Conditions testing Clipper Race crews

(June 13, 2014) – Conditions are testing the Clipper Race crews with headsail changes taking place on the foredeck in 3 metre waves amidst changeable winds.

The 12 teams began Race 14, the 2850 mile leg from New York City to Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on June 7.

The crews are also on iceberg watch and regularly monitoring the water temperature as they near an area known for drifting ice floating down through the Labrador Current.

The boats at the front of the fleet are experiencing stronger wind of around 30 knots after it veered round to the north after a series of frontal squalls 36 hours ago.

Jan Ridd, skipper of Team Garmin, currently in sixth, said: “The conditions have been very testing with the wind changing strength and direction making the crew’s job doubly hard as they continuously adjust the sail plan to match the conditions.

“Earlier this morning the graph function on the Garmin radar/chart plotter showed the wind strength going from 8 knots to 25 knots in a regular pattern of about 15 minutes. As soon as we had identified this we could prepare to put in reefs and shake them out.”

Chris Hollis, skipper of PSP Logistics, in eighth position, said: “The wind at the moment is really all over the shop. It is shifting 40 degrees in a matter of seconds, and dropping and increasing up 15 knots in an instant.

“All this makes it very hard to set the sails for a desired course. The helms are doing a great job in guiding us through the conditions. We are pushing the boat hard to keep pace, or rather, outpace our rivals. One boat in particular is Jamaica Get All Right, whom schedule after schedule is posting big numbers. I don’t know what they are doing there, but they are doing it right at the moment.”

Report by event media.

Skipper reports: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/skipper-reports
Crew diaries: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/crew-diaries
Race tracker: http://yb.tl/clipper2013-race14
Race website: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com

Background:
The 40,000 mile Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Yacht Race began in London, UK on September 1 for the fleet of twelve identical Tony Castro designed Clipper 70s.

The 12 teams began Race 14, the 2850 mile leg from New York City to Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on June 7. The fleet is estimated to arrive by June 21.

The race route includes Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Cape Town, South Africa; Albany, Sydney, Hobart and Brisbane, Australia; Singapore; Qingdao, China; San Francisco, USA; Panama; Jamaica; New York, USA; Derry-Londonderry, Ireland; and Den Helder, Netherlands before returning to London on July 12.