Vendee Atlantique - race suspended due to bad weather !

dunedin

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Initially made decision to reroute course not to go round Iceland, now going to suspend racing and allow/ encourage boats to take shelter from Atlantic storm.

These guys are the experts, so sure the correct decision - but surprising for these boats which race round the southern ocean. I guess may be the difference between being able to sail fast and surf downwind in a Southern ocean storm, vs bash upwind into a storm.
 

flaming

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I guess may be the difference between being able to sail fast and surf downwind in a Southern ocean storm, vs bash upwind into a storm.
Exactly that I think. The difference here is also that the storm is hitting very close to the turning point, which means that the skippers have very little room to manoeuvre in terms of dodging the worst of the weather. Very different story to when the depressions slowly overtake them in the Southern Ocean.

Also with an eye on the part of the "cycle" that we're currently in with respect to the Vendee. I.e we're 3 years out from the start of the next vendee, and a lot of the boats need to bank the miles to qualify. There's very little gain in sending the fleet upwind through a very nasty looking storm now, especially if it results in a few of the less well funded skippers suffering damage that they would struggle to get fixed, which could end up putting them out of the next qualification race.
 
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