Volvo Ocean Race - Looking for the end of the rainbow

by Sail-World.com on 13 Feb 2015 Volvo Ocean Race 2015 - Leg 4 Sanya to Auckland. Hoping for pots of gold at the end of the rainbow… the whole fleet is heading for an imaginary place that is constantly moving. Auckland is their physical destination, but there are lots of imaginary points to race your fellow competitors to between now and there, and they probably have a different point, too.

Trying to race the boats close to you while getting to where you want to go – that’s the biggest challenge faced by the fleet in this fourth leg from China to New Zealand.

160 nautical miles now separate the fleet north to south. The southern fleet has the wind – 15-18 knots from 070º - 080º – and the northern pair has 10-12 knots from slightly further right (109º - 112º). This will probably mean they will slightly close on the fleet to leeward but it will still be 10 days or so before we see a possible compression in the Doldrums.

Losing and gaining on the skeds is now irrelevant. If you can’t see your fellow sailors on the AIS then they are not worth worrying about.

Although having said that, both Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing's skipper Ian Walker and Alvimedica’s navigator Will Oxley have said they expected the northern routing to have paid more by now. The wind didn’t come in as early, however it will still come in from the northeast so they could still get the big gains.

Only 8nm separate the southern pack and after such a long straight-line race they must be spying on each other trying to work out how to go faster.

One thing that is a welcome relief for all the teams is the open ocean. It’s now clean of the debris, rubbish, fishing nets and commercial ships that plagued them for so long on the last leg.

Leader: ADOR
Wind speed: 13-21 knots
Boat speed SOG (15 mins): 15-17 knots
Wind direction: 26º - 346º
Lowest boat speed: SCA (14,6 knots)
Highest boat speed: ADOR, MAPF, DRFT, ALVI (16.4 knots)
Lowest wind speed: TBRU, SCA (13 knots)
Highest wind speed: MAPF (21 knots)

Position report list

YACHT	LAT	LON	DATE	DTL	DTLC	avgSOG(3h)	avgSOG(15')	TWS	TWD	HDG
ADOR	20.13917	131.63483	13/02/15 09:40:00	0	0	16.2	16	18	35	110
MAPF	20.13383	131.48933	13/02/15 09:40:00	5.9	-2	15.5	16	19	32	109
DFRT	20.12483	131.45917	13/02/15 09:40:00	6.8	-1	15.9	16	18	35	109
ALVI	20.1425	131.403	13/02/15 09:40:00	9.9	-4	15.1	15	18	34	103
TBRU	22.79867	132.31667	13/02/15 09:40:00	81.6	-4	16.5	14	15	4	97
SCA1	23.08367	131.92467	13/02/15 09:40:00	109	-8	14.4	17	14	359	110
VEST	-16.80497	59.57544	29/11/14 21:40:00	-	-	-	No Data	No Data	No Data	No Data