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Board » Flag Officers » Races » Maui-Mazatlan Log

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I just happened to see that my little vessel could be seen in Schakel´s very nice screendump here above. Would just take the opportunity to say that you should not count me in at all in this race. It's been a bit much “Soling” the last few weeks (turkey was a pretty tough story, I am also racing Iberia right now), so I just sent my boat off in this offshorererace with no intentions at all. After a total DC error disaster first night, when I actually was in the lead and was heading north, I instead ended up in somekind of halfwind in a S-SE direction, don´t ask me why (could it be that the DC:s where put in after a late “dinner”? :).
Therefore I decided to go towards an expriment so deeply, that a miner would be envious. My thought was to go as deep as 8S somewhere to find the stable winds south of the tropical easterlies.

I have not looked after my boat that much, just let it go on a bit random TWA's to eventually find a passage through the tropical easterlies and get down to the more stable S-SW winds. The approach was in no means optimal, got stuck pretty hard ... :) When I write this, it perhaps looks like I have managed to get through the worst mud (even though the winds still are very, very light) and hopefully can start looking forward to a little more half winds and eventually even a bit downwind to get some momentum in this boat. But I am now about 330 nm behind the leader with 2100nm to go -> it would mean that on average I have to fly 15% faster than everyone else in the fleet and also be forced to come through the tropical easterlies again in a northerly direction again, not the best combination ... I take this as a nice little tourist cruise near the equator and I am happy if I do not come last to the finish .... :-)

Very nice initiative with a log by the way, we should have this as a standard feature of the long offshore races I think. Personally, I would think that it would be very nice to have a round-the-world-race some time in SOL, for example, with our beloved VO-70 boat? Fair Winds, over and out from your extreme southerly outpost! /theviking71


--- Last Edited by theviking71 at 2010-09-10 13:10:56 ---
Days 4-5 have been well described!

Suffice to say both Group North and Group South are nervous with every update.

"Georgette" could step onstage anytime and change everything!

GibneyJr owned the paper Lead until recently, when Lakis took the point.

More boats are clumped near the Rhumb Line than before, but the stalwarts are sticking to plan, North and South.

Jeba is already at 11.7n but far west. The clump between 12.5-13.6, includes Spackel, 76T, Malicovvv, and Windegg.
From up here in the far north (sailing in company with a couple of Italians who are a few miles ahead of me). I've liked the last three updates. If things continue as projected there should be a big lift for us in the next three days. Then mostly a reach into and past Cabo.
I may fall off a bit in the next 12~15 hours so's to have a decent angle toward Cabo. I need to see a couple more updates before deciding on that.

Seems most of the fleet is just north of the Great Circle Route from Maui. They're pretty much on VMG at apx 6.5~7 kts toward Cabo. Jepson and Exmer are represtitive of that group. I'm a bit under 50 mi behind them toward Mazatlan, but I'm pretty much on course to there at a bit over 9 kts.

As for the boats way to the south, they've made huge progress toward Mazatlan, but have a large hole forming in front to climb up out of.

We'll see how this all shakes out in the next 72 hours.
Sept. 11 1030 update

The pendulum keeps swinging North!

As Capt. Jack mentioned the boats to the far North are starting to reap the benefits of what they sowed. NZL_undercover & company are sitting in a very strong position strategically and are currently looking at about a 1.5 hr. lead as I write this. The key to northern boats success currently lies in the fact that the braintrain (brainaid & company) and the Exmer Express (Exmeromotu & company) will both have to take a 45nm detour North sometime in the next 24 hours. Undercover & company easily fetch Cabo without any maneuvers. It's a game of angles vs. pressure and it will be fun to watch how it plays out. For all practical purposes any boat at or near the front eastern edge of the fleet on a line from Jepsom to NZL_undercover has a more than decent chance of winning this race. We've got roughly two thirds of this race to go and Mazatlan is a long ways away so anything can happen.

