Globe40 Leg 3 Update: Desperately seeking the Roaring Forties

Globe40 Leg 3 © Jean-Marie LIOT / Globe40

After a spectacular and already hard-fought start last Saturday, November 22, from Saint Paul Bay in Reunion Island, the competitors in Leg 3 of the 2nd edition of the GLOBE40 are now nearly 700 miles south of the island. While the wind shadow off Reunion Island, which caused both joy and disappointment on the outward leg, was quickly overcome thanks to a northerly wind, the skippers have since Sunday found themselves in a situation identical to that which they experienced coming from South Africa.

Namely, under the influence of the Mascarene High, a vast area of calms where all forecasts are uncertain and the overall weather pattern is difficult to interpret. The objective is clear: head south as directly and quickly as possible to reach the strong westerly winds coming from the low-pressure systems circulating around Antarctica. This area is about 400 miles south of their current positions, meaning a two- or three-day journey for the leaders.

In terms of tactics, the three latest-generation Class40s with their distinctive "scows" (round bows) have clearly chosen their strategy. No risky options are being considered in this environment that could allow one of them to pull away or cause losses that would be difficult to recover in a stage with a coefficient of 2. CREDIT MUTUEL, BELGIUM OCEAN RACING - CURIUM, and NEXT GENERATION are therefore neck and neck in a pure speed race, all within 10 miles of each other, with a slight advantage of a few miles for Ian Lipinski and Amélie Grassi, but as Ian says, "negligible in the context of this leg." The classic Class40s, often referred to as "pointus" (pointy boats), are employing somewhat more diverse and deliberate strategies, influenced by the vagaries of the weather, and are currently spread out over 200 nautical miles. BARCO BRASIL, WILSON, and FREE DOM are following each other in the rankings because they are further east, but actually further north than JANGADA RACING and WHISKEY, who, after a westerly option that seemed to be failing, might well be on the right track. Among the "pointus," we will have to wait for the arrival in westerly winds to know the hierarchy resulting from this new week of calms, a pattern now well known to the competitors after crossing the Doldrums and sailing up to Reunion Island. A round-the-world race is about long glides in the breeze, but also many times when you have to chase down the slightest breeze and where 2 knots on course becomes performance; patience, patience... ultimately, only nature decides how long the ordeal will last.

Aboard the Class40s, life at sea has resumed its normal course after the wonderful stopover in Reunion Island, where the warm welcome and enthusiasm of the public, with tens of thousands of people attending the race village, touched the skippers. Preparations are under way for the next phase in the lower latitudes (the course allows them to sail as far south as 46 degrees and then 48 degrees south), with forecasts that remain challenging on the way to Sydney, not to mention the other difficulties of the course, including crossing the Great Australian Bight and the Baas Strait, which separates mainland Australia from Tasmania. Having set sail again after only 11 days at shore for some, which testifies to the demanding nature of the race, the skippers nevertheless express in their daily communications their joy at being back at sea and rediscovering the vast open spaces of the Southern Ocean that they came to seek.

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