Tuesday 29 May 2012

Complex Atlantic crossing as boats seek best winds

 Thrane & Thrane FleetBroadband onboard Abu Dhabi which
 will help the crew choose the best tactics for crossing The Atlantic 
 Photo: Nick Dana/Volvo Ocean Racing
When you cross oceans with the prevailing winds, the goal is to hook into a fast running weather system and sail with it as long as you can - a little like catching a bus. 

Crossing the north Atlantic Ocean from West to East is an ideal opportunity for this to work well for the fleet.

Now they are away from complications like gulf streams and tropical storm Alberto, the navigators have tried to line their race boats up with the fastest systems going east.

Leeway diminishes
The next trick is to play-off how much north or south you should be to benefit from the best winds that carry the full force of the front.

When you're thousands of miles away from the finish line, you can sail further to line up perfectly.

But as you get closer, there is less leeway before you find yourself sailing more distance for less overall gain.

This is exactly what’s facing the fleet now.

Elastic band
Abu Dhabi Ocean racing made a 90 nm gain when they lined up perfectly with a system.
Now the next system is coming in from the west and sweeping the back of the fleet up to meet the front.

It's like the fleet is connected with a giant elastic band, as the lead is pulled out and then caught up.

There are a number of tactical considerations being made by Puma’s Media Crew Member, Amory Ross, as he considers the options for the fleet.

Stronger winds
"It is exciting to think that after sailing 3,500 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, this leg could well restart with just 100 miles to go, and with Groupama, Telefónica, and now Abu Dhabi squandering breakaway leads due to unfavourable weather, the thrills look set to continue until the end," he said.

"Once over 90 miles to our east, Abu Dhabi is now just 30 away, and as we’ve brought the stronger winds to them, the guys to our southwest are doing the same to us.

"At some point we could all line up south to north. Fortunately, these exciting 15 to 25 knots of wind are forecasted to last at least another day, giving us a final chance to gain some leverage to the north.

Complicated tactics
"When the front begins to overtake us it should again favour the boats further north while lifting and lightening the southern pack," he added.

Making the tactics all the more complicated is the proximity of the trough to the finish, Amory explained.

Because there are only about 100 miles to sail after punching through, there’s just not enough ‘runway’ to make up for miles spent diverting far north or south of Rhumb line in search of an optimal point of transit.

"In other words, if this ridge were mid-Atlantic, you could aim and sail for a narrow band 100 miles north of where you were — no problem — but to do that for this ridge would mean you would essentially double your distance to the finish, having to sail an additional 100 miles on the other side too," said Amory.

"So we're all going to be forced to stay relatively conservative in our approach and execution, staying closer to the actual course to Lisbon than what might otherwise be most advantageous."

Thursday 24 May 2012

No place to hide on live TV


Kenny Read rubs his eyes as he climbs out of the dark depths of below deck.   
 Ken's interview appeared on the Livestream website
 Photo: Livestream

Media Crew Member Amory Ross passes him a set of headphones and a throat mic, as his eyes get used to the light.

It slowly dawns on Kenny that he is about to go on camera so he makes a half effort to ruffle his hair so as to be vaguely presentable.

Live means live
Volvo’s Rick Deppe reminds him that he is live and to wipe the food from his mouth.  In this case, live truly means live!

Yesterday, Rick Deppe did the rounds, calling all six boats for a live  video streaming web chat for all race fans to tune into.

This has been a new capability for this edition of the Volvo Ocean Race and has been a huge success.

Bringing race to life
The live streaming provided by Inmarsat’s connectivity using FleetBroadband 500 has brought the race to life.

The French team Groupama have a regular TV spot using the live stream and now have clocked up over 100 live interviews from the oceans. This has given the team unrivalled media coverage and brought them a huge fan base.

Volvo’s communications department and the teams are now thinking ahead to the next race and how the new faster data transfer speeds that Global Xpress will bring will impact on the race.

HD web cams
The world’s media is demanding fast connectivity to bring more live events to life. The Volvo Ocean Race will be no different. Live streaming HD web cams that viewers can operate at will is just one of the ideas being considered.

The other benefit of a live interview from the boats is that the skippers being interviewed have no time to think of the smart answer.

The result is a very straight and honest opinion. As much as Ken Read struggled to wake up and perform for the camera, he ended up admitting that they had not gybed quickly enough and missed a trick on Groupama who opened up a 70 nautical mile lead.

