VOR 2014-2015 - Leg 2

[Just A Skosh]

Now that Leg 1 is wrapped up, what happens for Leg 2? Does ADOR continue to build on their momentum? Does Vestas figure out their boatspeed and match ADOR and DF? Does Dongfeng manage not to break anything? Will it be another crapshoot between Brunel, DF, and ADOR, or will mapfre, Alvimedica, and SCA get their shit together?

 

[southerncross]

Already? Are you kidding? How long is this race again?

Dee is going to be on the next leg. Who would have thought it?

 

[Your Mom]

I'm anxious for them to post the Leg 2 SI so we can see if they have a big exclusion zone in the piracy region.

 

[mad]

Already? Are you kidding? How long is this race again?

Dee is going to be on the next leg. Who would have thought it?

So who gets dropped to make space for Dee?

 

[Soley]

I would hardly call leg 1 wrapped up...

 

[Simone the Lemone]

I would hardly call leg 1 wrapped up...

+1

 

[Just A Skosh]

I would hardly call leg 1 wrapped up...

Over half the fleet is finished, Alvi looks pretty safe in 5th, the only race now is for DFL...

 

[WetHog]

Over half the fleet has finished? There are only 5 boats in this race? Not fair to Mapfre and SCA is it?

WetHog h34r:

 

[Varan]

We know first and first loser. Is there more?

 

[weightless]

I would hardly call leg 1 wrapped up...

Over half the fleet is finished, Alvi looks pretty safe in 5th, the only race now is for DFL...

And I'd be surprised if SCA can find a passing lane.

But, I still keep checking in. I find it interesting, sometimes even compelling watching the boats on the course working the systems. Not sure why, but I do.

 

[couchsurfer]

I would hardly call leg 1 wrapped up...

Over half the fleet is finished, Alvi looks pretty safe in 5th, the only race now is for DFL...

And I'd be surprised if SCA can find a passing lane.

But, I still keep checking in. I find it interesting, sometimes even compelling watching the boats on the course working the systems. Not sure why, but I do.

.

...was going to comment,,but it would be leg one material,,woudn't it :mellow:

 

[Tunnel Rat]

I'm anxious for them to post the Leg 2 SI so we can see if they have a big exclusion zone in the piracy region.

I'm guessing that they will have to sail through the Maledives and then up the Indian Coast before making turn to the West into the Straits of Hormuz.

That's going to give the Navigators an extra headache - trying to do match racing through all the atolls of the Maldives without parking it.

 

[Rainbow Spirit]

Lots of funky wind on leg 2, not a lot of historical info from past racing through to AD. Lets hope we get some more of the close racing and that SCA and Mapfre can make a comeback.

 

[stief]

Last time they chartered a freighter; any guesses this time they'll have some armed escorts standing by?

Maybe something like the Spanish warship that visited the fleet off Africa on leg 1?

 

[stief]

No freighter this time around. They already said that....

See here

http://www.yacht.de/sport/volvo_ocean_race/in-grossem-bogen-um-die-piraten/a92105.html

This is coming from Tom Touber. You'll need Google Translation for reading though.

Thanks for that link.

Interesting that the google translation reinforces the idea of "waypoints relatively far from the coast"

The previous world regatta had been interrupted because of acute danger of piracy in the Indian Ocean. A freighter took the yachts to a previously agreed-way point on board and put them just before the stage harbor again.


Volvo Ocean Race
© Sander van den Borch / VOR
Tom Touber, senior managing director of Volvo Ocean Race SLU

This temporary solution this time is to be avoided - the pirates are no longer as active as three years ago in the sea area by far. The Dutchman Touber who has also coached both for participants and for the organizers five races as a manager in the country, declared that they would require the passage of waypoints relatively far from the coast. The exact route will be determined only at the stopover in Cape Town in mid-November.

 

[Rainbow Spirit]

Looking at current Ugrib files, it looks like leg two can be divided into five parts.

1/ The run from the start up to the southern edge of Madagascar, depending on the weather patterns after the start there could some strong SE to SW winds.

2/ The run up to the Indian Ocean doldrums should be under SE trades

3/ The doldrums, which appear to be a lot narrower than the Atlantic ones, a good chance for a quick transition here.

4/ NE trades up into the Gulf

5/ Variable land breezes through the Gulf and down to the finish

 

[point]

Leg 2 is going to drive the navigators and skippers to the brink.

It doesn't look like you'd want to get too close to Madagascar as it throws a decent wind shadow to it's south east.

Depending on the position of the Indian Ocean High you may see teams leaving Reunion and Mauritus to port as the equitorial doldrums look narrowest between the maldives and a line directly south from Sri Lanka... so if you've got to get east then do it whilst you've got the breeze in the south. In any case they'll likely leave the Seychelles to port as there isn't any wind in there anyway... the only way you can operate as a pirate in an open skiff 400nm from the coast is if it is predominantly calm and flat conditions... great for piracy, poor for sailing fast.

As they enter the Arabian Sea they'll most likely be closer to India than Oman for consistent breeze - and I'd certainly want at least 600nm of open water between myself and the Gulf of Aden, Somali, and Yemeni coastlines if I had a choice.

Entering the Gulf of Oman there's typically better breeze to be had in the North toward the Iranian coast.... though then you've got to roll the dice with the Iranian Navy so you may see teams cut the corner on the Muscat side... at best they can hope for consistent northerlies for a fast tight reach without becoming embroiled in the usual three way in that region between the Iranian Navy, the Omani Coast Guard and the US Fleet. It's one thing to go 'lights out' on a forty footer racing through these parts at night and quite another to be racing in this fleet. There will be serious nerves on all sides as shipping lanes, increasing tides, lack of wind, and three very short tempered naval fleets all get layered over the top of the race.

Tides and shipping lanes will play a huge role through the Strait of Hormuz. Here Iran will enforce its maritime boundaries, though it would be surprising if they did so to the point of boarding and impounding vessels and arresting teams as they have done to sailing vessels in the region many times (most relevantly in 2009) Get the wind and the tide wrong and you're going in the wrong direction at 5 knots at best, at worst you're in a whirlpool and on the rocks of the Musandam Peninsula.

Down the UAE coast in the Arabian Gulf, you'll want to be 10+ miles off the coast to avoid the local fishing and shipping traffic, the proliferation of nets, and all sorts of man made navigational hazards but you'll also want to stick within 50nm otherwise things get testy with the politics again especially around the islands like Abu Musa. Best hope here is for a nor'wester 'shamal' wind to blow them home on a broad reach.

They better get some sleep in Cape Town because it'll be 4000nm of snakes and ladders to Abu Dhabi!

Volvo need to call Stan Honey and get him to work up a 'live line' representation of the geo-political boundaries and shipping lanes for the last thousand or so miles. It's going to get interesting...

 

[Code 2]

Volvo need to call Stan Honey and get him to work up a 'live line' representation of the geo-political boundaries and shipping lanes for the last thousand or so miles. It's going to get interesting...

/\ /\

This would be cool.

 

[matttnz]

Armed escort sounds most entertaining and given the fleet compression, maybe even feasible.

On the other hand... the way they are scrimping on the cost of the media feed, how the F can they afford a VOR Navy?