VolvoOceanRaceGame blog

NEW --- !!! VOLVOOCEANRACE--20142015 ---

2013-04-14T18:50:00.002+07:00

The NEXT NEW VOLVO-OCEAN-RACE 2014-2015 has published the SAILING ROUTE to follow.

VOLVOOCEANRACE 2014-2015 ROUTE

Route Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15

Alicante

In-Port Race: October 4, 2014
Leg Start: October 11, 2014
Leg Distance to Recife: 3,421 nm

Recife

In-Port Race: November 8, 2014
Leg Start: November 9, 2014
Leg Distance to Abu Dhabi: 9,707 nm

Abu Dhabi

In-Port Race: January 2, 2015
Leg Start: January 3, 2015
Leg Distance to Sanya: 4,670 nm

Sanya

In-Port Race: February 7, 2015
Leg Start: February 8, 2015
Leg Distance to Auckland: 5,264 nm

Auckland

In-Port Race: March 14, 2015
Leg Start: March 15, 2015
Leg Distance to Itajaí: 6,776 nm

Itajaí

In-Port Race: April 18, 2015
Leg Start: April 19, 2015
Leg Distance to Newport: 5,010 nm

Newport

In-Port Race: May 16, 2015
Leg Start: May 17, 2015
Leg Distance to Lisbon: 2,800 nm

Lisbon

In-Port Race: June 6, 2015
Leg Start: June 7, 2015
Leg Distance to Lorient: 647 nm

Lorient

In-Port Race: to be decided
Leg Start: to be decided
Leg Distance to Gothenburg: 1,600 nm

Gothenburg

In-Port Race: June 27, 2015
Total Race Distance: 39,895 nautical miles

<> Starting times to follow.

No doubt there will be a VIRTUAL VOLVOOCEANRACE (VORG) like in the previous years and I will update this blog till the start on 4th October and most important during the VORG.

Hope to see as many as possible Boats from the VORG2011-2012 return to sail and compete with.

Final Film VolvoOceanRace 2011-12

2012-08-06T11:36:00.002+07:00

Complete film VolvoOceanRace 2011-12

The 2011-2012 edition of the VolvoOceanRace was the most closely fought Sailing Race so far. Upto the final leg, there were still 4 of the 6 Boats with a chance to win the Overall.

Ultimately, Groupama was the Overall Winner with Camper in a nice 2nd place gained in the last Leg. Puma finished in 3rd position and Telefonica, who held the lead for the first part of the race in 4th place.
Azzam of AbuDhabi finished in a 5th place , while Sanya with the only former generation boat finished in the 6th place. This proofs that the newer generation boats for sure had a higher speed.

What NOW???
If you have sailed virtually in the VORG alongside, you will be missing the daily excitement; not the nightly wake-up though.

LiveSkipper (www.liveskipper.com) is a virtual sailing simulator on the Web that will for sure surprise you with its better quality of screen views, better navigation tools and most of all a good scheduler to sail optimal and have a long healthy night sleep. On top of this, LiveSkipper is FREE. Try it out.

VORG is Finished , LIVESKIPPER continues !

2012-07-17T19:16:00.001+07:00

VORG 2011-2012 Certificate of Completion of World Tour

A certificate was received for the completion of the Tour around the Globe in the Volvo Ocean Race Game 2011-2012. Thanks a lot. It was a long tour, about 9 months, but luckily with some nice rests at the intermediate cities.

So apart from sailing, the tour brought also some cultural "interesting" events!

Now the VORG is finished for next 2 odd years so NEXT is.......

LiveSkipper , the BEST virtual sailing simulator on the Internet. It is FREE , contrary to the VORG and it has regular sailing race through the years. Most important however is: LiveSkipper has a good scheduler, so you can sail proper during the night and still have apart from a good sailing progress a Healthy SLEEP.

Try it out , you will be surprised on the easy of sailing, however, to win a race you will have to bring in some experience in Sailing, sail selection and interpretation of the real weather systems.

The Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012 is over!

2012-07-12T15:03:00.000+07:00

This video shows (Lost the video) how the boats sailing virtually in the VORG choose their routes from Start to Finish in the sequential legs.