You can watch this interview at:

http://new.livestream.com/volvooceanrace/Leg7/videos/1178143

Mark Covell



Monday 21 May 2012

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing rules the in-port race


Abu Dhabi chases the Groupama during the in-port race
Photo: Paul Todd/Volvo Ocean Race
The city of Miami has finally said goodbye to the Volvo Ocean Race. It’s hard to get the attention of the sports fans in this city. The footfall in the race village was the lowest it’s ever been.

Sailing here can’t compete with the big American sports like basketball and football. With all that in mind the on the water turn out was good for the in port and race start.

Ian Walker and his team on Abu Dhabi OceOcean Racing showed once again that they are the kings of the in-port race, winning their third event.

Training pays off
They needed that win desperately, to just keep team morale up. They are having a terrible race offshore, and mathematically cannot win.

"That was a pretty strange race," said Ian "I have to say our crew work got us back in the race. It feels great - we've had a tough time.

“The last in-port race we had no training time, this time we made an effort to have two training days and it paid off.

Lead whittled down
The team sailed a faultless in-port race on Saturday, unlike the overall leader, Team Telefónica who got round the top mark in first and then proceeded to fall back after mistake after mistake.

The final nail in the coffin was when they had to perform a 360-degree penalty turn after hitting a mark. Finishing last saw their lead whittled down even further.

"It didn’t go according to plan - well, the first bit did, but then it went downhill," said Telefónica's Neal McDonald.

Overall points
"It’s so easy to lose places with all these good guys behind you. You only have to make one slip-up and one boat goes by, then another boat goes by and then you’re in last place. It’s tough - heartbreaking."

The fall out from Saturday’s in-port race was the points just bunched up even more. Puma sneaked past CAMPER in the last few metres of the race to take third and Groupama closed the gap on Telefónica to take second.

This is how it looks for the overall points going into leg 7.

1. Team Telefónica 165

2. Groupama Sailing Team 158

3. CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand 152

4. PUMA Ocean Racing by BERG 151

5. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing 74

6. Team Sanya 27

The crossing to Lisbon looks like a fast one, with a low-pressure system repelling the teams across the Atlantic Ocean.

This leg will be very interesting to see who can make an impact and who falls behind. The big question is can Team Telefónica hold it grip on the overall lead?

Mark Covell

Thursday 17 May 2012

Media crew share experiences with Miami students



Camper's media crew member Hamish Hooper presenting
to students at the University of Miami
Photo: Mark Covell/Inmarsat
The life of an Inmarsat Media Crew Member demands a wide range of skills as they document life at sea through the many twists and turns of this amazing race.

The skills list looks like this: journalist, documentary film maker, writer, photographer, chef, psychologist, cleaner, communications director and all round media expert.

Well now they can add one more skill and job title to their list: university lecturer.  

Rigours of filming
The students of the University of Miami School of Communication sat transfixed as they had their first insight into the rigours of filming onboard a Volvo Open 70. 

Camper's Hamish Hooper, Team Sanya's Andres Soriano and Groupama’s Yann Riou all took to the lectern and spoke about the role and the media tasks onboard.

The event was hosted by  the university and presenting alongside the MCMs  were Inmarsat's vice-president of external affairs, Chris McLaughlin and Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad. 

Media advances
Chris praised American technology that made so much of what Inmarsat does possible.

He went onto explain how 100 per cent of the footage filmed onboard is transmitted using Inmarsat’'s equipment and satellite network, an essential part of any media delivery in the field.

Knut also spoke about how the technology onboard and how it has advanced throughout the history of the race.

Weight limits
Knut recanted how things were back in the dark ages before good media translated into positive sponsorship return.

"When I first competed in the race you could take camera equipment or 200kg of lead," he said.

"Half the boats took lead. We took the equipment and the first media crew member, Rick Tomlinson. We didn’t win the VOR that year but won the media exposure race by far."

Workflow
Bringing the events up-to-date, Hamish Hooper, who has a media degree himself, asked the students what their course covered.

The answer was "everything". So Hamish replied: "Oh good then, you know what our job entails too."

It was taken as read that the students knew what the documentary-style workflow was, to film life onboard.

Polished promo
However, the challenge of filming in such a harsh environment was new to the students.

Yann Riou explained how hard it was just to hit the correct key on the laptop key pad when trying to type a blog.

