What to look out for on Leg Zero

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James Blake/Volvo Ocean Race

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Jeremie Lecaudey/Volvo Ocean Race

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Ugo Fonolla/Volvo Ocean Race

Who will draw #FirstBlood in the debut battle between the teams? (full story below)

Leg Zero not only takes care of the official qualifying for the Volvo Ocean Race – it’s also the first chance to see the teams in a competitive shakedown against each other.

No points will be carried forward to the race itself, but the overall Leg Zero winner still gets a confidence boost – and here, round-the-world Vendée Globe sailor Conrad Colman fills us in on how it might play out.

Leg Zero breakdown

Don’t go looking for the logic, but Leg Zero is actually made up of four separate races. The seven teams taking part – team AkzoNobel, Dongfeng Race Team, MAPFRE, Vestas 11th Hour Racing, Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag, Turn the Tide on Plastic and Team Brunel – will face the following schedule:

2 August: an intense 50-nautical mile sprint around the Isle of Wight

6 August start: the famous Rolex Fastnet Race featuring some of the hottest yachting hardware on the planet in a 608 nm coastal race that has historically served up a hearty dose of danger – and a lot of stressed navigators.

Then comes another big challenge, with two Volvo Ocean Race-only legs:

10 August start: Plymouth, England to St Malo in France (125 nm)

13 August start: St Malo to Lisbon, Portugal (770 nm)

There are no other boats to act as a distraction on these last two legs, just the world’s strictest offshore One Design fleet and the clock ticking down to the start of the Volvo Ocean Race from Alicante, Spain on 22 October 2017.

Around the Island Race

A 50-mile coastal race in early August for some of the best sailors in the world who are preparing to tackle the world’s longest racetrack in sport? Okay, let’s be honest – we’re not going to learn a lot here. There’s nothing much at stake and in terms of racing, it’s tempting to say there’s nothing to see here… But then again, sandbanks, rocks and tides will make these 50 miles pretty challenging – and would you want to finish last out of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet?

The Famous Fastnet

Now we’re talking. The Rolex Fastnet Race boasts the biggest offshore racing fleet in the sailing world and traditionally, it can go one of two ways. Either a late summer depression will rip across the Atlantic Ocean and chew through the fleet, as happened in the infamous 1979 edition, or boats will be forced to pick their way along the English coast, searching for any puff of wind while being pushed in circles by the tides.

The series of bays and headlands along the southern coast of England make the first part of the course like sailing along the edge of a saw, where each point sticking down into the English Channel concentrates and accelerates the tide. This will give a welcome push to those that make it through on time, and punish those forced to fight against the flow. In the tight Volvo Ocean 65 fleet, rounding a headland just 10 minutes after a competitor might cost you an hour at the finish! Even though the Fastnet doesn’t count towards the points in the race around the world, MAPFRE skipper Xabi Fernández confirms that his team won’t get much sleep: “A 600-mile race like the Fastnet is not super relevant towards the real race but of course it’s always good to sail together as a crew. There will be plenty of manoeuvres and a lot going on. It’s going to be good training and we will take it very seriously.”

Look out for strange routes on the tracker by the Land’s End point as strong tides turn around this headland and there’s a huge obstacle in the way. Traffic Separation Schemes (TSS) act like salty motorways for commercial shipping, and because they guide hundreds of massive steel ships, they are off limits for competitors.

These off-limits TSS zones will appear later in the Volvo Ocean Race route, most notably in the Strait of Gibraltar, around Hong Kong and off the coast of Newport, RI. This American highway upended the leaderboard in the last race after MAPFRE, Team SCA and Dongfeng all entered the zone illegally and were penalised. Now is a good time for the teams to get to grips with these TSS zones to avoid problems later when the points are at stake.

