Volvo Ocean Race, andamento lento
Equipo TelefonicaEricsson RacingGreen Dragon RacingOceanoPuma Ocean RacingTeam Delta LloydTeam RussiaVelaVolvo Ocean Race 16 Dicembre 2008 Zerogradinord 0
[singlepic=1110,250,170,,left]Volvo Ocean Race – Cochin – Come lasciavano presagire le previsioni meteo, la notte appena trascorsa è stata una delle più combattute nella storia recente della Volvo Ocean Race. Soffiando da est-nordest tra gli otto e gli undici nodi, il vento ha obbligato tutti gli equipaggi in gara ad un serrato duello di virate. Basta osservare sul Race Tracker le rotte seguite dai VOR 70 per capire quanto estenuante debba essere stata la lotta per il vertice, una lotta condizionata anche dalla forte corrente, che ha respinto con decisione l’avanzata di Telefonica Blue, tornato al comando della regata.
Mentre gli equipaggi si lasciano alle spalle lo Sri Lanka, stanchi per aver spostato più volte da sopra a sottovento tutta l’attrezzatura presente a bordo, lo scafo di Bouwe Bekking, preceduto verso sud solo da Green Dragon, ha un vantaggio di 10 miglia su Il Mostro e Telefonica Black, posizionati poco sopravento. A ridosso dei primi tre si trova Ericsson 4 che, per volere del navigatore Jules Slater, si è tenuto più a nord di tutti.
Anche se al momento pare essere favorevole, il sud potrebbe rivelarsi ben presto depositario di una triste realtà. Il vento, infatti, va diminuendo man mano che, abbassandosi in latitudine, ci si avvicina all’Equatore. A nord, invece, anche se più nervosa, la situazione meteo si mantiene più viva e la presenza di brezze fresche è quasi assicurata. Staremo a vedere quali saranno le scelte dei navigatori: la tappa, fondamentalmente, è appena iniziata e i distacchi sono tali da rendere inutili tutti i ragionamenti a lungo termine
Leg 3, day 3, 10.00 GMT, rankings
1 – Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) DTF 1345 nm
2 – Puma Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +10 nm
3 – Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) +10 nm
4 – Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +12 nm
5 – Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +14 nm
6 – Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE) +25 nm
7 – Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) +55 nm
8 – Team Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) +66 nm
Per seguire la regata sul Race Tracker clicca qui.
Per visitare la video gallery clicca qui.
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Una notte di passione. Video courtesy Volvo Ocean Race.
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I colori e i rumori di Cochin. Video courtesy Volvo Ocean Race.
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Team Delta Lloyd lascia Cochin. Video courtesy Volvo Ocean Race.
NORMAL SERVICE RESUMED
[Volvo Ocean Race Press Release] It’s been 24 hours of an Escherian staircase – or for Ken Read, a spoon-free treadmill. A desperately tough day for the fleet, as they have battled a strong current that has swept them one metre back for every two they have sailed forwards. And it’s only been in the last few hours that Neptune has finally relented, with Bouwe Bekking and Telefonica Blue slipping the leash first and fastest, breaking through into the lead at 04.00 Zulu this morning, with her sistership and Puma right on their heels.
By 10.00 Zulu, the fleet had lined up north to south, with Telefonica Blue getting her nose out into the front row all on her own. She is positioned slightly to the south of the middle of the pack lined up behind her, with Ericsson 4 on the northern flank, then Puma, Telefonica Black directly in her sistership’s wake, with Green Dragon on the southern outpost – there are 25 miles from north to south across this group.
Behind them, Ericsson 3 are 15 miles behind Puma and sailing in her wake, with Delta Lloyd due west of and another 40 miles behind Ericsson 3. Team Russia meanwhile is also 40 miles behind and sailing in the track of Ericsson 4. The breeze was 8 to 11 knots of True Wind Speed (TWS in the Data Centre) blowing from a north-northeasterly True Wind Direction (TWD), and finally allowing them to head east towards the scoring gate.
So how did Bekking recover the lead that he relinquished to Torben Grael and Ericsson 4 at the first Sri Lanka waypoint a couple of days ago?
We left the fleet at 10.00 Zulu yesterday morning, all on port tack in a light north-easterly breeze, beating towards the second Sri Lanka waypoint, which was some 50 miles distant to the east – a mere three or four hours sailing, in good conditions. But as you can see from the Race Viewer, between then and now, there was an awful lot of tacking through some pretty horrendously wide angles – these were not good conditions.
