Yachting World — February 2018

on rotation throughout the fleet with a remit that

includes more raw, observational reporting, rather than

delivering a team’s corporate message.

For the first long ocean leg, from Lisbon to Cape Town,

the new arrangement produced some genuinely

entertaining footage, with OBRs capturing both the gritty

and lighthearted moments that come from racing 7,000

miles. The immediate and honest responses of Witt,

Bidégorry and others surpassed anything we’d previously

seen so early on in the race.

For committed race followers, the videos and blogs are

supplemented by the remarkably addictive ‘Race Experts’

feed, a stream of commentary on Twitter and Facebook by

meteorologists, professional sailors and navigators that

offers in-depth explanations of the conditions and

strategies facing the fleet. It’s a level of analysis that

followers of F1 or the Tour de France would be familiar

with, but is rare in sailing – beyond, perhaps, French

coverage of the Vendée Globe. All together, there was

more content to follow than ever before.

Yet by the end of Leg 2, it was clear that sharing

everything could lead to its own problems. As Dongfeng

raced into Cape Town in 2nd place, commentator Conrad

Colman remarked on the live coverage that skipper

Charles Caudrelier had ‘shut down’ the onboard

photographer to prevent him taking pictures of some sail

set-ups.

The following day the trio of Team AkzoNobel, Sun Hung

Kai Scallywag and Turn the Tide on Plastic arrived, having

raced within sight of each other for thousands of miles.

On the dock Turn the Tide skipper Dee Caffari joked about

drone spying between the boats.

And then there was Scallywag’s ‘breakfast show’. The

Hong Kong-sponsored team arrived in Cape Town to find

themselves facing a Rule 69 hearing for misconduct after

producing a video skit mid-race – something which

ultimately led to a crew change at a critical stage in the race.

Holding back

The fact that Dongfeng had restricted what the reporter

could broadcast should not, perhaps, have been a

revelation. Despite the new ‘raw’ content feed (the most

recent images and footage that haven’t always been neatly

edited), there is still a sign-off process by race organisers

and teams for OBR content.

Potentially sensitive submissions can be tagged as

particularly requiring approval, which lessens the

responsibility shouldered by the OBRs. Content can also be

vetoed for non-contentious reasons, such as if sailors are

pictured using a brand that conflicts with race partners.

While the OBRs have a different relationship to the

crews under the new structure, they still need to build

trust, and not everything can be on show. But Conrad’s

comment that Caudrelier had instructed the

photographer not to show something they wanted to

keep secret for the rest of the race was the first indication

that teams were censoring material.

That’s because onboard photos and video have become

hugely valuable tools for teams to use in their post-race

analysis. Dongfeng team director Bruno Dubois reveals

that as part of their exhaustive development programme

they have staff viewing the footage during the race.

Fabian Delahaye, the team’s head of performance

analysis, directs a team whose role includes tracking the

video footage coming off rival boats, which they then use

during post-leg analysis.

“During the race they are on duty, watching and

analysing all the video and picture that goes out, trying to

see what they are using,” says Dubois.

“So if the guys say, ‘On the afternoon of the 21st,

what type of sails were Mapfre using?’ we just go

‘PERFORMANCE ANALYSTS ARE

VIEWING VIDEO DURING THE RACE’

VOLVO RACE

Dee Caffari and

navigator NIco

Lunven. Caffari

blogged about the

stomach-churning

anxiety she felt

as her relatively

young team faced

a huge Southern

Ocean storm

i

Jeremie Lecaudey/Volvo Ocean Race

30 February 2018