As the English coast fades into the horizon behind, streaking across the Celtic Sea will allow the Volvo Ocean 65s to enter more typical ocean conditions until the handbrake turn around Fastnet Rock. We’ll talk about the actual weather closer to the time but here the wind is often from the west and with the route now leading eastwards back to the Cornish coast the wind will be coming from behind the boats – a wind angle that the crews will see a lot of in the coming race around the world.

From rocks to tides to TSS’s, one thing is for sure – the navigators will suffer!

via What to look out for on Leg Zero| Volvo Ocean Race.

St Malo Rocks

After back to back stopovers in Lorient in 2011-12 and 2014-15, the Volvo Ocean Race will visit another French city that’s crazy about ocean racing, St Malo. It’s best known for a solo transatlantic race every four years called the Route du Rhum (confirming the theory that sailors are obsessed with the sea, salt and rum).

Volvo Ocean Race boats have deep keels and are normally safe offshore in the deep ocean but in 2008-09 Bouwe Bekking skimmed the bottom in Taiwan and dramatically slammed into a submerged rock just off Gothenburg. A former pirate’s paradise, St Malo is also protected by a fearsome set of reefs and needless to say, it could be pretty stressful with freshly painted keels and a circumnavigation just around the corner!

Who’s hot, who’s not?

Cyclists count how many ribs are visible on their competitors to see if they are down to weight. Football players look for medical tape on opposing teams that might signal a sign of weakness. Sailors have less to go on, as physical form is only one factor in the pursuit of speed. In sailing, polished teamwork counts for more than the circumference of biceps and strong tides and fickle winds will make it hard to get an accurate measure of potential speed in real offshore conditions.

Dee Caffari, Skipper of Turn the Tide on Plastic: “As a form guide I think it would be misleading. We all have different sails for racing. Some have old sails some have race sails and some have a combination of sails. I am still using the Leg 0 race schedule as a trial for my sailing team so it is a test to see if we have the appropriate people.”

The short legs won’t allow teams to try out their ocean watch systems as most teams will probably chug a Red Bull and push hard in the knowledge that the next port isn’t far away. This fourth and final part of Leg Zero will probably give us the best sense of who’s up to speed and who’s got work to do before the big one comes around. That’s because the rounding of Cape Finisterre at the northwest point of Spain often accelerates the local wind before the trade winds blowing down the Portuguese coast allow teams one last blast to measure their performance before the boats go into maintenance.

83 days out from the start, the pressure is building!

via What to look out for on Leg Zero| Volvo Ocean Race.

Seasonal maintenance: A fair lead?

BY ADMIN • JULY 21, 2017 • BREAKING NEWS, YACHT MAINTENANCE • COMMENTS (0) • 50

In strong winds and ocean swells chafe is accelerated at an alarming rate.

On a long passage in an ocean swell running rigging such as sheets, headsail furling lines and so on can easily be wrecked in hours, let along days, if they do not have a completely fair lead that is clear of any obstructions. Chafe on guardrails, shrouds, other deck fittings and even anchors can chew through a new line at a rate that seems totally out of proportion to that seen in several seasons of coastal sailing.

The solution is to take a careful look at all lines to check they are routed clear of any obstructions. If necessary a problematic line should be re-routed, or either a snatch block or a low friction ring used to pull it clear of the source of chafe.

A few hours of very occasional rubbing against a guardrail wrecked this headsail sheet.

Reefing pennants and halyards are also at risk. These can chafe badly on their sheaves, particularly if the pulley or its housing have sharp edges. At an early stage in the preparation for a long passage it’s therefore worth checking sheaves with the mast lowered and, if necessary removing sheaves to file any sharp edges smooth. It’s also worth looking to see whether there’s any existing damage on the halyard in way of the sheave – this can be a useful early warning.

A length of Dyneema chafe jacket spliced over the end of the halyard, extending for around a metre each side of where it passes over the sheave, will significantly prolong the service life of running rigging. This has two main benefits, the primary being that the slippery nature of Dyneema means it’s very resistant to chafe. In addition, the extra thickness provides a physical barrier around the load-bearing elements of the line.

