19.05.2006
Pushing to the finish
The Volvo Ocean Race is nearing the finish of leg seven from New York to Portsmouth and the leaders, ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), have broken through the 750 nautical mile mark in the fresh south westerly winds that continue to push the fleet towards the finish.
Sanderson’s crew has covered 507 nautical miles during the last 24-hour period and Ericsson (Neal McDonald) is pushing the Dutch boat hard, but sailing fractionally slower. While ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) has 496 miles to the scoring gate at the Lizard, on the south west tip of the UK, the battle for second place is as hot as ever. Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) are holding onto third position from Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) who is 22 miles behind, but Brasil 1 has the edge on speed.
Movistar (Bouwe Bekking) have a big repair job on their hands, as they ripped their mainsail right across, five metres from the top of the mast, during a gybe yesterday.
The weather forecasts are predicting some interesting challenges before this leg comes to an end and it is likely that the breeze will ease as the fleet approaches the finish and therefore slow the leaders briefly and delay their arrival in to Portsmouth. The easing of the breeze will only be temporary and the longer the light air lingers over the leaders, the better the chances are for the trailing teams to make up some ground.
Light winds near land always make for more complicated sailing, as what winds there are, shift and accelerate around any headlands. The latest weather model is showing that the light patch of breeze will not be enough to slow down the leaders down for very long and the lingering uncertainty as to the approaching low pressure will keep the navigators rethinking their strategy right up until the boats are tied up in Portsmouth.
LEG SEVEN DAY 09, 19.05.06, 1000 GMT POSITION REPORT
Leg Position
Yacht
Latitude
Longitude
DTF
SMG
24 Hour Run
24 Hour Speed
DTL
DTL-C
Projected Leg Points
Total Projected Leg Points
ETA
Projected Overall Race Points
Projected Position Overall
1
ABN1
46 59.53N
016 58.27W
00664
20.6
507
21.1
00000
+00000
7.0
7.0
20/05/06 19:__:__
77.5
1
2
ERIC
45 57.16N
021 23.62W
00856
19.0
455
19.0
00192
-00033
6.0
6.0
21/05/06 04:__:__
40.5
6
3
POTC
46 24.07N
022 32.79W
00888
16.5
480
20.0
00224
-00015
5.0
5.0
21/05/06 06:__:__
52.5
2
4
BRA1
46 09.82N
022 58.85W
00910
16.3
473
19.7
00246
-00022
4.0
4.0
21/05/06 07:__:__
46.0
4
5
ABN2
47 21.80N
027 53.03W
01072
19.6
358
14.9
00408
+00007
3.0
3.0
21/05/06 18:__:__
45.0
5
6
MOVI
45 52.28N
028 04.08W
01111
13.3
376
15.7
00447
-00031
2.0
2.0
21/05/06 20:__:__
49.0
3
7
AUS1
47 23.16N
029 55.92W
01151
16.5
307
12.8
00487
-00014
1.0
1.0
21/05/06 22:__:__
3.5
7
ABN1 ABN AMRO ONE
ABN2 ABN AMRO TWO
BRA1 Brasil 1
AUS1 Brunel
ERIC Ericsson Racing Team
MOVI movistar
POTC Pirates of the Caribbean
DTF: distance to finish, SMG: Speed made good, DTL: distance to leader,
DTLC: distance to leader change; the difference between the distance from the boat to the leader taken at the time of the last six hour poll, and the distance from the boat to the leader at the previous poll
Lizzie Green Press Officer at race headquarters:
Tel: +44 1489 554 832, Mob: +44 7801 185 320
Email: lizzie.green@volvooceanrace.org
Sophie Luther Press Assistant at race headquarters
Mob: +44 7956 285548 email: sophie.luther@volvooceanrace.org
|
