|
Sail: Weather links: Stormwatch: La
Nina: Profiles: Surf: Sky: Polar: Ocean: Fire: Drought: Weatherfacts: Books: Products: |
Favourable start ... But what about those headwinds in the Straits? The six catamarans entered in The Race January 3, 2001 What is going on with The Race? Many of us simply don't know, because interest is so great that it is beyond the capacity of The Race servers to cope with the number of hits. For the moment we have been satisfying our thirst by tracking weather trends in the Med and Eastern Atlantic and wait with interest on the six catamaran entries' progress. It looks like they started with favourable winds from the north, cycling around the backside of a low centred over Sardinia, but they face westerly winds in the wake of a frontal system as they approach the Straits of Gibralter. One of the big worries for weather routers Roger Badham (Club Med) and Bob Rice (Playstation) has been getting the big multihulls through the narrow straits into the teeth of a blustery west wind. Hmmm!
Anyway, the East Atlantic looks cut and dried once they escape the straits,
and expect big miles sailed towards the Canaries and Cape Verde Islands.
Remember - these big cats require just 14-18 knots to perform at their peak!
The doldrums - or the inter-tropical convergence zone will be the next tricky
spot on the map.
Hopefully www.therace.org will have bumped up their server capacity by then! Image courtesy of Meteoconsult and The Race This low, centred over Sardinia, provided favourable winds for the start of The Race on December 31 from Barcelona (about where the 1010 hPa tag lies, to the west of the low's centre.) The northerly winds generated by the low - it looks from this map that winds are in the vicinity of 30-35 knots from Barcelona towards the south west. This is actually too much wind for peak performance, but good miles should have resulted. Now, look at the pressure map below: Check out that blue cold front line approaching the east coast of Spain - where the fleet of six cats should be sailing. First the cold front, then westerly winds behind - just as the big multihulls in The Race are approaching the narrow Straits of Gibralter! As any multihull sailor knows, tacking a big cat through the wind - especially a strong wind - as difficult at best. Image courtesy of UK Met Bureau. © weather-wise.com 2001 |