VOR 2014-2015 - Leg 2

[RIGO]

Very unfair for the teams that the arm-chair followers with our low tech gear get a better view of the island than the navs on board. The Dong lost 2 hrs when they spotted it late, ADOR remarked that they could have easily hit it at night.



During coastal navigation, most side scroll through the predicted track on the e-charts at a closer zoom to check for lumps that don't render at passage making zoom. Fraid, none of us do this much in blue water - you'd go insane. On this occasion, it looks like it's caught the fleet out.

 

[pro from dover]

very interested to see if it can be salvaged...

sure, if you want a 2' X 2' piece of carbon fiber as commemorative souvenir

 

[Varan]

Mapfre aren't afraid to split from the fleet, but I sure don't see what they are seeing east. Dongs moving nicely. Go the Dong.

 

[hopsail]

Very unfair for the teams that the arm-chair followers with our low tech gear get a better view of the island than the navs on board. The Dong lost 2 hrs when they spotted it late, ADOR remarked that they could have easily hit it at night.

image.jpg

During coastal navigation, most side scroll through the predicted track on the e-charts at a closer zoom to check for lumps that don't render at passage making zoom. Fraid, none of us do this much in blue water - you'd go insane. On this occasion, it looks like it's caught the fleet out.

This was no bump. It's a frickin archipelago! It's a well charted (relatively) shoal with habitable islands that's over 50 miles long. I can assure you I would not have hit it. At least I would have known it was there. As with most accidents though, it's usually a series of small failures that leads to catastrophe. Looks like a good candidate for CRM classes.

 

[southerncross]

Very unfair for the teams that the arm-chair followers with our low tech gear get a better view of the island than the navs on board. The Dong lost 2 hrs when they spotted it late, ADOR remarked that they could have easily hit it at night.

image.jpg

During coastal navigation, most side scroll through the predicted track on the e-charts at a closer zoom to check for lumps that don't render at passage making zoom. Fraid, none of us do this much in blue water - you'd go insane. On this occasion, it looks like it's caught the fleet out.

All true. But what gets me about this is that since it is such a major hazard in the middle of the ocean and directly in their path, wouldn't the VORC or team briefings discuss it and make a point of this before the Leg? So much attention is paid to bergs and growlers why not an island? By the above description, it seems the teams were left on their own to figure it out and we're not aware of it until they came upon it.

Given that the VORC has position updates every 10 mins and Vestas had had recent problems with their systems, I'm beginning to think that they were reporting a different position and they might have thought they were well clear and not where they thought they were at all. Is it possible for the calibration to be so off?

Wretched ending.

 

[Terrorvision]

It's all Bruce Farr's fault.

 

[stief]

Mapfre aren't afraid to split from the fleet, but I sure don't see what they are seeing east. Dongs moving nicely. Go the Dong.

I agree. Maybe they are trying to ride a current around a hole they are forecasting? Odd that they gave up a decent lead to take a flyer when they could have stuck ahead of the pack.

This race is sure interesting. I look forward to Cambell F's Expedition projection and analysis

 

[Expedition]

Cross posting the key screen shot (SART position boxed in red):

aground.jpg

Note: this is Adriana running - is probably a C-Map max wide vector chart

Actually, it is Expedition, not adrena

Yes, they are C-Map MAX charts.

It is interesting to look at to get an idea of scale. Will has been very busy with dividers measuring distances everywhere.

 

[jbc]

I can assure you I would not have hit it.

And I can assure you that you're wrong, at least in the sense that you would have had to first secure a spot as navigator of one of the seven Volvo teams in order to be in position to not hit it.
Everyone makes mistakes. Confidently asserting you wouldn't have made this one sounds like the kind of over-confidence that makes someone more rather than less prone to them.

 

[nroose]

Seems to me like something software could help the crews with. If the crews are relying on seeing everything in their path, either by spotting it from on deck or looking at their path on a computer, that seems like a very error-prone process, especially with the inevitable fatigue.

 

[RIGO]

It looks like Vestas was aiming at that hazard for a long time prior to hitting it. At some point during the hrs prior to the grounding, there would have been a new GRIB received and fresh routing run.

I haven't played with Expedition or Adrena for a number of years now - so can someone explain to me the likelihood of either program drawing a track that crosses land (guessing its fairly high)? What are the parameters? Can you tell the program to avoid areas under a certain datum? Or, do you still have to manually draw boundaries for hazards- which of course you wouldn't know to do if the scale you're working with doesn't show the problem?

I've noticed before how differently some programs display chart data, even if the source data is exactly the same. I used to carry MaxSea for offshore and DFW for inshore tactics for just that reason.

 

[Kia Ora]

Wassup ???

Just jumped on and see that Vestas has suspended racing ....

Please ignore - just read it ....

 

[southerncross]

A matter of scale.

With so much at stake for the VOR and the teams and sponsors, the lives of the crews, millions of dollars invested and man hours invested, wouldn't someone at some point scrutinize the course for potential hazards ahead of the race? I mean, this wasn't a UFO or a growler that didn't show up on the radar. This is a well known, inhabited island dead smack in the middle of the course. Even F1 walks the entire track before a race.

 

[MasterRobin]

I am happy to see that everyone is safe and well. And it sucks that the Vestas race has ended this way. As I am sure most are I am looking forward to finding out how this accident happened.

In the meantime this is just a silly vid.

 

[RIGO]

Since I don't have any nav software of my own - please can someone who does post a video capture in Adrena and/or Expedition, gradually zooming in on the archipelago until it appears?

That would be awesome...

 

[stief]

https://twitter.com/teamalvimedica/status/538939807607820288

 

[MR.CLEAN]

https://twitter.com/teamalvimedica/status/538939807607820288

Holy fuck!!! Now that is AGROUND!

 

[RIGO]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/63685464/volvo-ocean-race-sloop-runs-aground-in-indian-ocean

 

[chuso007]

That looks bad...

Isn't that "Frigate Island" to the west of them one of the most exclusive luxury resorts on the planet?

I think a friend of mine went there for the honeymoon... Not a bad place to recover from the accident.

 

[Campbell]

MHO, FWIW

http://www.fieldyachting.com/2014/11/vor-3011-sad-event-for-yacht-racing.html