Volvo Ocean Race- Will Oxley - Part 2 - Dongfeng and post Vestas Wind
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com NZL on 7 Feb 2015
Team Alvimedica arrives in Sanya in third position, after 23 days of sailing. Skipper Charile Enright. Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race
http://www.volvooceanrace.com
The stopover in Sanya at the end of Leg 3 was a chance for Team Alvimedica navigator, Will Oxley to reflect on the leg just sailed, and the Volvo Ocean Race so far, which was covered in Part 1.
In this second part he talks about some of the issues that navigators face, what has changed for the navigators since the Team Vestas Wind incident, and why Dongfeng is the leading the race so far.
Dongfeng's performance
The surprise package of the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race is the French-led, Chinese-crewed-and-sponsored Dongfeng, who won Leg 3, were first into their home port, and now lead on the points table.
Despite a lot of crew rotations, and with a substantial number of Chinese nationals in the crew and shore team, Dongfeng has been a very consistent performer and is now the boat to beat.
Asked why Dongfeng is going well, Oxley’s response is simple. 'Because they have very good sailors.'
'They got Boat 1 and have had the longest time to know the boat. Primarily they are going so well because they have very good sailors.
'The Chinese guys are very good sailors. They are very strong and fit and motivated. People dismiss them because they are Chinese, but I think Dongfeng have done a very good job of integrating them into the team, and it shows.
'It is also a great example of the French short-handed sailing scene coming into the race and doing well,’ he adds. 'More so than the last race. With fewer people on the boat, multi-skilling makes a big difference, and the guys on Dongfeng are very talented all-rounders.’
Sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation is a big issue with crews, and particularly navigators. A veteran of 13 Sydney Hobart races, he notes that a Sydney Hobart race is about as long as you can last on the basis of 15-minute catnaps. For the Volvo Ocean Race, he carefully manages his sleep and keeps sleep logs.
'If we are tacking away from the coast, I might shut my eyes for 15 minutes at the nav station. But on the night off the Vietnam coast, I rested up before we started up the coast and stayed up through the night until we tacked away in the morning.
Paper chart use
Since the Leg 2 incident aboard Team Vestas Wind, much has been made of the use of paper charts and electronic systems.
In photos and video off Team Alvimedica, Oxley is frequently seen checking paper charts. He explains that they are not a marked set he brought with him from the 2011-12 race.
'They stayed with Camper. As part of our pre-race prep in Alvimedica, I went through the entire Admiralty catalog, mapped out the entire race and decided which charts I needed,’ he explains.
'That amounted to hundreds, which I reduced to 50 or so charts. Before each leg, I look through the charts and decide which I need based on the routing, knowing where the high-resolution-only areas are, where I do need charts.
'Everyone says that I have the paper charts there for a photo opportunity! But they give you so much detail. It also comes with being an old guy. Paper charts are what I grew up with.
Merits of electronic chart use
'Initially I declared I would never go with the electronic charts. But now I live by them as well. Now I have four separate sets of information – the Navionic charts, the C-Map charts and the paper charts, plus a fourth set of Chinese produced charts that I have sourced.
'Sometimes they agree, sometimes they disagree.'
Oxley adds that satellite imagery and the ability to drill down on features is always better than charts. But aboard the Volvo Ocean Race boats they don’t have the bandwidth available to be able to browse the internet in this way. Walking the course in that way must be done before the start.
'I have valuable navigation support from Anderson Reggio and this makes a big difference in helping with preparation,” Oxley says.
Aboard Alvimedica, he does not keep a running plot on the paper charts but says he does keep them close to hand in case there is an electronic melt-down. Oxley has written a chapter in his book, published last year, about how paper-based and electronic navigation meld together. 'There are a lot of things that you can do with the modern technology that are old style', he points out.
Oxley says he marks the charts up before a leg. Then, two or three days before reaching a particular area he cross-references the paper charts and the markings with the electronic versions for the same area. 'Even though I have done it in the lead-up, I need to do it again while it is fresh in my mind. I guess I am over-anal on that stuff. In the current situation, when you think you have done enough, you do it another couple of times.'
Changes since Team Vestas Wind's incident
Since the Vestas Wind incident, there has been more of a safety first, race second attitude amongst the navigators.
'For the next leg I have sent a message out to the other navigators about a rock that wasn't on the charts. Dongfeng sent some comments out as well. So there is a lot of co-operation between the teams and the navigators. We understand the consequences of an error.'
'There is no organised navigational briefing as such, but the navigators have been quite proactive,’ he explains.
'Before this leg, we called a meeting, pulled out all the paper charts and said to the race committee – here is what we think is safe - using that term advisedly. We tell them that given that we have to go to a destination, here is how we want to do it.
'Then the Race Committee can firm up the Sailing Instructions. It is now quite co-operative in that respect.
'The navigators’ discussion doesn't affect the racing tactics too much. For instance, we blocked out the oilfields off Vietnam – to avoid a situation where the first yacht might get through, and the next one gets stopped by a Vietnamese patrol boat, because the oilfields are a prohibited area.
'We are bringing the seamanship/racing navigator pendulum back to the seamanship side,' he says, in conclusion.
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