In-Port Race in Lorient

Circuit for Bretagne In-Port Race 

The mentioned starting time is the Local starting time.  This related to 11:02 GMT!

VOR65 - One Design Monohull is the New Boat for coming VolvoOceanRaces

Volvo 65 ft One-Design

In a press conference today in Lorient Knut Frostad, presented the New Boat that  will be designed , build to be used in the next Volvo Ocean Race editions. 

Main points presented were:

- It was said that Volvo is fully committed to continue support for the  Volvo Ocean Race events.
-the plans developed now are for at least 2 editions of coming VOR.
-the new Boats will be a ONE-DESIGN MONOHULL of 65 ft; this will be the Volvo65 class boat and to be used in next 2 editions of VOR.
- the plan is and Volvo supports this, to have a minimum of 8 participating boats
- the design team Farr Yacht Design will give extra attention to a reliable design for the new boat, that should still be competitive and of high performance. 

- The boat will be build by a consortium of boat builders  to the strict measures of this one design.

- a larger hood over the cabin, to offer and area with protection to the water/wind for media activities

- the boat price will be in the order of 4.5 million $

- the anticipated cost incl. purchase of boat and one race cycle to be around 12-15 million $

- The Crew will be 8 persons plus a media crew member (MCM)

- a full ladies team will be allowed 2 extra ladies.

- some discussion on promotion of younger sailers and sailors from nations will less experience in the team is on-going

- the numbers of sail will be reduced to 7 (from 10 now) , maximum possible furling mechanisms will be included 

- the VOR sailing route to be finalised by 21 dec 2012.

- the first Volvo65 boats to become available mid 2013. 

well that is about it, some details are available on the Volvo Web site soon. 

Isn't it good that I in the mountains in interior Thailand can live follow this press conference in Lorient :?: The communication capabilities nowadays are fantastic.

Last days before START of Leg9 Volvo Ocean Race

It is a rather long resting time in Lorient before the In-Port race and the start of the last Leg 9 to GALWAY, Ireland. This is especially inviting to haul the boat out of the water for a last cleaning and repair operations. However, the rules does not allow this and any repairs have to be done with the boat floating. 


There were 4 boats that needed repair which would benefit from hauling, but their request was denied; or rather a penalty would be given of 2 points reduction in overall standing. Telefonica requested new replacement rudders, which again was denied, unless a one place set-back in each of the 3 following sailing events would be accepted. 


I know that all boats have chosen to make the repairs on their floating boast. I am still not sure the choice that Telefonica made , whether to repair their broken rudders or replace with new ones. Any repair should be made proper though, as it will bring the boat and  crew in danger if a repaired rudder will break again. 


Saturday 30 June at 11:00 gmt will  be the  Start of the In-Port race in Lorient and as normal can be followed live on the  VolvoOceanRace web site. 

What comes after the VORG?

Soon the VolvoOceanRaceGame will be over if we have  virtually sailed to Galway in Ireland. 
What  to do with the spare time that comes available if we don't have to sail in VORG???


Well...........I have found a remedy to the addiction to virtual sailing. ! 

Sail in one of the other available Virtual Sailing Simulators on the Web!

Now is the time to start looking into other Virtual Sailing sites. I have been sailing in  different other virtual sailing simulators and for what it is worth, I have make a table with the features, tools, options and capabilities of some 3 virtual sailing simulators. 


