ABN Amro 1 - the Ocean Greyhound or Rabbit?

by Lizzie Green, Volvo OR Media on 9 Jan 2006 ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) is gaining miles at every position report, causing dark faces on the crews trying to catch them. The unstable wind has caused so many sail changes that the crews are now very tired.

At 1000 GMT this morning, ABN AMRO had 296 nautical miles to sail before crossing longitude 70E, passing the Kerguelen Islands and collecting 3.5 points. The second ice waypoint lies above latitude 42S, between longitude 69E and 77E and they will have to dip briefly across this line.

While the race continues for second place between Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) and ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse), movistar continues to race alone, 179 nautical miles to the north. ING Real Estate Brunel (Grant Wharington) is now on almost the same course as ABN AMRO ONE, but with very little wind and barely making 10 knots.

‘On movistar we feel like a greyhound on the race track, who just can’t get the rabbit,’ wrote skipper Bouwe Bekking early this morning.

The worry for the chasing pack now is whether they will be hit by a secondary low, spinning out from the decaying old front. This could cause havoc for them if they get hit with its 40 knot north or north easterly winds. Pirates of the Caribbean and ABN AMRO TWO are trying desperately to catch back up to the front and cross to south and east of the new low pressure system. These two teams are watching movistar, which is positioned on the north side of the secondary low, to see how they progress before they make the dive south.

LEG TWO DAY 8, 9.1.06, 2200 GMT POSITION REPORT
YACHT Latitude Longitude DTF SMG 24 Hour Run 24 Hour Speed DTL DTLC ETA TLPTS RPTD RACE POS
1 ABN1 41 07.18S 063 31.45E 03897 22.3 507 21.1 00000 +00000 21/01/06 __:__:__ 7.0 22.0 1
2 POTC 39 55.70S 057 59.67E 04159 15.6 386 16.1 00262 -00041 24/01/06 __:__:__ 6.0 11.0 5
3 ABN2 39 44.75S 057 45.73E 04172 15.1 384 16.0 00275 -00039 24/01/06 __:__:__ 5.0 17.0 2
4 MOVI 38 57.86S 055 58.09E 04265 14.3 355 14.8 00368 -00054 25/01/06 __:__:__ 4.0 10.0 6
5 AUS1 42 02.05S 050 20.98E 04475 10.5 214 08.9 00578 -00061 28/01/06 __:__:__ 3.0 8.0 7
6 BRA1 33 57.96S 025 38.06E 05736 00.0 000 00.0 01839 -00122 08/05/06 __:__:__ 2.0 14.5 3
7 ERIC 33 57.56S 025 37.90E 05737 00.0 000 00.0 01840 -00122 27/04/06 __:__:__ 1.0 12.5 4


ABN1 ABN AMRO ONE
ABN2 ABN AMRO TWO
AUS1 ING Real Estate Brunel
BRA1 Brasil 1
ERIC Ericsson Racing Team
MOVI movistar
POTC Pirates of the Caribbean

DTF: Distance to finish, SMG: Speed made good, DTL: distance to leader, DTLC: distance to leader change; the difference between the distance from the boat to the leader taken at the time of the last six hour poll, and the distance from the boat to the leader at the previous poll

TLPTS: total leg points to date inc. scoring gate points if yacht maintains current position

RPTD: Race points to date inc. in-port race points, scoring gate points and leg points the yacht would score if yacht maintains current position.

OVERALL: position in race overall if yacht maintains current position.