PUMA's victory in In-Port Race Galway, VolvoOceanRace.

2012-07-08T14:15:00.000+07:00

PUMA , winner in In-Port Race in Galway.

The scoreboard for the Overall Podium was already settled, but the win in the In-Port series was still up for grabs. There were still 4 boats that could become winner in this serie.

In an exciting Sailing Race, where Camper and AbuDhabi has a fast start, it was Puma on the 1st leg that advanced to take the first Mark. They did not look back, well actually they did to assure themselves that their advantage was growing with every leg. Puma sailed a flawless In-Port Race and won.
Camper made a clever move on the one but last legs and passed Groupama , who on the last 100 meters also was passed by Telefonica.

2012-07-07T12:00:00.000+07:00

A compilation of the Toughest Moments during the "VolvoOceanRace 2011-2012" has been made, see video above.

But lets hope that conditions are not that harsh during the last Event of the "VolvoOceanRace 2011-2012" -- The In-Port Race in Galway.

This In-Port Race in Galway will be held Saturday 7th July starting at 12:00 GMT.
As normal this Sailing race is visible live in the internet on the VolvoOceanRace main page.

There are theoretically still 4 boats that can make victory in the Overall In-Port Race ranking, so it could become a hard fought battle for the win.

Camper Winner in VolvoOceanRace Leg9

2012-07-03T11:34:00.001+07:00

Though CAMPER did not round Fastnet Rock first, later she would win the LEG9.

Camper had a terrible start in Leg9, she did not round the Fastnet Rock as the first, but ultimately she managed to sail in front and win the last LEG9 of the Volvo Ocean Race in Galway.
Groupama finished in 2nd in the Leg9 but that brought her enough points to take the OVERALL WIN IN THE VOLVOOCEANRACE 2011-2012!

Puma filled the last place on the Podium and has lost the change for the 1st and 2nd place in the Overall.

The Scorecard is sorted, as the one scoring event In-Port race in Galway will give 6 points to the winner and 1 point to the last boat, while the difference between boats is now 6 points or more. So just finishing the In-Port race will be enought to take the present Overall scoring position; for the scorecard see the TAB Scorecard in the top of my blog.

The virtual player for VOR is also comming to an End with Leg9 Finish. What to do next?

My advice is to switch to LiveSkipper virtual sailing simulator. It is a sailing game that has races all through the years, has a better interface as VORG, better tools to plan your route as well and most of all LiveSkipper has a good scheduler ! So you can sail optimal results, while also enjoying a good sleep!!!
I have made a comparison of some virtual sailing games and my conclusion is that LiveSkipper is the BEST.

VolvoOceanRace Last Leg9 to Galway

2012-07-02T10:20:00.002+07:00

All 6 Boats in the VolvoOceanRace have start the Last Leg9 from Lorient to Galway, Ireland.
It will be a very short race, for Ocean sailors that is. The reporting of progress is done on a minute frequency so you can at any moment see who is first etc.
The winds are SouthWesterly and pretty strong , so the fleet is having a good speed of around 20 kts.
Above a video impression of the Highlights of the starting circuit in Lorient, for a full version see the link in my Video page TAB above.

START last LEG9 VolvoOceanRace to Galway.

2012-07-01T09:41:00.001+07:00

Groupama showed once more their qualities in winning the VolvoOceanRace In-Port Race in Lorient , their hometown. Groupama is now 25 points ahead of Puma and have a good chance to win the Overall VolvoOceanRace.

See the Highlights in which Camper lost the Victory by a wind shift in the last leg, where Puma lost because of a problem in changing sails and where Telefonica once more did not impress.

Today Sunday 1st July 2012 at 11:00 GMT will be the START of Leg 9 from Lorient to Galway.

Leg 9 Starting circuit

It will be possible to follow this live on the VOR website.

In-Port Race in Lorient

2012-06-30T14:15:00.000+07:00

Circuit for Bretagne In-Port Race

The mentioned starting time is the Local starting time. This related to 11:02 GMT!

