Volvo Ocean Race - Leg 1; Days 1-10 - Abridged Version

The 2008-2009 around the world Volvo Ocean Race began last week off the coast of Alicante, Spain. Eight Open 70's set sail with the first stopover of Cape Town, South African in their sites. They are now about 10 days into their voyage, and are just about to emerge from the dreaded doldrums, cross the Equator, and round the first scoring gate off the coast of Brazil. It has been an exciting start to the race, full of lead changes, boat breakages, sails being destroyed, and even some crew emergencies. Keep reading for the abridged version of the racing so far, but check out http://www.volvooceanrace.org for full updates. I recommend reading the emails sent from the boats, as you'll get the information directly from the sources.

The fleet started in the Mediterranean with high winds and rough conditions. Within the first few miles, boat breakage number 1 had occurred. Early race favorite Telefonica Blue broke one of their tiller arms, and were thus down to steering with 1 of their rudders for a while. They headed into the shelter of the Spanish coastline, worked out a temporary fix, and continued towards the Strait of Gibraltar where they would take a 12 hour penalty and replace the broken arm with a spare. Upon inspection, it was apparent that the arm was flawed when built, so they were happy to break it early and not thousands of miles offshore or in the Southern Ocean. The two Ericsson Boats timed their tacks correctly and worked out to quite a big lead when they reached Gibraltar.

Unfortunately for Ericsson 3 and 4, they ran out of wind in the Strait and actually were pushed back into the Med at times by the strong current. Eventually, not before they considered throwing out an anchor into the very very very deep sea, they got moving again. However, the fleet had condensed considerably and their large lead and hopes of escaping into the Atlantic with a big head start had both vanished.

As the fleet emerged from the Strait of Gibraltar, and left Telefonica Blue behind, they headed for the Canary Islands off of the coast of Morocco. The best breeze was close to shore and Delta Lloyd made huge gains to get back into the race by making the right navigation call. Telefonica Blue, after re-entering the race, followed suit and made up many miles by staying inshore. At this point, Ericsson 3, 4, Puma, and Telefonica Black were battling for the lead and all sailing at full speed.

The fleet spread out considerably upon reaching the Canary Islands due to variations in their routing. Puma and Ericsson 4 emerged as the leaders after trading jibes in between the Islands and the African Coastline. Green Dragon and team decided to go into Stealth Mode, where they are essentially untrackable to the other boats for a 12 hour period, in the hopes of getting through the Canary’s and cutting into the lead. They chose to sail through the Island chain, and actually ended up losing miles. The big losers at the Islands were Telefonica Black, who went from being among the leaders to bringing up the rear. The Black team went outside of the Islands and were caught with much less breeze than the rest of the fleet.

After the Canary Islands, Puma proved to have a bit of speed on Ericsson 4 in these downwind conditions and worked into a bit of a lead. Meanwhile back in the pack, both Team Russia and Telefonica Blue were having some sail issues, completely shredding their masthead spinnakers. Both teams worked feverishly and re-sewed the bit kites and eventually got them up again, not before losing many miles to the competitors. Ericsson 4 had a medical emergency aboard, and had to make an emergency stop at the Cape Verde Islands. They transferred a crew member to a fishing boat, and then continued on with the racing. The crew member, Tony Mutter, was then taken to shore and treated at a local hospital for an infection in his knee. He has already flown to Cape Town and will rejoin the team there for the next leg. This stop gave Puma a clear lead going into the dreaded doldrums.

And then Pumas lead, much like the early lead of Ericsson 3 and 4, evaporated instantly. As Puma ran out of wind, the rest of the fleet came storming in from behind, and once again it was anyone’s race. All past sail blowouts, bad tactical calls, broken boats, and injuries were instantly wiped off of the slate, and the fleet basically restarted.

This time, it was team Green Dragon who emerged as the leaders. They took a gamble by sailing basically at 90 degrees to their destination and headed west in hopes of finding an advantage. Turns out that the west was the way, and the more west you were, the more of a lead you gained. Thus, Green Dragon gained about a 30 mile lead on Puma, who in turn lead Ericsson 4 by a few miles. This is about where the fleet stands now, as they escape the doldrums and head to the scoring gate off of the Brazilian Coast and then head for Cape Town.

It will now turn into a bit of drag race for a while and we will get a good idea of which boats are quick in some slightly upwind conditions. It will certainly be an exciting second half to leg 1 as the fleet is still fairly compact and the winds will pick up.

Meanwhile, if you haven't already, you should check out the Volvo Ocean Race Game (http://www.volvooceanracegame.org). By joining in you get to pilot your own Open 70 around the world. The game is in real time, with real wind conditions, real sail changes, and real break-downs. The only thing that I don't like about the game is that you need to pay money in order to be competitive. That sounds kind of like real sailing. You can join in for free, but you can purchase add-ons like auto-pilot features, sail repair kits, and an auto head sail selector. For the first leg, you have access to the "pro-sail" option giving you use of things like a code zero, genoa, and light air spinnaker, though in future legs this will cost some $ to use. I hope they decide to keep the sails available for free, as of all of the options this one provides the biggest advantage (again, kind of like real life). You can still join in even for leg 1, and they will position you somewhere in the bottom 20% of the fleet (which is now over 30,000 boats) so you don't have to start back in Spain. I started 3 days late and they dropped me in the Strait of Gibraltar with no winds. It was frustrating, as after I joined in they started dropping new entries in front of me with more wind, but I eventually escaped the Strait in about 16,000th place. Right now I'm trying to get through the doldrums and sitting in 9,600th. Here's a fair warning before you join the game though...It's addictive!