Race 5 - Day 17
Crew Diary - Race 5 - Day 17
08 January

Is the Skipper clinging to the helm cage for dear life?

Or is he just relaxing and easing into it?

As we near the end of the leg, the DTB metric has become increasingly important to monitor. The Clipper Race yachts are essentially dry although you do sometimes find a little contraband: such as brandy and stout in the Christmas Pudding. Distance to Beer will therefore satisfy an absence that has been waiting several weeks.

People who know me well will know I’m more interested in the DTDC metric but as diet Coke is available in most bars, the two measures are hopefully convergent.

Anywise, the number has been coming down at a reassuring rate 800, 700 and passed the number of the beast. I don’t think the B stands for beast, but hey.

I’m under advice not to discuss boating strategy, but if you use the course tracker website, it is often possible to do a little reverse engineering to find out more about what is happening, paying attention to any weather or current overlays you might find buttons for.

A DTB measure is easy to come up with but it doesn’t capture the entirety of race position. One boat may decide to stay close to the shore because it gave them, say, a wind advantage at some point. Only to find the current is then against them. Another might be further out at sea but be catching up because they have the wind and current with them.

Obviously this is all hypothetical.

But the finish is turning out quite exciting when you dig a little deeper.