VOR65 - One Design Monohull is the New Boat for coming VolvoOceanRaces

2012-06-28T17:34:00.004+07:00

Volvo 65 ft One-Design

In a press conference today in Lorient Knut Frostad, presented the New Boat that will be designed , build to be used in the next Volvo Ocean Race editions.

Main points presented were:

- It was said that Volvo is fully committed to continue support for the Volvo Ocean Race events.
-the plans developed now are for at least 2 editions of coming VOR.
-the new Boats will be a ONE-DESIGN MONOHULL of 65 ft; this will be the Volvo65 class boat and to be used in next 2 editions of VOR.
- the plan is and Volvo supports this, to have a minimum of 8 participating boats
- the design team Farr Yacht Design will give extra attention to a reliable design for the new boat, that should still be competitive and of high performance.

- The boat will be build by a consortium of boat builders to the strict measures of this one design.

- a larger hood over the cabin, to offer and area with protection to the water/wind for media activities

- the boat price will be in the order of 4.5 million $

- the anticipated cost incl. purchase of boat and one race cycle to be around 12-15 million $

- The Crew will be 8 persons plus a media crew member (MCM)

- a full ladies team will be allowed 2 extra ladies.

- some discussion on promotion of younger sailers and sailors from nations will less experience in the team is on-going

- the numbers of sail will be reduced to 7 (from 10 now) , maximum possible furling mechanisms will be included

- the VOR sailing route to be finalised by 21 dec 2012.

- the first Volvo65 boats to become available mid 2013.

well that is about it, some details are available on the Volvo Web site soon.

Isn't it good that I in the mountains in interior Thailand can live follow this press conference in Lorient :?: The communication capabilities nowadays are fantastic.

Last days before START of Leg9 Volvo Ocean Race

2012-06-28T10:40:00.000+07:00

It is a rather long resting time in Lorient before the In-Port race and the start of the last Leg 9 to GALWAY, Ireland. This is especially inviting to haul the boat out of the water for a last cleaning and repair operations. However, the rules does not allow this and any repairs have to be done with the boat floating.

There were 4 boats that needed repair which would benefit from hauling, but their request was denied; or rather a penalty would be given of 2 points reduction in overall standing. Telefonica requested new replacement rudders, which again was denied, unless a one place set-back in each of the 3 following sailing events would be accepted.

I know that all boats have chosen to make the repairs on their floating boast. I am still not sure the choice that Telefonica made , whether to repair their broken rudders or replace with new ones. Any repair should be made proper though, as it will bring the boat and crew in danger if a repaired rudder will break again.

Saturday 30 June at 11:00 gmt will be the Start of the In-Port race in Lorient and as normal can be followed live on the VolvoOceanRace web site.

What comes after the VORG?

2012-06-21T10:29:00.001+07:00

Soon the VolvoOceanRaceGame will be over if we have virtually sailed to Galway in Ireland.
What to do with the spare time that comes available if we don't have to sail in VORG???

Well...........I have found a remedy to the addiction to virtual sailing. !

Sail in one of the other available Virtual Sailing Simulators on the Web!

Now is the time to start looking into other Virtual Sailing sites. I have been sailing in different other virtual sailing simulators and for what it is worth, I have make a table with the features, tools, options and capabilities of some 3 virtual sailing simulators.

this is my Conclusion:
A comparison is made between 3 Virtual Sailing Simulators: LiveSkipper(LS), SailonLine(SOL) and VolvoOceanRaceGame(VORG). The table gives the details, while the verdict is describing some comparisons and favorites items.
LiveSkipper and SailonLine both have a player that provides an “even playing field” for all players, while VORG favours for optimal sailing speed, those players that invest in the extra sails and tools that are included for free in the other players.
On the view of the player screens, (I guess, that depends much on individual preference,) but LS offers a 3D boat silhouette and the largest player area on the screen. SOL shows always all boats that can hinder the view on the shoreline or wind vanes.
On family friendliness, LiveSkipper beats the others as it has a very good scheduler to set the boat heading and sail selection for extended period. It offers a scheduler even in 2 modes a location and time based mode.
SOL has one (auto) sail only, while LS and VORG offer different sails on top of an auto-sail , which makes the sailing experience more challenging and realistic.
LS offers very good dynamic polar projection and ruler for route exploration, SOL is only giving a 6hrs advance line and VORG is not giving any of these tools, not even VMG like the other two virtual players.
LiveSkipper and Volvo Ocean Race both are offering a Tutorial and a detailed wiki to help in learning and optimizing the sailing experience.
My favorite is LiveSkipper (www.liveskipper.com) as it offers the best sailing tools to optimise your virtual sailing experiences, it is free with same option for all players (even playing field) and with its good scheduler allows a good programmed sailing; to keep Peace in the Family.

