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Atlantic
weather links
Roger
Badham of team
Club Med
talks about weather
routing
Re-live the agony and
ecstasy of the solo
trans-Atlantic race
Sail
downwind in the Southern Ocean aboard a Volvo 60
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On an Atlantic high Club
Med smashes trans-Atlantic record by 45 hours and sets a new 24 hour milestone
on the way. Has the future of sailing arrived or is this just the beginning?
June 2000
Jaws continue to drop at the enormity of Club Med's latest millennium
sailing achievement during ten days in early June. The maxi-catamaran simply
stunned the yachting world by sailing across the Atlantic south from Cadiz
Spain, by way of the Canary Islands to the Bahamas in an amazingly short length
of time.
How did they do it? World-class skill and experience aside, nature did her
stuff too.
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How hot is this? Club Med doesn't need a lot
of wind to move very, very fast. But consistent winds from the right
direction are still important.
© Mer&Média. Photo T. Le Forestier
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For starters: That low
pressure cell which clobbered the monohull fleet in the Europe 1 New
Man Solo Trans-Atlantic Race
provided a brilliant send-off for the cat from Cadiz.
Gale-force northerly winds blew well south of the low's centre and where the
storm's cold front swept down onto the Azores high, the pressure gradient became
stronger and favourable winds pushed Club Med towards the Canaries. Twenty-four
hours after she began her journey, this maxi-cat recorded 387 miles (717 km)
under her transoms at
an average speed of 16.2 knots (30 kph).
From there, the Azores High did the rest of the work, and Team Club Med was
fortunate to have such an obliging bubble of high pressure (average hPa of 1028
for days on end).
Certainly the Azores High is a massive weather system, but it was
particularly useful to east-west sailors during early June. A long-wave trough,
or cloud band remained stalled off the east coast of the US for days and could
have slowed the team down badly, had they sailed underneath it, but as the
maxi-cat approached the western Atlantic, the cloud band migrated to the north
and stalled again. In both cases, the position of the cloud band helped to
define winds in the south - to Club Med's advantage.
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There is an awful lot of power in a
multihull this size. And proof is in the 24 hour record of 625.7 nautical
miles - almost double the record set by clipper ships in the mid 1800s.
© Mer&Média. Photo T. Le Forestier
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The route the cat took across the Atlantic followed the isobars circling the
Azores High almost exactly (see pictures below) and as a result winds were aft
for most of the time. However, the fastest sailing takes place on a reach, with
the winds about 45 degrees left or right of behind. In order to sail fastest
Club Med jibed downwind constantly, zig-zagging her way down the tunnel of wind
between the calm centre of the Atlantic High and a fickle belt of low pressure
over the equator known as the tropical convergence zone.
By keeping the boat in top sail trim, reducing rudder movements to the
absolute minimum and staying where the wind blew strongest, Club Med did a
brilliant job of smashing records. And her best 24 hour run of 625.7 nautical
miles (1157km) is almost the stuff of science-fiction.
Bring on The Race!
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Here's the low which clobbered the
solo-trans-Atlantic fleet. Winds traveling along the storm's cold front
swept far enough south to help send Club Med on her way. For a
longer animated view of this depression click here. |
| June 8, 00gmt: There's that front moving to
the south-east with north-westerly winds behind it (you can just see low
level rain squalls as speckled clouds in the front's wake. Club Med is 15
hours into her Atlantic crossing and has already rounded Grand Canary
Island. |
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Here's the Atlantic on June 9, 06gmt,
showing white dots (squall clouds) south-west of Ireland extending down to
the Portuguese coast. There's gale winds in that band. Off the coast of
Morocco there is a dark band of blue, where strong north east winds are
circling around the Azores High. But over the Canaries lies a cloud band
and underneath that is Club Med amongst fickle winds. |
June 11 (00gmt): This is the day
that Club Med sailed 625.7 nautical miles in 24 hours. That big Azores High
(1032 hPa) to the east and her western sister the Bermuda High are
sandwiched between a stationary cold front to the north and the tropical
convergence zone to the south. The isobars are not tightly knit, and the winds
are certainly not enough to push a monohull to record miles, but on board a
maxi-catamaran, life is very different.
Toward the end of the journey
(June 15, 00gmt) winds begin to ease in the west. You can see this happening
here as the isobars begin to spread apart. Club Med has only one more day to
sail before reaching the Bahamas and crew are working hard to squeeze everything
out of their thoroughbred.
©
weather-wise.com
Here's what www.therace.org
had to say:
(courtesy Windreport and
Sail-Online)
On reaching San Salvador (Bahamas) on 18/06/2000 at 00.31 GMT,
Grant Dalton’s maxi-catamaran becomes the 3rd to qualify for The
Race. Better still : she improves the record of the East-West Atlantic
crossing by almost 2 days, fixing it at 10 days 14h 54mn 43s.
