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Race entry Take Time gets a boost | |
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CSIRO Division of Marine Research scientist, Dr David Griffin, and Robert Poole, from Flinders University surveyed competitors in the 1995 race to establish how some skippers sailed their race relevant to the prevailing currents and eddies. Perhaps the most intriguing oceanographic feature encountered by competitors in the 1995 Sydney to Hobart was a cyclonic eddy off the southern NSW continental shelf. The eddy was centred at about 36 45' S, 151 E (about 50 nm off Bermagui) and had a radius of about 30 nm. The satellite sea-surface temperature image taken on Christmas Day clearly shows a streamer of warmer water wrapped clockwise around the cold core. Super-imposed on the image are current vectors computed by CSIRO from navigational data logged by Avenger, Lady Penrhyn of Nirimbah, Interlude, Brindabella, Berrimilla, Fudge, and Sancho Pansa. The wind was such that most of the fleet chose to fight the unfavourable currents of up to 2 kt on the western side of the eddy. Take Time, however, took the course shown as a solid line.Her race placing is indicated at each schedule, showing how she passed about seven yachts as she transitted the eastern half of the eddy. Her skipper, Graham Smith, reckoned she picked up about a knot, and thanks the eddy, at least in part, for his winning the TPHS division. CSIRO thanks all the yachts which contributed data to this study. For more information contact Kim Badcock | |||
