Yachts & Yachting — February 2018

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THE WINNING EDGE

Navigators have

become crucial

to Volvo Ocean

Race success.

ROB KOTHE talks to

top crews including

Jules Salter and

Simon ‘SiFi’ Fisher

to find out how

R

ight up to the 2011-12

edition of the Volvo Ocean

Race, the major element

of winning was boat and

sail design and reliability.

When the boats and sails became one

design the whole nature of the race

changed. is time, the pressure is on the

crews to deliver two things; positioning

on the racecourse and boat speed.

Now, in a four hour schedule, the

boats are being sailed so similarly

that you might get a gain of 0.8 or

even a whole nautical mile dierence

between the best sailed and the not so

well sailed boat. By comparison in the

Southern Ocean the position of the

boat in relation to fast moving fronts

can make an enormous dierence.

As a result of these changes,

the pressure is on the navigators

like never before to make the key

decisions on where the boat will be

in the water and ultimately where

it will be in the pecking order.

PREPARING FOR SUCCESS

Joan Vila from the Spanish speedster

Mapfre, now in his h race, is rm

about the key to success. “e VOR

race is about preparation in every area

of the boat and good preparation is

probably 80-90 per cent of success. In

navigation it is probably 90 per cent too,

so preparing well for the leg is vital.

“e best knowledge on the leg, the

best local knowledge for the start and the

nish areas, but also the ocean currents,

the winds, the weather patterns and then

more precisely about the forecasts for the

start and rst days of the leg are all key.”

But with short stopovers, almost

ybys, in the case of Melbourne, four

days scheduled in the middle of 12,500

nautical miles of racing, with a host of

commitments for the crew on and o

the boat, the on board navigators now

need a dedicated team of shoreside

navigators, meteorologists, etc, to

ensure this preparation is done.

Simon ‘SiFi’ Fisher, the winning

navigator in the last race, back for his

h lap of the planet on Vestas 11th

Hour Racing, explains “is has to be

a team eort. We think ours is very

strong. Before each leg starts the team

ensures all leg data, waypoints, ice and JEN EDNEY/VOLVO OCEAN RACE

34 Yachts & Yachting February 2018 yachtsandyachting.co.uk

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