Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Fastnet Race ticked off





So that was our first race, and actually my first Fastnet Race, came through with no real issues with the boat. Apparently we passed just by the 100-footer Rambler that had capsized just ahead of us in the rough conditions around Fastnet Rock. Given the conditions, no surprise that some boats had issues there, going from a fast reach into upwind to do the little 7 nautical mile beat in 30 solid knots of breeze and a bit of sea state.

We had our own little drama just after the start, tacking out of the Solent, when a port tack Classe 40 did not see us. It looked like it was dipping us, but apparently they had not seen us, so we did a last second evasive crash tack which cost us a lot of speed for a few minutes while we got everything sorted again, and also pushed us over to the side of the Solent with unfavorable tide. On the other side it was running out at four knots.


But we quickly left that behind us and kept improving our stacking routines as we sailed along the coast in anticipation of the big right shift that would arrive early evening. It is a big job to short-tack these boats with all the sails and gear we move from side to side. And as so often happens in sailing, rich got richer and Abu Dhabi pulled out one mile on Groupama who did the same to us. And from there on it was pretty much a drag race out the English coast towards Land's End and the Scilly Islands.


So one of the few tactical options in this race would be how to deal with the high pressure system with a big left shift south east of UK. I thought the high wasn't really as far east as expected, so that we wouldn't get a big wind shift by going far into it, only extending the time sailing away from Fastnet Rock as well as staying for longer in the light breeze to the south. I worked with Mike on the possible options, and we both thought it would be a good idea to tack early to sail a shorter distance towards Fastnet. We had to sail on an unfavorable shift initially, but the shift arrived earlier further north so we quickly started making gains. Of course the others had a slight angle advantage later on to gain some back. Below the official tracks, our in black, Groupama green, Abu Dhabi red. We tacked just between two of the three-hourly VOR position reports. Note our better angle towards Land's End. The other set of tracks are from our way back towards the finish.




Groupama decided to cash in on their Westerly position and reached right down to us, so we were neck and neck again before they pulled out a bit when the breeze increased closer to Fastnet Rock. Both because their boat will be good for that kind of reaching at high speeds, and because we did a quite conservative sail change before the rock.


We actually never saw the capsized Rambler when we passed them, but noticed the presence of rescue boats. From there on it was pretty much straight line sailing at high speeds through the night, our first time real blast reaching together. The boat didn't feel bad, but we sailed conservatively with two reefs and a no 4 jib. The guys on deck used the helmets for the first time, and it wasn't ideal with sun-shaded visors to see the instruments in the middle of the night.


We finished about an hour behind the other two Volvo boats, not bad given the time we have had together and in the boat. Just approaching Solent now on the delivery back to our base in Hamble, have been doing watches with a few guys on deck and most catching up sleep. So have to get on deck to navigate through the Needles.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Fastnet ready?

Fastnet Race is coming up quickly, and it still feels like we got together yesterday. Have been head down all the time since I got here to get my area sorted and ready to sail and measure performance, so strategy and weather work has had to wait. But Fastnet is a great deadline for us to have everything ready. We might not get it all done before the race, but it will become quite apparent during the race what we are missing.

Richard Mason arrived today so it will even be his first time onboard, should be a good experience but he is really only a few sailing days behind the rest of us.

Mike “Lowlife” Quilter is keeping an eye on the weather for me while I am trying to make everything ready for the race, and he says that we will have a moderate upwind start and then reaching back and forth from Land’s End, the exit of the English Channel, to Fastnet Rock. It really looks like a bit of everything, even some heavy beam reaching in 30 knots breeze in a cold front, which will be a good test. We have no pressure on us, the other boats that have spent time sailing should look slick, but we will try to stay in touch.



Tonight, the night before the start, I had a good incentive to improve my weather/strategy system, so I spent a few hours to do some really nice updates that we should benefit from in the early stages of the race. I should probably have been running routes instead, but the big picture looks quite settled and we will be boat on boat from the start, looking for favorable current and breeze on the water. When we put that system together with the performance data we will gather over the next month, we should have a system for navigation / weather / performance half a step further than what I used during the last VOR, and I doubt that anyone else will be any further. Really interesting work!

The race will of course be a good test for all systems, and I doubt we will get through it without issues. It is for example the first time I am running the satellite communications system on the water, we just got it all working together today.

Enough for now, time to pack my bag and get a decent sleep before tomorrow, even have a few jobs to do in the morning. Will try to keep you posted during the race, as much as possible.

Monday, August 8, 2011

First sail on Sanya Lan!


So a busy period, particularly for the shore team that has been here much longer than the sailors, finally led to the launch of the boat, a full-team barbecue at the dock, and the first two days of sailing.




In my area, Rachel Howe has been doing a great job to get the electrics and electronics up running, both in the navigation area with computer and instrument system and on the canting keel control system. Rachel is our ‘sparky’, which means that she works very close with me to make and maintain the navigation systems. Or, as I will be sailing most of the time, have to do a couple of hours in the gym in the mornings and do my small projects to get ready for the race, she is actually doing 95% of it. And being a racing navigator herself, she will also do some of the performance analysis, participate in calibrating instruments etc. An interesting job!

