VOR Leg Zero part 1/2

A bit late in the Leg Zero start - or a bit too early by the pin end of the line 2-3 minutes before the start to tack before the others. Credit: Paul Todd/Volvo Ocean Race

My blogging isn’t going well – 5 weeks since the last post. It is just a function of the pace in a Volvo Ocean Race, will try to check in more often until the start.

Last weekend we did the Qualifying Race, or Leg Zero, for this Volvo Ocean Race. This was the first time we lined up against the other boats – first in a couple of in-port laps, then “offshore” from Alicante to Palma de Mallorca and back. We didn’t get the best start, so chased around the first two laps. The breeze was very light and with the small race course we just had to do our best to keep clear air.

The new VO70 rule only allows for two masthead sails, so normally the boats will carry one code zero – upwind or reaching oriented – and one spinnaker type sail – downwind or reaching oriented. For this race at least Camper and Puma seemed to declare proper spinnakers while the rest of the fleet seemed to sail with more reaching oriented sails.

We were left a bit behind on the upwind up the coast to meet the expected northerly Mistral. During the race we had to do some safety drills for VOR Race Management, like Man Over Board drill, use the Emergency Steering System, sail with storm sails and deliver media content. Groupama seemed to have an issue locating or recovering their MOB, so we passed them and had a good fight up the coast where we slowly gained by sailing inside the gradual left shifting breeze.

We missed Moose on Leg Zero due to his appendicitis operation a few days before, but used him for the MOB drill to big amusement onboard

Before the start we had a pretty clear picture that we wanted to sail south of Ibiza which lies on the rhumb line, so as soon as we thought we had “enough” north shift – we started in an easterly breeze – we shot off the coast towards Ibiza. Of course we wouldn’t like to split and loose a good chance of lining up against the opposition, but from our position slightly behind the fleet it was hard to cover them, so we sailed what we believed would be the fastest route.

It soon became clear that Abu Dhabi and us were the only ones heading for the gap between Ibiza and Formentura, with the rest of the fleet sailing north of the islands. Abu Dhabi were leading the fleet and sailed high to get up to the others, while we pushed east in anticipation of the strong easterly shift just after Ibiza that would enable us to sail north towards Palma again. It was too late for us to get north anyway, as we would have to take a loss to get there at that time.

To be continued..