ARC 2011 Well Underway

[steamgoat]

World Cruising Club Arc fleet viewer
Interesting to watch them spread out, weather looks much more 'normal' than last time.

[mbianka]

What's up with Stadium? A 21 meter catamaran pointing in the wrong direction at 0 knots while the others around it are doing 8+ knots.

[JJ77]

Originally Posted by mbianka

What's up with Stadium? A 21 meter catamaran pointing in the wrong direction at 0 knots while the others around it are doing 8+ knots.

Stadium is 10th in Multihulls,still has 1817 nm to go.
Interesting race,lots of interesting boats.The outremer 49 being chased by a catana 47& a wave 58.So far only 1 drop out,Panta Rei from Austria.

And what are those Russians doing so far north(Bepa),are they afraid they gonna melt?

[steamgoat]

Looks like the lead boats are only 24hrs from St Lucia,a record fast time,but just 100 miles behind them,and presently going faster,is the 40ft Akilaria,those guys must be fit!! almost living in a shell,spinnaker up 24/7 and no autopilot!!

[Hud3]

The Akilaria 40 was doing 14.8 kts just now on the ARC Viewer. The leader, a Whitbread Maxi was doing 11.8 kts. The Akilaria has a little better wind.

Here's a photo of a sister ship...

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by Hud3

The Akilaria 40 was doing 14.8 kts just now on the ARC Viewer. The leader, a Whitbread Maxi was doing 11.8 kts. The Akilaria has a little better wind.

The Akilaria 40 performance is amazing. Those guys deserve some applause when they get in.

The lerouge pulsar 50 is also doing spectacularly - keeping right up with the much bigger gunboat 66.

[estarzinger]

got to give that lerouge pulsar 50 great credit - beating the gunboat 66 in by 5 hours.

[Hud3]

I'm not familiar with the Pulsar 50, so I looked it up...



Now I understand why it's so fast!

The Alkilaria 40 is probably pulling in to Rodney Bay just about now.

[steamgoat]

Reading some of the blogs,a few boats are celebrating the half way point today!

[barnakiel]

Sad to watch Rayon Vert lose their all time lead only on the last night. They say their kite got blown the night before but I think it was the light conditions that took the win away from them French (only to give it to the French-Ruskis ;-). The picture above may actually be the same boat but now she is painted mostly red.

The Gunboat, the Rothmans and Vaquita all did excellent job. Great boats, good sailing. I think Rothmans did excellent, given her age and design. And man she is a beauty too.

As re the weather, it has been the best wx I have seen for the ARC in years, probably best since 2006. Unusual, untimely and yet. In fact it is still blowing trade-winds-like here in LP.

b.

[Hud3]

Yes, great weather. No nasty Lows to disrupt the Trades. From the Internet wind sources, it appeared to be smooth sailing all the way.

[barnakiel]

Fear to think what this pattern brings to the continents, perhaps we are in for an unusual winter?

Azores High 1038 and placed over the Azores ... December, the 3, 2011.

b.