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Another fast cat joins the 500 club Warta Polpharma's exit from the South Atlantic reinforces the special nature of this ocean corner. Meanwhile, Club Med sets a record Indian Ocean crossing thanks to steady westerly winds January 25, 2001 The Polish crew aboard Warta Polpharma can hold their heads proud after a dazzling exit from that tar-pit called the South Atlantic High: They sailed 506.4 nautical miles over 24 hours between January 25-26 to claim third place more than one-third the way around the world. It is no surprise that the boat sailed those miles. Race headquarters reports that under her former name of Commodore Explorer, Bruno Peyron - The Race organiser - set a mark of 547.3 miles during an Atlantic record attempt in November 1995. Although the Atlantic record did not fall, Commodore Explorer did achieve the best 24 hour performance figure. In 1999, the same boat on a New York/Azores crossing logged several days over the 500 mile mark, covering 2050 miles in only four days. What is fast? So, is 506.4 miles all that impressive? Sure. Sort of. Club Med and Team Adventure have been reeling off 500 plus days for the last week and as of today, Grant Dalton, Franck Proffitt and crew set a new record for crossing the Indian Ocean from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Leeuwin - seven days and 14 hours. Ho, hum. Ok, ok. The new Gilles Ollier cats are really big boats. But then again, the Bourgnon brothers' Open 60 trimeran Bayer En France, better known as Primagaz, delivered her crew a whopping 625.34 nautical miles in 24 hours, smashing the previous record for the class of 540 miles (held by the same boat), during the Quebec St Malo race last August. At the time, Bayer was riding an 18-24 knot south-west wind ahead of a front, pushing into an area of ocean previously dominated by high pressure. There was no sea, there was only an opportunity to go fast. Very fast. In fact, they averaged more than 26.8 knots, and would have beat Club Med's record of 625.7 miles, except for a stop-watch error. What makes Warta Polpharma's recent milestone so interesting is that it, too, took place on flat seas with a fresh frontal system delivering steady westerly winds in the order of 20-25 knots. slick seas Thanks to a persistent high pressure cell, which has remained throughout the Austral summer, this corner of the South Atlantic has produced several monster mile days for racing yachts this year. Team Adventure recorded 617.44 miles as she left the South Atlantic High and entered westerly winds south of latitude 40. Indeed, she may have pushed too hard - certainly her router Ken Campbell had predicted the potential to break Club Med's distance record only the day before. She is now behind Warta after an enforced call at Cape Town to repair her forward beam and retire two crew due to injuries when she fell off the back of a wave. Anyway, Club Med - only a hundred plus miles ahead of Team Adventure, logged 596.77 miles as it left the South Atlantic High and during the Vendee Globe, Yves Parlier and then Dominic Wavre broke the Open 60 monohull 24 hour distance record. It now stands at 430 miles. Great sailing if you can get it! © weather-wise.com 2001 Fleet positions Warta Polpharma (yellow line) jibes to the west, after a week of frustrating battles with high pressure in the South Atlantic. Note the low pressure cell to her south - which would be generating north-west winds ahead of its frontal cloud - and the ridge of high pressure to her east. Thanks to that ridge, there are no cross seas coming from opposing directions. Fleet positions One day after this position report, Warta Polpharma had logged more than 500 miles, and her new crew officially became members of a special club. The big contributing factor here was calm seas, the result of dominant high pressure, and steady westerly winds. Meanwhile, Club Med and Team Adventure have been notching up so many 500 plus mile days, that it is all becoming something of a routine! Picture courtesy of Virtual Spectator. 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. How Yvan Bourgnon nearly beat Club med in an Open 60 trimeran! Re-live the Sydney to Hobart yacht race! Break ice in the Ross Sea! |