Volvo 70 Design Rule-- 2011-2012 Race

Pericles,
My choice will be Diego Garcia, Chagos, american us base...? safe of the safe...


cheer's

 

Someone on the sa thread said they were going to the Maldives? Its a hell of a way to do a sailboat race....

 

Guys,
Diego in Chagos is more south than Maldives, and it's a real harbor there , nobody can go close or enter... large Navy base with many black triangular bombers ...belong to UK, officially..
5$ on this place...
not so fun to follow a race without heading destination...
cheer's
bertho

 

Vor

From Scuttlebutt tonight:

RISK TRUMPS REWARD(December 19, 2011; Day 9) -

Fast boats can make people look smart. And
slow boats can make people look...less smart

By his own accord, Team Sanya skipper Mike Sanderson doesn't have the
fastest boat in the Volvo Ocean Race. It's the only boat from the previous
race, and strong winds were never its strength. So if speed won't win you
the race, tactics better.

When Sanya broke away from the six-boat Volvo Ocean Race fleet on Saturday
and headed north towards a tropical depression containing brutal headwinds,
it was a moment of big risk, big reward.

A day later, the reward was a 200+ mile lead on the fleet. But two days
later the risk was rig damage. Risk won.

With their D2 shroud separated from the spreader terminal, Sanya is now
heading to a port in southern Madagascar in order to assess the damage and
make a repair plan. "We were just out of the major breeze and changing
sails from the J4 to the fractional zero and were in wind speeds of around
12-14 knots when we noticed a vital piece of rigging loose from the mast
(D2)," said Sanderson.

Because of the anti-piracy plans drawn up by organisers for Legs 2 and 3,
the fleet is currently heading towards an undisclosed 'safe haven' port in
the Indian Ocean. The boats are due to be loaded onto a ship at that port
and transported to a point off the Sharjah coast to resume racing with a
sprint into Abu Dhabi.

Race rules mean that Sanya will still score points for Leg 2, the In-Port
Race in Abu Dhabi and the first stage of Leg 3 if they cross the finish
line at the safe haven port under racing conditions at some point.

Sanya's goal will be to repair the boat, complete the first stage of Leg 2
and then rejoin the fleet when they return by ship after the first stage of
Leg 3, which will take the fleet on to the team's home port of Sanya.

Sanya was also forced to retire from Leg 1 with hull damage but the shore
crew performed heroics to get the boat repaired in time for the Cape Town
In-Port Race and the start of Leg 2 earlier this month.

For the remaining five boats, they are on an all out drag race. Tight
reaching to the north, with Telefonica on the low road and the Groupama on
the high road, 128 miles apart. - Event media
==========================
Future Fibers who built and rigged Sanya's mast comments: http://www.futurefibres.com/News-Do...cles/Future-Fibres-Sanya-Lan-20-Dec-2011.html

==========================


Course details: http://tinyurl.com/Piracy-121111

Leg 2 - Cape Town, SA to Abu Dhabi, UAE
Standings as of Tuesday, 20 December 2011, 1:03:23 UTC
1. Telefonica (ESP), Iker Martinez (ESP)
2. PUMA Ocean Racing (USA), Ken Read (USA), 3.2 nm Distance to Lead
3. CAMPER (NZL), Chris Nicholson (AUS), 8.1 nm DTL
4. Groupama (FRA), Frank Cammas (FRA), 24.0 nm DTL
5. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (UAE), Ian Walker (GBR), 108.1 nm DTL
6. Team Sanya (CHN), Mike Sanderson (NZL), 199.0 nm DTL

Tracking/Standings: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/racetracker/rdc.html
Video reports: http://www.youtube.com/user/volvooceanracevideos
Race Schedule: http://tinyurl.com/VOR-2011-12-schedule

 

Vor

Groupama in the lead! Gamble by Sanderson on Sanya didn't pay off(previous post) but the one by Groupama has big time........

 

Seems to be Diego Garcia, BIOT. The five vessel have just entered the Stealth Territory. http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/racetracker/rdc.html

 

vor

From race headquarters:

Telefonica wins by just under 2 min!

As the team arrived in the safe haven port, Nicholson had generous words for the winners of the first stage of Leg 2.

“Telefónica sailed a fantastic race, they really did, from start to finish,” Nicholson said. “They were there to take the opportunities in the end. Normally the right guys win.”

