanrace.geovoile.com

I guess the geovoile guy reads this thread and it is a better medium for requests ..
The windy or squid wind layup doesn't work on it though.
And really late in the game for this leg where it was the most required.

But the ruler disappeared again (on the plan projection)
And just noticed that Guyot can also be seen on the tracker, they will clearly be in Itajai before the winner of this leg.
(which will be HPRB )

Ruler doesn’t show on my phone, iPad or laptop, but when laptop is connected to a big screen it appears.

 

[tiljim]

Ruler doesn’t show on my phone, iPad or laptop, but when laptop is connected to a big screen it appears.

Have you tried the full screen mode on your smaller devices? More icons appear if you hold your device vertically (allowing more icons to fit on top of each other). Final remedy is to remove the leaderboard table by clicking the small arrow.

 

[Herman]

I've got a Chinese tablet and spelchecker.
Fixed it an hour ago, actually.

Quite handy, a Chinese spellchecker 鞋跟手

 

[timotheysski]

I've been wondering if TMs stability (and speed) isn't a combination of some clever autopilot upgrades as well as the hull shape.
The volume in the bows clearly helps but TM often never get the bow low enough for it to get close to burying - in comparison if you look at some of the Holcim drone vids they sometimes seem 'stuck' to the water well forward of the keel.
This might also be a result of extra rocker in the stern letting the hull 'release' better from the waves but it's harder to see that interaction from drone videos

Don't they head up a couple of degrees for the drone videos? Can't remember where exactly but that's what it sounded like to me.

 

[shanghaisailor]

Quite handy, a Chinese spellchecker 鞋跟手

it is for me - ha ha

 

[carlosgp5]

anybody got an updated eta for holcim and malizia? cheers

 

[Swanno]

Friday / Saturday finish. 4.2 days from now.

 

[Herman]

Weather routing March 28th part II
Found out why the wx routing was giving me trouble. And run again the latest GFS GRIB and the bit older ECMWF. GFS now also pushes Team Malizia more to the west, so models do more or les align for tomorrow. As GFS has more detail/resolution than ECMWF and is newer, I would buy the GFS routing. 11th Hour Racing Team and Biotherm are/were rounding Cape Horn.

LP forming as per GFS tomorrow

GFS is pushing the routing for Biotherm and 11th Hr along the Argentinian coast due to a HP developing around March 31st.

On April 1st a developing LP is projected to pop-up, providing an extra elevator for the first 2 boats.

Wx routing and table. Lots of dynamics stuff going on the last days of this leg, so take the exact ETA's with a pinch of salt pls. So April 2nd will very probably be the finish day as it stands now, unless projections change drastically.

 

[Rennmaus]

Today's VNR:

 

[Fabricensis]

Interesting, so both ECMWF and GFS give a significant advantage to TM (5 and almost 4 hours respectively), it appears to have paid off to stay east

 

[tiljim]

View attachment 582396

And Guyot is winning . Interesting that they won't arrive that much earlier than the others.

 

[Rennmaus]

And the interviews/B-rolls:

Team Malizia (GER)
Boris Herrmann (GER) - Skipper - Interview in GERMAN
Boris Herrmann (GER) - Skipper - Interview in ENGLISH
Will Harris (GBR) - Interview in ENGLISH
Rosalin Kuiper (NED) - Interview in ENGLISH
Nicolas Lunven (FRA) - Interview in FRENCH
Nicolas Lunven (FRA) - Interview in ENGLISH

Team Holcim - PRB (SUI)
Abby Ehler (GBR) - Interview in ENGLISH

Biotherm (FRA)
Sam Davies (GBR) - Interview in ENGLISH

 

[Herman]

And Guyot is winning . Interesting that they won't arrive that much earlier than the others.

That "late" arrival by Guyot was planned AFAIK, a five days ago or so it was mentioned in a show from Niall that the team were sailing without a hurry as the stuff for the boat was not ready yet in Itajai.