Monday May 30th Update – Charlie Enright – North Sails Expert

May 30, 2016

North Sails Atlantic Cup Expert, Charlie Enright, recaps what he is seeing on the race course and discusses the tricky nature of sailing into New York:

“Well it appears that for the teams who took a more inshore route, it was high risk, but it yielded a high-reward especially for Tales. That said, the teams (Amhas, Dragon, Oakcliff) that used the gulf stream to make gains have clawed back a lot of miles on Tales, but they now have to get the bow towards New York City and get there as fast as they can.

New York City is a pretty tricky place when it comes to the geography and the current and to some extent depending on what time you get in, all of the maritime traffic. Obviously the tide counts, but something some of the teams will likely have studied is the currents and back eddies around the islands approaching New York. They’ll be looking not just when the tide is switching, but where are the protected areas, the accelerated areas and those areas are not always the traditional deltas you see in other parts of the world. Water can squeeze through some pretty narrow spaces and the islands do a good job of creating protection from adverse tides and it’s pretty complicated terrain. Having to come all the way into Brooklyn, presents a different geographic challenge, when I was there recently it was amazing to see the difference between the middle of the Hudson and the tip of Manhattan, it could be as much as 10 knots in wind strength.

Ultimately, I think this is Tales’ race to lose, but I am very excited to see Liz and Libby in third place and hope they can stay up on the podium.”