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På söndag går starten för Barcelona World Race. Flyget lyfter fredag till ett sommarvarmt Barcelona. Ett tufft jobb, men nån måste göra det!

Här har ni det otroligt snygga och matiga programmet. Så skall ett program se ut. Initerade artiklar och otroliga bilder. Nåt för VOR och Gotland Runt att ta efter.

Favoriterna på “PRB”, Vincent Riou & Seb Josse. Två bra navigatörer med koll på sin båt. Om allt håller skall de vinna lätt. Min tvåa är Alex Thomson & Andrew Cape i “Hugo Boss”. Han brukar alltid köra sönder sina båtar, men den här gången… kanske…

För er som går igång på sånt kommer här en snabb översikt från racets väder-koordinator, Jean-Francois Bonnin:

A speciality of the Barcelona World Race naturally lies in its Mediterranean section, which shapes the start and finish of the event. And it’s not merely a cliché, the Med is really a capricious area in terms of weather! In November, the entrants can expect many surprises as far as the trajectories of low pressure systems are concerned, since those are very difficult to anticipate.

Furthermore, the local effects are numerous, notably in the descent from Barcelona to the Alboran sea. This sea can be either very calm or extremely rough and in a few miles one can go from no wind at all, to a sudden 40 knots on the nose. The Straits of Gibraltar passage is generally dominated by two main wind directions: it will either be a downwind run if easterlies are blowing, or a very tricky upwind route against westerlies in the middle of busy commercial shipping lanes… If this unfavourable configuration is on the menu, the sea state also tends to be very rough, since the Atlantic swell coming from the west tries to enter the strait – in that case, watch out for boat-breaking, choppy conditions. The essential factor in order to handle the Mediterranean section in the best way possible will be to know how to avoid light wind zones and to make the most of the local effects. It will almost look like an inshore regatta, since big tactical moves will not be very likely – strategy will be focussed on the upcoming 12 to 24 hours maximum and the refined analysis of weather data will be crucial at this stage.

The entry in the Atlantic Ocean and the route towards the Doldrums, or Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), should come down to a sheer speed race. The crews will look for a passage through the Canary Islands, in order to try and take advantage of a possible wind acceleration due to a “tunnel effect”. Now the tricky part will be to avoid getting trapped in the light patches leeward of the islands, which might happen to those who may be tempted to take a short cut too early and make progress towards the west. Big tactical choices might be made if the Trade Winds are not steady and a low settles on the Canaries. In that case, it will be a matter of anticipating the evolution of the system. But if the Trades are punctual, everybody will try and get through the Doldrums at the same spot: at this time of year, the best ITCZ “door” is around 30° W, and in the best case scenario, crossing that tricky zone takes 48 to 72 hours.

But it’s very risky to make assumptions regarding that area, because a windless bubble can spread over 300 miles, or only be 40 miles long on a north – south axis. Yet the crews of the Barcelona World Race will have access to Quickscat data, which consists of real time wind patterns generated by satellite observations with the information refreshed every 12 hours. This will be a very valuable tool in order to deal with the Doldrums.

Once out of this sailors’ nightmare, the crews have to go through a race gate located close to the Fernando de Noronha islands, before facing the Saint Helena High Pressure System challenge: a major obstacle on their way to the Roaring 40s. The big light wind zone has to be avoided by sailing around its western edge, and the boats will switch to a south-easterly course roughly starting from 20°S. The objective is then to enter the Southern Ocean as soon as possible, in order to get on the “low pressure systems train”.

The weather models are quite accurate for that zone, and we should see very pure trajectories in this section of the racecourse. The first Ice Gate is positioned just before Race Gate N°4, which is under the Cape of Good Hope, and the second one is around Heard Island: at this stage, the crews are already between the Roaring 40s and Furious 50s, with all the storm threats this implies. Furthermore, the Indian Ocean swells are huge, since waves easily reach 8 to 9 meters in height – imagine that in 50 knots of
wind! The likely route should be between the Kerguelen and Heard Islands, unless an active low pressure system working its way northwards forces the crews to climb up in latitude –it is only in this situation where we may see the boats leaving the Kerguelen Archipelago to starboard.

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