Gale force headwinds forecast for EDS leg 2

The 500 mile second leg of the EDS Atlantic Challenge from Cuxhaven, Germany to Portsmouth kicks off this afternoon and looks set to be a stinker.

While the boats encountered headwinds much of the way up to Germany, the prayers of the various crews for these conditions to continue have come to nothing. At present an intense depression is tracking south west towards Scotland and gale force headwinds are forecast in the Channel for tomorrow night and Wednesday. This should coincide with the seven Opens negotiating Dover Strait and the Channel.

Open 60s are built for round-the-world courses and optimised largely for reaching and running conditions. They are light, very flat bottomed and traditionally are pigs when sailed upwind in waves, although the latest generation of boats is more forgiving and even the swing keel boats can be loaded up with water ballast to help give them way through the waves.

Mike Golding, skipper of Ecover has voiced some concerns about the combination of rough weather, close racing and one of the busiest shipping corridors in the world. "It's going to be very interesting going through the Strait of Dover," he said. "The skippers are going to have to decide how they are going to play that area. It's going to be difficult deciding between competitive racing and prudent seamanship when dealing with the wind, tides and all those ships."

"It's going to be uncomfortable, wet and windy," Kingfisher's Mark Turner told madforsailing. "We'll be kicking off in 25-30 knots of wind and every corner we turn it will be on the nose. It will go south going round the top of Holland and west when we're through the Dover Straits. It's going to be pretty miserable." In these conditions skippers will err on the side of prudence as both boats and crews will take a hammering. It will also be a great test of each team's preparation to see if any break. "You can't push them (the boats), you just have to look after them, sailing wide angles, etc," says Turner. "It will be a long grind."

Yesterday four of the seven yachts participated in a Parade of Sail sailing around a narrow stretch of river in downtown Hamburg.

The start of Leg Two is at 1600 local time on Monday back in Cuxhaven.

Some forecast charts: Euro Weather, Met Office animation

For results from leg one see page 2...