Volvo Ocean Race, zona di transizione
Equipo TelefonicaEricsson RacingGreen Dragon RacingOceanoPuma Ocean RacingTeam Delta LloydTeam RussiaVelaVolvo Ocean Race 22 Novembre 2008 Zerogradinord 0
[singlepic=861,250,170,,left]Volvo Ocean Race – Oceano Indiano – Notte di strambate alla Volvo Ocean Race. Dopo un lungo bordo mure a sinistra, iniziato negli attimi immediatamente successivi al superamento dello scoring gate di Mauritius, i VOR 70 hanno cambiato rotta uno alla volta e adesso, spinti da un brezza da est-sudest di media intensità, si trovano a puntare quasi direttamente l’arrivo di Cochin, lontano oltre duemiladuecento miglia.
Il primo a cambiae mura è stato Ericsson 4 che, a centro gruppo, ha anticipato di circa un’ora i compagni di squadra di Ericsson 3, sopravanzandoli di una decina di miglia in classifica generele. Alla strambata dell’equipaggio di Anders Lewander sono seguite quelle di Green Dragon, salito al terzo posto della graduatoria, e di Telefonica Blue e Puma.
Già da queste ore i navigatori stanno facendo i conti con il mutare della condizione meteo. L’intensità del vento è in netta diminuzione e la sua direzione varia in senso anti orario. Un dato riscontrabile anche osservando il Race Tracker. Prima della strambata si nota infatti che tutti gli equipaggi hanno seguito la rotazione del vento in attesa del momento opportuno per fare prua verso nord.
Ora, dicono i meteorologi, i venti da est-sudest andranno intensificandosi nel corso dei prossimi tre-quattro giorni, dando modo alla flotta di percorrere parecchia strada alla volta del traguardo. Ma niente è per sempre. Le calme equatoriali, seppure meno marcate di quelle atlantiche, attendono gli equipaggi all’orizzonte.
Tutto può ancora succedere, quindi. Molto dipenderà da come le barche navigherennao nel corso dei prossimi giorni sfruttando la brezza portante di queste ore. Se gli scafi del team Ericsson confermeranno quanto fatto vedere nel finale della prima tappa, potrebbero mettere tra loro stessi e gli avversari troppa acqua per poter essere ripresi.
Leg 2, day 7, 10.00 GMT, rankings
1 – Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) DTF 2.277 nm
2 – Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE) +12 nm
3 – Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +31 nm
4 – Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +39 nm
5 – Puma Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +44 nm
6 – Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) +79 nm
7 – Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) +85 nm
8 – Team Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) +102 nm
Per seguire la regata sul Race Tracker clicca qui.
Per accedere alla galleria video clicca qui.
[flashvideo filename=video/vor/Puma_221108.flv /]
Video courtesy Volvo Ocean Race.
[flashvideo filename=video/vor/Volvo_leg2_221108.flv /]
Video courtesy Volvo Ocean Race.
THE TRASITION ZONE
[singlepic=860,250,170,,left][Volvo Ocean Race Press Release] The fleet are half-way through the transition zone, into the airlock, and finally in from the cold. The land of milk and honey beckons – the trade winds…
At 10:00 Zulu the fleet were all running downwind in a light to moderate – 10 to 12 knot – southerly True Wind Direction (TWD in the Data Centre), heading north-east on the new starboard gybe, as we’ve been expecting for the past couple of days.
In doing so, they’ve formed up in three ranks, north to south, and with the Bearing to Waypoint (BRG_WPT – i.e. the finish line at Cochin) at around 13 degrees on the compass, that’s what counts on the leaderboard. Yup, with everyone headed north, the Distance to Finish (DTF in the Data Centre), and the Distance to Leader (DTL) have real meaning again. And as the Predicted Tables have been suggesting for a few days, Ericsson 4 have moved through to take the lead from their sistership – the change coming at the 22:00 Zulu Position Report last night.
