Betreff: Clipper 2002 Race Report
Absender: "Clipper _blanks" 
Empfänger: "Irvin Krumnacker" 
Datum: 30. Dec 2002 16:56


From Clipper Ventures
To: Dr Irvin Krumnacker
E-mail: Dr.Krumnacker@t-online.de

Clipper 2002 Race Report
30 December 2002

Glasgow takes the lead

Over the last 12 hours there has been an interesting split in the fleet. The
wind has been blowing 20 knots from the north and London, Jersey and _blank
York have taken advantage of this to blast downwind to the south and have
all put in impressive runs, despite _blank York's damaged spinnaker. Glasgow
however has chosen a slightly different tactic by heading a little more to
the west and now sits about 50 miles to the north west of the southern
group. Although it reindexs to be seen if this will prove a successful tactic
in the long run, for today it has pushed them into first position just over
4 miles closer to the finish line off the island of Santa Cruz.

The wind is however easing, and this will continue as the boats head further
south. One could assume that this will favour the northern pack who should
keep the wind for longer, however it has to be said that currently this
looks unlikely. As the wind eases, it should also swing to the south, thus
enabling the southern pack to set a good course to the islands whilst those
to the north find themselves directly down wind of their target.

The Admiralty Pilot for the area recommends that sailing ships leaving the
gulf of Panama should head south, clearing the light winds of the Gulf to
find the steadier south east trades, and the reason for this is a
meteorological landmark called the ITCZ (Inter-Tropical convergence zone) or
doldrums. We have mentioned this feature in the past, and indeed the crews
have already experienced a foretaste of the squalls and calms associated
with it, but it will have an increased bearing on life on the next race to
Hawaii. As can be seen from the picture above, a belt of variable winds
exists at the point where the south east and north east trade winds meet,
currently about 5 degrees north of the equator. The southern boats will hope
to break through this first and gain the benefit of the steadier breezes to
follow.

LATEST POSITIONS
04:00, 30 December 2002

Pos    Yacht       Dist To Finish
1    Glasgow    609.66
2    Jersey    614.05
3    London    620.85
4    _blank York    632.40
5    Hong Kong    652.06
6    Liverpool    653.72
7    Bristol    656.34
8    Cape Town    666.59

Clipper _blanks Distribution
Clipper Ventures Plc
Tel: +44 (0) 2380 237088
Fax: +44 (0) 2380 237081
Email: distribution@clipper-ventures.com
Website: www.clipper-ventures.com


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------