Wind hole frustration on Clipper Race

(April 12, 2014) – The light winds which were forecast around the finish line into San Francisco bay have created a frustrating end to race 10 for Team Garmin, who with just over 60 miles left to complete the 5,600 mile race to San Francisco are struggling in just 3 knots of wind.

Skipper of Team Garmin, Jan Ridd shares his frustration as his team is almost in touching distance of Golden Gate Bridge, “How frustrating is this. We sail over 6,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean, to get 65 miles from the finish to end up struggling to sail in under 3 knots of wind.

“We were aware of a large patch of light airs around the finish area as the boats ahead of us showed in the schedules. All was going well as we increased our sail, as the wind strength dropped, we then hoisted our medium weight spinnaker to bear away and sail a tight angle reaching with the spinnaker.

“Everything seemed to be working out to plan for once, but somewhere in my past I must have been very bad as the wind slowly backed to the worst possible direction exactly 180 degrees from the direction we need to sail, meaning we had no chance of sailing our course.”

PSP Logistics position was broadcast at 0600 UTC this morning after a period of 48 hours in Stealth Mode. With Jamaica Get All Right remaining in Stealth Mode until 1800 UTC today, only time will tell if PSP Logistics have managed to improve on their position within the fleet in the closing stages of Race 10. Skipper, Chris Hollis reflects on the frustrating conditions of the last 48 hours:

“As I write this we are 3 hours away from coming out of Stealth Mode. I don’t really expect much change in our position but hopefully we have made a couple of miles up on Jamaica Get All Right and Mission Performance.

“The last 48 hours have painful in term of course. The wind has been coming from exactly where we want to go and sometimes, even a little south of east. We did try and tack briefly to see what heading we could achieve heading north east, but as suspected, it was worse than terrible!”

The latest ETAs into San Francisco will be updated here.

Report by event media

Skipper reports: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/skipper-reports
Race tracker: http://yb.tl/clipper2013-race10
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.

Eleven teams started the 5,600 mile leg from Qingdao, China to San Francisco, USA on March 16. PSP Logistics started the leg on March 19, a result of their late arrival into China due to several setbacks.

All twelve teams are expected in San Francisco by April 13, subject to prevailing conditions. The fleet will be berthed at South Beach Yacht Club until the April 19 start of Race 11 to the Panama Canal. During the Clipper Race’s stay at South Beach Yacht Club, San Francisco there will be several events open to the public.

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 in July.