Weather Briefing with Will Harris: A Straight-Line Dogfight to Brittany

Not many manoeuvres for us this time. It's going to be about pure boat speed, start to finish, a drag race for most of the way across.

For this race, Will Harris will be on navigation duty. His job will be to get the boat pointing in the right direction as much as possible, and build our strategy around the weather. We asked him to do an overview of the race situation. 

“We start Wednesday morning on the back edge of a low pressure system, and it's going to clear out fast. No rest for us though as there's already another building behind it, and by Friday it'll be tracking hard across the North Atlantic. At this time of year, that track can go one of two ways: northeast, or further east. Right now we've got a strong jet stream over Western Europe pushing it firmly east, straight at our finish line in Brittany.

By Sunday, four days in, that system will have matured. And for our foiling boats, that's exactly the kind of breeze we want.

We've got two brand-new boats in the fleet this time, and at those broad reaching angles. They're going to be full speed. Our game is to be faster than them, or at least keep up, so we can play with them coming into the finish.

But honestly, the more likely scenario is we're all flat out, all within an hour of each other as we approach western France. Then it comes down to a real dogfight in light winds right at the end. That could be the deciding moment in the whole race. Could be a nail-biter.

Fewer manoeuvres means it's all about crew routine — keeping the boat at 100% the whole time. That's not easy. It's a lot of work from all of us, pushing constantly, doing our checks, finding the best setup, and making it sustainable for six or seven days across the Atlantic.

I'll take two things from this weather. First, it's a big low, and low pressure means big wind, big waves, big storms. That's exactly what this boat is built for. Second, the manoeuvres are simple, straight-line stuff. As a navigator I'm always chasing something a bit more clever, a bit more of a weather puzzle, but I think we'll get that near the finish.

This race is going to be about never giving up. Even if the newer boats have an edge on us at times, it can still come down to the line. It's anyone's game right till the finish, and we've got to keep that mentality strong.”