Volvo Ocean Race – Team SCA leads the fleet across the Equator

by Volvo Ocean Race on 28 Apr 2015 All the Volvo Ocean Race fleet have crossed the Equator, with the womens crew of Team SCA, leading the way.

At the latest position reports - 0640hrs UTC on April 28, 2015, the fleet although spread laterally was very close in terms of predicted finish time.

Three boats plotted using the routing function of Predictwind were all forecast to finish within four minutes of each other - with 8 days 15 hours left to sail on Leg 6 - based on one of the current weather feeds.

The official times for crossing the Equator are:
Team SCA 01:43 UTC
Team Brunel 02:12 UTC
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing 02:40 UTC
Mapfre 02:55 UTC
Dongfeng Race Team 02:55 UTC
Team Alvimedica 04:16 UTC

Volvo Ocean Race Control reported the fleet has been spread wide, the position of the boats in the chessboard is ideal for some match racing. The most western and southern boat is Team Alvimedica while on the opposite edge is Team SCA, the most northerly and easterly boats. There are 50 nm of lateral separation between these two.

Within this 50 nm, the other four teams have picked up a pair. In one side, we have Dongfeng Race Team and Mapfre neck and neck, so close that they have crossed to the northern hemisphere at the same time. Is a match race between these two who ended up losing first and second position to Team Brunel who has being slightly faster than them in the past 12 hours, doing 0.4 knots more than the other two.

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing is following the trail of the Dutch team closely, just six miles behind the leaders. The Emiratis have gained 10.8 nm during the night, more miles than anyone else and being the fastest out there. They are in the hunt of the black and yellow boat.

Skipper Ian Walker gave VORC an update earlier on the tactics for the next 3000 nm run to the finish: “There is the potential for a big split in the fleet ahead as the two weather models we rely on fundamentally deal with the weather in a different way. We don’t have to make a call for another 36 hours or so but right now the routes then split by as much as 550 miles East / West! Of course, this may all change and they may agree by the time we have to make a decision. The two options go the opposite way around a high-pressure system and then have a totally different approach to Newport.

'The next few days is boat-speeding along in trade winds hoping the clouds don’t hurt you too much, but the end (last 1500 miles) is going to be quite synoptically messy (what a great expression that is!).'

Leader: TBRU
Wind speed: 14.4 knots
Boat speed SOG (15 mins): 16 knots
Wind direction: 87º - 92º
Lowest boat speed: ALVI (15.3 knots)
Highest boat speed: TBRU, ADOR (16 knots)
Lowest wind speed: SCA (13.3 knots)
Highest wind speed: MAPF (16.6 knots)

Position report list

YACHT	LAT	LON	DATE	DTL	DTLC	avgSOG(3h)	avgSOG(15')	TWS	TWD	COG	DTF	24H RUN
TBRU	0.97745	-38.35072	4/28/2015 6:40	0.0	0.0	15.3	16.7	13.4	74	322	3018.7	405.2
MAPF	0.83971	-38.49575	4/28/2015 6:40	2.4	-0.4	15.1	15.3	15.6	81	324	3021.1	402.4
DFRT	0.78447	-38.57606	4/28/2015 6:40	2.7	-1.1	14.9	15.0	13.1	77	319	3021.3	391.6
ADOR	0.87410	-38.30809	4/28/2015 6:40	6.6	-0.3	15.2	15.7	14.2	79	325	3025.3	408.8
SCA1	0.97844	-38.03068	4/28/2015 6:40	10.2	-3.8	14.0	16.4	13.8	81	325	3028.9	406.0
ALVI	0.48358	-38.54612	4/28/2015 6:40	19.0	-1.9	14.6	14.2	15.3	103	334	3037.6	398.9
VEST	No Data	No Data	4/28/2015 6:42	No Data	No Data	No Data	No Data	No Data	No Data	No Data	No Data	No Data