Drastic measures

Caught in no wind Bernard Stamm hangs a hard right

Monday November 13th 2006, Author: James Boyd, Location: Transoceanic

Images courtesy of Expedition Navigation Systems
 
Positions at 0530GMT
 
Pos
Yacht Skipper
Latitude
Longitude
Spd
Crs
Spd
Crs
Spd
Dist
DTF/L
Inst
4hr av
24hr
13 Nov  05:32GMT
1
Cheminees Poujoulat Bernard Stamm
26° 05.64 S
018° 26.96 W
9
216
9.99
227
4.74
113.7
6659
2
Ecover Mike Golding
22° 33.68 S
020° 55.76 W
7.5
168
7.61
276
7.68
184.4
222
3
Spirit of Yukoh Kojiro Shiraishi
21° 26.24 S
022° 07.12 W
6
227
3.85
270
6.89
165.4
300
4
Hugo Boss Alex Thomson
21° 33.96 S
027° 12.76 W
13
180
10.94
263
12.02
288.5
392
5
SAGA Insurance Sir Robin Knox-Johnston
07° 03.76 N
025° 59.84 W
3.3
169
3.25
255
6.77
162.6
2042
6
A Southern Man-AGD Graham Dalton
11° 28.48 N
025° 58.28 W
9.4
174
9.81
272
7.96
190.9
2306
7
PAKEA Unai Basurko
14° 30.52 N
023° 04.12 W
10.1
246
9.45
216
7.21
173.2
2513
12 Nov  05:32GMT
1
Cheminees Poujoulat Bernard Stamm
24° 15.32 S
018° 56.60 W
5
120
6.44
292
11.5
276
6769
2
Ecover Mike Golding
20° 01.44 S
022° 46.80 W
9.8
137
11.15
314
12.7
304.8
281
3
Spirit of Yukoh Kojiro Shiraishi
19° 06.80 S
023° 41.36 W
8
144
7.25
311
10.72
257.2
346
4
Hugo Boss Alex Thomson
16° 46.12 S
027° 04.72 W
14.4
172
11.21
276
11.92
286.2
541
5
SAGA Insurance Sir Robin Knox-Johnston
09° 28.84 N
024° 46.40 W
8.3
193
8.85
251
7.74
185.9
2085
6
A Southern Man-AGD Graham Dalton
14° 38.88 N
026° 07.48 W
9
183
7.98
261
5.33
127.9
2386
7
PAKEA Unai Basurko
17° 04.12 N
021° 41.72 W
8
260
7.95
208
7.18
172.2
2572
 
Oh dear oh dear. For the last few days Bernard Stamm as well as those ever increasingly looming in his rear view mirror have been attempting to get south as quickly as possible to latch on to a band of northwesterly winds to the northeast of a Southern Ocean depression way to their south and the south Atlantic high. Unfortunately this window of opportunity has now closed, the high having funnelled off beneath South Africa, the depression now continuing to rampage its way east too. In its place, emerging from the west is another high pressure system. While the front runners may have missed the fast track option to the south, they can thank their lucky stars that the forecast at present is showing this system moving only very slowly east reaching a position over the central South Atlantic by Friday.

This change in circumstances has called for a reappraisal of tactics, in particular for Bernard Stamm. Over the last 24 hours he has been sailing in virtual nothingness as ilustrated by his having made a run of just 113 miles in the last 24 hours. At around 2000GMT last night Stamm hung a sharp right, literally 90° to his previous course and since then Mike Golding on Ecover and third placed Kojiro Shiraishi on Spirit of Yukoh have responded also turning to the west. Further astern and therefore very much less likely to have made the northwesterlies, in fourth place Alex Thomson on Hugo Boss appeared to make this same decision 24 hours ago.

The new set of tactics given the coinditions is to dive into the east side of the high, currently centred way to their southwest, some 900 miles due east of the mouth of the River Plate . They will head into the high in southeasterlies and tack out to the southeast back on track once again, as soon as they get the shift to the south. For Stamm this should be in around 24 hours.

Mike Golding and Kojiro heading south at this stage means that they are likely to take enough more miles out of the race leaders - they will effectively have sailed one side of a triangle while Stamm has sailed two. However the most gains are likely to be made by Alex Thomson who having made the call early looks set to dive into the high more from the north (rather than northeast) where the winds are stronger. Perhaps this is payback for Thomson who found himself in a very similar position to Stamm (although he wasn't leading at the time) in the Vendee Globe two years ago.

Stamm suffering with the weather has once again provided an opportunity for those astern to gain ground. This morning Ecover is only 222 miles from the lead, compared to 281 24 hours ago or 336 miles at 05:32 on Saturday. Stamm will pick up a little by reaching the southerlies first, but not by much - this will be a bankable gain by those astern of him.

Meanwhile back in the cheap seats, there are still three boats that are still some way off making it into the South Atlantic. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston on SAGA Insurance is currently negotiating the Doldrums, while still in the Trades, Graham Dalton and Unai Basurko are closing in on him.

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