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Destination: Newport, Rhode Island, USA

BY ADMIN • JULY 21, 2017 • BREAKING NEWS, DESTINATIONS, HOMEMOSAIC • COMMENTS (0) • 38

This small city of 25,000 people on Aquidneck Island punches well above its weight in the sailing world. In many ways it’s the spiritual home of the America’s Cup. Granted competition for the world’s oldest sporting trophy started around the Isle of Wight and it is decades since the racing took place in Newport. Yet for much of the 20th Century, before Australia ll broke the longest winning streak in sporting history, more Cup matches took place here than anywhere else. Today that legacy lives on in a big fleet of ex America’s Cup 12 Metre yachts, many of which are available for charter, and in any case make a fine sight.

The lavish summer homes and mansions both on Aquidneck Island and the scenic myriad of islands in the sheltered waters of Narragansett Bay are also fit for the very top echelons of yacht racing. Newport was the location of the “Summer White House” for both the Eisenhower and John F Kennedy presidencies, while in earlier times some of the country’s wealthiest families, including the Vanderbilts and Astors, had grand summer mansions here.

Newport is a welcoming destination for the widest possible range of sailors and boats, whether ocean cruisers, powerboats, sailing dinghies or racing keelboats. There is a whole host of small boatyards, marinas and mooring providers, many of which cater for visiting yachts, as well as a couple of small anchorages.

Given its heritage it’s perhaps also no surprise that all marine trades are available in Newport and it’s an excellent destination for top quality refit work. A number of big name marine companies are based here, while others have strategic outposts. British boat builder Oyster Yachts, for instance, has an in-house yacht management and refit facility – the company’s only one outside of Europe.

The nine clubs in Narragansett Bay include a base of the New York Yacht Club, which formerly hosted the America’s Cup racing. Newport Yacht Club has a long history of involvement in short-handed racing, including the OSTAR and the Bermuda 1-2, while competitive keelboat racing takes place a variety of others, including Ida Lewis Yacht Club, whose clubhouse is on the tiny island of Lime Rock, connected to the town by a pier.

As might be expected, Newport is also well placed for crew transfers. Providence, RI, which has the nearest international airport can be reached by coach or ferry, while Boston is 72 miles north and New York 125 miles south, both also accessible by train or coach.

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Transatlantic Race battered by ferocious storms

BY ADMIN • JUNE 22, 2017 • OLDER, RACING • COMMENTS OFF • 252

Kass Schmitt, the only woman entry in this edition of the OSTAR.

The 2017 edition of the four-yearly Original Single Handed Transatlantic Race (OSTAR) from Plymouth, UK to Newport, Rhode Island started in light airs on May 29. The 15 solo skippers were joined by a further seven boats sailing double handed in the TWOSTAR race that’s run alongside the main event. The 3,000-mile race has been run since its inception in 1960 by the Royal Western Yacht Club.

Despite the gentle start, the sailors were soon battling with a fierce North Atlantic storm with 60 knot winds and huge seas around a 1,000 miles east of Newfoundland. At the time of writing one boat had sank two were abandoned and several others had retired from the races

Australian Mark Hipgrave bought his Jeanneau Sun Fast 3600 in England. After the finish he intends to ship it home in preparation for the Rolex Sydney Hobart race and then the 5,000 mile Melbourne to Osaka (Japan) race.

An additional hazard for competitors this year is that warm winter temperatures in the Arctic have resulted in significant calving of icebergs that were then washed south by the ocean currents. In early May between the longitude of the Azores and the continental USA these were recorded as far south as 42 degrees north.

Competitors come from 12 countries, including the UK, France, Portugal, Poland, Italy, Bulgaria, USA and Australia. On the same weekend as this race started the Royal Western YC also organised the celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of Sir Francis Chichester’s record breaking circumnavigation in 1967. Chichester was winner of the first OSTAR, held in 1960 as a result of a bet between a group of friends as to which of them could sail their yacht singlehanded across the Atlantic the fastest. At the time none knew that this wager would spawn the entire sport of solo oceanic yacht racing.