The southern group is running out of steam with each update as their approach to Cabo is filled with a lot of obstacles weather wise. Their best bet looks like to slowly start making their way up North to try and avoid all the weather near Isla Clarion. They are looking at roughly a 20 hour deficit to NZL_undercover. It was a risky move going south. You know what they say... the higher the risk the bigger the rewards and although it certainly doesn't look good for them, Tropical weather can change pretty quickly and put them back in the hunt.

This is Exmeromotu... Whiskey, Yankee, Lima 2158 over and out!

--- Last Edited by Exmeromotu at 2010-09-11 12:28:45 ---

--- Last Edited by Exmeromotu at 2010-09-11 12:29:24 ---
Gilles 26N 138W 19:00 UTC
holding the north outpost.
since same days the ranking is getting better, the main question is still, as it was for the south group: is this far, far enought?
Despite some navigational correction the chance to make a nice finish are increasing.
as usual the game is angle vs. pressure and the crew is a little worried about the 1knot more of TWS that the braintrain will have in the next days with similar angles....
we are anyhow have the pleasure to navigate on a side of Ita, Winston, Tempest, K3, Undercover, JasonA and Capitan Nemo....
Will the leader pop up out of this group? answer will be given in about one week...
navigation is very relaxing with small correction every couple of days and a lot of sleeping ( needed to recover from excellent roud of Turkey ;-) )
from the deep north
cheers
Gilles
Sept 13 1030 update

Everybody is pretty much "dialed in" or "slotted" in to their lanes. Someone out of the northern group will win this race. That is a fact. Who? The strongest position right now belongs to NZL_undercover & company but I strongly believe that ANYBODY in the "Front Row" on a line from olejakob to Gilles (both of them included) have a pretty good chance to win this.

Gibney Jr. continues to lead this race on the courageous southern route. The southern option will fall apart in the coming days but the kid has to be commended for his efforts. Well Done Jr!

Windegg, 76T and company are sailing in Southwesterlies as we speak but I have no idea how they will make the transition north again. I know Huatulco is very nice at this time of the year and you don't have to take your kites down to get there! ;)

Its just a matter of stacking every ounce of equipment on the weather rail, hiking hard and trying to keep your bow down. Let the chips fall where they may...

Cheers
Sept. 14 1030 update

The weather has been pretty steady for those north of the ITCZ. The front pack is a bit more than 6 days away so we are pretty much on WYSIWYG weather. With every update we will see what the wind will do on the approach to Cabo, as this will probably determine who wins this race. If the wind stays in a NW'esterly direction the middle of the pack boats (olejakob, Exmeromotu & co.) will have the advantage, if it keeps shifting to the WNW and then to the W the northerly boats (NZL_undercover, brainaid & co.) will have the advantage.

The boats down south (but north of the ITCZ) Lakis, Gibney Jr. and NZL Paul still have a pretty good chance to do well. They should fetch Mazatlan without any tacks and what was once a approx. a 12 hour deficit is now only approx. a 4 hour deficit. Not that much has to happen weather wise for them to "make it stick". Although they are 400-440 nm farther south, they still hold about a 120 nm lead on an west to east gauge.

6 days to go it is still anybody's race.

Cheers

Exmeromotu
LAT N 22°50.1469'
LON W 130°33.1291'
DTG 1331.55NM
Sept. 15 1030 update

The leading edge of the boats up north will probably rendezvous around 100nm SW of Cabo San Lucas. From there on the fleet will be sailing side by side in the same conditions and attention to detail and time at the helm will probably decide this. NZL_undercover's position has strengthened as of this update. Brainaid, Exmeromotu, and Olejakob will try and challenge from a more southerly approach to Cabo, but Undercover should fend off such challenges.

The comments of the last update still apply, the rate of speed of the Westerly shift on the approach to Cabo will favor one group. Right now the pendulum keeps swinging towards Undercover & company... but 5 days to go is an eternity as far as tropical weather is concerned. For all practical purposes this is still anybody's race.

Cheers!

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