VOR Leg 5

Start of Leg 5

by Mark Chisnell

It was a slow start to Leg 6, as the teams got underway from Itajai, Brazil for their journey back into the northern hemisphere and the finish at Newport, Rhode Island, USA – a ‘mere’ 5,010 miles away.

It was so light at the start time that overall leaders Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing were caught on the wrong side of the line, and had to go back. Fortunately, no one else was going anywhere in a hurry and they were soon back in the mix. After an hour of drifting, the race officials eventually shortened the inshore section of the course, and released the fleet to head for the USA, once they got to the first mark.

As predicted, a light wind start last week with the South Atlantic High centred on roughly the same latitude as Itajai, about two thirds of the way across to Cape Town. It was forecast to provide a light north to north-easterly headwind from the western quadrant of the high (remember in the southern hemisphere the wind rotates anti-clockwise around a high), and so it turned out.

Fortunately, the forecast was for the breeze to freshen, and it did. It took about four hours for the wind to fill in enough to get everyone moving. If we look at Pic 1 from 20:47 on the 19th April – four hours after the start – we can see the fleet departed Itajai after a south-easterly breeze gradually filled in, before swinging into the east as predicted, to let them sail the north-easterly course they needed.

Team Alvimedica and MAPFRE had popped out in front and now led the pack on starboard tack towards Cabo Frio – the headland at the corner just west of Rio de Janeiro. The wind continued to back (rotate anticlockwise) towards a more northerly direction, and the situation was also confused with some ugly clouds around that turned out to favour some boats over others.

If we look at the boat tracks, we can see some serious wobbling in the tracks of the whole fleet. I think that’s a cloud, and it looked at this point that both Dongfeng Race Team and Team SCA were more anxious to get going east on port tack than the others, and so it proved.

After they all cleared the cloud and resumed progress north on starboard, the wind resumed its rotation, and Team SCA were the first onto port tack when the wind hit 063 degrees. Dongfeng followed them right after, while the others kept going; MAPFRE leading the pack going north.

The breeze kept rotating into the north, and it was all the way around to 40 degrees before MAPFRE and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing finally tacked, Team Brunel and Team Alvimedica went most of the way with them. And so the long haul out to sea began, with MAPFRE leading and to windward, and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing on her heels. Just to leeward of them were Team Alvimedica and Team Brunel and then five miles further to the south, we had Dongfeng Race Team and Team SCA. Which would pay, windward or leeward?

Let’s fast forward to 06:40 on the morning of the 20th April in Pic 3. The wind arrows show the northerly breeze coming from the very western edge of the South Atlantic High, and we can see from the gently curving track of the fleet that the wind has continued to rotate towards the north as they sail towards the high.

This continued shift has handed the gain to the windward group, and MAPFRE and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing now have a decent lead. Dinghy racers will recognise the advantages of being on the inside of the wind bend or shift. The northern pack have spent a little bit of their advantage by going faster and driving over the top of Dongfeng Race Team and Team SCA.

In the last 24 hours the wind has continued its slow rotation towards the north, and the fleet has come back together as though they were magnetised. We can see the results in Pic 4, with the latest data available from 09:40 this morning, 21st April.

The slow curve in the fleet’s track is still there, the only boat to try anything different was Team Brunel who took the high road for a while. I’m not sure if this was because they got a little wind shift that no one else did, or they tried a different  sail, but either way it didn’t work and they have dropped back to last.

In contrast, Team SCA and Dongfeng Race Team have stemmed their losses, and actually got back into it. Both results may well demonstrate that there has been a little more wind to the south.
Low Pressure Building

Those with good memories will know that the other prediction that the forecast made in last week’s preview, was for a small low pressure to form off Itajai on Monday/Tuesday night.