Action on the start line of the OSTAR single handed transatlantic race

In 1967 Chichester became the first person to sail single-handed around the globe with only one stop, opening the way for the famed Golden Globe Race in 1968/9, sponsored by the Sunday Times newspaper. Out of a field of nine competitors, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston was the only successful finisher, taking 313 days to circle the globe alone.

Next year will see a re-enactment of the Golden Globe race, with 30 skippers leaving Falmouth to race non stop around the world. Competitors will sail south down the Atlantic, before effectively sailing around Antarctica and then returning to the UK via Cape Horn. Race rules limit them to traditional heavy long keel yachts of a modest size and only the equipment that was available in the late 1960s. Amazingly 30 entries have signed up and it promises to be fascinating to observe. One of those, Frenchman Lionel Regnier, is racing in the OSTAR with the aim of building miles and experience in his Rustler 36 One and All. Unlike most racers, who take every opportunity to minimise weight, he is carrying the same weight of stores that he will take for his circumnavigation next year.

Follow competitors via the race tracker here

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Dramatic mid-Atlantic rescues

BY ADMIN • JULY 21, 2017 • BREAKING NEWS, HOMEMOSAIC, RACING • COMMENTS (0) • 60

The OSTAR single-handed trans-Atlantic race has long been considered to be one of the toughest of all ocean races. Competitors have to battle 3,000 miles across the north Atlantic against prevailing winds and currents. But no one could predict the scale of devastation an unseasonal storm would wreak on the fleet this year, the 15th edition of the race since it was first run in 1960.

Of the 21 boats that left Plymouth on May 29, seven of which were two-handed entries in the double handed TWOSTAR race that ran alongside the OSTAR, a quarter would retire in the first week.

In their second week at sea four of the remaining 16 boats were lost in winds gusting 60 to 70 knots and 10-15m seas thanks to a low pressure system of 964 millibars that Canadian forecasters likened to the worst of their winter storms. Storms of this intensity are very rare in early summer, but this one was 15mb lower in pressure than the disastrous 1979 Fastnet race storm in which 15 competitors lost their lives.

Thankfully, on this occasion all the crews were successfully rescued, one lucky competitor by the Queen Mary 2 luxury cruise ship. A further five boats subsequently retired, all making port without assistance, but leaving only seven yachts to finish the race – a retirement rate far in excess of any in the race’s history.

While some readers might make initial assumptions about the seaworthiness of light weight racing yachts, the casualties included a wide variety of craft, including a 11.5 tonne displacement double ended Formosa 42 that had completed numerous previous editions of the race in the hands of owner former Royal Marine Mervyn Wheatley, who had sailed more than 100,000 miles on board.

Italian Andrea Mura took line honours in his Open 50 Vento di Sardegna, but wasn’t able to save his time on Irishman Conor Fogarty’s Jeanneau Sun Fast 3600 Bam, who won the Gipsy Moth class. A second 3600, Australian Mark Hipgrave’s Mister Lucky, was third over the line and on corrected time in the same class. Only two of the slower boats in the Jester Class, are still in the race, Christian Chalandre’s French S&S 34 and Britain’s Neil Payter in his Yamaha 33 Solent One. At the time of writing both were around 300 miles from the finish.

Only two boats in the TWOSTAR division finished the race – Uwe Rottgering and Asia Pajkowska Class 40 Rote 66, and Adelie Parat and Mederic Thiot’s classic 1954 Morgan 54 Midnight Summer Dream.

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Volvo Ocean Race unveils 10-strong squad of Onboard Reporters for 2017-18

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Brian Carlin/Team Vestas Wind/Volvo Ocean Race/Volvo Ocean Race

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Sam Greenfield/Dongfeng Race Team/Volvo Ocean Race

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Ainhoa Sanchez/Volvo Ocean Race

The mixed squad of media professionals will tell the story of the toughest test of a team in professional sport (full story below)

The Volvo Ocean Race has unveiled a 10-strong squad of Onboard Reporters to tell the story of the toughest test of a team in professional sport.