She has, as most of the shore crew, put in very long days for a long time, so probably looking forward to us going away for a few days to sail the Fastnet Race from Sunday on. But until then, all is on to get the boat ready for the race.

We sailed the boat for the first time yesterday, in a bit more breeze than ideal for a test ride with 23-30 knots. So took it pretty easy and spent a while to test the technical systems before we sailed up and down the river to Southampton for a couple of hours while adjusting keel hydraulics and discovering small things that needed changing.

Today however, conditions were great with 15 knots increasing to 23+ meaning we could go out in the Solent and have a look at most of our new sails, which looked good and very interesting! Have a look at the photos! Had time to enjoy it all and keep an eye on how the deck systems work – including making an override at one occasion. Rachel staying below deck to look after the systems while the legendary navigator Mike Quilter who is our “weather man” came out sailing and could cover my crew role while I navigated, calibrated and trial-run the data logging systems.


Tomorrow we’ll go for an overnighter as a qualifier for the Fastnet, and to get hours in the boat. Quite quick progress!

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Team Sanya and new blog!

My involvement with Team Sanya for the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race went public today, so it is a good time to get going with some blogging again. I hope to be able to keep updating, but any minute I can use to get us and myself better prepared for the race I’ll use for that, so I may be a bit on/off on the blogging consistency.

I have been in Hamble, England with the team for 10 days now, and the feeling so far is really good. Of course we haven’t sailed the boat yet, and I haven’t sailed with most of the guys before, so the main impressions are still to come. Have to say though, that it would really surprise me if we don’t keep the good stuff going.

After the last Volvo finished a bit more than two years ago, I have been sort of half time sailing. I had a good break, caught up on the social side, got back in good physical shape again and did quite a bit of analysis work on weather and performance. One upside of being a navigator, is that for some projects one can work from everywhere these days, as long as the laptop is functioning. Then of course I have slowly gotten more and more into sailing again. Did a bit of sailing with Groupama the winter after the Volvo finish, then a maxi project in the Mediterranean with amongst others Bouwe Bekking and Jens Dolmer last summer, and a race on “Saudade”, the 148-foot Wally, this year. One month ago I did my first proper offshore race since the Volvo, Transatlantic Race 2011, which we won. I could go on and brag about how we did that, but the joy from that went away when one of the crew became seriously ill a couple of days after the race. But good know that I am still on decent form..

I came out of the last Volvo with a sort of crushed knee and right leg, and used road cycling a lot to recover from that. I had done some racing in 2007, and really enjoy the sport, with the fitness and tactical perspectives. It just rolled on, and last winter I cycled almost full-time to see what level I could get to, and did some elite races of the Norwegian road cycling circuit this spring before the sailing season kicked in.

After the Volvo, and particularly after the training with Groupama, I realized that to enjoy the sailing I needed to be more hungry than I was, and planned to sit this Volvo out and rather work on the weather with a team as well as doing some work on my own project. However when Mike S contacted me I gave it a serious think as I was already getting quite into full time sailing again, and after the Transatlantic Race I was convinced, so I am going 110% for it now.

There are some aspects to this project that are quite different from last time around (when I was a part of Ericsson’s two-boat campaign). Obviously Mike Sanderson puts weight to it, he is one of the most respected skippers around. I have done pretty much all of my sailing “on my own” in the navigation area, particularly E3 in the last VOR where Magnus Olsson, the final skipper, was part of the watch system and as such didn’t work with me in the nav station. I know that Mike is quite different there, and will get involved, which should keep developing my skills further. I actually really like to work with others, so it will be nice to have someone to play ideas with, or to get critique from. The rumor is also that Mike doesn’t sleep much, which would be good news for me! Fighting sleep deprivation is one challenge for navigators, and given that we will be alternating to use the same bunk, this can open up the opportunity to get a bit more sleep than last time. In my dreams...

Not to say that he is the only one onboard, but I will get back to that another time. For now, all the guys both on the sailing team and the shore team are really switched on, and want to make this a successful campaign.

I knew that this would turn into the longest blog post ever, so will try to start rounding it off..
Further, we are going to be sailing with a boat that sailed around before, and maybe didn't shine as much as some other boats in that race. I didn’t like this initially, but now that has turned more into a challenge of developing ourselves, the sails and the boat into challenging the other boats when opportunities arrive, and show what we are capable of doing with the starting package we are given.

But at the moment, the boat is not the real handicapping factor for us, as it is only 80 days or so until the start of the race, and we have never sailed together before. So we just have to get sailing, be super-efficient and try to be clever around the sails to get it right with little testing time. One thing is for sure, one are never going to be bored in this campaign! We will be learning every day.

I’ll be back with more soon, now 6 hours till the rig goes in, so better get some sleep. Thanks for reading this far!!   And now that I am official, I can start posting on twitter again.     www.twitter.com/akselmagdahl