Yachts & Yachting — February 2018

UGO FONOLLA/VOLVO OCEAN RACE; JEREMIE LECAUDEY/VOLVO OCEAN RACE

shipping exclusions zones are added and

checked, as is all soware and hardware.

“We have online and in house daily

meetings with Anderson Reggio, shore

side navigation support. omas Alsbirk

• Vestas meteorologist, (Vestas, the
  windfarm experts, give us very high
  resolution models for departure and
  arrivals) and US based Chris Bedford –
  Vestas 11th Hour Racing meteorologist.
  “Each day we look at the weather that
  has been developing and we generally
  look at one or two important things
  expected on the leg in detail, and of
  course we look at local daily weather

ahead of an in-port race. Early on it’s

weather more generally, more from

a climatological perspective and we

get refreshed on what the leg will

hold. en as we get to the end of the

week, we have a much more detailed

analysis of the weather expected for

the start and the rst bit of the leg.”

RESOURCES AND DATA

On board the routine for the navigators

varies but the tools and data elements

are identical for each boat. All boats

receive the same Great Circle-Squid

navigation/routing soware packages

and data download package, from the

Volvo Ocean Race. Weather model

data comes in four times a day at 0600,

1200, 2000 and 0000. e European

model - considered by many to be

the most reliable - arrives twice daily

morning and night, the US Global

Forecast System data four times.

Location in the world does not aect

the UTC-based timing. So, it might be

dark at 1pm UTC or light at 1am UTC,

as it is now on the current leg to Asia.

Navigators can download data

when it’s needed, for the area needed.

It’s mainly GRIB les (basically, a

numerical weather forecast) from

several weather models but there

are satellite pictures and limited

amounts of sea temperature and wind

observations, for further detailed study.

e navigators download what

they choose, prepare routing, look at

what has changed, review strategies

so far and see what might need to

be changed and discuss that with

their skipper or watch captains.

e all-important position reports

are made available at 0700,1300,1900

and 0100 UTC. It’s no surprise then that

some gybing or tacking comes soon

aer these scheduled reports, because

they give the navigators a good check on

positions relative to the other boats in the

Above

Joan Vila of

Mapfre analyses

the routing data

Left

Dongfeng’s

skipper, Charles

Caudrelier, and

Carolijn Brouwer

discuss weather

on deck

36 Yachts & Yachting February 2018 yachtsandyachting.co.uk

NAV_VOR_hg_GCAMENDS_TH-GC.indd 36 19/12/2017 12:33