Jean Luc Nelias lifts the curtain on the blackout
Filed Under Shower Curtain | Posted on May 18, 2008
The problem with ocean races is that when the guys have set off, there is no such thing as a Sunday anymore. Everyone involved has to work everyday. Right let’s move on to some comments regarding this morning’s situation. The bad news is obviously the retirement of BT, who turned around yesterday at 17:30 GMT while he had a 30-mile lead over PRB.
But the interesting strategic fact is the south position of Loick Peyron, who tacked soon after the blackout started, taking advantage of a lift at 22:00 GMT - what a sly fox. If you know a thing or two about sailing, you will notice that the true wind doesn’t match the forecasts: when Gitana tacks, the breeze is a bit more west than anticipated by the models. Loick seizes that opportunity to tack and make progress for 4 hours, gaining 37 miles towards the SSW.
In the meantime, his rivals stay on the west heading in order to get out of the ridge as quickly as possible and find stronger winds. Three hours later, BT and PRB prove faster than Gitana by at least 1 to 2 knots. In this battle, I have the feeling that Gitana lost a bit of ground. From now on and until the ice gate, boats will be beating with winds up to 30 knots at times.
The crossing of the ice gate itself still looks rather tricky, with a zone of light airs along the gate tomorrow during the day. The sailors would better take some rest in order to be both physically and mentally alert when the tome comes to tackle this hurdle.
Tags: bad news, blackout, boats, curta, curtain, heading, hurdle, jean luc, knots, light airs, match, ocean races, peyron, prb, retirement, rivals, sailing, sailors, sly fox, south position, ssw, true windRelated posts
Leave a Reply