Volvo Ocean Race - Battling to reduce the leverage
by Volvo Ocean Race on 29 Apr 2015
Onboard Team SCA – Annie Lush in full power at the grinder - Volvo Ocean Race 2015 Corinna Halloran / Team SCA
2014 - 15 Volvo Ocean Race - SCA have been working their way back into the centre of the pack all day, sacrificing around 4 nm on the leader to reduce the leverage the fleet had on them.
They're still 30nm east of Dongfeng Race Team, and Team Alvimedica is 30nm south of Team Brunel. This is still a tight pack considering there is till 2900 nm to go before the finish in Newport.
Seaweed has been the main feature of the last 24 hours, with huge clumps drifting around the boats are finding it hard to avoid getting it caught on the foils, causing them to stop and reverse to get it off or if you are Abu Dhabi rolling the boat over onto its side to clear the windward rudder!
In summary, it's still a drag race as they head at around 16-18kts just west of the orthodromic line with 14-16kts of wind.
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