Splits breaks and gains through Doldrums in Volvo Ocean Race

by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com on 29 Apr 2015 After being closely bunched since the race start in Itajai, Brazil, the Volvo Ocean Race fleet has broken up and then regrouped three hours later as they pass through the Doldrums.

At the previous report at 1840UTC on April 28, 2014 the fleet had split into two groups, with Dongfeng leading a more inshore group comprising Mapfre and Alvimedica. But three hours later at 2140hrs on April 28, the usual game of sailing with the herd appeared to be restarting as the two leaders Team Brunel and Dongfeng moved closer together laterally.

The groupings still remained in a fuzzy way. Out to sea Abu Dhabi and Team Brunel led the second group with Team SCA dropping slightly astern. While Brunel moved closer to Dongfeng, with Abu Dhabi electing to hang out into the Atlantic.

On the race leaderboard, Team Brunel is shown as leading the easern group with Abu Dhabi now only 2.1nm back having gained 5nm in three hours and Team SCA 13nm having also gained 5nm on the the leader.

Of the inshore group, Dongfeng is now ranked as equal with Team Brunel having pulled 5.3nm out of Team Brunel in terms of distance to the finish (Great Circle) with now Mapfre 4.1nm behind the leader having pulled in 4nm in three hours and Team Alvimedica 19nm behind, having reduced their margin by almost 10 miles in three hours.

Surprisingly the Doldrums have not lived up to their reputation with the boats all having made good time, aside from the expected flat spots, however the rapid changes in margins are believed to be caused by the local effect of thunderheads.

The wind and position chart from www.predictwind.com/Predictwind [Sorry, this link had a problem] shows the fleet expected to be reaching in winds of 12kts or so. That speed and direction is affected by thunderheads which were visible from the boats 80nm distant.