Clipper Race: Light and variable winds hamper progress to Panama

(April 28, 2014) – With less than a hundred miles now separating the entire Clipper Race fleet, Jamaica Get All Right’s gamble to head further east is so far paying off as the team takes the lead in Race 11 – the PSP Logistics Panama 100 Cup.

With the fleet approaching Acapulco along the Mexican mainland, Jamaica Get All Right skipper Pete Stirling knows the race is still far from decided. “Going east seems to have paid off for the moment as YellowBrick had us in first place at the last position update we received at 00:00 UTC. This is great news but there is still a long way to go in this race and as conditions get lighter it will require a lot of focus from the crew and good tactics to maintain a position at the front end of the fleet,” he said.

“As Sir Robin Knox-Johnston says, ‘Any fool can make a boat go fast in strong wind but keeping it going in light winds requires real skill’. The good news has given the crew new energy and drive to carry on pushing as hard as we possibly can to try and get a good result in this race.”

Meanwhile, as the light and variable winds continue to hamper the fleet’s progress, Derry~Londonderry~Doire and Team Garmin have both selected to activate Stealth Mode. Following on from Switzerland’s successful Stealth Mode request last week which saw the team climb five places on the leaderboard, Derry~Londonderry~Doire’s position will be hidden from the rest of the fleet and the Race Viewer until 0600 UTC tomorrow. Team Garmin’s position will be hidden until 1200 UTC tomorrow.

While the close match racing continues Matt Mitchell, skipper of Mission Performance, commented today in his skipper report that, “This has definitely got to be one of the closest races so far as there is a very small spread considering we have been racing for well over 1000 miles.” As tactics start to play out, skipper of Invest Africa Rich Gould hopes that the team’s most southerly position will pay off in the long run. Skipper Rich Gould explains:

“Although the Race Viewer is currently showing us sitting in eleventh place at the moment, we are the most southerly boat in the fleet and also the most westerly. It’s the east west distance that has been responsible for our slide down the leaderboard. Looking at the forecast we decided to split a little from the fleet to try and gain a better wind angle a little further down the race track. Only time will tell if it was a good move or not.”

Report by event media.

Skipper reports: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/skipper-reports
Race tracker: http://yb.tl/clipper2013-race11
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.

Twelve teams started the 3,350 mile leg from San Francisco, USA to Panama on April 19, and are expected to arrive by May 10.

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.