Yachts & Yachting — February 2018

JAMES BLAKE/VOLVO OCEAN RACE

eet and the maximum leverage on the

eet before other boats necessarily know

your move if you choose to break away.

SiFi continues: “We use Expedition

as our primary analytical tool and

we also have Adrena Pro, the French

navigation and routing soware.

Various navigators use those two in

combination, with some reliance on

each, depending on their preference.

ere are subtle dierences, so we do

look at both to see if similar answers

give us condence in the answers we

are getting. Of course, it’s up to the

navigators to gure out if the answers

we are getting are actually correct.

“If the weather is correct and satellite

images and observation back up that

data, then use our experience and decide

to work out if any routing change is

a) worth the risk and b) feasible.”

Joan Vila adds: “When the position

reports arrive, I study the competitor’s

courses and try and gure out why

they have done a dierent course,

if it’s dierent to ours. Everyone is

interested to know how we are going

on the leg, where we are, how far we

have come, what our general plan

is and where the competitors are.

“AIS data is sometimes important.

When you have a boat close, it motivates

the crew as they can see the gains and

losses. It puts a little more stress on the

navigator, because we need to gure out

why! But it certainly motivates everyone

to sail your boat better and faster.”

SiFi agrees: “AIS can give us a lot of

performance data, because we can see

how the other boats are performing in

real time. So, when you are sailing in

close quarters with the other boats, you

are two boat testing even while you are

racing. But it’s very important that you

interpret this data in the correct way.

“When you are looking at the AIS data

from a performance viewpoint, you must

be condent that you are actually sailing

in the same wind when some miles apart

and that the data is relevant and not

become too obsessed with looking at the

screen, not just seeing one boat slower or

faster by a knot at any instant but taking

an average over a reasonable period.”

Jules Salter, the British navigator on

AkzoNobel, racing his fourth Volvo, says:

“Other boats provide a good indicator

of what weather is around or ahead or

behind or to the side of us. If you are in

sight of someone with the AIS, maybe

as far as eight to 10 miles if you are

lucky, you can see them going through

a front or a wind shi and you can kind

of see what wind direction they have

got and what wind speed they have.”

DAY TO DAY ROLE

So, what else do the navigators take

responsibility for? SiFi says: “It diers a

lot between the boats, and the individual

navigators. I am driving and trimming,

doing a little less trimming than the

other guys on my watch (the extra time is

at the nav station) but a similar amount

of driving. Of course, that depends on

the navigational demands at the time, so

my day is dened by the four-up four-

down watch system we run, and gybes.

“For me, an active crew role is

important because being objective is

very important for the navigator. He

needs to get on deck and nd out about

gybe angles, modes and sea state. But

the weather is not running four hour

watches, so I must be a little bit exible,

so I make do with less sleep, but I

think there a lot of positives in being in

tune with the watches as it prioritises

decision making for the watch ahead.”

Above

AkzoNobel’s

navigator, Jules

Salter gets his

binoculars out

in a rare on

deck moment

The navigator needs to get on deck and find

out about gybe angles, modes and sea state

February 2018 Yachts & Yachting 37

NAV_VOR_hg_GCAMENDS_TH-GC.indd 37 19/12/2017 12:33