|
Sail: Weather links: Stormwatch: La
Nina: Profiles: Surf: Sky: Polar: Ocean: Fire: Drought: Weatherfacts: Books: Products: |
Why The Race? If you believe in the progress of
design and nurture a spirit of adventure - go out and play. If you prefer to
live in the past, behind the safety of closed doors ... Club Med in full flight and not a
whitecap in sight: An event adventure-lovers will covet I can hear you right now: "It was never like this in my day," you mutter under your breath. "Why do people risk their necks for this sort of thing ... why don't they at least race in yachts of established design ... Why do they waste so much money .. and anyway, it'll never work ..." The Race is the kind of event us adventure lovers covet. If we can't be out there feeling the gritty sting of spray at 40 knots, then we can at least read about it on the web. The Race is all about inventing the future through technological revolution ... and what better technology to foster, than speedy transport by sail. Today there are few commercial reasons to improve the technology of sail: Shipping is almost exclusively by diesel-powered ship. The great ere of the clipper, and the downeaster, faded long before they reached their potential. The history of sail is a sad one indeed. Yacht racing is all we have left. Thank goodness for generous sponsors. A new breed of yacht, a new breed of weatherman The Race is all about creating a new breed of super yacht, capable of sailing beyond 650 nautical miles in 24 hours - twice the speed of the clippers. It is all about pitting crew and boat together, racing through extreme conditions. But more than anything, The Race is about exploring the globe's great weather systems, and harnessing some of that tremendous energy for sail. Already we know that these machines will travel at the speed of weather: They will be able to lock onto an eastward-bound frontal system around 40 degrees south and will be able to ride it until that system stalls. These yachts will literally outrun the wind. Of course, they won't be doing tricks like that all the time. One bad move and they will slide off the back of the system, or it will develop over the top of them, delivering opposing winds when they might have expected winds from abeam. The Race is as much a contest between the world's greatest weather routers, as it is a match between sailors and their futuristic craft. Already we know, from the likes of Roger Badham, Bob Rice and Ken Campbell that these modern multihulls like nothing better than 18-20 knots off the beam - nothing like the 40 knots of wind up the clacker demanded by heavier monohulls like the Volvo 60s, or even the Open 60s used in the Vendee Globe. The Race will be all about choosing moderate wind flow for maximum efficiency. It will involve the clever avoidance of nasty low pressure cells in the Southern Ocean - an indeed nasty frontal advances in the North Atlantic. In fact, the first trick may well be routing these monster multihulls out of the Straits of Gibralter, if typical westerlies prevail at the start on New Year's Eve. One thing multihulls in general and catamarans in particular hate most is tacking through the wind! Structural teething problems Sure the new generation of maxi-multihull will face (has already face) a multitude of structural problems. Team Philips disastrous destruction is a case in point. It will come as no surprise if no one actually finishes, but our money is on the Gilles Ollier-designed Multiplast-built cats - Club Med, Team Adventure and Code one, along with the Morrelli & Melvin-designed, Cooksons-built Playstation. Certainly Playstation and Club Med have had the most time on the water to iron out problems. Whatever the case, The Race will be one to watch as we head into a new millennium. And, as race organiser Bruno Peyron has said: "Five years from now when these boats have stopped breaking and are clocking up 700 mile days, we will wonder what all the fuss was about." More great reading: The Race headquarters. Read about the exciting lead up to the The Race.
© weather-wise.com 2000 |