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Records were made to be broken Gentle seas, a swift westerly set,
20 knots of wind and an average speed over ground of 26.6 knots. February 10, 2001 Records were made to be broken in The Race and Cub Med is living up to her reputation as a boat with long legs. For 24 hours on February 7-8, she surfed the eastern face of a frontal system to record 655 miles, beating her old mark set last June by 24.3 miles. But it must be said, that conditions were perfect for the record sail. Club Med rode 20 knots of north-west winds ahead of the front as it pushed into a ridge of high pressure. The sea state was gentle, there were no cross seas and combined with a westerly current of anything up to 6 knots, she made swift progress. This synpotic 'signature' is well-known for producing record runs. Innovation Explorer clocked 629 miles riding the east face of a frontal system below Australia and Yvan Bourgnon did the same last August when he came within a coo-ee of Club Med's earlier distance record. There is lot to be said for benign oceanic conditions and a gentle wind. The fact that Club Med had been pursuing this ridge of high pressure for several days helped. The sea state was probably as gentle as you would find at that latitude. The steady north-west wind, meanwhile, had been driving at that direction for several days as well, creating gently sloping swells from the right direction. Perfect surfing conditions, no doubt! Meanwhile, Innovation Explorer continues to ride the back side of this frontal system - taking advantage of steady westerly winds, but rocking and rolling in confused seas. Elena Caputo, crewmember and wife of co-skipper Skip Novak, explained on February 9: "After three days, Explorer is still a bucking bronco. She is also starting to squeak and squeal in quite a spooky way as she is shoved around by waves coming a bit from every direction. Some of the noises she makes sound almost like human lamentations and it makes this gray day feel all the more sombre. "The worst part of it is knowing that Club Med is sailing at full speed in much more comfortable and flat waters and straight to the mark. But sincere congratulations Club Med from the whole crew on Innovation Explorer, it is really an impressive distance covered in 24 hrs! "We are sailing fast and have good wind but are in no condition to even attempt a record considering the sea conditions and the gybes we must make to get to Cape Horn." Interestingly, this is exactly what Club Med did all the way across the southern Indian Ocean. It seems the weather gods have swapped routing routines between this pair of maxicats on their way to Cape Horn! Meanwhile, Team Adventure - previously stuck underneath a developing low pressure cell south of Australia - has escaped her tar pit and is riding westerly winds above a huge low en route to New Zealand. Will Team Adventure enter Cook Strait about the same time as Club Med rounds the horn, or will high pressure test her patience? © Jamie Brown/weather-wise.com 2001 Synoptic situation at the start of
Club Med's record run Have a look at the blue line way over in the lower right corner of this image. That's club med about to start on her record 24 hour run. This is a classic synoptic signature for chasing distance records: Club Med is surfing north-west winds preceding a front, which in turn is pushing into a ridge of high pressure. She has been in this situation for several days, traveling with the system. Light winds exist within the ridge and the sea state is gentle. Club Med has sweet smooth sailing. With typical winds reported at 20 knots, she is making an over-the-ground speed of upwards of 29knots, averaging 26.6knots. Obviously the constant westerly set racing around the Southern Ocean helps down here, and sailors can expect anything up to two knots in their favour. Innovation Explorer, meanwhile, lies to the west of the front, sailing in strong westerlies but copping a south-west swell wrapping around the low to her south, while punching into northerly chop left over from winds preceding the frontal cloud. A messy and wet business, no doubt Synoptic situation at the end of
Club Med's record run Club Med is still surfing that frontal system, pushing into a ridge of high pressure, but the ridge is elongating to the south as the low from behind pushes into another low forming below Cape Horn. The gradient between lots of wind and no wind is becoming more marked, and Club Med is finding herself in less wind - about 15 knots, with boat speed down to 24 knots. The record run is over. Innovation Explorer, meanwhile, continues to ride the westerly flow immediately behind the front, making good speed but unlikely to get the right conditions for a record attempt. In the last 24 hour she has lost 130 miles to Club Med. Picture courtesy of Virtual Spectator. Southern Ocean in infra-red The crude arrow points to the approximate position of Club Med seven hours after she beat the one-day distance record. West of the arrow is the front. Surrounding the arrow head is stratocumulous cloud indicating high-latitude high pressure. East of the arrow is a developing low pressure cell, helping to elongate the ridge north and south, contributing to Club Med's slow-down off record pace. Southern Pacific Ocean animated in
infra-red Here's the Southern Ocean every three hours starting February 7, 00gmt and running to February 8, 2100gmt. Take a look at the frontal cloud pushing past longitude 150 to the east of New Zealand. East of the front you can see a hazy thin cloud stretching south almost to Antarctica: This is stratocumulous and indicates high pressure in cold environments. Club Med rode the east face of this front as it pushed into this ridge of high pressure, giving them perfect winds from the right direction and a smooth sea state - just right for breaking records! By the way, the black bits over Antarctica are where the satellites turn off transmission to save battery power. Each image is a composite of many smaller pictures. Clouds are shown in infra-red, which really takes a picture of temperature. The higher a cloud climbs into the atmosphere the colder it gets and the whiter it appears in infra-red. Images courtesy of Antarctic Meteorological Research Centre February 8 The overall race leader well and truly re-established her 24 hour distance record between 1.00 am GMT yesterday and the same time this morning. The quest for the record saw it rise three times for the moment – at 1.00 am GMT a mark of 631.7 miles was established, increasing at 2.00 am GMT to 634.8 miles and finally at 2.30 am GMT to 638.5 miles. Grant Dalton and Franck Proffit’s giant catamaran enjoyed a day of ideal conditions with an almost flat stretch of sea and a 25 knot northwest wind. The average speed over the record-breaking 24 hours was therefore 26.60 knots (for those of you working in metric this is only just short of 50 kilometres an hour!). Innovation Explorer has also taken advantage of favourable winds to post an average of 26.8 knots over the last hour. How Innovation
Explorer From Race headquarters, February 2, 1100 gmt: The news has just come through - Innovation Explorer has covered 629.19 miles in 24 hours according to the 11.00 am GMT position update! Individual races within the main competition From Race headquarters, February 9 So far, “each boat has sailed its own race,” unlike the challengers in other round-the-world races, such as the Whitbread, whose boats are slower and therefore track their rivals more closely, according to Gilles Chiorri, weather specialist for The Race. And he talked about the difference between “Club Med’s quite tight tactics,” in other words staying close to the direct route while taking weather conditions into account, and in comparison, Team Adventure, who “have gambled more, searching the seas “to find better conditions, even if it means adding a few miles to the route.” Read the rest! More great reading: Catch up on all the past action in our race archive. Here it from the horse's mouth at race headquarters. Follow the action between the world's toughest solo skippers in the Vendee Globe. Re-live the Sydney to Hobart yacht race! Break ice in the Ross Sea! |