5:23 PM Sun 1 Mar 2009 GMT
The Portim?o Global Ocean Race fleet are continuing to keep the racing tight as the four boats stream east 50 miles above the mandatory, Pacific Ocean ice gate at 45?S with an unavoidable area of light wind blocking their route.
In the latest position poll at 0920 GMT (01/03), Felipe Cubillos and Jos? Mu?oz on Desafio Cabo de Hornos hold the lead with Jeremy Salvesen and David Thomson on Team Mowgli in second with the British boat manoeuvring to take over the fleet's southern position on Saturday afternoon from Boris Herrmann and Felix Oehme who trail the double-handed leader by 29 on Beluga Racer. The fleet's only solo sailor, Michel Kleinjans, has dropped in speed slightly having suffered minor gear damage on Open 40, Roaring Forty, but the Belgian single-hander is still keeping pace with the Class 40s and is now 27 miles behind Herrmann and Oehme.
The leading pair of Class 40s, Desafio Cabo de Hornos and Team Mowgli have been in close contact throughout the weekend trading the lead consistently. 'Those Chileans are hot on our heels and were visible right behind us for most of Saturday,' reports the British skipper. 'So much so that we had to speak to Felipe on the phone and ask him to stop following us!' However, Herrmann and Oehme are also becoming a threat: 'Those Germans on Beluga Racer have steadily made their way northwards to join with us,' confirms Salvesen. 'This is now going to be a drag race to the scoring gate some 1,100 miles to our east and then for a further 1,200 miles to the eastern end of the ice gate before tactics will once again come into play before Cape Horn.'
Long before the scoring gate at 130?W, south of French Polynesia, the fleet will encounter a meteorological barrier that may overturn the current leaderboard data. 'We are all going to be squeezed into a narrow corridor not more than 60 miles wide between the ice gate at 45?S and the light wind zones in the high pressure systems passing to our north,' Salvesen explains. Late on Sunday GMT, the fleet will attempt to slip south of the system's windless centre, but will be unable to hook into the more stable, easterly breeze spinning from the lower section of the high pressure, tantalisingly out of reach below the ice gate. 'There will be little room for tactical manoeuvring and it will all come down to constant attention to boat speed and making sure we don't make any mistakes,' he predicts.
Currently holding a 12 mile lead over Team Mowgli on Desafio Cabo de Hornos, Cubillos agrees with Salvesen's warning: 'The lateral separation of the boats is of less than ten miles and what now begins to count is the distance forwards, towards Chile,' he explains. 'All the boats appear to have the same meteorological information and it's telling us not go to the north of latitude 44?. Obviously, it is not possible either to go to the south of latitude 45? below the ice gate.' With the double-handed boats currently spread over 30 miles east-west, the Chileans are extremely happy with progress: 'The deficit is small considering that this leg is 5,700 miles long. The south wind that has accompanied us for 48 hours is going to die and we are going to enter a zone of calm and after that, new wind.'
For Michel Kleinjans, the past two days have produced increasingly demanding conditions for the solo sailor. 'It's been consistently very squally and the only change has been a general shift in wind direction from south to SSW,' he reports. 'The wind has averaged 7-8 knots, sometimes up to 15 knots, then dropping to just 5 knots in quick succession.' The scenario is hard work on Roaring Forty, requiring constant hand steering and trimming with Kleinjans on constant alert. 'It is really tough,' he admits, 'and consequently, the double-handed boats have walked off to the east ahead of me.' Tucking into the slipstream of the double-handed fleet, Roaring Forty is currently averaging seven knots: one knot slower than the Class 40s. The tricky conditions were made worse by damage sustained on Saturday: 'Early in the evening, the block holding the tack of the Code 0 to the outboard end of the bowsprit disintegrated,' explains Kleinjans. With the sail flapping loose attached by the halyard and sheets, he was quick to respond and prevent further damage. 'I got the sail down quite easily and decided to spend the night flying the genoa.' In common with all the skippers, the high pressure system is a focal point on Roaring Forty: 'On Sunday, the centre of a high-pressure system is the biggest concern and we may all come to a grinding halt,' he comments.
A further development over the weekend has been the birthday on Saturday of the Portim?o Global Ocean Race's Assistant to the Race Committee, Alan Green, (known by his VHF call sign 'Portimao One'). Responsible for ensuring that the fleet are fit to race, constantly monitoring progress of the boats during the circumnavigation and liaising with the Maritime Rescue co-Ordination Centres (MRCC) and Search and Rescue (SAR) units around the globe, Alan is an integral part of the event's success and the safety of the competitors. Happy Birthday
Leaderboard - at 09:20 UTC Sunday, 1st March 2009
Double-handed class
1. Desafio Cabo de Hornos - DTL 0.0nm Spd 8.8kts
2. Team Mowgli - DTL 12.5nm Spd 8.4kts
3. Beluga Racer - DTL 29nm SPD 8.8kts
Single-handed fleet
1. Roaring Forty - DTL 0.0nm Spd 7.1kts
www.portimaoglobaloceanrace.com/
by Oliver Dewar
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