The students enjoyed watching video clips of the MCM’s work both in the raw boat feed as it comes off the boat and the polished promo after the editors at IMG had worked their magic.

Inmarsat capabilities
Most of the MCMs' workflow was somewhat similar to the work the students had experienced.

The students admired their tenacity and coping strategies to film in such uncomfortable environments. 

The real lesson learned was the knowledge and concept of being able to send footage from anywhere in the world using Inmarsat capabilities and connectivity.

Inmarsat looks forward to hosting another similar event in Galway, Ireland, as the race draws to a close.

By then the MCMs' would have been responsible for an amazing body of work and all transmitted with the help of Inmarsat at the heart of the race.

Thursday 10 May 2012

Puma's Miami victory creates fantastic battle


Puma arrives in Miami escorted by many spectators
Photo: Ian Roman/ Volvo Ocean Race

Now look what you have done Kenny.

You’ve set this race up to be a fantastic close battle between Team Telefónica, Camper, Groupama and Puma.

On Wednesday skipper Kenny Read and his team onboard Puma Ocean Racing held back the constant attacks from Camper to win a second consecutive leg win. 

Unbelievable
Puma crossed the Miami finish line at 14:14 local time, 18:14 UTC, with a lead of around five nautical miles over Camper.

Camper crossed the finish line for second place just over an hour later, at 19:21:25 UTC.

"This is unbelievable," said Read just minutes after crossing the line in the company of about 100 spectator boats.

Offshore legs
"It's great to be back in the United States, actually we've been to Miami before in this boat, so this marks our complete circumnavigation.

With six of nine offshore legs now complete, Telefónica lead with 164 points, followed by Groupama on 153, Camper on 149 and Puma on 147.

With the French team, Groupama, finishing ahead of the Spanish team Telefónica later that day, there are now only 17 points between the top four boats.

Great job
Puma held the lead all the way on the 4,800 nm race from Itajaí, Brazil, apart from a very short period when it looked like Camper would spoil there party.

Kenny Read said: "It was touch and go, the guys on Camper sailed very well, but I couldn't be more proud of our team, they did an unbelievably great job.

"It's been a long leg and PUMA have sailed very nicely, they have defended very well, but I think we have attacked well too.

"I'm pretty happy with how it's gone. We're in better shape now for the next leg."

Thursday 3 May 2012

Hot pursuit of Puma in light winds

Going fast downwind onboard Camper, just
behind the leader Puma.
Photo: Hamish Hooper/Volvo Ocean Race
Look left, look right, they’re coming for you Kenny !

Puma skippered by Ken Read has been holding off the chasing fleet for most of this leg.

The lighter winds and the drag race nature of the trade winds have kept his crew on their toes.

You can defend when your enemy is to one side of you, but it’s much harder when they split and divide your attention.

The crews have been hooked on the three-hourly scheduled position reports for most of the race, but now the leaders are only a few miles from each other.

Prolonged battle 
If they need to know how they are doing, they can just use their eyes. At one point, Puma held the lead from Camper by only half a mile.

“After such a prolonged battle, the Puma Ocean Racing team is now getting used to living in such close company with their rivals,” explained Puma’s media crew member (MCM) Amory Ross.

He confessed that being under such pressure to perform added an extra thrill to leading the fleet on Leg 6.
Design changes
“As nice as it’s been out in front, there’s a certain excitement that comes from having other boats in clear sight,” he said.
When boats are sailing so close, the subtle design changes start to tell. Designing a boat is a game of compromise.
If you trade light wind performance for heavy wind speed,  you suffer when the wind drops and so on.
Different strengths
Design an all rounder and you will be punished if the race turns out to be lighter or stronger then average.
Amory agrees:“Every boat has design strengths and weaknesses that favor certain wind speeds, sailing angles and sea states.
“Mar Mostro tends to thrive in lighter conditions and now we’re moving away from that. Maybe towards a windier corner that suits the design of Camper or Telefónica a little better.
Groupama struggles
“It’s impossible to know for sure though, so all we can do is focus on making our boat go as fast as possible in the building breeze.”
Abu Dhabi and Groupama are fighting it out with their own close quarter battle about 100nm behind.
The French look likely to lose their grip on second overall if they don’t catch up.
With 1600nm of Leg 6 still to sail, there is plenty of golf left in this hole.