Volvo Ocean Race- Leg 4 Winner expected in Auckland on Saturday

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com NZL on 23 Feb 2015 Leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race is expected to finish in Auckland on Saturday morning/afternoon.

According to the latest projections from the routing function of Predictwind the lead boats will finish around the middle of the day - being late morning of early to mid-afternoon.

Currently the leaders are passing Vanatu. While they are negotiating an area of light air, the breeze is expected to fill in over the next six hours, by noon UTC, and the fleet should be back fast reaching to New Zealand in winds that are generally well into the teens, with boatspeeds to match.

The optimum course for New Zealand is almost a direct line, and the routing calculation currently shows that the boats will be on a port tack headed for New Zealand, and will not change tacks for the next 1400nm.

Less clear is who is the actual race leader.

The Volvo Ocean Race leaderboard shows Dongfeng leading from Abu Dhabi. But the routing function of Predictwind tells a different story with Abu Dhabi being projected to be first into the Waitemata Harbour, the halfway point of the 40,000nm round the world race.

The reason for the discrepancy is that Dongfeng is further to the east the Abu Dhabi, and while she may have less distance to sail on a Great Circle course, Abu Dhabi has a more favourable run from the weather.

There is considerable discrepancy in the actual finish time from the routing function, and a finish on Sunday is an option produced from some weather feeds. However most of the routing shows a consistency in rout with the boats being advised to move to the west of a direct course to New Zealand.

the boats are making a fast trip to New Zealand without experiencing too much of a slow down in the Doldrums

'What a crazy night! Huge clouds, loads of rain, massive gains and losses, Leg 4 has just been reset. Now we find ourselves sailing in 20 knots more wind than forecast and literally ripping towards Auckland,' reported Ian Walker, skipper of Abu Dhabi.

'As fast as we make plans in the nav station we are having to tear them up and start again. As per normal we have positioned ourselves in the middle in the hope we will cover ourselves in the event of the unexpected.

'I am not sure how this will play out but would favour the guys in the east right now. We have another 250 miles of good wind before another transition in light winds. We have to get this one right as time is running out to get to Auckland.

'It's turning into a fantastic race and with light winds forecast for the end it will surely be a nail biter,' he concluded.

About Predictwind:

Developed by former Olympian, Jon Bilger (470, 1992), www.predictwind.com!PredictWind application was used by the Swiss team Alinghi to win the 2003 and 2007 America's Cups, and has become the leading wind system used by racing and recreational sailors around the world. It is available on a subscription basis and also with a free forecast option.

A mobile app for Android and iPhone is available and www.predictwind.com!PredictWind is available for download

Real time local wind observations have been added as further functionality.

You can check the weather anywhere in the world, and get a five day forecast, plus a variety of other features and functions of www.predictwind.com!PredictWind. The app is synchronised with your PC, so that your latest set of locations are always available without resetting each time you change a device.