Groupama 4 was the first to pass Cape Reinga, which marks the northern tip of New Zealand, early this Friday afternoon. Franck Cammas and his men have just 180 miles to go to make the finish in Auckland. Over a hundred miles behind the French boat, there is a fierce battle for a place on the podium!
There's not a lot of opportunity left for the Volvo Ocean Race fleet to pip Groupama 4 to the post in the Hauraki Gulf. Franck Cammas and his men put in a final tack to get past the most northerly point of New Zealand at around 0930 UTC this Friday, in what was still a steady breeze of over 25 knots on quite hard seas. The easterly wind will gradually clock round to the South-East for the descent towards Auckland and the team will have to link together a series of tack changes near the coast of New Zealand. One last slog for the crew then, who have built up nineteen days of fatigue in rather aggressive seas!
An arrival in time for drinks in New Zealand?
Fortunately the wind will gradually ease, switching down to less than twenty knots after North Cape, though it will be on the nose. At daybreak in the Antipodes, the breeze will only manage to reach around fifteen knots, on what will be increasingly manageable seas. The closer Groupama 4 gets to the finish line, the more the wind will have a tendency to ease, shrinking away to just a dozen knots as it shifts round to the East. As such it looks like a quick sprint to the finish in beam winds in the Hauraki Bay, very likely before sunset local time on Saturday! Perfect conditions for the locals and all the French team's supporters, who will go out to welcome in Franck Cammas and his men...
"It's very wet because we're close-hauled offshore of New Zealand. The wind has picked up due to Cape Reinga and the seas are pretty messy as the current is running against the breeze. We've had squalls of over thirty knots... We're trying to control the boat so as she doesn't suffer because we only have a seven-day break in Auckland and a very long leg (via Cape Horn) to follow. We have to go fast whilst remaining both reasonable and patient up to the finish line. This is especially true given that our navigator, Jean-Luc Nélias, has told us that there's going to be some compression of the fleet along the coast of New Zealand", commented Damian Foxall last night.
More news here
From : Groupama
Credit : Y.Riou/Groupama/VOR
There's not a lot of opportunity left for the Volvo Ocean Race fleet to pip Groupama 4 to the post in the Hauraki Gulf. Franck Cammas and his men put in a final tack to get past the most northerly point of New Zealand at around 0930 UTC this Friday, in what was still a steady breeze of over 25 knots on quite hard seas. The easterly wind will gradually clock round to the South-East for the descent towards Auckland and the team will have to link together a series of tack changes near the coast of New Zealand. One last slog for the crew then, who have built up nineteen days of fatigue in rather aggressive seas!
An arrival in time for drinks in New Zealand?
Fortunately the wind will gradually ease, switching down to less than twenty knots after North Cape, though it will be on the nose. At daybreak in the Antipodes, the breeze will only manage to reach around fifteen knots, on what will be increasingly manageable seas. The closer Groupama 4 gets to the finish line, the more the wind will have a tendency to ease, shrinking away to just a dozen knots as it shifts round to the East. As such it looks like a quick sprint to the finish in beam winds in the Hauraki Bay, very likely before sunset local time on Saturday! Perfect conditions for the locals and all the French team's supporters, who will go out to welcome in Franck Cammas and his men...
"It's very wet because we're close-hauled offshore of New Zealand. The wind has picked up due to Cape Reinga and the seas are pretty messy as the current is running against the breeze. We've had squalls of over thirty knots... We're trying to control the boat so as she doesn't suffer because we only have a seven-day break in Auckland and a very long leg (via Cape Horn) to follow. We have to go fast whilst remaining both reasonable and patient up to the finish line. This is especially true given that our navigator, Jean-Luc Nélias, has told us that there's going to be some compression of the fleet along the coast of New Zealand", commented Damian Foxall last night.
More news here
From : Groupama
