Volvo Ocean Race- Now its getting funky
by Volvo Ocean Race on 19 Feb 2015
onboard Team Alvimedica. Mark Towill looks to leeward at Senyavin Island,Pohnpei. The Senyavin Islands make up part of the Caroline Islands in the Western Pacific Ocean - Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 Amory Ross / Team Alvimedica
Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 - It’s Code0 time again as the wind drops and gets funky. Tropical thunderheads and squalls are now common. We could see one team suddenly jolt forward 20 nautical miles as they enjoy a little push from a windy cloud or be pinned to the spot with a shower of windless rain.
Unfortunately for the crews, this also requires them to stay on their toes and be ready for anything. Sudden changes of conditions can catch a sail choice out, resulting in damage if overpowered, or just going slow if under wicked.
With those ever-changing conditions it’s time for some head scratching and open-minded navigation. As much as a team must sail the local condition around them, they must also have a wider big picture game plan too.
A word search on all the blogs and all the watch reports, the most commonly used phrase would be 'get east'. It’s not just the fact that the finish is to the east but the wind pressure has been consistently to the east as well.
And all this effort goes alongside the ultimate goal – to get south to Auckland.
So the plan for the chasing pack right now is to still get east. Team Brunel has managed to get some easterly leverage on Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing by about 32nm. Both Team Alvimedica and Abu Dhabi have just tacked in an effort to get east. A pretty painful one too, as they are now pointing 90º away from the leader’s line. Let’s see if the Dutch team tacks as well to protect their easterly leverage.
The chasing pack of MAPFRE, Team SCA and Dongfeng had already worked east when the wind clocked right yesterday. Unfortunately as they were on the outside of that shift, they all lost miles to the inside pack.
Today’s Weather
1) Weak trough near 7N, extends W-SW and SW into lower pressure near 2-3n/147-148e
2) To the S and E of this trough, the boats will have to contend with S-SE to SE flow tonight, which turns more left into E nearing Equator
a) Improving wind direction, but wind speeds will be diminishing too
3) There will be a favorable E to NE wind, near and south of Equator, but again, wind speeds on lighter side thru Sat a) it will be slow going with wind speeds 10 kts or less at times
4) As fleet gets more S, closer to trough, which will be extending W-NW toward Solomon Islands, there will be a N to NW and W-NW breeze during Sun
a) max wind to 10-15 kts, which will help make better boat speeds
In the last video boatfeed, Abu Dhabi’s skipper Ian Walker explained that whoever breaks out of these confusing conditions will extend away quite quickly.
Speaking of which, the area of tricky light air ahead of the fleet extends for about 400nm … plenty of head scratching to go.
Leader: TBRU
Wind speed: 8-11 knots
Boat speed SOG (15 mins): 8-10 knots
Wind direction: 101º - 158º
Lowest boat speed: TBRU (8 knots)
Highest boat speed: ALVI, DFRT (10 knots)
Lowest wind speed: TBRU (8 knots)
Highest wind speed: ALVI, DFRT (11 knots)
Position report list
| YACHT |
LAT |
LON |
DATE |
DTL |
DTLC |
avgSOG(3h) |
avgSOG(15') |
TWS |
TWD |
HDG |
| TBRU |
3.20507 |
161.47998 |
19/02/15 06:40:00 |
0 |
0 |
8.2 |
8 |
8 |
110 |
176 |
| ADOR |
3.34267 |
161.01283 |
19/02/15 06:40:00 |
15.9 |
-2 |
7.3 |
9 |
9 |
155 |
96 |
| ALVI |
3.569 |
160.9075 |
19/02/15 06:40:00 |
30.7 |
-1 |
7.8 |
10 |
11 |
158 |
98 |
| MAPF |
4.163 |
161.22233 |
19/02/15 06:40:00 |
59.5 |
2 |
9 |
9 |
10 |
101 |
168 |
| SCA1 |
4.22717 |
161.24282 |
19/02/15 06:40:00 |
62.8 |
4 |
9.9 |
9 |
10 |
112 |
171 |
| DFRT |
4.27283 |
161.15115 |
19/02/15 06:40:00 |
67 |
3 |
9.5 |
10 |
11 |
111 |
177 |
| VEST |
-16.80497 |
59.57544 |
29/11/14 21:40:00 |
- |
- |
- |
No Data |
No Data |
No Data |
No Data |
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