Unknown stretch adds to tricky leg’s risk from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi

Azzam navigator Simon Fisher says a good start and end approach is crucial to strategy.

PORTUGAL, Cascais, 19th June 2014. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing. Simon Fisher, Navigator checks out the charts.

CAPE TOWN // The second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi is one of only three in the race that is more than 6000 nautical miles.

As piracy issues heavily curtailed the leg in the 2011/12 race, this is the first time the boats will sail the entire leg.

That unknown stretch is likely to further level an already levelled playing field.

Experience will play a critical role in this race but nobody has sailed the completed leg before.

In any case, it is, as several navigators have pointed out, a particularly tricky leg; one said it is like the first leg but in reverse.

Simon Fisher, the Azzam navigator, takes us through the key stages of the leg.

Start as you mean to go

“The start in Cape Town is always really tricky because we’re under this big wind channel right under Table Mountain. That can have a huge effect on the beginning of the race.

“In the past it has happened that boats have got around the wind channel well and then gone on to win the leg because they get such a jump on the first day.

“That happened in the 1997/98 race [when they sailed to Australia from Cape Town] I think, so the beginning is very important.

The wind at your back

“Leaving the coast of South Africa and the decision of how far south we go, that will be the first key decision to get us into some of the strong westerly winds that carry east. About a day, or two days into it, getting to those south-westerly winds will be ­important.

Head up

“After that, the key turning point is turning north again and heading into the trade winds.

Double Doldrums

“Everyone talks about the [Atlantic Ocean] Doldrums of the last leg and you probably saw how tricky it can be on the last leg.

“But in this leg we have effectively two lots of the Doldrums to contend with.

“In the Indian Ocean things are a little bit different because of the north-easterly monsoon coming off India, which creates a slightly different situation and means that the Doldrums can be very big and makes it two boundaries you have to go through. That is going to be slightly tricky.

The home stretch

“Then, to top it all off, once we are through the Doldrums and sailed in the north-easterly monsoons into the Straits of Hormuz, as you approach the coast of Oman and round the top of the straits can be really difficult and really light. There is lots of really high land around there which has a really big effect on the wind.”

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