It’s one thing moving a start line because of say, a wind shift. But at the Cape Town start for Leg 3 of the The Ocean Race on 26 February, principal race officer Bill O’Hara was forced to work around a pod of whales.
For the ex-Olympian from Bangor on Belfast Lough who began his sailing career at Ballyholme Yacht Club, this is the sixth time as PRO for what used to be known as the Volvo Ocean Race, and before that the Whitbread Round the World Race.
Bill — named Afloat.ie’s Sailor of the Month for November last year for his services to sailing — is responsible for the pro/am and inshore races at each venue and for the starts for each of the seven legs on the 32,000-nautical-mile round the world race.
Bill O’Hara and the local Alicante race team, among them Maria Torrijo (top left) — who Bill says is “the best race officer in the world” and (top right) her husband, international umpire Miguel Allen
This year it’s taking him all over the world: from Alicante in Spain to Cabo Verde off West Africa and Cape Town in South Africa, and soon to Itajai in Brazil, Newport in Rhode Island on the US east coast, then back to Europe to Aarhus in Denmark, The Hague in the Netherlands and finally Genoa in Italy this summer.
The five IMOCA (International Monohull Open Class Association) 60-foot high-performance hydro foiling yachts racing around the world are usually sailed by one or two crew in the Route de Rhum.
But for this contest these flying machines each have a crew of five — necessary, really, for the likes of Leg 3, a 12,750-mile venture towards Itajaí that marks the longest single leg in the race’s 50-year history.
This map shows the sheer enormity of the task of completing Leg 3 of The Ocean Race, a route that’s taken the IMOCA fleet three-quarters of the way around the continent of Antarctica
It was an extraordinary start of this leg for the five boats but a headache for Bill and his assistants, as a pod of three whales was sighted after the five-leg inshore course in the original starting sequence area. This meant a late change to the set-up of the course, now in the wind shadow of the iconic Table Mountain.
To add to the start drama, Biotherm had to suspend its race to return to port. And 11th Hour Racing team also stopped racing to make repairs still out to sea. Both served the minimum two-hour period delay before rejoining the race, in which the fleet — minus GUYOT environnement - Team Europe, who retired from the leg with hull damage earlier this month — is now rounding Cape Horn.
Before Bill heads to Brazil, however, it’s off to the Princess Sophia event in Mallorca as rules advisor to the Irish and Danish Olympic teams, and then to Los Angeles to run a seminar on umpiring. By 16 April, Bill should be in Itajaí for The Ocean Race Leg 4 start on the 23rd.
You can follow the latest updates from The Ocean Race right here on Afloat.ie.
