Volvo Ocean Race - Fleet sets up for the high-pressure system
by Volvo Ocean Race on 20 Mar 2015
Onboard Dongfeng Race Team - Kevin Escoffier cleaning halyards after a sail change - Leg five to Itajai - Volvo Ocean Race 2015 Yann Riou / Dongfeng Race Team
Volvo Ocean Race - As forecast, the wind has started to drop in the last 12 hours and the breeze is now between 15 and 20 knots blowing from the southwest. Average boat speeds are now in the 11-12kt range.
Being the boat farthest north, Team Alvimedica has been grabbing the extra knots of breeze they need to keep leading the way to the east, extending their lead in the last 12 hours.
So now that the teams are not anymore chasing the tail of ex-Cyclone Pam, the strategy ahead consists of dealing with the high-pressure system located southeast of New Zealand that could potentially catch them and reduce their breeze. One of the options is to tack south were they will find stronger breeze.
MAPFRE’s Iker Martínez mentioned this an option in a note he sent earlier.
'We have wind from 160-150º and it is supposed to shift to 120º, so we can start tacking and gain south. Let’s see who gets the shift first and how we do with this situation.'
In terms of weather, Matt Knighton on Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing describes the new conditions.
'The wind has died to 20 knots and downwind that means we can do between 10-15 knots of boatspeed. The sea state has decreased dramatically and is making the ride relatively comfortable – there aren’t big waves crashing over the deck like yesterday. Still, at night the temperatures are dropping further and you can feel it, we’ve all got layers on and the Gore-tex socks just started to make an appearance.'
Ice limit changes on March 20:
Leg five Sailing Instructions Amendment seven has been posted and communicated to the boats, with the following changes to ice limits one to 11. Ice limits 12 to 24 have NOT been changed.
55° 00.000'S 150° 00.000'W
55° 00.000'S 145° 00.000'W
55° 00.000'S 140° 00.000'W
54° 30.000'S 135° 00.000'W
54° 0 0.000'S 130° 00.000'W
53 ° 0 0.000'S 125° 00.000'W
51 ° 00.000'S 120° 00.000'W
51 ° 00.000'S 115o 00.000’W
53° 00.000'S 110o 00.000’W
54° 30.000'S 105o 00.000’W
57° 15.000'S 100o 00.000’W
Leader: ALVI
Wind speed: 17 – 23 knots
Boat speed SOG (15 mins): 10 - 12 knots
Wind direction: 142º - 162º
Lowest boat speed: ALVI (10.3 knots)
Highest boat speed: ADOR (11.5 knots)
Lowest wind speed: DFRT (17 knots)
Highest wind speed: ALVI (23 knots)
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