Volvo Ocean Race - Day 3, a split in the fleet?
by Sail-World.com on 21 May 2015
Team Brunel - Volvo Ocean Race 2015 Stefan Coppers / Team Brunel
As Day three of Leg 7 draws in, Team Brunel will be pleased with the day but not complacent. At 0700 UTC this morning the Dutch were leading the fleet, almost all in a line heading east. Over the following hours they were able to extend from 2.5 to 5.5 nautical miles, sailing a shorter distance around a shift and almost doubling their lead.
By midday the wind had backed left and dropped and the fleet was in a VMG (Velocity Made Good) downwind mode trying to make the most out of any wind they could find.
Four to five gybes allowed for plenty of position changing as Team Brunel and MAPFRE stayed south of the others. All ended up splitting to the north and by this time Bouwe Bekking’s crew had extended their lead to a comfortable 25nm.
The wind has been everywhere from two to 12 knots from all directions on the compass. MAPFRE has managed to avoid a large part of the confused wind with a stable track just 5nm south of where Dongfeng Race Team, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, Team SCA and Team Alvimedica sailed through the very center of the confused wind. Ian Walker’ and Charlie Enright’s crews were able to come out of it with a good lead over Dongfeng and SCA.
As the teams escape this system, they head to the southern most limit of the ice exclusion zone. As with the Southern Ocean were south was the shortest distance, this time north is the shortcut around the planet. Then they will have to choose how to navigate through the Azores High.
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