The concertina sings

Stamm slows up and those to the north gain ground in the Velux 5 Oceans.

Wednesday November 1st 2006, Author: James Boyd, Location: none selected
Images courtesy of Expedition Navigation Systems and ProGRIB
 
Positions at 1020GMT
 
Pos
Yacht Skipper
Lat
Long
Crs
Spd
Spd
Spd
Crs
DTF/L
DTL/C
4hr
24hr
24hr
1
Cheminees Poujoulat Bernard Stamm
17° 56.00 N
025° 40.88 W
190
9.3
5.91
6.4
260
9354
2
Spirit of Yukoh Kojiro Shiraishi
21° 35.76 N
024° 26.28 W
196
6
7.04
8.02
241
225
3
3
Ecover Mike Golding
25° 18.08 N
021° 47.44 W
197°
8.7
9.3
8.3
269
467
15
4
Hugo Boss Alex Thomson
27° 05.24 N
020° 42.32 W
180
10.1
9.19
7.54
268
584
15
5
SAGA Insurance Sir Robin Knox-Johnston
36° 10.44 N
014° 49.92 W
221
9.3
9.86
8.32
236
1192
19
6
A Southern Man-AGD Graham Dalton
37° 53.36 N
014° 54.28 W
221
14.1
10.82
8.83
220
1288
20
7
PAKEA Unai Basurko
42° 07.52 N
010° 18.64 W
266
9.1
8.38
2.92
184
1602
-8
 
The weather shenanigans of the last few days that have resulted in the leaders' zigzagging course (for reasons other than tacking or gybing) down the north Atlantic is resulting in the tail enders managing to slowly recover ground. Mike Golding and Alex Thomson, for example, have both taken 15 miles out of race leader Bernard Stamm since the last position sched.

At the head of the fleet Stamm is very down speed as he negotiates a small area of high pressure cented 200 miles to the NW of the Cape Verdes that will then slingshot him south towards the Doldrums area. This afternoon Stamm should be back up to speed and eating up the miles again as the northeasterlies resume and he is able to get back on course.

Stamm is likely to put miles on second placed Kojiro Shiraishi over the next 24 hours as further to the north the Japanese skipper will have to deal with crossing the easternmost tip of the giant high pressure system at present way out across to America. This will cause the wind to drop, ultimately veering northeast the further south he sails.

For Golding and Thomson holding third and fourth places the wind is also expected to get light, but they should finally - after 10 days of racing - be into favourable northeasterliies, by tomorrow morning. Signs of relief all round.

Alex Thomson reports from on board Hugo Boss

I used to really love a good bashing to windward until I started sailing Open 60s! All the modern Open 60s are large flat bottomed beasts and going upwind in a good breeze into a large sea is a kin to bashing your brains out against a brick wall. Up the wave and then SLAM down into the trough on the back of it and I mean SLAM. The noise is horrendous and the whole boat shakes, I can feel the bottom of the boat which I am standing physically move. I have done a fair few miles upwind into big seas in this boat and I am always amazed how the bloody thing stays together let alone how the mast stays up. We took a good beating yesterday and particularly last night, winds from 10 knots to 35 knots and a building, confused sea. The varying wind strength meant reef, unreef, then double reef, and constant attention.

You can't say to yourself, "I'll leave it to wait this one out" as the mainsail will not take the punishment, so the last 24 hours have been hard labour and listening to the boat beat herself up in the process. I started on port tack sailing southwest and last night when the wind turned to the southwest so I tacked and went south, which is where i am currently heading.

It was difficult to eat and sleep properly yesterday so today my priority will be tidying up the boat and getting myself back to 100% - starting with a couple of bacon sandwiches! I managed to fall on my favourite BOSS sunglasses last night so will have to commit them to the bin and break out a new pair. They were useful yesterday as a windscreen in the pouring rain but this morning the sun will come up and the eyes need their shades. The weather ahead looks light for a time and after that we will see some much awaited trade winds, downwind champagne sailing, Mumm of course... We may see the leaders slow a little today but they will hit the trades first, and Golding and I will have to negotiate a light wind area to enter the trades, after that it’s the doldrums. Lou Reed this morning i think

Alex Thomson
HUGO BOSS

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