Volvo Ocean Race - Place your bets

by Robbert-Jan Metselaar / Team Brunel on 23 Mar 2015 Volvo Ocean Race 2014 / 2015 - Going to the casino and putting a fiver on red is great fun. But let's be honest, putting fifty quid on red is even more fun. It's simply more exciting because the stakes are higher! 'Within two days, we've a good chance of a 400 or maybe 500 mile split in the fleet,' says Bouwe Bekking. Let's all move closer to the roulette table, because the stakes are about to get raised in the Volvo Ocean Race. Navigators: Place your bets.

There's also a good chance that our navigator Andrew Cape will throw me straight overboard if he hears me comparing the noble art of navigation to a game of chance. Is that why he studies hundreds of weather models? Or stares at the various routes towards Cape Horn for days on end. That’s the art of navigating. Within two days, the navigators need to choose between two totally different routes. The northern route (let's call it red) or the southern route (black).

Betting your hard earned lead on red would seem to be a simple choice. Full blast Southern Ocean weather with 30 to 40 knots of westerly wind. In other words, hard hats on and go like lightening! The question is: will the boat survive?

Black is a somewhat more cautious choice: there is much less wind and the route will be upwind. So why would you opt for black? Black is more southerly. And more southerly means shorter.

Make a circle using your thumb and index finger. That's the world. The distance from where your thumb and index finger meet, to the palm of your hand, is a lot longer than “down through the dip'. That's the South Pole. To exaggerate a little: A trip around the world via the equator is quite simply a fair bit longer than a trip around the world via the South Pole. On a smaller scale, it can therefore be interesting to opt for a southerly route.

If the teams make different choices, we'll see the same large split as in the previous leg. And we won't know which colour is best until the ball stops rolling a few days later.

In the previous legs, our navigator Andrew Cape has proven that he dares to bet on a different colour to the rest of the fleet. It's about time that this is rewarded with the jackpot. Even if it only means I'll be enjoying my Brazilian mojito sooner. No further bets!