Today's Sailing News 

The Atlantic

The Atlantic Ocean is home to the leading duo in The Race. They
are sailing the South Atlantic along the South American coast.

Club Med leads by 930 miles and is planning a direct and fast course
to the finish. Innovation Explorer will be putting into play a strategy
from the you can't win by following play book. 
Already they have taken a more easterly option. Loick Peyron has
Innovation Explorer at 25° west longitude to Club Med's 33° west. In
the last 24 hours the strategy has not been a gainer.

However, the strategy is implemented with the long term in mind.
Xavier Dagault explains:"Our tracking off to the West is our
last chance. It won't be any use for us to line up behind Club Med. We hope it will pay-off when we cross the Doldrums."

On board the leader Club Med the steady SE trades have been found.
According to Grant Dalton, "Then suddenly the last big cloud cleared us
and it was as if someone had flicked a switch, 15-18 knots of wind, stable
and steady. That was about 12 hours ago."

In the North Altantic Marc Thiercelin is on an unpleasant odyssey
to finish in 4th place in the Vendee Globe. Here's what Thiercelin reported
over the weekend: "Upwind I can’t push this boat above 10 knots on average...Normally I’m like Ellen, I don’t like coming in, and prefer to continue, but for once I am so desperate to get in!...I’m sailing upwind, in a breeze which shifts 30 degrees each time in direction. I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night, the sea was just grey and empty, and the air cold."

Behind him Josh Hall had to climb to the top of his mast. Here he found a broken main halyard sheave which was keeping him from reducing sail. Hall termed the climb of EBP-Gartmore's mast, "It was quite the hardest thing I have ever done at sea."

Thiercelin should finally make his 4th place finish a reality tomorrow in France.

Times Clipper Update

Today marks the return of Sailing Daily's Times Clipper Update. The 8 boat fleet has left Hawaii for to sail west across the Pacific, off one side of the map and to the finish on the maps other side in Yokohama Japan. 

The leg will see some trade winds sailing to begin with. Then a crossing of the International date line. This will switch the longitude  line on their GPS displays to east.

The distance for this leg is 3750 miles. As a reference point  the outright record for this route is held by Steve Fossett sailing a
60 foot trimaran. His time 16 days an average of 11.29 knots. The fleet of Clipper mono hulls is expected to arrive in around 20 days or so.

Today's Fleet Update:

Leader: Jersey Clipper by 22 miles

Best 24 Hour Run: Portsmouth Clipper 195 miles 

Position: Fleet spread from 20 to 26 degrees north latitude. As often
happens the middle seems best. Jersey is at 23°, Portsmouth with the 
best 24 hour distance is at 22°.
Current Weather: Light headwinds

Weather Forecast: NE to NW winds.

BT Challenge

Leg 4 of the BT Challenge began in Wellington New Zealand. It's a short leg north across the Tasman Sea to Sydney Australia.
The 12 boat fleet started at 1300 local time. Before beginning  their passage to Australia they sailed a course within Wellington harbor.

The fleet made it through the buoy racing portion OK.

As they headed out of Wellington harbor to start making miles on the
1230 mile leg, there was a collision between Quadstone and Save the Children.
Quadstone was on port, Save the Children on the right of way tack
which is starboard. Quadstone simply failed to duck her opponent. 

Save the Children skipper Nick Fenton was injured in the incident.
He received facial injuries and nearly went overboard.

After the incident the boats were ordered ashore. Here they have
been hauled with damage to each being assessed. It appears as thought Save
the Children had the worst of the damage mostly to the hull/deck joint. Quadstone's damage is in the bow area.
Until a full damage assessment has been done, it's unclear what 
penalties will be meted out, or when or if the boats will continue.

Today's BT Challenge Update:

Leader: Spirit of Hong Kong by 1 mile

Best 24 Hour Run: Spirit of Hong Kong 125 miles 

Position: Still in New Zealand waters
Current Weather: East force 3

Weather Forecast: SW Force 3

All Oceans over the Weekend

There was a fair amount of sailing action over this Northern 
Hemisphere winter weekend. All three of the globes major oceans, Atlantic, Pacific and Indian has major sailing action on their waters. Today's SD
covers it all below.

Head to the Sailing Daily Forum and discuss sailing!

Today's Vendee Globe Report 

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 Today's Sailing News 

Olympic Sailing:Indian Ocean

The Tornado catamaran the only multi hull class in the Olympics is
currently holding its world championships. For the last time the class is
sailing without spinnakers. Future regattas will see the catamarans flying
spinnakers.

20 two person teams are sailing the regatta in South Africa. The
fleet has no North American teams.

Darren Bundock and John Forbres of Australia stayed consistently
at the front of the fleet to win the World title. They won 7 of the 9 races sailed.

The current Olympic Gold Medalists from Austria fought back to take 2nd place. The had all top 3 finishes in the last 5 races.

The British team of Styles and May finished 3rd. They aced the
Netherlands team of Booth and Hendricksen by 1 point.  

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean and specifically Wellington New Zealand was quite
a sailing hub this weekend. Boats from three around the world races were sailing its waters.

Wellington

The Race Class catamaran Team Adventure began the weekend in 
Wellington. Repairs were being completed to the 110 foot catamaran.

Warta-Polpharma the 3rd place boat in The Race also payed a brief
technical visit to the New Zealand capital. They stated only for a few
hours so their Satellite communications system could be brought back online. They were off once again Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile as at her first stop Team Adventure would once again be
losing crew. Yann Eliés will be stepping off due to a back injury. He said ". I will be coming back to race again and to pass Cape Horn with my head high. I don't want to round the famous Cape lying flat in my bunk."

Although eligible to leave Sunday, Team Adventure chose to stay on doing more prep work. Work included working on the satellite system, lifting the wing mast to lubricate its rotator ball and taking on fresh provisions.

When Team Adventure does leave they will have 9 crew on board. They
feel this will be enough to sail the boat although perhaps not on top form.

Finally this morning it has become known that Team Legato will be stopping in Wellington. It's likely that Team Legato will lose three  crew to medical and personal reasons. Tony Bullimore will spend a minimum of 60 hours in Wellington as this is his team's 2nd pit stop. He has also indicated that he will carry on with only 7 crew.

While Team Legato was coming in, Team Adventure was exiting 
Wellington. The 9 man crew of Team Adventure will face variable, moderate winds as they begin to chase down Warta-Polpharma.