On June 18th 2000 at 00h 31mn 50s GMT Club Med finished her
qualifier for The Race, 3,897 miles (7217 km) long by the direct
route. In all, Club Med improved the previous record held by Serge
Madec on Jet Services V, which stood at 12 days 12h 25mn 26s, by 1 day
21h 30mn 43s. Her average speed was 15.3 knots (28.3 kph), compared
with 12.9 knots (23.9 kph) for Jet Services. Not forgetting of course
holding 26 knots (48 kph) for 24 hours, allowing her to set the new
record for the greatest distance covered by a sailboat in a day :
625.7 miles (1157 km).
Grant Dalton : a co-skipper satisfied ! “This boat has a
potential 25% greater than the previous generation”, declared Grant
Dalton on reaching San Salvador. “It was normal that we beat this
record. It’s in the logic of current technological evolution. My
main satisfaction was being the first to beat the 600 miles-in-a-day
barrier. So we beat PlayStation’s record. And I sailed at speeds
that I have never experienced before, while encountering absolutely no
problems.”
Club Med joins the catamarans Polpharma-Warta (skipper Roman Paszke,
Poland) and PlayStation (skipper Steve Fossett, USA) among the ranks
of those already qualified for The Race.
P.Ga. / Windreport’
| The maxi-catamaran Club Med, co-skippered
by Grant Dalton and exceptionally by Bruno Peyron, is on the
verge of pulling off a no-faults on her very first
transatlantic. Apart from qualification for The race and after
the 24 hour record, she is about to eclipse the record for this
Discovery Route between Cadiz (Spain) and San Salvador
(Bahamas). A performance that will already earn her a place in
the book of legends. |
| The wind is stubborn and still
blowing only from the east, obliging Club Med to zigzag her way
to San Salvador (Bahamas). But at least it has deigned to pick
up somewhat allowing Grant Dalton’s catamaran to sail at 20-27
knots (37-50 kph) for the last 24 hours, leaving Jet Services in
her wake. |
| Trim the sails to the nearest
millimetre, avoid sudden helm movements… Light airs need
exemplary concentration. Grant Dalton and his crew are not home
and dry yet, but today Thursday June 15th they will be passing
under the final 1000 mile (1852 km) mark... |
| A slight easterly breeze has got
up and the crew of the giant catamaran are trying to take
advantage to increase their lead over the Cadiz (Spain) / San
Salvador (Bahamas) record, which stands today at 379 miles
(702km). But as a following wind has never been the fastest way
for a multihull to reach its goal, Club Med is having to zig-zag. |
| Whereas Club Med enjoyed excellent
conditions over the last few days, she is now confronted with a
ridge of high pressure. The wind is falling, and so is her
average speed. It currently lies at 11.08 knots. But she still
has a good 329-mile lead over Jet Services V. |
| It looks as though nothing can
interrupt the “giant’s” progress… 24 hour record
yesterday, thorough check-up of the boat today while continuing
to make progress at more than 15 knots (28 kph) average, a well
earned rest for the men who pushed the boat almost to her
limits… A record attempt on this Discovery Route that would
appear to be right on course ! |
| Astonishing… Just one month only
after launching, Club Med has beaten the record for the greatest
distance sailed in 24 hours by realising 625.7 nautical miles
(1158 km) at an average speed of 26.07 knots (48.3 kph). She
trounced the 580 miles (1074 km) realised by Steve Fossett and
his PlayStation in March 1999, took the liberty of approaching
average speeds of almost 30 knots and allowed herself sprints of
37 knots (68.5 kph)! |
| Being big doesn’t mean you’re
not going to suffer… And to prove it, Club Med's crew have
just experienced their first "Calvary" on suffering
fickle weather conditions, making it difficult to clear the
Canaries. The giant’s lead over Jet Services V after three
days' racing is down to 88 miles, and the mood is alternating
between frustration and high-speed euphoria. |
| Wind from the NE 20/25 knots –
Full mainsail and solent jib flying – Boat under strict
surveillance… Club Med is gobbling up the miles and has just
passed the Canaries, the obligatory waypoint on this Discovery
Route. After having rounded the island of Gran Canaria, and with
weather conditions becoming more favourable, Club Med is now on
a direct heading for the Bahamas. |
| After 24 hours sailing on the
Discovery Route, Club Med is beginning to prove her
extraordinary efficiency with 387 miles (717 km) gulped down at
an average speed of 16.2 knots (30 kph). At 09.38 GMT this
morning, Thursday June 8th, the giant catamaran had notched up a
159 mile (294 km) lead over the time of Jet Services V, holder
of the record. |
| It was 09:38:06 GMT today,
Wednesday June 7, when the maxi-catamaran Club Med spread her
wings at the start of an East-to-West Atlantic crossing 3897
miles long, from Cadiz (Spain) to San Salvador (Bahamas). |
| The 110ft catamaran Club Med
reached Cadiz (Spain) a little after 3 pm on Sunday June 4,
2000. Having left four days earlier from La Trinité-sur-Mer
(France) in a flat calm, she strode away as soon as the wind
picked up along the Portuguese coast. The crew's conclusion:
"this boat has long legs".
Cadiz
/ San Salvador Fact Sheet
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