Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
I cannot help but compare Donald Alexander’s progress in the race to date as watching a yo-you go up and down. One minute you look and he’s going well, clawing his way to the front of the Class 40 pack, and the next he is languishing near the rear.
There may well be good reason for this, and as I don’t have first-hand knowledge won’t speculate other than to say that Donald is more than competent and will soon settle down into a rhythm with more consistency.
There has been some concern that he was over the line at the start, along with several others, and so far I have not yet been able to determine whether this was the case. There is a 4 hour penalty for starting early, so unless going for a podium place, it’s not a deal breaker.
Within hours of the start he also encountered some very strong currents which affected his progress, but once he had mastered those he was well on his way. That must have frustrated him as he said he felt he was going backwards at times! His boat speed has been good most of the time, so it’s the small errors that are the difference between being a front-runner and an also ran. Donald will get stronger as the race progresses. He’s in the pack and in touch with his rivals.
While they have had good weather so far, things could be changing as on Friday (today), the area of high pressure continues to build over Central Europe, while the low-pressure system will move rapidly north of Scotland. There will be a fairly strong air stream ahead of the front in the Atlantic, with a moderate SE’ly flow on the edge of the high affecting the Bay of Biscay. Tonight, the leading boats will be getting close to the cold front and see strengthening winds of around 30-35 knots gusting to 45 in the front. A heavy 4m swell will develop and seas become rough in the Southerly wind. By tomorrow morning the leaders should be on the other side of the front in a 15-18 knot WNW’ly wind, but this downwind sailing will not last long, as the wind will back to the SW late tomorrow. For the rest of the fleet, the aim will be to stay close to the front, which is moving very slowly, in order to take advantage of the fairly strong Southerly wind and avoid the lighter conditions developing on the other side of the front. Finally, for those further East in the Bay of Biscay, they can expect a 15-knot SSE’ly wind.
Single-handed ocean racing is not for the feint-hearted. Most of us would not get out of bed having read the above forecast, but these guys and girls have to ‘vasbyt’ and work through it all alone.
One thing for sure, Donald is made of stern stuff and he also knows how to ‘vasbyt’!
