Volvo Ocean Race - Ericsson 3 expected to hold lead to Cape Horn

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com on 13 Mar 2009
Ericsson 3, the current race leader is expected to hold her lead approaching Cape Horn.

Latest reports show that Ericsson 3 is losing some of her lead, and it is easy to see why with these latest images, developed by Sail-World from two weather and routing applications www.predictwind.com!PredictWind and www.iexpedition.org!Expedition

The Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties have given way to the Timid Tens as the race leaders are four to five days from the Cape.

However from the north we can see a patch of stronger breeze approaching which will give the fleet the benefit of 30kt winds to push them over the next three or four days.

The trick for Ericsson 3 will be to get across the other lead boats and hook into the stronger wind pattern.

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How to read these images

The boats have four digit codes as follows: ERT3 - Ericsson 3; ERT4 - Ericsson 4; GDRA - Green Dragon; ILMO - PUMA Racing; TELA - Telefonica Blue;

The wind is shown in barbed arrow format. The longer line is the wind direction, if it has one longer barb at right angles to the tail, then the wind strength is 10 kts, if there is a half size barb, further up the shaft then the strength is 15kts, two full size barbs indicate 20kts and so on.

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The images used in this story have been generated by www.iexpedition.org!Expedition which is a tactical and navigation software application which has been developed by veteran Volvo Ocean Race navigator and Whitbread winner, physicist Nick White, initially for his use in the 2001-2 Volvo Ocean Race with Team News Corp and the Stars & Stripes Americas Cup team.

Since then, www.iexpedition.org!Expedition has been continually refined by a core group of world-renowned navigators and two-time America’s Cup winning navigator Peter Isler has consulted closely in the development of the system. Expedition supports more instrument systems, is easier to use and has the most powerful and useful functions for the racing navigator.

Expedition is now has PredictWind integrated into the application as an option for PredictWind subscribers.

The wind data and prognosis used to produce these images also uses software developed by www.predictwind.com!PredictWind, an application developed by Jon Bilger a top NZ youth and Olympic sailor who turned his hand to wind and weather prediction, and helped Alinghi to their outstanding victories in the last two America's Cups.

Now that same technology is available to the weekend sailing and club racers, the cruising fraternity or professional sailors around the world. Select any region in the world of interest to you and www.predictwind.com!PredictWind will monitor the area for you and provide updated predictions on demand.

PredictWind is a subscription system, with a number of options. While some may feel the wind is free, the ability to get a five day detailed wind forecast for an area of interest creates great peace of mind, allowing forward planning and decision making to be made with some certainty. The time and money saved through being able to work with a high degree of confidence, is more than offset by the relatively small cost of the subscription.

But don't take our word for it, get www.predictwind.com!PredictWind now and have a 30 day trial for free, and see for yourself.