For Ireland's last entry in the round the world race in 1989 the 38-boat fleet sailed away from Portsmouth and disappeared over the horizon. In spite of all the techonlogy in Alicante, this weekend may well be the same again. After spending millions on satellite gizmos to bring the race in to the living room, organisers have introduced a new device to allow the eight competing boats conceal positions. The docks in these race villages are always secretive as shore crews look to hide their creations, but now, with the launch of a StealthPlay initiative, the cloak and dagger feel will spread to the open ocean.
Under the device, crews will have one opportunity on each of the longer legs to activate the play and have their location hidden from position reports and the public for 12 hours.
It is designed to add an intriguing tactical dimension to the race, whereby a team might opt to make a tactical break from the fleet without the rest of competitors knowing what they are doing and where they are on the race track.
The ploy can first be used on leg one from Alicante to Cape Town and then on leg two (Cape Town to Kochi), leg five (Qingdao to Rio), leg six (Rio to Boston) and leg seven (Boston to Galway). If it is not used on one leg, it cannot be accumulated for use on a following leg.
Green Dragon’s Damian Foxall thinks it could make for some interesting developments on the race track. He said: “Any time when there is information to hide or a decision to be made, it could be something that comes into play.
“It can be used as a bluff or to hide what you are doing. It could be useful when you are close to a finish. I think offshore the players will be fairly clear as to what everyone is doing, maybe with a couple of opportunities where there are several options to follow, but when you have several good options it could be a good time to turn off the beacon.”
Ericsson 3 navigator Jules Salter added: “If you are coming into a finish and have someone in front of you, you might play it then to hide your route. It will most likely get used when the weather is complicated or if, for some reason, people are struggling to download the weather. You could use it then.”
In order to deploy a StealthPlay, a team must call Race Headquarters within 30 minutes of the position report being released. The play will last for the next 12 hours and boat’s position will not be shown on the three scheduled reports normally released within that period. The boat will become visible again at the next position report after that period.
When a boat in play passes a scoring gate - there are seven gates around the course - her rounding time and points scored will be made public. Her position will also be made public when the team is within 50 nautical miles of the finish.
Race Headquarters in the UK will continue to monitor each boat’s progress every 15 minutes for safety reasons, but this information is never made public.
Position reporting times will be every three hours at 1000, 1300, 1600, 1900, 2200 throughout the duration of each offshore leg of the race. Position reports are circulated among the fleet as well as being published on www.volvooceanrace.org along with other technical data.