Featuring hardened media pros from six nations around the world, the group of Onboard Reporters for the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 includes award-winning adventure photographers, extreme sports filmmakers, the documentary-making son of a Volvo Ocean Race legend and a former soldier–turned–journalist who has completed two tours of the Middle East.

Dubbed ‘the toughest job in sports media’, the Onboard Reporter is a position that’s unique to sailing’s iconic race around the world. The Volvo Ocean Race is the only professional sporting event to feature dedicated multimedia reporters embedded with the teams, and given unique access to cover every aspect of the event, round the clock, directly from the field of play.

Two Onboard Reporters – Brian Carlin (Ireland) and Sam Greenfield (United States) – return to the Race after making their debuts in 2014-15.

They are joined by Jen Edney (United States), who was recently named as one of ‘Nine Female Adventure Photographers Who Push the Limits’ by National Geographic; French shooters Martin Keruzoré and Jeremie Lecaudey; Richard Edwards and Konrad Frost, Britons who honed their onboard skills in the Clipper Race; Spanish media man Ugo Fonollá; and BBC journalist Tom Martienssen (Britain), who served as a gunner in the British Royal Air Force, and has reported live from the summit of Mount Everest.

Accomplished natural history documentary filmmaker James Blake (New Zealand/Britain), who has worked with the likes of the BBC and Discovery and is the son of Volvo Ocean Race winner Sir Peter Blake, completes the squad, which has already clocked up thousands of offshore miles in preparation for the next edition, beginning 22 October 2017.

The Onboard Reporters have gone through an extensive creative ‘boot camp’ in Alicante, proving their ability to withstand the mental and physical pressure of the role before being accepted.

When the Race launched its storyteller search in June 2016, almost 10,000 candidates from 126 countries flooded the campaign website to discover how to join the next batch of elite reporters.

The event, which pits the best professional sailors against each other over 45,000 nautical miles, covering four oceans, five continents and nine marathon months, requires multi-skilled and experienced media professionals to join the crews onboard and report back to shore from the most remote and hostile regions on the planet.

To push content from the world’s oceans to race fans takes some serious technology. Every boat is fitted with state-of-the-art equipment, remote-control cameras, microphones and custom-designed media stations.

The Inmarsat satellite network coupled with communications hardware from Cobham powers the delivery of multimedia content from each of the super-charged 65-foot racing boats while at sea.

With the next edition drawing closer, the whole fleet is en route to Gosport, UK, where they will make preparations for the Leg Zero qualifying races.

via Volvo Ocean Race unveils 10-strong squad of Onboard Reporters for 2017-18| Volvo Ocean Race.

