VOR: Rio In-Port Race Preview

The fleet ahead of the 'Light In-Port Race' in Rio. Image copyright Dave Kneale/Volvo Ocean Race.

by Mark Chisnell

Today's Light In-Port Race promises action, with seven Volvo Open 70s racing around a very compressed race track set in Guanabara Bay, right off the downtown area of Rio de Janeiro. Even in the lightest of breezes, the two-lap, windward-leeward format with the mid-course gate has provided some great racing in Alicante, Singapore and Qingdao - and there's no reason to think that it will be any different today.

WEATHER

Race Forecaster, Jennifer Lilly's analysis of the weather describes a straight-forward situation, with a high pressure system building to the south. Rio de Janeiro is sitting in the easterly wind flowing around the top of the high, at 12 o'clock relative to the centre. But we can expect that gradient easterly to be modified by the heating of the land during the day.

The morning sky was clear over Rio, so there's no shortage of warmth to get a thermal breeze going. And by start time, we should have the south-easterly sea breeze starting to fill across the Bay. The hotter and sunnier it is, the more southerly we can expect the breeze to be, and the hope is that we will see the wind speeds in the low to mid-teens. As the day goes on, the wind will slowly ease back towards the east, and drop - but we should be all done before it gets much under ten knots.

A south-easterly wind direction is going to be blowing across an awful lot of pretty rugged land, including the fabled Sugar Loaf, before it gets to the race course. So we can expect to see a similar pattern to yesterday's practice race, with a lot of shifts and changes in wind speed and direction. All of which should make for an entertaining afternoon for the spectators, and a rather stressful one for the racers.

TIDE

Today's race track is compressed between two north-south running shorelines, with Niteroi to the east, and the city of Rio to the west. The tide runs in and out of the bay, north to south, and with high water just before the planned time of the first start, we will be sailing with an ebbing, south-going tide all afternoon.

The current will be flowing pretty strongly - Torben Grael told us in yesterday's audio interview that the early explorers thought that they had found the mouth of a big river, rather than a bay. In the main channel in the middle of the course, I think we can expect that flow to be a pretty straight-forward north-to-south, but the closer they get to the edges the more complicated it will be.

On both sides of the race course a headland projects outwards at the northern end, narrowing the gap between the shores, with a shallow section to the south of it. This set-up will likely vary the general north-south current with a back eddy and weaker flow over the shallows. Any advantage from that will come on the downwind legs when they are sailing against the current, but whether anyone can actually use it effectively is another matter entirely, as tactics will be tightly constrained by the race course.

TACTICS

At the risk of sounding like a stuck record - and a cover version of one that was recorded yesterday at that - we already know that tacking and gybing these boats is very expensive. The fastest way round the course has usually been the one that requires the least number of tacks and gybes - and that won't be any different today.

Once again, it will put a big premium on the start - getting away fast, with clear wind and the ability to be able to continue all the way to the layline for the gate will be vital. But we've seen before how quickly the picture can change on these boats, with their ability to accelerate in the puffs, and the fast changing sailing angles when they do - so a great start doesn't guarantee a win.

Nor does the intimate local knowledge of Grael, Signorini and Carabelli on Ericsson 4, and Ferreira on Delta Lloyd - the format, the boats and the randomness of the breeze and tide swirling around the tight confines of the bay will negate much of their advantage. I think it's going to be a really open day's racing, and the winners will be the ones that turn up ready to rock and roll from the first gun. No easy task just a week after the end of their epic six week odyssey to get here. Today we may well see who's up for the rest of this race, and who isn't.

UPDATES

There's been a substitution to the crew list published yesterday. On PUMA's il mostro, Jerry Kirby stands in for Michi Muller.

Four scoring points await the winner of the 'Light In-Port Race' series today. Two races are scheduled for this afternoon, beginning at 13:00 local time (16:00 GMT).

Royalty is visiting the race - HRH the Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden will sail on board Ericsson 4.

Volvo Ocean Race