Tacking these boats is not a simple matter
The first thing to remember is that tacking is not a simple matter in these boats. It’s a Volvo Open 70, not a Laser. A couple of tonnes of gear have to be moved from one side to the other of the boat every time they tack. And the downstairs half of it is being shifted in a confined space, in temperatures and humidity that would have the Health and Safety Executive in apoplexy.
The second thing is that although the fleet have spread out a little more north to south, the leading pack have more or less retained their relative positions through the last 24 hours, and this seems to have been the key to winning and losing. Ericsson 4 remains the most northerly boat, a preference that Jules Salter, her navigator, expressed 24 hours ago in this clip, and which they’ve stuck with. Meanwhile, Green Dragon and Telefonica Black have remained the most southerly, joined recently by Telefonica Blue, leaving Puma in the middle. We’re still expecting there to be more wind to the north, but… there may well be less current to the south, further away from Sri Lanka.
Normally, when faced with a strong current flowing against you, the plan would be to head for the beach, sailing in the shallow water, where the current flow is weaker. But because of the Sri Lanka waypoints, the pirate exclusion zone, keeping them off the south shore of the island, the fleet can’t get to the beach. So the solution may well be the opposite – to get south, further away from the island, where the current is not being compressed and strengthened by having to flow around the obstruction.
Certainly, if we look at today’s graph for True Wind Speed (TWS in the Data Centre) and Boat Speed (BS) overnight, there hasn’t been any particular shortage of wind. But if we look at the plot of Measured Current Direction (CUR_DIRN) on this graph (apologies that the scale is not that readable), it tells us (you may have to take my word for it) that as they have sailed down the west and along the south coast of Sri Lanka, they have been battling current all the way, as it flows west along the south coast, and then north up the west coast. It’s only recently that it’s started to have a southerly component to it, which is finally giving the boats an opportunity to make some ground to the east.
But check out the same graph for the plot of Measured Current Rate (CUR_RATE), and we can see how it’s been running at two to three knots for the last 36 hours. Only in the last couple of Position Reports has it dropped, particularly for the boats to the south – and I think that’s the clue to the progress up the Leaderboard of Telefonica Blue, Telefonica Black and Green Dragon.
If we look at today’s graph of Leg Position (LEG_POSN) and Distance to Leader (DTL), we can see that the big winners – Telefonica Blue, Telefonica Black and Green Dragon – have made their gains over the last six hours, which is exactly the same time period for which the current has dropped for those three boats.
The current will become less and less relevant
But … we shouldn’t forget the more random element of clouds. Gustav Morin has written a slightly confusing account of Ericsson 3’s encounter with one. And although I’m not entirely sure what happened here, the blast of 20 knots doesn’t appear to have done them any harm at all – charging up the rankings, past Team Russia and almost getting them into contact with the front pack.
So what of the future? Will the south continue to pay? Long-term, I doubt it, and Ian Walker in his latest email is right to be concerned. Bekking and Telefonica Blue are also voting with their feet, taking a turn to the north, just before 10.00 Zulu this morning.
If we check out this morning’s Race Viewer image, once again showing the Predicted Routes (the faint wiggly lines running west to east from the yacht’s current position), the Isochrones (the curved vertical lines) and the weather through to 07.00 tomorrow morning, we can see that the advantage is all to the north.
The routing wants everyone to tack to the north, and you can see the band of stronger wind up there. Now, I happen to know that these calculations are not accounting for the current, as we don’t have files for this. But I think that as they sail further from Sri Lanka, the current will become less and less relevant, and the game will shift – the better breeze is to the north, and anyone who doesn’t start to pay attention to this pretty quickly is going to suffer.
The problem for the boats already positioned to the south is that to get north, they will have to sail a narrower True Wind Angle (TWA), and that’s almost certainly going to be slower – at least in the breeze they have at the moment, and should get through the next 24 hours. So I wouldn’t count out Ericsson 4 just yet…
Leg 3, day 3, 10.00 GMT, rankings
1 – Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) DTF 1345 nm
2 – Puma Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +10 nm
3 – Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) +10 nm
4 – Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +12 nm
5 – Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +14 nm
6 – Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE) +25 nm
7 – Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) +55 nm
8 – Team Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) +66 nm
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