Volvo Ocean Race turns into a game of Blind Man's Bluff

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/nz 19 Jan 2018 09:26 AEDT

In one of the most bizarre occurrences in sailing, a major yacht race, arguably the most followed race in the world, has permitted more than half the fleet (57%) to go into so-called Stealth mode and become invisible from their fans.

These are the same fans have for the best part of a week been following one a successful break-out move by the then last placed boat to snatch the lead, and then carry on to work out a near unbeatable lead of over 90nm. Remarkable.

The naysayers expected SHK Scallywag to fall flat on their faces. But they didn't - well not yet anyway.

All should have been revealed as the fleet wiggled their way through the archipelago that dominates the entrance to the Luzon Strait - about 500nm from the finish.

It should have been a fascinating piece of tactical to sailing for fans to follow. But that stopped 24 hours ago as the race leader went into Stealth mode - and disappeared from all results screens and schedules.

In every other offshore race the competitors know or can find out where their opposition is and has been. Whether they can work out where they are headed is another matter.

However, the Volvo Ocean race is different as communications to and from the boats is supposed to be carefully controlled. So put in the blackouts for the fleet is that is what they want - but why deprive the fans from following the closing stanza of a tense race?

It's like watching the final minutes of a major Rugby Test with the game in balance, when the organisers decide to black out the stadium and make the fans watch the game on the Big Screen only - and then using redaction technology, black out the players from one team, plus the referee, and leave the fans to work out what is happening. Enthralling.

Then a couple of minutes before Full Time the lights get switched on, and the fans can then see if there has been a change in the scoreboard. Afterwards, the fans get treated to breathless replays and explanations as to what happened when the lights went out.

Yes, the Volvo Ocean Race makes the America's Cup look rational in comparison. Remember that's the event where the Challenger starts into the Match on a negative points score because the Defender won the (Challengers) Qualification Series.

We'd love to bring you a report on what is happening on the final day of Leg 4, but you have to know where the boats are first. Four of them are in so-called Stealth Mode and are blacked out from all results and their fans. Most commentators would take one look at that situation and decide they had better things to do. And this is an event which claims to be media and fan friendly. Just bizarre.

The latest update from the boats maybe could be construed to read that SHK Scallywag dropped 73nm of their lead over Dongfeng, now that both are finally appearing on the latest position report. No idea whether Scallywag has dropped the same amount on the then second placed boat, or have in fact lost the lead.

Bizarre.

Yes, we heard all the arguments in the last race about competitors not being able to make a breakout move without the rest of the fleet knowing. But that argument got hit out of the park less than a week ago when Scallywag made their break out move from the back of the fleet, without going into Stealth mode and the rest of the fleet just waved them goodbye. And have been chasing Scallywag's transom ever since.

The argument doesn't stack up, and if the organizers wanted to kill interest in their race and frustrate the fans, then this is probably the best way to do it.

Latest from update from navigator Libby Greenhalgh onboard Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag (formerly?) the Leg 4 leader:

The mile bleeding gybe debate.

You are pointing at the finish and doing 17 knots your routing says gybe away there is more pressure and a better shift, but you effectively need to go backwards to go forwards.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and if we had it at the time then we probably would have gybed at either 0100 or 0400 as the wind decreased even further and definitely at 0700 after the position report, but we don't have it, and we didn't. So then we needed to manage a bad position as best we can. From comfort to stress the intensity changes, people get short with each other as the frustration and realisation of the loss settles in, before readjusting to our new position.

Let's not forget we are still ahead, and by our calculations, because now we have the added fun of the stealth guessing game, the chasing pack have to go 0.7KT quicker every hour to beat us at our current average speed, that is 5 % faster than us. That is quite a lot when you are in the same patch of water.

Roll on a rather high-stress 24-36hours as we bite our nails to each position report and try to whiz to the finish ahead of them all. We may not be making it easy, but I am sure it is fun to watch.

(S-W - it would be fun to watch if only we could see the friggin' boats!)

Libby at the nav desk.