Contender Worlds – the Washing Machine continues

by Nathan May on 4 Jan 2010 PredictWind.com is forecasting more 'Waterloo Slop' or 'Washing Machine' conditions for the 2010 Contender Australian Championships. More south-easterlies mixed with out going tides should produce the same wind against tide conditions that were experienced during Race One of the Australian Championships.

For Tuesday 5th January, more overcast conditions can be expected with south-easterly winds of 11-21 knots predicted. Both of PredictWind's models are showing a similar trend with higher southeast winds around 18-21 knots forecast for the early hours of Tuesday morning. A shift to SSE can be expected between 0900-1200hrs with winds sitting at around 15-17 knots. From midday onwards sailors can expect the wind to return to the southeast when an 11-15 knot breeze is forecast. Once the tide turns in the afternoon the classic wind against tide conditions should kick in again, however with less wind forecast in the afternoon the conditions are likely to be less severe than the conditions experienced during the first day of competition.

Wednesdays forecast is looking to be a bit of a mixed bag, with more overcast conditions and stronger winds in the early hours of the morning dying out by around 0900hrs. At this stage the forecasts is predicting south-easterly winds of 16-13 knots at 0300hrs decreasing to under 6 knots by 0900hrs. There is a chance of the wind picking up to 11 knots for a brief moment around midday from the southeast, however the average wind strength for the afternoon is likely to be around 8 knots mostly from the southeast with the occasional shift to the east throughout the afternoon.

At this stage the winds look to be extremely light for the start of the 2010 Contender Worlds on Thursday. The current forecast shows the wind peaking at 5 knots for the day with variable wind direction forecast.

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