Onboard Reporter biosSam Greenfield  (United States) Sam is one of only two Onboard Reporters from the 2014-15 edition to return to the racetrack, having worked with Dongfeng Race Team last time. He caught attention by becoming the first OBR to successfully fly a drone from a moving Volvo Ocean 65, revolutionising the use of drones across the sailing industry in the process. Since the end of the 2014-15 race, Sam has been based in Bermuda as part of the Team ORACLE USA media crew.Jen Edney (United States)Jen is one of the most renowned water adventure photographers in the business, and regularly appears in international publications like National Geographic magazine, which recently named her as one of ‘Nine Female Photographers Who Push The Limits’. Despite coming from the landlocked US state of Nebraska, Jen has clocked up over 50,000 offshore miles in preparation for the ultimate sailing media job.Konrad Frost (Britain)Having honed his onboard shooting and eye for detail in the Clipper Race, Konrad’s step into the Volvo Ocean Race world is a natural progression – and he admits that he has dreamed of stepping onboard in the Volvo Ocean Race since he was a little kid. When he’s not at sea, he is a respected cameraman in the adventure sports industry, and he knows the Race inside out having worked as crew on recent Volvo Ocean Race TV series, as well as the likes of CNN Mainsail.Jeremie Lecaudey (France)Jeremie joins the Race with is new to sailing, but arrives with a fresh perspective – and bags of extreme sports experience under his belt. He is renowned as a top talent in the snowboarding industry, but has taken to dampening his sea boots onboard a French Mini Open 650 within the last couple of years.Martin Keruzoré (France)Martin grew up around the ocean and the world of sailing photography and has almost a decade’s experience as a director, photographer, cameraman and editor. Starting out early, Martin has logged thousands of miles in French races and has been involved in projects including L’Hydroptere’s first speed test.Richard Edwards (Britain)Richard grew up with a natural affinity for the ocean and water sports – and in 2015, he made his passion a profession, by joining the Clipper Race as a cameraman and producer. It was this round-the-world experience that inspired him to push for the ultimate media job – a Volvo Ocean Race Onboard Reporter role.James Blake (New Zealand/Britain) James has carved out an impressive reputation in nature and documentary world for his shooting ability – and has worked for the likes of the BBC and Discovery as a filmmaker before deciding to follow in his father, Volvo Ocean Race legend Sir Peter Blake’s, footsteps and jump onto a Volvo Ocean Race boat himself. He’s also a natural born adventurer who completed a transtasman row in 2012 as part of a four-man team, and is planning new exploits after the race’s completion, including a new angle on a transatlantic record.Tom Martienssen (Britain)They say that the Volvo Ocean Race Onboard Reporter role is one of the most extreme media roles in the business – but for former soldier turned reporter Tom, it might be a welcome change of pace from his recent vocations. He has completed two tours of Iraq as a medic and an RAF gunner, and has reported for the likes of the BBC and CNN live from the summit of Mount Everest. Nevertheless, he still claims that working onboard the Volvo Ocean Race boats is the toughest thing he’s ever done. Brian Carlin (Ireland)Having made his name as the Onboard Reporter for Team Vestas Wind in 2014-15, Brian returns to the race as OBR Team Leader, and will be keen to make it the whole way around the world after a challenging Volvo Ocean Race debut which saw his team ground on an atoll in the middle of the Indian Ocean just days into Leg 3. Ugo Fonollá (Spain)The youngest member of the 2017-18 Onboard Reporter squad, Ugo grew up around sailing on Mallorca, close to the Palma sailing scene. Having studied engineering, Ugo then switched his focus to fulfilling his life’s dream – to become an OBR in the Volvo Ocean Race. Six years later, and armed with a camera and some wet weather gear, his wish has come true.

via Volvo Ocean Race unveils 10-strong squad of Onboard Reporters for 2017-18| Volvo Ocean Race.

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Liverpool to enter Clipper Race

21 Jul 2017

Host port for the start and finish of the Clipper 2017-18 Round the World Yacht Race, Liverpool, will be a team entry in the event.

The Liverpool 2018 team will visit 12 international destinations on six different continents throughout the 11-month race.

Making the announcement, Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson, said: “We’re delighted to be a Clipper Race team partner – not only are we part of the action, but it means that, once again, Liverpool is going to be seen across the globe by millions of people.

“As host port for the start and finish of this prestigious race, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to have a city-dedicated vessel as part of the competition.”

via Boating Business | Liverpool to enter Clipper Race.

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New rope catalogue

21 Jul 2017

According to the Grace’s Guide to British Industry Arthur Beale was established as a rope maker in around 1500. Now, more than 500 years’ later, the company has bought out a rope catalogue.

The catalogue is arranged chronologically with traditional fibres at the start and high-tech fibres such as Technora towards the end.

“It’s packed with information so we like to call it a reference catalogue,” said Arthur Beale’s Alasdair Flint. “We also have the skills to advise on the most suitable type to use for each application and we have the ability to splice them to suit your requirements.”

via Boating Business | New rope catalogue.