Volvo Ocean Race - Intense first hours out of Auckland

by Volvo Ocean Race on 18 Mar 2015 Volvo Ocean Race - 11 hours after leaving the City of Sails, the fleet is grouped within ten nautical miles. The first four boats, Team Alvimedica, Dongfeng Race Team, Team Brunel and MAPFRE are in less than 2nm from each other.

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These first hours into leg five have been intense with coastal sailing conditions and a lot of gybes, roughly counting about 15 gybes in 10-12 knots of breeze in the Hauraki Gulf, approaching Cape Colville north of the Coromandel Peninsula.

The fleet rounded the cape at around 0130 UTC. Dongfeng Race Team was leading and Abu Dhabi Ocean Race passed it placed at the back of the fleet. Ian Walker confirmed earlier that 'after a good start and being in second' they found themselves at the back of the fleet.

'We have been fighting poor performance numbers all day. Initially we found weed on the prop leg, which we cleared. Next we had to clear the rudders and finally we have had to do a full stop to clear weed off the keel. Finally we seem to be sailing at our targets but already have over a five mile deficit to catch up. Far from ideal but at least we know why,' said Abu Dhabi’s skipper.

The Emiratis are trying to catch up with the leading four, 6nm to the east. In a straight line, Team SCA is another 6nm northwest of Ian’s crew. The magenta boat is the one taking a more offshore route compared to the other competitors.

Liz Wardley on Team SCA also reported weed on the rudder that slowed them down: 'We have had everything between five to 16 knots, it’s been really gusty and shifty with many tactical options and changed positions in the fleet. We saw quite a lot of current. At one point we got weed on the rudder that slowed us down but now we start to get good numbers again.'

The fleet is currently heading towards East Cape across the Bay of Plenty in less than 10 knots of breeze, while the boats sail into their first night at sea.

'After passing East Cape, it will be full on,' says Abu Dhabi’s Onboard Reporter Matt Knighton.

The Southern Ocean leg has started.

Today's weather
1) Intense (945mb) low centered at 46s/ 170w at 6utc Wed( 7pm NZL time) .
2) This is about 300 miles SE of Chatham Islands and tracking now ESE
3) It will continue to track E-ESE over the next few days at a slightly faster speed and slowly weakening.
4) The fleet will get into the outer circulation of this storm and into increasing SSW winds for a time on Thursday when they get E of the Dateline.
5) The goal in the short term will be to try and stay with the low as long as possible in the SW-S wind as it continues eastward but not get into the gales.
6) High pressure now SSW of South Island NZL will be tracking eastward and also expanding northward toward the weekend.
7) This will result in winds backing into the SE-ESE and diminishing further to the W.
a) Will be important to get E as much as possible to avoid getting caught by this wind.
b) The goal long term will be not to get caught by the light air from this high.
8) Large ocean swells increasing to 10-15+ ft will hamper the boats E of the dateline the next few days then will diminish.

Leader: TBRU
Wind Speed: 7 – 9 knots
Boat speed SOG (15 mins): 8 – 11 knots
Wind direction: 243º - 254º
Lowest boat speed: ALVI (10,4 knots)
Highest boat speed: SCA (12,1 knots)
Lowest wind speed: TBRU, DFRT, ALVI, ADOR (7 knots)
Highest wind speed: SCA (9 knots)

Position report list

YACHT	LAT	LON	DATE	DTL	DTLC	avgSOG(3h)	avgSOG(15')	TWS	TWD	HDG
TBRU	-36.7015	176.6262	18/03/15 06:40:00	0	2	11.7	8	7	245	128
MAPF	-36.70683	176.6193	18/03/15 06:40:00	0.1	2	11.6	9	8	243	123
DFRT	-36.70517	176.6152	18/03/15 06:40:00	0.3	0	10.8	9	7	245	121
ALVI	-36.71983	176.5867	18/03/15 06:40:00	1.1	-1	10.4	8	7	246	124
ADOR	-36.717	176.5408	18/03/15 06:40:00	3.1	3	11.7	8	7	254	130
SCA1	-36.6535	176.5098	18/03/15 06:40:00	6.3	3	12.1	11	9	250	130
VEST	-16.80497	59.57544	29/11/14 21:40:00	-	-	-	No Data	No Data	No Data	No Data