Team SCA on Leg 1 Over-long commentary below the…
Team SCA on Leg 1
Over-long commentary below the cut.
Personally, I think the biggest factor in SCA’s poor performance on Leg 1 was their navigator’s lack of experience in this particular race. I realize Libby has lengthy credentials on paper. But that’s not the same thing as having successfully navigated a VOR or two before. She (plus Sam, yeah, who bears ultimate responsibility) made a few bad calls:
- they took a northern line on the way out from Gibraltar and lost their lead as a result
- they got caught on the wrong side of a big shift and dropped a bunch of positions off northern Africa
- they took the middle in the doldrums when west was best and Vestas’ eastern line was second-best
- they had that one awful night off Rio when they sailed into a hole for six hours
Aside from that, they’ve done great. Any problems since Rio have just been the result of losing touch with the leaders and sailing in different wind.
So that’s 3 or 4 significant mistakes over two weeks of racing. Which would actually be a pretty awesomely good performance under other circumstances. But in this fleet, with the experience and level of competition they’re up against, it was enough to put them in last place.
The other factor, I suspect (and this may be part of Libby’s problem, too), is the crew’s general level of inexperience at racing this long at a stretch. Nobody does anything complicated and demanding really well on their first try. It just doesn’t happen. So for the large fraction of the SCA crew for whom the Fastnet and the Round Britain races were previously their longest races ever, this leg was always going to represent a huge learning curve. I don’t think it was an accident that they were kicking ass 3-4 days into the race, then had their performance fall off after that. In hindsight, anything else would have been surprising.
Finally, as someone who specifically questioned Sam’s qualifications earlier in the leg at the specific task of leading a big crew in a long race, I’ll just say that I think now I was wrong to focus on that as a factor. I mean, I still think it’s an interesting part of the picture. But in terms of explaining the boat’s performance I think it’s less important than the two things mentioned above.
The people they’re sailing against are the best offshore racing sailors in the world. They are professional athletes at the top of their game, people who have trained for decades to systematically eliminate all possible sources of error while competing in this uniquely challenging event.
The women of Team SCA have done really well, considering. Sailing a boat like the VOR 65 through the conditions they’ve seen, and doing so safely and efficiently, is an incredible accomplishment. I’m sure they’ve learned a lot, and I look forward to seeing how they do on Leg 2.
Apologies to Randall Munroe.
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Tags: vor, volvo ocean race, weareteamsca.
