What to look out for on Leg Zero<\/p>\n
Download<\/p>\n
James Blake\/Volvo Ocean Race<\/p>\n
Download<\/p>\n
Jeremie Lecaudey\/Volvo Ocean Race<\/p>\n
Download<\/p>\n
Ugo Fonolla\/Volvo Ocean Race<\/p>\n
Who will draw #FirstBlood in the debut battle between the teams? (full story below)<\/p>\n
Leg Zero not only takes care of the official qualifying for the Volvo Ocean Race \u2013 it\u2019s also the first chance to see the teams in a competitive shakedown\u00a0against each other.<\/p>\n
No points will be carried forward to the race itself, but the overall Leg Zero winner still gets a confidence boost \u2013 and here, round-the-world Vend\u00e9e Globe sailor Conrad Colman fills us in on how it might play out.<\/p>\n
Leg Zero breakdown<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t go looking for the logic, but Leg Zero is actually made up of four separate races. The seven teams\u00a0taking part \u2013 team AkzoNobel, Dongfeng Race Team, MAPFRE, Vestas 11th Hour Racing, Sun Hung Kai\/Scallywag, Turn the Tide on Plastic and Team Brunel \u2013 will face the following schedule:<\/p>\n
2 August:\u00a0an intense 50-nautical mile sprint around the Isle of Wight<\/p>\n
6 August start:\u00a0the famous Rolex Fastnet Race featuring some of the hottest yachting hardware on the planet in a 608 nm coastal race that has historically served up a hearty dose of danger \u2013 and a lot of stressed navigators.<\/p>\n
Then comes another big challenge, with two Volvo Ocean Race-only legs:<\/p>\n
10 August start:\u00a0Plymouth, England to St Malo in France (125\u00a0nm)<\/p>\n
13 August start:\u00a0St Malo to Lisbon, Portugal (770 nm)<\/p>\n
There are no other boats to act as a distraction on these last two legs, just the world\u2019s strictest offshore One Design fleet and the clock ticking down to the start of the Volvo Ocean Race from Alicante, Spain on 22 October 2017.<\/p>\n
Around the Island Race<\/p>\n
A 50-mile coastal race in early August for some of the best sailors in the world who are preparing to tackle the world\u2019s longest racetrack in sport? Okay, let\u2019s be honest \u2013 we\u2019re not going to learn a lot here. There\u2019s nothing much at stake and in terms of racing, it’s tempting to say there\u2019s nothing to see here\u2026 But then again, sandbanks, rocks and tides will make these 50 miles pretty challenging \u2013 and would you want to finish last out of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet?<\/p>\n
The Famous Fastnet<\/p>\n
Now we\u2019re talking. The Rolex Fastnet Race boasts the biggest offshore racing fleet in the sailing world and traditionally, it can go one of two ways. Either a late summer depression will rip across the Atlantic Ocean and chew through the\u00a0fleet,\u00a0as happened in the infamous 1979 edition, or boats will be forced to pick their way along the English coast, searching for any puff of wind while being pushed in circles by the tides.<\/p>\n
The series of bays and headlands along the southern coast of England make the first part of the course like sailing along the edge of a saw, where each point sticking down into the English Channel concentrates and accelerates the tide. This will give a welcome push to those that make it through on time, and punish those forced to fight against the flow. In the tight Volvo Ocean 65 fleet, rounding a headland just 10 minutes after a competitor might cost you an hour at the finish! Even though the Fastnet doesn\u2019t count towards the points in the race around the world, MAPFRE skipper Xabi Fern\u00e1ndez confirms that his team won\u2019t get much sleep: \u201cA 600-mile race like the Fastnet is not super relevant towards the real race but of course it\u2019s always good to sail together as a crew. There will be plenty of manoeuvres and a lot going on. It\u2019s going to be good training and we will take it very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Look out for strange routes on the tracker by the Land\u2019s End point as strong tides turn around this headland and there\u2019s a huge obstacle in the way. Traffic Separation Schemes (TSS) act like salty motorways for commercial shipping, and because they guide hundreds of massive steel ships, they are off limits for competitors.<\/p>\n
These off-limits TSS zones will appear later in the Volvo Ocean Race route, most notably in the Strait of Gibraltar, around Hong Kong and off the coast of Newport, RI. This American highway upended the leaderboard in the last race after MAPFRE, Team SCA and Dongfeng all entered the zone illegally and were penalised. Now is a good time for the teams to get to grips with these TSS zones to avoid problems later when the points are at stake.<\/p>\n
As the English coast fades into the horizon behind, streaking across the Celtic Sea will allow the Volvo Ocean 65s to enter more typical ocean conditions until the handbrake turn around Fastnet Rock. We\u2019ll talk about the actual weather closer to the time but here the wind is often from the west and with the route now leading eastwards back to the Cornish coast the wind will be coming from behind the boats \u2013 a wind angle that the crews will see a lot of in the coming race around the world.<\/p>\n
From rocks to tides to TSS\u2019s, one thing is for sure \u2013 the navigators will suffer!<\/p>\n
via What to look out for on Leg Zero| Volvo Ocean Race<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What to look out for on Leg Zero Download James Blake\/Volvo Ocean Race Download Jeremie Lecaudey\/Volvo Ocean Race Download Ugo Fonolla\/Volvo Ocean Race Who will draw #FirstBlood in the debut battle between the teams? (full story below) Leg Zero not … Continue reading