The full report and detailed summary of options is available here.
Comparison of 3 Virtual Sailing Simulator games

I hope to see many VORG sailors in LiveSkipper. If you have any questions, just Ask in the LiveSkipper Forum or chatroom and an answer will come soon.
There is also a very detailed LiveSkipper Wiki and for new players in the Beginner mode a Tutorial will be shown when starting your 1st Sailing Race.

Raw Power in Leg8 Volvo Ocean Race

2012-06-18T11:57:00.001+07:00

See this footage of sailing a VO70 sailing boat during an Atlantic Storm. The water splashes all over the Boats, the Camera's and gives the impression that next YOU will be completely soaked !!!

This is as close as it can get for an arm-chair sailor to feel the power of the Ocean Waves.

Groupama Winner Leg8 in Home-country.

2012-06-16T10:21:00.000+07:00

Groupama is the Happy Winner of Leg8 into their Home-base Lorient. It was the first time a Leg Finish was broadcasted live on internet, courtesy a French TV station. Together with the 3D animation, this was a fantastic reporting effort and for daylight finished should be continued.

The big looser in the Leg8 must be Telefonica. Sailing in the lead , a day before the finish, they got problem with a rudder breakage. A repair at sea with the spare rudder was made and they started to chase. Surprisingly they got into the lead , but just as the crucial jybe towards the Finish was made, she broke her 2nd rudder ; pushing hard is one thing but pushing till you get severe damage is another thing. They were limping in survival mode and lucky to kept Sanya Lan just behind her, to save 10 points, but this will keep her from the Overall Victory.

Camper made a good 2nd place, by a good sailing strategy in the last day than allowed them to pass Puma that was long time in a 2nd place option.

Azzam ended on 4th place making an early jybe but that did not gained them any places.

Groupama now has a 23 points lead on Puma and a very good chance on the Overall Victory, with just one Leg and 2 In-Port races to go.
Puma again has a 5 point lead on both Camper and Telefonica with equal points.

Theoretically all 4 Boats still can win the Overall Volvo Ocean Race trophy, but the more intense battles will be for the 2nd and 3rd place on the Podium.

next:
In-Port Race Lorient on Saturday 30 June
Start Leg9 on Sunday 1 July
In-Port Race in Galway on Saturday 7 July.

Volvo Ocean Race Leg8 with Puma in the lead.

2012-06-11T10:01:00.001+07:00

PUMA makes a Good Start in Lisbon for Leg8

The Volvo Ocean Race has continued with the Start of Leg8 in Lisbon. This leg will sail around San Miguel island in the Azores to the Finish in Lorient, France.

Puma made the Best of the start circuit and was entering the Atlantic with a nice lead. But the race is still long and some tricky winds situations will occurre around the Azoren High.

I have a map showing the daily progress, under the TAB "Progress Map" above.

Alongside the Real VOR Boats there are also several virtual sailing sites that sail similar races, like LiveSkipper and VORG. The progress of my own virtual boats is also shown in the progress map.

Volvo Ocean Race START of Leg8 to Lorient.

2012-06-10T14:59:00.001+07:00

After again an exciting In-Port Race in the Tagus river in Lisbon, the fleet is starting Today on the penultimate leg 8 to Lorient, France via the Azores.

Oeiras In-Port Race in Tagus rive

Groupama sailed a clever strategy and won this In-Port Race. Puma at one stage looked to miss the Podium, but apparently this was part of their strategy and finished strong in 2nd place, shortly coming even close to Groupama.
Telefonica, was too eager at the start and got a penalty turn after a too aggressive attack on Puma boat. This costed them dearly any opportunity on the Podium. In the later stages they also had a broken lanyard for the Gennaker and could only end at last boat.

