Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 Leg 3 position report for 19th January

by Volvo Ocean Race on 19 Jan 2015 Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 Leg 3 position report for 19th January 2015:

The two big moves of the last 12 hours have been made by Dongfeng and Team Alvimedica. Let’s comment on the leaders first.

So far this leg Dongfeng's sailing has been all about being in the right place at the right moment. No mistakes. This is not a stroke of luck but the result of doing things right, performing at their best in all conditions.

And tonight they have been faster than anybody else, sailing on average from 11.8 to 13 knots of speed, at least 2 knots faster than the rest of the fleet. As a result they have been extending their miles on every position report gaining almost 20 miles on the guys behind.

Some 110 nm behind is Team Alvimedica in second place. The Turkish-Americans are the other big players of the night. To understand their play we have to go back to 24 hours ago. If you rewind the tracker you will see that by 0700 UTC on the 18th, they were the farthest south of the big four on their approach to the northern tip of Sumatra.

Two hours after, while MAPFRE, ADOR and TBRU where sailing straight east with a wind direction of 51º, Team Alvimedica in the south got a shift from 21º resulting in gaining 6 nm on Team Brunel. That shift put them back in the game.

After passing the way point of Pulau Weh yesterday afternoon, as the fleet was heading northeast in the entry of the Strait, Team Alvimedica was the furthest east of the chasing pack.

They were the first to tack southeast at 2120 UTC. Being farthest south has put them right on top, in second place. They got a leverage of 7 nm on MAPFRE at 2140 UTC. At the moment that leverage has dropped to less than 2 nm as MAPFRE has been doing 13 knots of speed, 2 more than Alvimedica.

In the coming hours we will see if Team Alvimedica has been able to keep the second place. It's a thin lead but at least they are back in the fight.

Alvimedica Onboard Reporter Amory Ross says: 'It seems at least a little ironic that our first day in the AIS-hectic Malacca Strait is the first day of this leg we break from convention and consciously sever our own AIS dependencies; we’ve split with the fleet and can no longer see the competition on the computer.

'It is as much a belief in the early game plan as it is a bit of good fortune from a beneficial wind shift last night that was too good to pass up.'

Leader: DFRT
Wind Speed: 14-15 knots
Boat speed SOG (15 mins): 9-14 knots
Wind direction: 47º - 75º
Lowest boat speed: SCA (9 knots)
Highest boat speed: DFRT (14 knots)
Lowest wind speed: ALVI (13 knots)
Highest wind speed: SCA (14.5 knots)

Position report at: 19 Jan 06:40 UTC		DTL   (NM)	GAIN/LOSS   (NM)	DTF   (NM)	Speed   (kt)
	Dongfeng Race Team	0	0	1503.4	14
	Team Alvimedica	106.5	8	1609.9	11
	MAPFRE	107.7	3	1611.1	12
	Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing	113.2	4	1616.7	12
	Team Brunel	118.7	4	1622.1	12
	Team SCA	149.8	13	1653.2	10
	Team Vestas Wind	Did Not Start

TODAY'S WEATHER

Synopsis

1) E-NE to E winds will be diminishing further to the E and SE into Straits of Malacca today

a) Wind down to less than 10 kts south of 5N

2) Expect lighter and more thermally related conditions further SE in the Straits of Malacca into Tue

3) BIG NE Monsoon continues in the S China Sea the first half of this week and in fact will get reinforced by 1030mb high pressure building across China into midweek

4) It looks like difficult conditions for Tue with very light winds in the Straits

a) Best chance for breeze likely thermal breezes during the PM

5) Then on Wed any of the fleet getting past Singapore and around the SE tip of Malaysia will begin to see stiff NNE winds developing with speeds well into the teens to near 20 kts.

6) The current satellite shows fairly quiet conditions around the fleet this morning with a few isolated showers about it, but the chance for showers and squalls will be increasing from late today into Tue and Wed

Monday, January 19

1) Lighter winds in Straits of Malacca south of 05N

a) wind mostly from ENE in the teens in the AM north of 05n

b) wind lighter in the PM, especially Malaysian side and south of 05n

2) Stronger NE winds on the southern Sumatra side

Weather Partly cloudy, isolated shower/squall possible

Seas down to 2-4 ft, possible less, from NE