this is my Conclusion:
A comparison is made between 3 Virtual Sailing Simulators: LiveSkipper(LS), SailonLine(SOL) and VolvoOceanRaceGame(VORG). The table gives the details, while the verdict is describing some comparisons and favorites items.
LiveSkipper and SailonLine both have a player that provides an “even playing field” for all players, while VORG favours for optimal sailing speed, those players that invest in the extra sails and tools that are included for free in the other players.
On the view of the player screens, (I guess, that depends much on  individual preference,) but LS offers a 3D boat silhouette and the largest player area on the screen. SOL shows always all boats that can hinder the view on the shoreline or wind vanes.
On family friendliness, LiveSkipper beats the others as it has a very good scheduler to set the boat heading and sail selection for extended period. It offers a scheduler even in 2 modes a location and time based mode.
SOL has one (auto) sail only, while LS and VORG offer different sails on top of an auto-sail , which makes the sailing experience more challenging and realistic.
LS offers very good dynamic polar projection and ruler for route exploration, SOL is only giving a 6hrs advance line and VORG is not giving any of these tools, not even VMG like the other two virtual players.
LiveSkipper and Volvo Ocean Race both are offering a Tutorial and a detailed wiki to help in learning and optimizing the sailing experience.
My favorite is LiveSkipper (www.liveskipper.com) as it offers the best sailing tools to optimise your virtual sailing experiences, it is free with same option for all players (even playing field) and with its good scheduler allows a good programmed sailing; to keep Peace in the Family.


The full report and detailed summary of options is available here. 
Comparison of 3 Virtual Sailing Simulator games


I hope to see many VORG sailors in LiveSkipper. If you have any questions, just Ask in the LiveSkipper Forum or chatroom and an answer will come soon. 
There is also a  very detailed LiveSkipper Wiki and for new players in the Beginner mode a Tutorial will be shown when starting your 1st Sailing Race. 

Raw Power in Leg8 Volvo Ocean Race

See this footage of sailing a VO70 sailing boat during an Atlantic Storm. The water splashes all over the Boats, the Camera's and gives the impression that next YOU will be completely soaked !!!


This is as close as it can get for an arm-chair sailor to feel the power of the Ocean Waves. 

Groupama Winner Leg8 in Home-country.

Groupama is the Happy Winner of Leg8 into their Home-base Lorient. It was the first time a Leg Finish was broadcasted live on internet, courtesy a  French TV station. Together with the 3D animation, this was a fantastic reporting effort and for daylight finished should be continued.

The big looser in the Leg8 must be Telefonica. Sailing in the lead , a day before the finish, they got problem with  a rudder breakage. A repair at sea with the spare rudder was made and they started to chase. Surprisingly they got into the lead , but just as the crucial jybe towards the Finish was made, she broke her 2nd rudder ; pushing hard is one thing but pushing till you get severe damage is another thing. They were limping in survival mode and lucky to kept Sanya Lan just behind her, to save 10 points, but this will keep her from the Overall Victory.

Camper made a good 2nd place, by a good sailing strategy in the last day than allowed them to pass Puma that was long time in a 2nd place option.

Azzam ended on 4th place making an early  jybe but that did not gained them any places.

Groupama now has a 23 points lead on Puma and a very good chance on the Overall Victory, with just one Leg and  2 In-Port races to go.
Puma again has  a 5 point lead on both Camper and Telefonica with equal points.

Theoretically all 4 Boats still can win the Overall Volvo Ocean Race trophy, but the more intense battles will be for the 2nd and 3rd place on the Podium.

next:
In-Port Race Lorient on Saturday 30 June
Start Leg9 on Sunday 1 July
In-Port Race in Galway on Saturday 7 July.

Volvo Ocean Race Leg8 with Puma in the lead.

PUMA makes a Good Start in Lisbon for Leg8

The Volvo Ocean Race has continued with the Start of Leg8 in Lisbon. This leg will sail around San Miguel island in the Azores to the Finish in Lorient, France.

Puma made the Best of the start circuit and was entering the Atlantic with a nice lead. But the race is still long and some tricky winds situations will occurre around the Azoren High.


I have a map showing the daily progress, under the TAB "Progress Map" above. 


Alongside the Real VOR Boats there are also several virtual sailing sites that sail similar races, like LiveSkipper and VORG. The progress of my own virtual boats is also shown in the progress map.  

Volvo Ocean Race START of Leg8 to Lorient.