Today Sunday 10th June 2012 at 1200 gmt the Leg8 will start. First a circuit will be sailed in the Tagus river before the boats are setting sail to the Azoren islands. The sailing around the start-circuit will be able to follow live on Volvo's website.

Lisbon Sailing activities in Volvo Ocean Race

2012-06-06T11:44:00.000+07:00

Since my work on the Wiki on the Volvo Ocean Race Game in the Portuguese language, I could understand the information on Sailing Events in the coming days in Lisbon a little bit better.
(do have a look at the Lisbon VOR website)

This is all in store for You.

VOR, courses for Lisbon Sailing events

The Pro-Am style Sailing Race.
on Friday 8th June at 1100 GMT. (local 1200hrs)
The course shown in top left of above image.
Normally this event is not broadcasted live, but afterwards the videos can be found on VOR site and in my Collection of Video in the TAB Videos above.

The In-Port Lisbon Sailing Race.
on Saturday 9th June 1200 GMT, (local 1300 hrs)
Two alternative courses are shown, but before the start it will be made clear what course will be sailed in this Race.
This In-Port Race is counting for the overall ranking; the Pro-Am is not.
The In-Port race is normale live broadcasted on the VOR website and on Livestream.
Also on the Home-page of the VOR website is a Blog for actual messages from the VOR race committee and other visitors of the site.

Last In-Port races have shown a very exciting and challenging race, so do not miss this one.

My Virtual LiveSkipper Boat finished in Lisbon.

2012-06-05T09:46:00.000+07:00

Along the Volvo Ocean Race, I was also sailing a virtual sailing race in LiveSkipper. With my Boat, I finished Yesterday 4th June around 1400 gmt.

My LiveSkipper route

I did follow of more southerly course, caused by a unexpected wind shift during the firsts night and conditions never were favorite anymore to search the northerly routes. The southerly route showed not to be the fastest as other skippers in LiveSkipper proofed.

I also sailed in VORG and finished there early this morning with my Boat Paradise. She sailed a slightly more northerly course, though. The poor scheduling for night time windupdates in the VORG player, made me loose however many miles on wrong sail or not the optimal heading.

For those VORG sailors that are interested to continue the virtual sailing after VOR has finished, I can recommend to have a look at and make a try with LiveSkipper. This is a Virtual Sailing Simulator with excellent scheduling tools and a better looks at your screen. So no disturbing your night sleep anymore and it offers both short duration Friday races as well as long duration sailing races.

Azzam - Abu Dhabi wins Volvo Ocean Race Leg7

2012-06-01T11:57:00.000+07:00

Azzam after Winning Leg7 Volvo Ocean Race in Lisbon

Azzam _ Abu Dhabi could bring the Victory to Lisbon after a days long period of leading the VOR fleet. It was a good strategy that brought this first Victory on a Leg for Azzam.

The main part was a good move about halfway the TransAtlantic, that at one point gave her 90 Nm advantage on the other boats. As some coldfront was pushing the boats in the back, the fleet compacted upto to 25 Nm a day back. Azzam was first to pass the area of light winds upfront and could maintain their lead to the Finish.

Groupama sailed a good strategy and could cover the 2nd place while Puma , long time in the 2nd place took the 3rd place.

The battle for 4th and 5th was between Camper and Telefonic, who both floating up the river in almost no wind against the current and it was a real slow motion event that went in the favor of Telefonica.

Sanya Lan finished just 14 minutes later in the last place.

Azzam had Good Sailing in 2nd half Leg7

2012-05-31T11:17:00.000+07:00

Leg7 in the Volvo Ocean Race, has seen many different Boats in the lead one passing the other. Azzam however showed a very strong strategy in the 2nd half of the TransAtlantic leg.
However, a ridge of calm winds ahead of Lisbon has made the Fleet to compact to 25 Nm this morning.

So depending on how quick a Boat can pass this area of low winds and pick up the Northerly stronger winds, the better the chances on a good Podium place in Lisbon.

