Volvo Ocean Race, il mondo a sud delle Fiji
Equipo TelefonicaEricsson RacingGreen Dragon RacingOceanoPuma Ocean RacingVelaVolvo Ocean Race 28 Febbraio 2009 Zerogradinord 0
[singlepic=1863,250,170,,left]Volvo Ocean Race – Oceano Pacifico – Come era previsto, le Fiji hanno spaccato la flotta. A est sono passati i due Ericsson e Green Dragon; in mezzo, sfidando le insidie rappresentate da bassi fondali e banchi di sabbia, Il Mostro e Telefonica Blue. Per questi ultimi, i pericoli sono diventati un ricordo solo alle luci dell’alba, dopo una notte trascorsa a virare in continuazione.
“Passare in mezzo non sembrava la migliore delle opzioni, ma alla fine abbiamo pensato che fosse l’unica strada da seguire se volevamo metterci al riparo da perdite di una certa importanza – ha spiegato il navigatore di Telefonica Blue, Tom Addis, arteficie del ritorno in gara del suo equipaggio, partito da Qingdao con 19 ore di ritardo – Sapevamo che avremmo trovato venti leggeri, che avremmo dovuto manovrare parecchio, che c’erano rischi da correre, ma sapevamo anche che la strada da percorrere era di gran lunga minore”.
Una scommessa della quale Telefonica Blue ha diviso i rischi con Il Mostro, infilatosi nella strettoia da leader e uscito nella stessa posizione. Separato lateralmente da Ericsson 4 di 100 di miglia, l’equipaggio di Ken Read è a 1088 miglia dalla punta nordest della Nuova Zelanda.
Gli altri, come detto, sono passati a est delle Fiji. Scelta scontata per Green Dragon, per il quale l’opzione è stata diretta conseguenza della rotta seguita nel corso della passata settimana, meno per Ericsson 3 ed Ericsson 4.
Decisioni tattiche a parte, a meno di cambiamenti generati dal mutare delle condizioni meteo, Puma conduce e il suo margine di vantaggio è di 16 miglia su Ericsson 4 e di 26 su Telefonica Blue, incalzato da Ericsson 3 e da Green Dragon. Le cose, a vedere le medie, potrebbero cambiare in tempi piuttosto rapidi. Ericsson 3, infatti, è di gran lunga il più veloce, mentre Telefonica Blue il più lento: tra i due la differenza è di quasi 5 nodi.
Secondo i meteorologi, i prossimi gironi saranno molto difficili dal punto di vista tattico. I venti si manterranno leggeri e la navigazione, per chi si troverà più a ovest, risulterà complicata dagli angoli meno favorevoli. L’obiettivo primario è sempre quello rappresentato dallo scoring gate posto a 36 gradi di latitudine sud. Quando i VOR 70 si avvicineranno alla linea virtuale un’alta pressione è prevista a est della Nuova Zelanda, mentre una bassa andrà formandosi sulla Nuova Caledonia. Questo genererà venti freschi, ma le cose potrebbero cambiare repentinamente, se la brezza, come sembra, tenderà a ruotare e a provenire da sud.
Leg 5, day 14, 13.00 GMT, rankings
1. Puma Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) DTF 8.171 nm
2. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +16 nm
3. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +26 nm
4. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +36 nm
5. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +55 nm
Team Delta Lloyd NED/IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) DNS
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) DNS
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS
THE PACK SPLITS
[Volvo Ocean Race Press Release] The two islands of Fiji have split the pack of five as they race in leg five of the Volvo Ocean Race towards Rio de Janeiro.
Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking) and Puma (Ken Read) opted to dodge reefs and atolls and sail between the two Polynesian islands, while the rest of the fleet went to the east. Luckily, for Puma and Telefónica Blue, the job was completed during daylight hours, which made avoiding uncharted hazards less of a problem, and gave the two crews the chance to plan their next family holidays to these exotic islands. However, it did involve constant tacking and stacking, almost hourly, which was time consuming and costly.
“Going through the middle did not look ideal by any means, but it was the only option we could see that didn’t involve realising a certain major loss,” said Tom Addis, Telefónica Blue’s navigator earlier this morning. “Lighter breeze, breeze blowing up the narrow channels, rather than across, and the increased amount of manoeuvring through the reefs were all downsides, but there was a glimmer of hope in the form of reduced distance to sail,” he explained.
The glimmer was made even brighter when Puma decided to join Telefónica Blue on their island-hopping spree, which made the team on the blue boat less vulnerable about being out on an edge on their own.
The teams now wait anxiously to see the outcome of their decision, measured against the progress of rest of the fleet. Puma has a lateral separation of precisely 100 nm from Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael) in the east, and is 1088 from the northeast tip of New Zealand.
Ericsson 3 (Magus Olsson) and Ericsson 4 finally decided on the eastern option, along with Green Dragon (Ian Walker) who had committed to the east a week out.
Today at 13.00 GMT, Puma leads from Ericsson 4, 16 nm behind. Telefónica Blue is in third place with Ericsson 3 just 10 miles astern on the distance to leader board. Average boatspeed for the last three hours puts Ericsson 3 at the top of the chart with 15.8 knots, while Telefónica Blue is only able to achieve 11. Even her nearest rival, Puma, is able to average 13.5 knots, while the Dragons are trucking along at around 14.3.
Matthew Sanders, meteorologist for the race, looks at the weather around Fiji and gives a long-range forecast: “The fleet is provided with weather models four times per day, but, lately, few model cycles have shown the same solution and this is what caused the major quandary of whether to go east or west of Fiji,” he says.
Sanders explains that one solution argued for a path west of Fiji into a lane of fresh northerly wind from Vanuatu to the scoring gate, caused by low pressure strengthening near New Zealand. The other predominant solution was to head east into lighter but possibly steadier easterlies. The pack is now split with three boats to the east and two to the west.
“Going forward,” says Sanders, “Everyone will continue to face inconsistent wind conditions despite their route around Fiji.” He predicts several days of slow headway, which means that the favourable winds associated with the strong low pressure, which passes near New Zealand, are likely pass south of everyone. Instead, several days of wind near 10 knots or less is expected. Occasionally, the wind speeds may build to the mid teens, but a prolonged period of stronger wind is not anticipated.
Sanders also says that those further east will tend to sail closer to the wind, but wider wind angles are expected for those further west. The longer-term forecast provides the feet with an opportunity to encounter stronger winds as they approach the scoring gate at 36 degrees south. A centre of high pressure is forecast to track east of New Zealand, while low pressure forms southeast of New Caledonia. This generates fresh wind as the fleet approaches the scoring gate, but the situation could also provide some challenges since the breeze could veer for a time directly into the path of the fleet.
Leg 5, day 14, 13.00 GMT, rankings
1. Puma Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) DTF 8.171 nm
2. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +16 nm
3. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +26 nm
4. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +36 nm
5. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +55 nm
Team Delta Lloyd NED/IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) DNS
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) DNS
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS
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