So Team Ericsson dominate the front rank, furthest north, and leading the overnight formation gybing was Torben Grael and Ericsson 4, who rolled over onto starboard at 03:00 Zulu. Anders Lewander and Ericsson 3 followed at 04:00 Zulu – perhaps encouraged by the Position Report and the realization that Grael was headed the other way.
It was Ian Walker and Green Dragon that led the second rank gybe, going at about 03:30 Zulu. They are lined up with Telefonica Blue and Puma, who gybed more or less together at about 05:30 Zulu (anticipated by navigator Simon Fisher).
Not long after dawn everyone was on starboard
The third rank of Team Russia, Telefonica Black and Delta Lloyd completed their turns soon after, and not long after dawn everyone was on starboard. The east to west leverage had opened up from the pre-gybe figure of a hundred miles, to around a 120 – and that’s going to be increasingly important over the next few days. While there was a little bit of lane shuffling in the middle of the fleet, it was Ericsson 3 (west-most) and Delta Lloyd (east-most) that remained committed to the wings.
And looking at those two boats in today’s graph, we can see how the True Wind Speed (TWS) continued to ease, as the True Wind Direction backed (rotated anti-clockwise) round overnight from the north-west to the south (still got a problem with the y-axis TWD scale, you have to take the negative numbers from 360 to get the actual TWD).
The skippers let the True Wind Angle widen, shifting through the sails from headsails to spinnakers, until they were sailing their fastest angle downwind, and only then started to change course – as you can see on the Race Viewer.
This resulted in the gybe, once they were headed too far west. Matt Gregory, navigator on Delta Lloyd, explained the gear changes in this email, although it carries a mild technical content warning.
Gregory and Delta Lloyd have been chasing the better breeze in the south, and it hung in for a while, allowing them to make gains, as you can see in the graph. But as Race Forecaster, Jennifer Lilly, explains in her latest analysis, it’s now the boats to the west and the south that run the greatest risk of a slowdown from the encroachment of the high pressure.
And you can see Delta Lloyd’s wind speed (the white line in the graph) do the stock market thing, and fall off the edge of a cliff around dawn – there’s no such thing as a free lunch. We will see each rank extend their lead on the group behind, as they sail into the increasing breeze to the north – the squeeze box thing again.
Is this the road to perdition?
So they’re not quite out of the woods, we’re half-way through the transition zone, and there’s still time to get your wetsuit tangled round your foot and land on your nose. The wind will keep backing (rotating anti-clockwise) until it is blowing from the east, all the while getting stronger. By tomorrow the wind should be solid, with its strength in the mid-teens, and continue to increase from there.
Then it’s the fabled land of Shangri-La – with maybe four days of solid easterly trade winds. It’ll be back on the beam with a TWA of 90 or thereabouts – power reaching straight at the finish.
But nothing is forever, and the Doldrums are next, and they are a veritable Lovers Leap, compared to the short bouldering problem that this high pressure ridge has presented.
And now they are just appearing on the horizon – is this the road to perdition?
I’ve set up today’s Deckman for Windows weather routing and run it all the way out for a full seven days (a special treat for those of you wondering about arrival dates). And you can see that by the afternoon of the 29th the wheels are starting to wobble, with a big wall of light air between them and the finish in Cochin, still some 800 miles to the north (and it’s also worth pointing out to any nervous supporters that at this point Somalia will be 1700 miles away, and the fleet are unlikely to get much closer than 1500 miles from that coast).
But that’s seven days away, an eternity in weather forecasting terms. In the meantime, we’re about to check in with who’s fastest on a reach. The last time we saw this condition for any length of time was after Fernando de Noronha on Leg 1 – when Ericsson 4 and Puma powered past Green Dragon to take the lead. But the Telefonica boats were real fast in this stuff too, and if they’re going to come good on that promise, now is the time…
Leg 2, day 7, 10.00 GMT, rankings
1 – Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) DTF 2.277 nm
2 – Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE) +12 nm
3 – Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +31 nm
4 – Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +39 nm
5 – Puma Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +44 nm
6 – Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) +79 nm
7 – Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) +85 nm
8 – Team Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) +102 nm
To follow the race on Race Tracker click here.
To visit the official video gallery click here.
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