Volvo Ocean Race - with 400 miles to Newport, the fleet is closing up
by Volvo Ocean Race on 6 May 2015
Onboard Dongfeng Race Team - Volvo Ocean Race 2015 Sam Greenfield / Volvo Ocean Race
2014 - 15 Volvo Ocean Race - The wind started dropping below 10 knots around 1200 UTC today. Subsequently, the fleet gained ground on Dongfeng Race Team every hour, the back-runners being in 1 to 2 more knots of wind.
The biggest gains are for Team SCA who has reduced its distance to the leaders from 80.5 nautical miles at 0700 UTC to 45.2nm at the time of this report.
As predicted, the wind has been slowly shifting 30-40º to the right since this morning. This has helped Team SCA and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing on the windward side to sail less distance compared to the rest of the fleet, to leeward.
In fact, in the last three hours the wind has gone from 150 to 180º for the head of the fleet.
Ian Walker’s crew was the first to gybe at 1800 UTC and Charles Caudrelier’s crew gybed 20 minutes after to cover them.
While writing this report, we could see Team Brunel in third position keeping heading northeast. Will they stay a bit longer on starboard, aiming for some gains on the leaders or will they gybe soon?
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