New York Barcelona - High tension in the Mediterranean

4:30 PM Sun 18 Apr 2010 GMT

'W Hotels in the Mediterranean - New York Barcelona 2010' Laura Carrau / FNOB

Virtually stuck in a wind hole, a handful of miles off Almeria, making just around four knots of boat speed in three or four knots of wind, the New York Barcelona Transoceanic Sailing Record leaders Estrella Damm were doing all they could to avoid falling prey to the consistent advances of W Hotels.

Estrella Damm's rivals were further offshore Sunday afternoon, more than twice as quick, and the co-skippers considering their strategic choice: whether to step further out in search of the corridor of better breeze they felt they had identified, or to stick with profiting from the light headwinds which were still serving the W Hotels trio Pachi Rivero, To?o Piris, and Peter Becker well.

April in the Mediterranean can be complex and frustrating. No one is predicting if the final 380 miles to the two IMOCA Open 60's home port of Barcelona and the finish line, will take 48 hours... or until Friday. It is that hard to compute, and impossible to guess. And in these conditions, strategy is something of a high wire act, with no safety net. Close to the coast there is theoretically more chance of some thermally generated sea breeze, but there can also be conflicting breezes which simply cancel out the sea breeze, and the result is hours sitting at crawling speeds waiting for the breeze to improve.

The two teams may take some pride in the speed of both of their Atlantic crossings, but the ultimate goal is to be first across the finish line. Estrella Damm's Pepe Ribes and Alex Pella are both Med sailors who cut their teeth racing offshore and, if W Hotels could pass them, it might only add to their disappointment to be beaten by compatriots Rivero and Piris who originate from the north coast of Spain. In truth the latter pair have spent many, many years racing on these Mediterranean waters too, indeed Rivero is now based in Palma, Majorca, but there is still a small underlying desire to give their home fans a result to share in.

Conditions were very mixed this afternoon, requiring constant attention and sail trimming. As well as the unexpected squalls there were periods of calms, as well as brilliant sunshine, and variable winds to test the patience of both crews.

W Hotels advance has amounted to over 100 miles by early Sunday afternoon, reducing their losses due to their mechanical failure, to something around a net 40 miles. How long can they keep catching Estrella Damm?

Quotes

Pachi Rivero (ESP) co-skipper W Hotels: "We have decided to go a little further off the coast but the wind shifted and went directly ahead, so we are thinking just now whether to go further out or not. We have a wind from 140 degrees and its was 89 so it has headed us a lot and we need to make the decision whether to go further offshore or not. It was really hard going for us as we passed Tarifa and then we decided not to go too close to Malaga because we know it can be tricky in there, where you could really stuck and it would be hard to get out of there. We are about 36 miles from the coast. We can see this little channel of wind which we are going to try and use, but it might be a bit tricky still. And To?o is seeing some little swirly squalls, like twisters, so we need to be careful and I gotta go so we can tack right now..."

Peter Becker (USA) co-skipper W Hotels: "The wind was easing as we got through (the Straits) in the early hours. The wind had unfortunately turned against us. It was a beat. But it has always been an eventful passage through the Strait. We are not sailing in a new breeze and doing the best that we can. The chances of catching Estrella Damm?........are up in the air..but we are just going to keep pushing until the end. Unfortunately there are not as many weather options as we would have liked. Perhaps the wind will get light, they will park up and we will find a passing lane!"

"There are only so many miles left, but it is still good, we can keep fighting. We have been sticking to the watches, other than when we were doing the mechanical repair. We really feel that keeping to the watch is keeping us in the game better. The atmosphere among us is really calm. Obviously people get really tired. We are working hard to work the boat, but also to make sure we recharge our batteries. We are very pleased with our advances, and we keep looking for more. We were hoping we would come through the Straits with a following wind, and catch up Estrella Damm when they were stuck in lighter airs. It did not work out like that unfortunately!"

"It is a stormy day on the Med with squalls. Some of them are attached with lightning, 10-15 knots breeze right now, and out of the squalls there is some brilliant sunshine. We have the masthead genoa and the full mainsail, doing ten knots of boat speed. Passing through the Straits was a very special feeling, it is a wonderful piece of real estate, a passage with a real history to it. We are 30 miles or so off the coast."

Alex Pella (ESP) co-skipper Estrella Damm: "We have very little wind, only about three knots. We are almost stopped, just before Almeria doing about four knots of boat speed. And we are very close to shore. When we came out of the channel we were doing around seven knots, but as we got closer to shore the winds were getting lighter. We are certainly getting quite worried about the guys behind because they are advancing quite quickly and we are pretty much stuck in this hole. But we cannot do very much to get out of here, because there is no more wind in front of us, so we just need to wait and see if we can get some puffs and get out of here. The mood is still pretty good. We are very happy about the time we did from New York to Gibraltar, it is a really good time to beat, but we know that April in the Med is very tricky. We know that the boat speed average that we have done up until Gibraltar will get all messed up. But Pepe and I, we are both from the Med, and we know what the weather can be like at this time of year. This is what it is, and this is sailing. It is very difficult to predict an ETA, nothing is clear at all."

Standings at 1300hrs GMT Sunday

1. Estrella Damm (ESP), Ribes, Pella, Schreyer: 384.1 miles to finish

2. W Hotels (ESP), Rivero, Piris, Becker: 447.1 miles to finish (+ 63 miles to leader)

Times as reported at Tarifa
Estrella Damm: Tarifa, 17/04 14h36min UTC, passage time from Ambrose Light NY: 8d 20h 02min
W Hotels: Tarifa 18/04 02h39min UTC, passage time from Ambrose Light NY: 9d 08h 03 min

by NY-BCN Transoceanic Sailing Record Media Centre