After again an exciting In-Port Race in the Tagus river in Lisbon, the fleet is starting Today on the penultimate leg 8 to Lorient, France via the Azores. 

Oeiras In-Port Race in Tagus rive 

Groupama sailed a clever strategy and won this In-Port Race. Puma at one stage looked to miss the Podium, but apparently this was part of their strategy and finished strong in 2nd place, shortly coming even close to  Groupama. 
Telefonica, was too eager at the start and got a penalty turn after a too aggressive attack on Puma boat. This costed them dearly any opportunity on the Podium. In the later stages they also had a broken lanyard for the Gennaker and could only end at last boat. 


Today Sunday 10th June 2012 at 1200 gmt the Leg8 will start. First a circuit will  be sailed in the Tagus river before the boats are setting sail to the Azoren islands. The sailing around the start-circuit will be able to follow live on Volvo's website. 

Lisbon Sailing activities in Volvo Ocean Race

Since my work on the Wiki on the Volvo Ocean Race Game in the Portuguese language, I could understand the information on Sailing Events in the coming days in Lisbon a little bit better. 
(do have a look at the Lisbon VOR website)


This is all in store for You. 

VOR, courses for Lisbon Sailing events 

The Pro-Am style Sailing Race. 
on Friday 8th June at 1100 GMT. (local 1200hrs)
The course shown in top left of above image. 
Normally this event is not broadcasted live, but afterwards the videos can be found on VOR site and in my Collection of Video in the TAB Videos above. 


The In-Port Lisbon Sailing Race. 
on Saturday 9th June 1200 GMT, (local 1300 hrs) 
Two alternative courses are shown, but before the start it will be made clear what course will be sailed in this Race. 
This In-Port Race is counting for the overall ranking; the Pro-Am is not.
The In-Port race is normale live broadcasted on the VOR  website and on Livestream. 
Also on the  Home-page of the VOR website is a Blog for actual messages from the VOR race committee and other visitors of the site. 


Last In-Port races have shown a very exciting and challenging race, so do not miss this one. 

My Virtual LiveSkipper Boat finished in Lisbon.

Along the Volvo Ocean Race, I was also sailing a virtual sailing race in LiveSkipper. With my Boat, I finished Yesterday 4th June around 1400 gmt. 

My LiveSkipper route 

I did follow of more southerly course, caused by a unexpected wind shift during the firsts night and conditions  never were favorite anymore to search the northerly routes. The  southerly route showed not to be the fastest as other skippers in LiveSkipper proofed. 


I also sailed in VORG and finished there early this morning with my Boat Paradise. She sailed a slightly more northerly course, though. The poor scheduling for night time windupdates in the VORG player, made me loose however many miles on wrong sail or not the optimal heading. 


For those VORG sailors that are interested to continue the virtual sailing after VOR has finished, I can recommend to have a look at and make a try with LiveSkipper. This is a Virtual Sailing Simulator with excellent scheduling tools and a better looks at your screen. So no disturbing your night sleep anymore and it offers both short duration Friday races as well as long duration sailing races. 

Azzam - Abu Dhabi wins Volvo Ocean Race Leg7

Azzam after Winning Leg7 Volvo Ocean Race in Lisbon

Azzam _ Abu Dhabi could bring the Victory to Lisbon after a days long period of leading the VOR fleet. It was a good strategy that brought this first Victory on a Leg for Azzam. 

The main part was a good move about halfway the TransAtlantic, that at one point gave her 90 Nm advantage on the other boats. As some coldfront was pushing the boats in the back, the fleet compacted upto to 25 Nm a day back. Azzam was first to pass the   area of light winds upfront and could maintain their lead to the Finish.

Groupama sailed a good strategy and could cover the 2nd place while Puma , long time in the 2nd place took the 3rd place. 

The battle for 4th and 5th was between Camper and Telefonic, who both floating up the river in almost no wind against the current and it was a real slow motion event that went in the favor of Telefonica. 

Sanya Lan finished just 14 minutes later in the last place.