Volvo Ocean Race- Leg 4 Finish - Auckland - Live Video and Updates

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com on 28 Feb 2015 Catch the live coverage of the Leg 4 Finish in Auckland.

Catch the action live, from the Finish in Auckland.

4.00pm: The expected time of arrival in Auckland is indeterminate at present due to the fact that the boats are facing conflicting breezes as they enter the Hauraki Gulf and come within sight of the Sky Tower at the finish line.

The real-time observations facility of Predictwind shows the boats sailing in a light sea breeze of 5kts, while in Auckland the land breeze of 11kts is blowing.

The boats have not yet rounded Kawau Island and at 1600hrs local time are between Little Barrier and Leigh. The swing to the offshore breeze normally occurs in Auckland in the late afternoon in the summer if the sea breeze has not prevailed.

The concern for the racers is that at Tiritiri Island at the entrance to the Inner hauraki Gulf, the seabreeze is still blowing and the land breeze has not hit that point yet.

All told the lead boats would seem to be in for a finish on dark probably about 8.00pm local time (our guess).

For those who have Predictwind (yes, there is a free version that can be downloaded from www.predictwind.com or downloaded as a mobile app for iPhone and Android) the Observations feature will show the winds as the fleet move down the coast. Actual readings at 14.10pm had light SE winds along the coast - which are headwinds, but according to Virtualy Eye the wind information off the boats is double what the forecasts are showing.

Actual wind observations show that the wind has swung to the SW in Auckland an on the West Coast. This will put the boats onto starboard tack and they will have to beat to Auckland. The wind change explains why the boats have moved inshore setting up for the change, which is usually preceded by a significant calm period.

You can check the expected arrival time on the video.

The current last boat, Team SCA is predicted to finish six hours after the leaders.

At the earlier sked (1540UTC) the leader was off Cape Brett, however light winds slowed the leaders, while the winds will increase for a time, they were forecasted to drop to 2-3kts for the latter stages. The breezes are all sea breezes and can easily freshen locally and along the coast if the weather is hot. This finish time is variable and will change dramatically if winds on the coast are stronger than predicted and better progress is made.

This report was updated at 1600hrs at 14100hrs on February 28 NZT