For three days CAMPER and Telefónica traded blows at the head of the fleet after their easterly courses through the Doldrums paid off.

In a thrilling finish, Team Telefónica snatched the lead with under 10 miles to go, eventually crossing just one minute and 57 seconds ahead.

After CAMPER notified Race Management of their protest, Telefónica said they were making a protest of their own.

Nicholson said although they had lost the battle, it had given them the experience they need to potentially win the war.

“I spoke a lot in Cape Town about the deficit that we were under because we didn’t have a close battle like that on Leg 1 and I was worried that potentially we might not see that for a while so as a team we might not get battle hardened to what needs to be done,” he said.

“We had that in spades this race. As a crew and as a team we operated really well. “The last few days to me were the icing on the cake.”

CAMPER co-skipper Stu Bannatyne said the team would take the positives from the first part of the leg into the rest of the race.

“Certainly the last few hours were an intense struggle,” he said. “We had all the guys on deck working the boat hard. It was very much a street fight, a bar-room brawl.

“A disappointing result in the end but if we look at the leg as a whole we sailed reasonably well at times, made a few mistakes but managed to get back in the game.

“As always all you want to do is be in the hunt at the end and we had an epic struggle with Telefónica over the last few days, often with them within boat lengths with a couple of lead changes in the last hour or so.

“Unfortunately this time we came out on the receiving end of a hiding but at the end of the day we have to take some positives from this.

“There’s a long race still to go. The fact that we pushed so hard and were pushed so hard by Telefónica will stand us in good stead to the future and we’re looking forward to the next race, the next opportunity to knock them off.”

CAMPER’s result gives them 20 points taking their overall total to 54 points, seven shy of leaders Telefónica.(both protests since dropped)

 

Vor

from Scuttlebutt-a touch of sarcasm from the UK?

Stop-Start Volvo Format Breaks Momentum

The five Volvo Open 70s are heading for the northern Emirates in the latest stage of the Volvo Ocean Race's anti-piracy plan. This edition of the iconic race has turned into even more of a stop-start affair and the organisers will be desperate to rekindle momentum.

Already having to deal with a series of gear failures that has seen the fleet down to just four boats racing on Leg 1, and now the threat of piracy necessatating this expensive and time consuming break in the middle of Leg 2. The organisers have to maintain public interest during the shipping and then repeat the whole exercise again on Leg 3.

The modern Volvo Race has been developed into a series of stages with the stopping places providing opportunities for local promotions, the ports bidding for inclusion. The recent routes have skipped the southern ocean leg to Australia in order to include the growing markets of India and China.

But with the new routing including eight stopover ports - up from three in the original race - and again missing out the southern ocean leg - the race is beginning to look more like a Formula 1 season event. Crews are now flying to the next start port, with some crew members taking the weeks break to fit in some home leave. Perhaps this is the format for coming races - the boats being ferried between paricipating ports to skip any difficult weather/circumstances that could damage them. -- Gerald New in SailWeb:

www.sailweb.co.uk

 

An armed heavy-lift ship is carrying five Volvo 70s. What's happening to Team Sanya? I venture to suggest that in future any ports wanting to act as staging points should pay for the seas to be swept clear of suspicious boats by the 18th century tactic of sinking on sight and hanging any survivors from improvised yardarms. No mercy.

OTOH, one fast naval escort, capaple of flying off & recovering armed Predator drones, would create a no-go area around the fleet as it sailed across the Indian Ocean. Pangas with multiple outboards and large crews, miles from any coast, to be holed below the waterline and left for the sharks to clean up.

£"&* due process.

 

Vor

Still no tracking----http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/racetracker/rdc.html

 

It's not a race. It's boring. I've deleted my bookmark for the website. I suspect I shall sell my Volvo V70 as well and buy a Mercedes.

 

================
Yeah this is beyond disappointing. I guess I'll buy an MOD 70.......

 

Yah...more fun to watch the 40s in the Global Ocean race

http://globaloceanrace.com/?page=news&lang=&news_id=597

 

vor

Crack discovered in Groupama hull: http://www.cammas-groupama.com/en/news/VORnews/actu_equipe_287.jsp

 

vor

For the sleepless nightowls: the race restarts at 1AM EST on the 4th.....
see tracker below which will update every 60 seconds. This short leg will last about 6 hours.....So tell me how it went....

http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/racetracker/rdc.html