Team SCA takes coastal route to pick up big lead in Volvo Ocean Race

by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com on 8 Jun 2015 The inshore and offshore groups have closed together on Leg 8 of the Volvo Ocean Race.

At the 0944UTC sked on June 8, 2015, the girls crew aboard Team SCA had earned a lead of over 5nm, based on the time to reach a point just into the Bay of Biscay.

They start the crossing of the notorious stretch of water in another 20 hours, at around 0500hrs UTC on June 9, after crawling up the Spanish coast in light to moderate breezes.

Of the inshore group, Team SCA have easily fared the best and were sailing at speeds of 11kts in 13kts of breeze on the starboard tack paralleling the coast-line. Her recommended course is to sail even closer to the Spanish coast, all the way to Cape Finisterre and beyond and out into the Bay of Biscay.

The seven boat fleet is still expected to face very strong winds in the Bay of Biscay with winds averaging 25 to 28kts at the entrance to Biscay. That breeze is expected to contain gusts about 30% above the average with winds in excess of 40kts expected.



A point at the entrance to Bay of Biscay has winds of 30kts gusting 42kts from the NE at the time that Team SCA is projected to pass though. Seven ft seas are expected on top of the regular ocean swell.

Further into the Bay as the boats near Lorient the winds will moderate a little - gusting below 30kts. However the wave height stays the same - increasing slightly.

Sea conditions are also expected to be very unpleasant as the strong winds and swells traverse a piece of water where the depths decrease from 3000metres to around 150 metres in the space of a few miles. Currently, Team SCA is sailing up the edge of the continental shelf.

Behind Team SCA it is measured chaos with the other two boats who were in the inshore group losing out heavily, and the offshore group still led by the Spanish entry, Mapfre keeping in touch with each other via constant watch on AIS.



Team Vestas Wind should have been able to hold Team SCA, and with Vestas sporting newer sails than the rest of the fleet, most competitors were expecting the resurrected entry to have a speed advantage over the rest of the fleet who are using sails with another 20,000nm on the clock.

Instead, she has joined the AIS Herd and is with the offshore group.

Dongfeng has not been able to re-establish contact and trails the Team SCA by 19nm.

As Mark Chisnell mentioned in his Leg 8 Preview for B&G, this is expected to be a race of two halves. The race is expected to restart when the fleet enters the Bay of Biscay, hits the strong headwinds, and the skippers have to start making decisions whether to proceed at full power and risk damage to the boat, or take a more conservative approach and concede a place or two, at worst.


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