All change at the top
10:00, 17 December 2002
by Tim Hedges

As the fleet form in to three distinct groups, it’s all change at the top. Having been a close second behind front-runner Liverpool, yesterday afternoon saw Jersey take the lead by the slimmest of margins. New Skipper Simon Rowell and his crew will be pleased to see that this mornings position reports show them still at the front. London also did well, overtaking Hong Kong to move up into third place and have also managed to maintain that this morning. The surprise however is that despite London’s third place, Hong Kong are back up to second a mere 4 and a half miles behind Jersey. This has been brought about by a fairly dire run from Liverpool that has seen them fall 3 places to 5th.

The boats have all been reaching in a straight line in similar winds; mostly with white sails up as the wind is a little far forward for spinnakers. Richard Butler and the Bristol crew tried to gain a speed advantage by hoisting their spinnaker for a while but with little success, eventually dropping it when the sail, flown as low and tight as possible to avoid sailing too far off the wind, caught a passing wave which apparently caused the snap shackle (the hook which holds the sail) on the guy to release. This was actually quite a lucky break as the alternative would have been for the sail to rip

In these conditions the Clipper boats are very evenly matched and it is very hard to gain, or loose, a speed advantage. Although we have heard nothing yet, I can only surmise that Liverpool must have suffered some damage to fall so far back, especially when one compares their 24 hour run with those nearest. Watch this space!

Overall however the distances between the fleet are minimal, and on this length of race, with little in the way of tactical options, boat speed becomes all important. At most boats have a 4 mile gap in distance to finish, and it is likely that the racing will remain intense with the yachts in each “group” sailing in sight of each other. What little strategic advantage there is will depend very much on the wind strength over the next 24 hours as the yachts approach the first mark of the course. Given the current situation with winds around the force 5 mark, Jersey and Hong Kong should be well placed with a 20 mile windward advantage. This means that they can sail slightly “freer”, or less close to the wind than the others so should have faster speeds. If the wind swings more to the east, which looks likely, they will have an even bigger advantage.

However the whole fleet is heading into an area where not only is the wind forecast to ease considerably, but where the conditions can be very localised, with a mile or so giving potentially very different winds. As we saw on the final approach to Cuba, this combination of calms and localised breezes can cause some major position changes. Where “Macro” tactics give way to “Micro” decisions and rapid crew work gives the upper hand.

Tim Hedges