The sailing race tracker is now already in the rapid update mode, with each minute a refresh of boat locations and speed indication.

The expected Finish in Lisbon is late Today Thursday 31 May or early tomorrow. The Finish is expected to be close as the weather along the coast of Portugal can bring some surprises localy.

Groupama made good strategical decision.

2012-05-22T11:30:00.000+07:00

Groupama sailing in the lead in LEG 7

Hardly 2 days sailing and Groupama has taken the lead with some 50 Nm. It was clear that the Tropical Storm Alberto had a key to the sailing progress in firts days of the Leg7 to Lisbon.
Groupama made a timely turn to the East, thus favoring maximal from the strong but not too strong winds and less waves to jump into a comfortable lead. Puma clearly sailed too far North and had to return thus loosing important miles.
Now all boats in an Easterly heading progressing well towards Lisbon.
Question is , how long will they be able to surf the winds of Alberto and when will another weather-system takes over?

Volvo Ocean Race - START of LEG 7

2012-05-20T11:38:00.000+07:00

After the exciting In-Port Race in Miami, won by Abu Dhabi Boat Azzam, the LEG7 Miami - Lisbon is to start TODAY: Sunday 20th May at 1700 GMT.

Close Sailing in Volvo Ocean Race In-Port Race Miami.

After Azzam it was Puma that passed Camper on the last meters before the Finish. Telefonica came in last after she could not prevent touching one of the Race course buoys; the resulting penalty turn made her loose more places.

Today, will be the start of the Transatlantic crossing to Portugal, Lisbon. The Northern Atlantic can be a whirlpool of waves and wind depending on the weather systems. So it could be a gentle race but as well a brutal race and lets hope that all Boats will make it without severe damage to the other end of the Ocean.

Alongside the Real Boats also a number of virtual sailing games will start, each with their own mirrored races (be it organised by a group of sailors or by the game proper) : LiveSkipper, SailonLine, VORG and maybe even more.

Volvo Ocean Race next Miami In-Port Race

2012-05-18T10:46:00.000+07:00

Saturday 19th May, the Sailing excitement will start again !

Miami - In-Port Sailing Course

At 1700 UTC (1300 Local time) will sound the starting shot for the Miami In-Port Sailing Race.
And with the scores in the Overall Standing just 17 apart for the first 4 Boats, each point will be hard fought for as each point is becoming very important.

The Miami In-Port Race can be followed life on the internet via the Volvo Ocean Race site or via LiveStream:

The highlights of Leg6 have been compiled in a Documentary and the excitement of the days-long battle between Puma, the ultimate winner, and Camper and the passage of Groupama over Telefonica can be viewed.

A day later Sunday 20May 1700 UTC is the start of Leg7.
A special course will be sailed close to shore before setting sail to the Ocean.
http://www.volvooceanrace.com/static/assets/content/media/images/m17641_miami_in-port.jpg

PUMA brilliant winner of Volvo Ocean Race Leg 6.

2012-05-10T14:18:00.001+07:00

PUMA , winner of Leg6 in Miami.

Puma, has won the 6th Leg of the Volvo Ocean Race from Itajai, Brazil to Miami, States of America. Puma won the lead already during the course race at the start of Leg6, and apart for a short while, they were always in the lead with a little more or less miles.
This Leg6 has seen no boats with serious structural damage and lets hope that we can keep it that way; of course one boat Sanya Lan did not participate in this Leg as she was shipped to the States for some heavy repair jobs.

This leg has seen some good sailing in breach conditions, a Doldrum situation that was not a big issue but still some calmer wind regions in the Caribbean.
Second was Camper, who was always close behind Puma and threatened several times to overtake into the lead.
Groupama , who was trailing the fleet for a long time with distance of 160 Nm at one time, managed to cut the corner by sailing in between some Caribbean islands and thus passed Telefonica for 3rd.
Telefonica, that long time was close to the leaders, lost that good place in a Caribbean wind hole and could not recover from that anymore.
Azzam, trailed this leg with Groupama a long time, but where Groupama recovered , Azzam was not able to close in on the fleet again.