Yachting World — February 2018

don’t know where the line is, you just have numbers in
front of you, and a screen and a tracker.”
On the flip side, teams have also had to consider how
much to show when things go wrong. On Turn the Tide on
Plastic, watch captain and boat captain Liz Wardley’s
dialogue with OBR Sam Greenfield gave us great insight
into a team going through a learning curve. Were they
concerned about revealing mistakes – for example,
showing when they forgot to shift the water ballast in a
tack, which left Wardley bailing out buckets of water?
“Stuff happens out there, it happens to everyone,” says
Wardley. “It’s just no one talks about it because you look
like a bit of an idiot. But the fact that you can do it, pull
through it, and still beat the boat next to you, or do
something brilliant the next day – who cares if you’ve
forgotten the ballast? It happens all the time and it
happens to the best.”

Spy games
Everything that appears on the public commentary is fair
game for analysis, but now boats are frequently racing
within drone range of each other, where does the line fall
between getting great footage and cheating?
A fundamental premise of the OBR role is that they
cannot impact the racing performance of the boat in any
way. Richard Edwards, who was OBR on Team Brunel for
Leg 2, explained what they can and can’t do:
“There is opportunity to send the drone over to another
boat, because naturally that is when you would put it into
the air. The one thing I can’t do is allow the skipper or any
crew member to look at that screen.
“You can’t see a lot of detail, especially on a small screen.
The crew would actually have to come down and look at
your laptop, and I’d have to zoom in for them to see what
they’re looking for. The probability of them gaining an
advantage, even if we let them look at the screen – which
we don’t – is 0.1 percent.”
To look at something like an outrigger, Edwards
says: “You’d have to fly it about 8ft off the boat, for a

best bits FROM THE OBRs (SO FAR)

How’s your week? Brad Farrand and Nicolai Sehested gave a lighthearted

round up of life onboard over dinner on Team Ak zoNob el each week

OBR Sam Greenfield’s blogs hold little back. For Leg 3 he’s on Vestas 11th Hour

Racing, here negotiating with skipper Charlie Enright to contribute

Southern Ocean shots never get old – this one showing Tom Clout’s focus on

i the helm of Scallywag. Also look out for Mapfre’s full speed ‘wipeout’ video

Martin Keruzore/Volvo Ocean Race

James Blake/Volvo Ocean Race

Konrad Frost/Volvo Ocean Race

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