Pressure Drop - PD Staff

Pressure Drop Welcomes Sail Tactics

Published on 02-15-2015 04:48 PM

Sail Tactics provides ultra-high resolution wind and tide forecasts for the San Francisco Bay that help ...

Pressure Drop Welcomes North Sails

Published on 01-26-2015 11:31 AM

North Sails, the largest division of North Technology Group, is the world leader in sailmaking technology. North Sails holds ...

The Big Bash

Published on 12-21-2014 10:50 PM

A BASHING AND CRASHING START PREDICTED FOR THE ROLEX SYDNEY-HOBART YACHT RACE
A bashing, crashing and punishing first night at sea could well decide the outcome in the race for line honours in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart race.

Consequently, ...

Employee Rights Asserted In America's Cup Legal Action

Published on 12-19-2014 09:24 AM

Sailing Scuttlebutt reveals this morning that former Team Oracle Racing USA employee has filed suit revolving around King-post Gate that occurred during the last running of the America's Cup World Series:

San Francisco, CA (December 19, 2014) – A sailor on Oracle Team USA’s winning ...

ISAF Gold Cup Down Under

Published on 12-10-2014 09:54 PM

The local Fawkner Beacon weather observation is showing a 22 knot SSE breeze gusting up to 26 and a quick local shower has sent ISAF Sailing World Cup – Melbourne sailors, particularly the young Opti competitors, still in the boat park scurrying for cover."

Nervy but excited competitors and photographers are rubbing their hands. Rattling rigging ...

Volvo November 27 & 28th Updates From The Boats

Published on 11-28-2014 07:55 PM

November 28, 2014

We are bearing north on starboard tack, and our next goal is sailing to windward of Reunion Island and getting ready for the upcoming party.
The fight is still very much alive between ourselves, Abu Dhabi and Brunel, we see them all the time, something which is really good for MAPFRE because that allows us to learn a lot from boats which’ve been training longer than a year.
It was quiet today, the squalls forced us to do some tacks and peelings but that was all.

It’s getting warmer as well. Each time the engine goes on the boat turns into a sauna, and it’s even worse when the ventilator under your feet goes on when you are cooking.

Our check of the the boat started with some little repairs, it’s really important for us not to break anything onboard during the tropical storm so we to stay with the fleet.
Ñeti will climb up the mast tomorrow to check it. This might be the most important thing, I’ll give him my GoPro see if he can take a couple of nice pics.

This morning we had a bit of unstable wind and we had to move the stack to the bow, and then the 1600 kg to the side again. Nevertheless, these light conditions have helped us gain miles upon Brunel.

So far we are all healthy and missing a cold coke, a nice steak, a shower, our beloved ones and getting more than 3 hours' sleep in row.

These last seven days were just great, let’s keep our fingers crossed. The race is long and so is the leg - if you move down from the top spot it’ll be difficult to regain it.

Francisco Vignale
OBR, MAPFRE

...

November 24 -25 Onboard Updates

Published on 11-26-2014 08:56 AM

Bino’s and Undies

We find ourselves glued to “Bino duty” as the Australians put it – for the rest of us normal people that’s a reference to binoculars. Alvimedica has been spotted just port side off the bow. It’s early UTC time but late afternoon here in the east. We have had a good sched recently, taking a minimum of 2 miles on the girls while chasing ADOR down very quickly with an 11-mile gain.
We are approaching a ridge of pressure (you might as well start googling all these terms as we will have plenty of meteorological terminology coming the next couple of weeks) but to give you a quick explanation it’s simply a transition from one direction of wind into a new direction of wind. Once the wind starts to knock us or head (which is normally a bad thing in sailing terms) we will change course to sail north-northwesterly again. This change in direction is good as it allows us to travel a more direct line to Abu Dhabi. The change is imminent so we patiently watch the American/Turkish boat ahead to see what will happen.

I asked Tom today did he feel anything different about this leg, he replied, “Ya one of the big changes this leg is ah, we are not going to Cape Town we are actually going to Abu Dhabi, that’s probably the biggest change.” I can at least confirm the sense of humour has not failed on this boat. He added, “It’s been easier to start and get back into it. Having done Leg 1 it’s easier to roll straight back into the routine so its all good so far.”

Nicolai brought up a random conversation today and it’s the ...

A Successful 1st Outting For Rio

Published on 11-21-2014 04:43 PM

Rio 100' at the start of the Yates Cup in Auckland New Zealand. Rio100' claimed line honors in the Monohull division completing
the 230 nm race in 00:21:36:14, just behind the mighty tri, Vodafone which completed the race in 00:21:12:36.

image© Suellen Hurling / RAYC Media

PROVISIONAL RESULTS

Multihull

1st – Team Vodafone ...

10 Selects From 1st 2 days of Leg 2

Published on 11-21-2014 03:40 PM

Ainhoa Sanchez/Volvo Ocean Race

Brian Carlin/Team Vestas Wind/Volvo Ocean Race.

Marc Bow/Volvo Ocean Race

Amory Ross/Team Alvimedica/Volvo Ocean Race.

Brian Carlin/Team Vestas Wind

...

Bermuda It IS says Bernie Wilson!

Published on 11-20-2014 05:41 PM

AP Source: Bermuda to Host 2017 America's Cup
SAN DIEGO — Nov 20, 2014, 6:26 PM ET
By BERNIE WILSON AP Sports Writer

Associated Press

The tax haven of Bermuda has been picked over San Diego to host the 2017 America's Cup, a person with knowledge of the situation ...

From The Boats November 20th

Published on 11-20-2014 04:21 PM

Kissing with Capey
Can you remember one of your first dates? At the end of your date you managed to grab a kiss.

