Global Ocean Race fleet closes up as light winds hit the leaders

As the double-handed, Class40 Global Ocean Race 2011-12 (GOR) fleet head east along the Western Indian Ocean Ice Limit at 42 degrees South, the leaderboard ranking continues to change hourly after six days at sea. At the head of the fleet, Cessna Citation and Campagne de France continue swapping pole position, separated by a handful of miles since Friday, while BSL in third is closing down fast on the lead duo with the two trailing Class40s, Financial Crisis and Phesheya-Racing, enjoying a private battle and making gains on the frontrunners.

At 06:00 GMT on Monday, Marco Nannini and Hugo Ramon on Financial Crisis exchanged fifth place for fourth, overhauling the South African duo of Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire on Phesheya-Racing. Leggatt and Hutton-Squire opted early to keep some distance between their first generation Akilaria and the ice limit, hoping to keep in stronger breeze spinning off the high-pressure system north-east of the fleet, while Nannini and Ramon dropped down south before gybing away from the mandatory southern barrier in westerly wind. With the breeze forecast to clock round to the north as the weather system slips east ahead of the fleet, timing and positioning were critical. Hugo Ramon explains the strategy: “Our meteorological priority is to position ourselves in a narrow corridor between the ice limit and the best winds behind the high pressure.” As the wind shifted north late yesterday, the Italian-Spanish duo gybed onto port: “We gybed several times yesterday with the last one just before nightfall,” reports the Spanish sailor. “We think this gybe will be good for several days.” At 15:00 GMT on Monday, Financial Crisis was leading Phesheya-Racing by just five miles with the two Class40s averaging the best speed in the fleet at slightly under nine knots.

Since dawn on Monday, the pace had been slowing for the two lead boats, Cessna Citation and Campagne de France, as they approach the high-pressure blocking their path and at 13:00 GMT, Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron on Campagne de France re-took the lead as they climbed away from the ice limit to windward of Colman and Goodchild with Cessna Citation. Throughout Sunday, Campagne de France was the southern-most boat in the fleet, bouncing off the ice limit: “We’ve been shaving along the southern limit at 42 degrees South making a lot of gybes to keep from crossing this virtual line,” reported Halvard Mabire early on Monday afternoon. “Our eyes were constantly locked on the GPS to check our position, similar to watching the depth sounder when racing close inshore,” he continues. “We’ve sailed so close to this barrier that I’m certain we’ve got blood on our shoulders from grazing against this invisible wall.”

The trigger for the GOR Race Committee when implementing the ice limit was the increasing incidence of ice drifting far north from Antarctica, specifically ice logged during the double-handed, IMOCA Open 60, Barcelona World Race earlier this year and, more recently, in mid-October, a report of ‘two very large icebergs’ at 44 degrees S, 49 degrees E in the vicinity of the Crozet Islands logged by a yacht competing in the Clipper Round the World Race. Bespoke, Southern Ocean iceberg information via satellite radar is available, but at a cost – in the region of €29,000 to book a satellite for an image and analysis – which is beyond the budget of the GOR. The result was the prudent ban on sailing below 42S. However, news of the GOR ice limit spread quickly before the Leg 2 start in Cape Town and a European agency currently monitoring Southern Ocean ice soon contacted the GOR’s Race Director, Josh Hall, advising that relaxing the existing limit was acceptable and posed no extreme threat for the GOR’s Class40s.