Betreff: KINGFISHER 2 IN FINAL STAGES OF PREPARATION FOR STANDBY
Absender: "Team Kingfisher"
Datum: 14. Jan 2003 17:16
IN THIS UPDATE :
* THE 14 CREW OF KINGFISHER2 FACE THE FINAL 36 HOURS BEFORE OFFICIALLY GOING ON STANDBY FROM 0800 THURSDAY 16.1.03 (STANDBY STATUS WILL BE CONFIRMED ON THURSDAY)
* WEATHER ROUTING TEAM ANNOUNCED - MEENO SCHRADER PRIMARY WEATHER ROUTER AND JEAN-YVES BERNOT WEATHER CONSULTANT
* WEATHER ROUTER, MEENO SCHRADER, ON HOW THE WEATHER PLAYS A KEY ROLE IN ANY SUCCESSFUL RECORD ATTEMPT... AND THE WEATHER PICTURE KINGFISHER2 NEEDS TO START...
* PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT NUMBER THREE : safety on board...
* CREW MEMBER - FOCUS IN ON Guillermo Altadill from Spain, Watch Leader on Kingfisher2.
* Olivier de Kersauson's GERONIMO making good progress to Equator since leaving at 0300 on 11.1.03 but tangled with a giant squid last night!
See http://www.grandsrecords.com
http://www.teamkingfisher.com for all the latest news and images
IN DETAIL
Since the finish of the Route du Rhum, the crew of Kingfisher2 headed up by skipper Ellen MacArthur have had just 7 weeks to fully prepare the giant 110' multihull for race mode at their base in Lorient. It has been a race against the clock to get to standby mode but Kingfisher2 looks set to go "on standby ”from Thursday morning (to be officially confirmed on Thursday 16.1.03). In effect, that means Kingfisher2 is ready to leave the dock within 24 hours once a good "weather window" materialises.
Kingfisher2's weather router, Dr Meeno Schrader (GER), is studying the weather situation daily in consultation with MacArthur. Meeno Schrader has sailed all his life and spent 10 years studying to gain his PhD in Meteorology. He has worked with Team Kingfisher in the EDS Atlantic Challenge (2001), Transat Jacques Vabre (2001) and MacArthur's recent victory in the 2002 Route du Rhum solo trans-Atlantic race. Weather expert Jean-Yves Bernot from France will act as consultant to help make critical decisions as necessary.
Various weather models are used ranging from a 16-day forecast to a 10-day forecast which provides more reliability, but in reality a call to go would only be made looking at a 3-day weather forecast. At this time of year there is extensive low pressure activity in the North Atlantic that produces strong south-westerlies (completely wrong direction for the start), as forecast for the end of this week, with only temporary short swings to the SE or more into W-NW.
The ideal weather for the start is for good pressure from a northerly direction, preferably NE, with little swell coming into the Bay of Biscay and then a stable good windfield further south along the Portugese coast that can propel Kingfisher2 quickly from the start line down to the Canaries and on to the Equator.
The major weather systems Kingfisher2 will sail through are:
North Atlantic : high activity of strong, partly violent lows
Azores High : good or moderate trade winds
Equator : Doldrums with very variable light air and local thunderstorms
South Atlantic : sister high to the Azores named St Helena High producing trade winds from SE-E then later NE but can produce difficult weather with lack of wind at times
Southern Ocean : strong wind and often violet low pressure systems running from W to E with no land mass to stop the huge waves forming.
Cape Horn and SW-Atlantic : mostly strong to violet lows
JARGON BUSTER : "STANDBY" : officially means Kingfisher2 can leave the dock for her record attempt. The boat is fully equipped with spares, sails, provisions and everything needed for the trip. The only thing to go on board is the crew plus their personal allowance of gear set at 10 kilos per person (excluding oilskins).
PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT NUMBER THREE : All the safety equipment on board Kingfisher2 is provided by McMurdo Pains Wessex that includes 2 x 14-man liferafts, 5 x EPIRBS (emergency position indicating radio beacon system - these activate automatically if they become submerged), flares and crew personal EPIRBS in case of man overboard situation.
KINGFISHER2. http://www.teamkingfisher.com/mcmurdo
CREW MEMBER FOCUS : Spaniard Guillermo Altadill comes on board Kingfisher2 as one of the 3 watch leaders: "Because I have done all the circumnavigation races - The Race, Volvo, Whitbread - the Jules Verne is the only thing not to have done so it is time to do it! The point is to break the record and each attempt it is going to get harder. I think the record can be broken by 3-4 days easily but once it is at 60 days - this record will hold for a long time." Altadill, aged 40, has an extensive CV of offshore circumnavigation races and was named 2001 Spanish Yachtsman of the Year. His email is guillermorace@kingfisherchallenges.com
For more information and images of KINGFISHER2 visit
http://www.teamkingfisher.com
For media enquiries please contact Lou Newlands lou@offshorechallenges.com
For images and stills, please contact Josie Robinson
josie@offshorechallenges.com
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