6:38 AM Sat 23 May 2009 GMT
Ericsson 4 has emerged from a Stealth Play with a reduced lead in the Volvo Ocean Race, however the current race leader is still expected to win leg 7, due to finish in Galway Bay, early Sunday morning, local time.
Most of the fleet have now engaged in a Stealth play, which means their positions are kept secret from the outside world and their competitors.
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It seems that most elected to go into Stealth Play mode about the time they turned right to join up with the Great Circle route for the final stretch in Galway Bay.
The big winner over the past few hours would appear to be the US entry, Puma Racing, which broke a rudder yesterday. Puma Racing has lifted into second place, and is expected to finish with a reduced margin on Ericsson 4, cutting her lead at the finsih to about 17nm from the 30nm previously expected.
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Puma Racing did not go as far north as Ericsson 3 and 4, and effectively cut the corner on the two Scandinavian entries.
The fleet is sailing in easing winds - down to a mere 25kts, and the winds are expected to moderate further as the leaders near the Irish coast ahead of a second frontal system. The arrival of that system will have a significant efefct on the remainer of the race, with ericsson 4 expected to be sailing in just 10kts of wind as she is 30nm out from Galway Bay while 40nm behind her the other competitors will be in winds double that strength.
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Three of the competitors, Telefonica Blue, Green Dragon and Delta Lloyd are still in the Stealth Play, having gone into this phase later than the race leaders, but they are not expected to have pulled any surprises in the overall picture.
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The images used in this story have been generated by Expeditionwhich is a tactical and navigation software application which has been developed by veteran Volvo Ocean Race navigator and Whitbread winner, physicist Nick White, initially for his use in the 2001-2 Volvo Ocean Race with Team News Corp and the Stars & Stripes Americas Cup team.
Since then, Expeditionhas been continually refined by a core group of world-renowned navigators and two-time America's Cup winning navigator Peter Isler has consulted closely in the development of the system. Expedition supports more instrument systems, is easier to use and has the most powerful and useful functions for the racing navigator.
Expedition is now has PredictWind integrated into the application as an option for PredictWind subscribers.
The wind data and prognosis used to produce these images also uses software developed by PredictWind, an application developed by Jon Bilger a top NZ youth and Olympic sailor who turned his hand to wind and weather prediction, and helped Alinghi to their outstanding victories in the last two America's Cups.
Now that same technology is available to the weekend sailing and club racers, the cruising fraternity or professional sailors around the world. Select any region in the world of interest to you and PredictWindwill monitor the area for you and provide updated predictions on demand.
PredictWind is a subscription system, with a number of options. While some may feel the wind is free, the ability to get a five day detailed wind forecast for an area of interest creates great peace of mind, allowing forward planning and decision making to be made with some certainty. The time and money saved through being able to work with a high degree of confidence, is more than offset by the relatively small cost of the subscription.
But don't take our word for it, get PredictWindnow and have a 30 day trial for free, and see for yourself.
by Richard Gladwell
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