But the next date, if you thought you could pick up where you left off, and proceed immediately to tongues, then you were wrong. You just had to start all over again! That is how it is with our navigator Andrew "Capey" Cape.

Capey is a living legend. Gerd-Jan Poortman says, "He has so much experience. He is requested for each race. Not only doe he have a lot of wit, but he also sails very well."

"However, he is also notoriously difficult to interview. Witty and funny, yes - but once the red light of a camera is on, he crawls into his shell."
So don't get me wrong: I do not want to kiss Capey. For a start, the man is drinking coffee all day. Bah! And onboard, some sailors only clean their teeth once a week.

Then there's those big rough hands that so easily turn the winch handle around. No, kissing with HIM is not on my wishlist.

BUT... when I went to interview ...

Wickedly Wild Start For Leg 2

Published on 11-19-2014 10:21 AM

Big winds with 20 knot plus sustained and larger gusts mixed with massive, fleet swallowing holes to make the start of leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race an intense and exciting beginning as you will likely encounter!

...

Route du Rhum November 6th Update

Published on 11-06-2014 11:20 AM

Early this afternoon (Thursday) about thirty miles off La Coruña, Bob Escoffier, the 65 year-old skipper from Saint Malo, was airlifted to safety by the Spanish Navy from his modified Sydney 60ft monohull Guisnel Grouo which was racing in the Rhum class of La Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe.

Bob Socffier's boat had been taking in water due to an unknown reason. He was transferred, safe and in good health, to the Spanish base in Vivero. Escoffier was engaged on his fourth race participation and ...

Life At The Extreme: Coastal Sailing

Published on 11-05-2014 01:00 PM

Leaving the safer Mediterranean sea behind, the teams are sailing along the African coast discovering the perils of ...

November 3 Update: Table Mountain Soon To Be Seen

Published on 11-03-2014 10:39 AM

The best of the OBR's blogs

NOVEMBER 3, 2014
It’s a quarter to eight, somewhere in the Southern Ocean. A little over a 1,000 miles from Cape Town. In about 15 minutes Gerd-Jan “Johnny” Poortman starts his watch on a completely flooded deck.
The waves of ice water splash through the cockpit and the men who are about to end their shift are wearing helmets. “Really feel like playing out there for four hours”, grumbles Johnny, usually a positive and funny character.

He’s leaning on the hatch in the middle of the boat. The hatch is closed because of the heavy weather conditions: a nose-dive could throw you on the floor. “You know, maybe we don’t deserve to win from Abu Dhabi, the’ve been gaining on us already for 24 hours”, he says eating the last bite of his freeze-dried noodles.
He puts on his weather gear, which is still wet, and zips his lifeline up. ”But we are gonna try; another four hours of ...

Volvo Ocean Race: Riding The Aqua Flying Carpet

Published on 11-01-2014 08:42 AM

Curled up in her bunk, Sara Hastreiter shows off a precious keepsake - a painting of the Team SCA boat by her father.

NOVEMBER 1, 2014

On deck, the guys have been facing white-walled waves that crash over the cockpit as they surf down ocean swells four meters high. As the ride down one wave ends, the bow of Azzam will plow into the next sending freezing seawater crashing up the deck with a power strong enough to knock you over.
The best part: this is only an introduction to Southern Ocean sailing.

Matt Knighton, OBR
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing

ETA is 6 or 7 days, and I imagine getting to dock and tying up the boat, among a long lists of other things to do since the next leg is starting in less than 3 weeks. The first thing I am going to do is have a cold Coke, then have a burger and, after that, a nice hot shower. The things you miss the most on board, aside from the people you love, is good food and a shower. This is the price you pay to sail the world ...

October 29 & 30 Volvo Updates

Published on 10-30-2014 11:08 AM

OCTOBER 30, 2014

The front-runners and ourselves all patiently or not so patiently wait for this shift in the breeze to the left. A lifting breeze will allow us gybe to get south once again and finally make a rendezvous with a substantial frontal system that pushes us east to our next port.

We have options; right now Chris and Wouter discuss and discuss in detail every option. I’m finding it tough to wait this out, they too must be… It’s exciting though, we have the potential to pop out in the lead if not completely close the gauge on Abu Dhabi and Brunel.

... It’s funny I usually start these blogs mid morning and finish them that evening so that I miss nothing during the course of the day, well something funny just happened. It’s now 18:42 and a boat we have not seen since the Canary Islands has crossed our bow by 3 miles, it’s Abu Dhabi!

Wow, that’s good news and bad, good we are in the right place on the race course bad so now too are ...

Volvo Update: October 28

Published on 10-28-2014 09:52 AM

Team Brunel has assumed the lead dog role with Abu Dhabi 40 nm aft and Alvimedica breaking into the top 3.

08/28
A world of digital age, everything is on Google, every answer a keystroke away. There is little left in our world now original. The world has become a huge dumping ground for secondhand information.

If you want something real you must initiate it. This is our authenticity.
An experience, it’s exactly that, an event or a happening experienced first hand by an individual.

The Volvo Ocean Race is an event, it’s one you get to watch unfold as something real. What happens on these boats day to day, what’s sent, what’s written about, what’s photographed, what’s on video is REAL. It’s not a reality show, it’s certainly not scripted, ...

Into The Southern Hemisphere

Published on 10-26-2014 09:23 AM

Sitting in the Nav Station on-board Azzam, SiFi again surveys what looks like colored spaghetti; this time thrown on a map of the South Atlantic Ocean. Each colored line marks a different routing to Cape Town. At last count there were over 15.
As the watches tick by and all 8 sailors on Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing take their turn between racing on deck and resting below, at various times each one has had a look at the spaghetti.

Ian takes his turn at the screen narrowing in on an area of light wind the High is predicted to churn out lying directly in our path. In three days time, there’s every ...