Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Wish you were here!
We must have had a dozen e-mails to the Sailing Logic office today from other Sailing Logic crew members who have been reading the blogs and are extremely jealous of those on board Hydrocarbon at the moment. Never has a race been so eagerly anticipated and more jealously followed!
The yachts in the fleet are now well spaced apart with the leaders already two thirds of the way to the finish line. Rambler is still well ahead with ICAP Leopard 40 miles behind. At this rate, Rambler will be taking the course record from ICAP Leopard tomorrow morning, if the amazing weather conditions continue.
In IRC 1, Tonnerre is still ahead with 2nd, 3rd and 4th positions changing at every schedule; it is almost too exciting to watch! Sharon and Allie in the office have decided only to look every hour where Hydrocarbon Logic is, otherwise no work gets done, and the blood pressure rises too high! If only the guys onboard the yacht realised what they were causing back at home! The latest at 1630 GMT is that Hydrocarbon is up to second place in class......fantastic!”
Tactics at the moment will be very interesting to watch. Now that Hydrocarbon has gone around St Barts and are heading to the west coast of St Maarten, they are bowling along in downwind conditions and much less swell then they had beating towards St Barts which must have been quite uncomfortable sailing. The question now is what to do when going around St Maarten. As the wind is coming from the East, there will be a big wind shadow to the lee of the island, exactly where the race track is taking the yachts. This will mean that there will be pockets of no wind, which could be devastating. Also, once around the western side of the Island, do they stay inshore and stay in the Anguilla Channel, hugging the coast between Marigot and Anse Marcel, hoping to get wind lift off the St Maarten headlands or do they go further North, closer to the Anguillan coast, and hope for a better sailing angle with the chance of not having to tack so often. Decisions, decisions.... this is not a straightforward race!
The weather is still perfect, with the ENE trade winds blowing at 20 knots with 80+ degrees of sunshine...
News from the fleet is that there have been 3 retirements to date. Genuine Risk with a broken vang, the Class 40 ‘Tales’ with an injured crewmember (they are ok), and the Mumm 36 ’ High Tension’ who unfortunately have been dismasted. They are all ok and are motoring back to Antigua.
