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Reunited Fleet Now In A Tight Race

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  • Reunited Fleet Now In A Tight Race




    On Saturday it seemed as if the race couldn't get any closer. By Sunday morning UTC that was proved wrong.

    Today, all four teams are lined up on a 13 mile line extending north to south, but separated by less than 3 miles on the leaderboard. All this after three full weeks of racing.









    The reason for the close racing remains a stubbornly persistent ridge of high pressure and its light winds that is acting as a barrier to the teams making progress to the east.

    In these conditions, the wind is marginally stronger to the south, so the teams have been taking it in turns to gybe south, dropping down the leaderboard by a few miles as they move towards the ice exclusion zone, before making gains back when the next team dives south.

    This should remain the dominant weather pattern until Monday when the ridge begins to dissipate and stronger winds return.

    "There is a ridge of high pressure in front of us and a low pressure behind, so we are stuck a bit in the middle," is the way Biotherm skipper Paul Meilhat explains the situation.

    It's definitely worth taking a look at the Content from the Boats page today. In the relatively calm conditions, teams are doing repairs, boat and mast checks and plenty of drone flying.












    When Team Malizia's Rosie Kuiper went up the mast, she could see all four boats from the top of the rig, for example.

    While the past couple of days provided a respite from typical southern latitude conditions, the forecast shows this will be short lived, with the breeze coming on again to start the week.

    The latest weather routings have the teams passing Cape Horn in one week, on 26/27 March, while the ETA in Itaja?, Brazil - with less certainty - is the first weekend in April.

    On day 20 of racing in leg 3 of The Ocean Race, the competition is incredibly close, with four IMOCAs separated by just 20 nautical miles.








    The teams still have two weeks of racing to go, but with the positions so close, this weekend is serving as a re-start of sorts.

    The lighter conditions which have compressed the fleet together have also given the crews time to complete much needed maintenance and repairs - on boats and people alike.

    The wind is forecast to return on Monday and the ETA for Cape Horn is now 26/27 March.

    "We have Biotherm just over there and Team Holcim-PRB just down to leeward," said Will Harris from the sunshine on deck of Team Malizia.

    "The wind is coming behind us with these clouds," he said, pointing behind the boat. "And if you look in front of us there is nice sunny weather, but that's the high-pressure up ahead with not much wind. That's why we've all compressed and the fleet has really shrunk down together. We're effectively re-starting the race, which is good and bad. We can fight for the lead, but at the same time, we've lost our lead over the ones behind."

    Indeed, Malizia enjoyed a few hours at the top of the tracker leaderboard overnight UTC on Friday night, but in reality, all four teams now have the potential to emerge with the advantage by the time the more typical southern latitude conditions return early in the new week.
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