Galway In-Port Race
Dave Kneale / Volvo Ocean Race
The Galway in-port races were settled on the first beat of the second race, and so the Play of the Day belonged to a PUMA team taking their first ever win in the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race. It was all about something that we haven't really talked about much in this in-port race series so far, and yet it can often dominate both one design and match racing - holding a lane.
Holding a lane refers to the boat speed race that develops straight off the start line. Most of the fleet will always start on starboard tack, all going in the same direction, and it is essential to hold a place in this line-up of boats as they sail up the first leg.
So the only thing that matters off the start line is performance relative to the boats either side - if one of them has even a slight edge, they will eventually start to affect the wind in the sails of the boat in the middle. Once that happens, the only escape is to tack, and once tactics are dictated to you, the race gets a whole lot harder.
Often that performance advantage isn't just determined by the boat's absolute best speed, but by the relative position and boat speed on the start line at the gun. Just a few metres and a couple of tenths of a knot of boat speed either way can make the difference between being forced to tack, and holding the lane.
It's particularly important on the short in-port race course with the gate mid-way up the first leg. That's because it's only a few minutes of sailing from the start line to the gate. So in theory, it's a winning move to start at the committee boat with the whole fleet to leeward on starboard tack (to the left looking upwind), and hold that lane until the tack for the gate.
Starboard tack has right of way when it meets a port tack boat, and so by that stage the opposition will either have had to tack early and go behind, or follow you into the gate.
The only defence to this is a great start at full speed, right on the line, and then having the boat speed to work out an advantage on all the boats to windward (to the right looking upwind), forcing them to tack away. And that's how PUMA won the second race, and with it the Galway in-port race series.
PUMA were helped by the fact that Telefonica Black was immediately to leeward of them and over the line at the start. When they returned to restart it left a gap to leeward. It was made bigger by Green Dragon, who had started too close to Telefonica Blue and was quickly forced to tack away.
By this stage, the closest boat to leeward of PUMA was Telefonica Blue, and she was a long way away. And so Ken Read could turn his full attention to the boat to windward of him, which was Ericsson 4.
It's a real advantage to have a space to leeward in this situation as it means that if PUMA hit a bad wave, or a light spot in the breeze, they could bear away into it to accelerate. So they never got caught going slowly, and Read could use that speed to make life really uncomfortable for Ericsson 4.
And so it played out - it took Read just over two minutes to force Ericsson 4 to tack away from his windward side. He then just had to wait until Telefonica Blue tacked towards the gate from to leeward of him. When they met, PUMA tacked right on the bow of Telefonica Blue, forcing Iker Martinez and Bouwe Bekking to sail in bad air the rest of the way to the gate. A slight advantage was turned into a bigger one, and that sealed the race.
PUMA led round the windward mark and sailed away from the fleet with a very tidy tactical display. In particular, they made life very uncomfortable for Telefonica Blue on the second beat, forcing them to do extra tacks on the northern side of the race course, which allowed Ericsson 3 to sail untroubled up the south side of the race course - blasting through to take a vital second place.
Ericsson 3's second put PUMA and Telefonica Blue on the same points for the day, the tie being split by the better result in the second race, which went PUMA's way. And so, after eight months of trying, PUMA finally topped the podium.
A short footnote: while we're on this topic, it's worth a quick mention of Green Dragon. They have little confidence in their speed upwind in anything but the lightest of breeze. As a consequence they are completely unwilling to get into the starboard line up off the start and try to hold a lane - they just don't believe they can do it.
I think that's why we see them trying something different on the start line - the port tack start at the boat in the first race for instance. That, along with a poorly executed conventional start in the second race ensured that the home town jinx struck again. A pretty grim day for Ericsson 4 in Rio (as least by their high standards), was followed by a horrible day for PUMA in Boston and a shocker for Green Dragon in Galway. Will it be Ericsson 3's turn in Stockholm?
THE COURSE
The In-Port race was held in Race Area Option 2 - view the course map.
The 2008-09 event has taken some of the lessons from in-port racing in 2005-06 and will attempt to bring the action to the spectators without compromising the racing itself. The courses for 2008-09 will be windward-leeward, with a mid-course gate and triangular viewing area.
This will provide flexibility of starting and/or finishing in the middle of the course. The bottom mark will also be a gate giving the yachts a choice of either mark to round for the next lap.
Each leg will be two nautical miles making the racing tighter. There will be two races per day, conditions permitting, with two laps per race and a target time of 50 minutes and a total race time of two hours.
RELATED DOCUMENTS
Download the race course information here (PDF 8447 KB)
Download the crew list here (PDF 82 KB)
IN-PORT RACE REPLAY
Watch the full race replay and edited highlights of the Boston In-Port Race
Race 1 replay
Race 2 replay
For more information on the Galway stopover site, visit www.letsdoitgalway.com