06.06.2004
SKANDIA MAKES GROUND AND INVESTS IN THE FUTURE
IN BRIEF:
• SKANDIA reels in over 65 miles in one night on Open 60 fleet leader, now Swiss yacht ARMOR LUX.
• A sudden jump in boat speed overnight alerts Nick that SKANDIA may have been dragging an object around her keel.
• SKANDIA heads north-west trying to escape headwinds a few days down the track as the next depression forms.
IN DETAIL :
Nick and SKANDIA gained overnight on the leaders of the Open 60 class in the Transat race.
The harsh conditions in the north eased, the front-runners slowed and a night of fast reaching allowed SKANDIA to reduce the deficit on new fleet leader, ARMOR LUX, skippered by Swiss yachtsman Bernard Stamm, to 145 miles at 0830GMT this morning Sunday.
Pushing hard and clawing back all those miles took a physical toll though as Nick only managed two and a half hours sleep in 24. He also discovered yesterday that SKANDIA could have been dragging an object underwater that has been affecting her performance. "A strange thing just happened," he explained in his daily e-mail to the Skandia Multimanager shore team. "I'd been struggling to do 13 knots [of boatspeed] reaching in 20 knots of wind."
"I was on deck trimming and steering thinking what's going on? Why can't we go faster, then all of a sudden I just picked up to 15-16 knots of boatspeed for no reason....maybe something was stuck on the keel?"
Nick is now lining SKANDIA up for the next weather system. A new low-pressure system is forming that could stretch over 1200 miles of ocean from north to south. The anti-clockwise system could give the leaders in the north fast downwind sailing along the Newfoundland and American coastline. "At least those guys will see the fruits of their hammering two nights ago," reflected Nick.
That would leave headwinds for the yachts currently positioned in south, including SKANDIA, PRO-FORM and HELLOMOTO. Nick is now heading north-west to escape those headwinds but continues to reel in PRO-FORM and HELLOMOTO. At the 0830 GMT poll, SKANDIA, in ninth, was less than 30 miles from the British yacht in seventh.
The incredible support for Nick and New Zealander Mike Sanderson on Pindar was highlighted today. The Transat race office revealed today that 15% of the visitors to the official website, www.thetransat.com, originate from the southern hemisphere, reflecting the popularity of the two Australasian competitors.
IMOCA POSITIONS 0900 GMT
NAME / SKIPPER / LAT / LONG / DIST
1. CHEMINÉES P - AMOR LUX / 53 21.52'N / 39 04.52'W / 1427 to finish
2. PRB / RIOU / 52 44.72'N / 38 29.80'W / 11.6 behind leader
3. PINDAR ALPHAGRAPHICS / Sanderson / 52 05.10'N / 37 49.20'W / 11.8 behind leader
4. ECOVER / Golding / 51 11.08'N / 37 41.92'W / 20.0 behind leader
5. TEMENOS / Wavre / 51 25.76'N / 36 35.84'W / 66.8 behind leader
9. SKANDIA / Moloney / 48 43.16'N / 34 09.64'W / 149.2 behind leader
QINETIQ FACT OF THE DAY : ON THE WATER cold, wet and windy
In the cold, windy and wet conditions in which sailors competing in the Transat are facing, protection from the elements is vital to minimize the risk of hypothermia – a dangerous drop in body temperature. The clothing that sailors wear must enable them to reindex warm and dry and to limit the exposure of unprotected flesh to the elements. The muscles in the body are about as efficient as the engine in a family car, with only 25% of the energy consumed being used for work the reindexing 75% being released as heat. Controlling the loss of this heat from the body is vital for survival.
A cold or low air temperature that is below that of the skin and core body temperature affects the ability of the body to balance heat production against heat loss through evaporation, radiation and convection. Wind or air movement across the body greatly accelerates the loss of body heat by removing (via convection) the still, warmer layers of air trapped in insulative clothing, and by increasing evaporative cooling when insulating material is wet.
For more Environmental Stressor facts : http://www.nickmoloney.com/uk/default.asp?ms=content&m=displayarticle&id=11417
Further information see http://www.qinetiq.com
PERFORMANCE PARTNER OF THE DAY : Nautix
Official supplier of underwater finishing's to Nick and the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team
http://www.nickmoloney.com/nautix
For more information visit http://www.nickmoloney.com or contact :
Helen King
hk@offshorechallenges.com
T : +44(0)870 063 0210
M : +44(0)7870 678360
NOTES :
* Nick Moloney is one of an impressive group of Skandia Set Sail athletes.
* Skandia Set Sail is a global sponsorship programme that aims to offer people more opportunities to participate in the sport on a broader level. The objectives of the Skandia Set Sail Campaign are to make sailing more accessible, grow the sport's reach and enrich peoples' lives through the sport. The Skandia Set Sail portfolio is divided into three groups; events, teams and athletes.
* The portfolio includes the title sponsorships of Skandia Cowes Week, the world's oldest and largest regatta on the Isle of Wight, UK (title sponsors for 10 years in 2004) and Skandia Geelong Week in Victoria, Australia - now twinned with Skandia Cowes Week; UK sailors Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell in their Athens Star campaign; Sam Davies, the up and coming single-handed yachtswoman and her Figaro campaign; Austrian 470 sailors, Sylvia Vogl and Carolina Flatscher; the Skandia Brown Cup, the Scottish Schools Sailing Championship; Skandia Cowes Youth Week, a leading international match racing championship, the Skandia Yachting Academy (in association with Kit Hobday's Bear of Britain) and the Skandia Maxi, Australia's biggest ocean racing yacht and line-honours winner of the 2003 Sydney-Hobart Race.
* Sail 4 Cancer is the official charity of the Skandia Set Sail programme.
* For further information contact http://www.skandiasetsail.com
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