Volvo Ocean Race - It’s now a war of boat speed and kit preservation

by Volvo Ocean Race on 10 Jun 2015 Volvo Ocean Race – Yesterday night we saw the two packs trying to cash in their individual gains, still hoping that the route they took was going to pay off.

The answer to that match was that offshore was right, but only marginally. This left a nervous period of head down, pushing hard sailing on starboard tack, before the first boat from the left pack chose to take over and check in.

At 1715 UTC Team SCA made the first move and tacked onto port. Like dominos, the rest of the left-hand fleet followed. With virtual smiles on their wet and tired faces, they re-joined the right-hand pack in good shape, relieved that they were still ahead and in control.

With 180 miles to go for SCA, it’s now a war of boat speed and kit preservation, as they push east in a long line desperately trying to get enough distance to cross ahead when they tack back.

With the wind still forecast to shift right and drop, teams will fight to get some right-hand leverage. It won’t be easy to achieve this.

Some issues have been reported to Race Control in Alicante, Spain, notably Team Brunel’s J2 from yesterday afternoon.. This will become a bigger problem when the wind drops back into the J2 sail range.

Lastly the fleet is reporting a little less wind then forecast. However, sailing up wind in strong winds is never very comfortable – or without risk.

Latest Estimated Time of Arrival – Thursday (very) early morning in Lorient, France.

Today's Weather

Synopsis
1) A large area of high pressure (1034 mbs) lies to the W of Ireland and is ridging E into the North Sea
- the high W of Ireland will redevelop SW while another piece heads E over the North Sea over the next 24 hours
2) Weak frontal boundary lies across south-central France to the far SE Bay of Biscay and then into Spain
3) Will get a weak low to develop over the southern Bay of Biscay tonight and tend to move W
4) Strong NE winds will begin to diminish and clock- this mainly after 1500-1800 UTC today
5) Wind will become much lighter later this evening and clock to the E
6) NE winds around Lorient this evening, around 15-20 kts, will clock and also diminish- flow mainly ENE to E later Wed night
7) Weak low will be over the western Bay of Biscay Thurs
8) High pressure over the North Sea
9) E flow around Lorient morning, will become SE then S and SSW during the afternoon- wind speeds 8-13 kts

Weather
1) Strong high pressure off western Ireland has weakened some
- pressure is now around 1034 mbs
- the high is ridging E into the North Sea
2) Will have a piece of the high redevelop SW and another piece move into the North Sea tonight and Thurs
3) Stalled front across south-central France extends to the far SE Bay of Biscay then into Spain
4) Tight gradient between the big high to the N and the lower pressure of the front/trough, continues to produce strong NE winds- flow of 25-32 kts
5) The wind will slowly diminish today, especially after 1500-1800utc
- the boats furthest S likely to have the wind drop first
6) The wind will also clock
- flow will become much lighter this evening and become E
7) NE flow closer to Lorient will be slower come down, but will also diminish and clock later this evening and overnight
- the breeze will become ENE to E late tonight
- winds speeds 6-12 kts 15-20 kts this evening around Lorient, 6-12 kts and E by daybreak
Partly cloudy to cloudy. A few showers and squalls this afternoon and tonight.Seas NE 10-15 ft, diminishing six to eight foot later today, then less nearing coast.

Leader: Team SCA
Wind speed: 26 knots
Boat speed SOG (15 mins): 11 knots
Wind direction: 042º
Lowest boat speed: MAPF (10.5 knots)
Highest boat speed: DFRT (11.6knots)
Lowest wind speed: VEST (14.3 knots)
Highest wind speed: MAPF (29.2 knots)