Oceanracing 2001 - EDS Atlantic Challenge

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31.07.2001 - Topmeldung des Tages
SILL hat doch noch den 2.Platz geschafft.
Nach 3000 Meilen kam es zuletzt zwischen SILL und ECOVER(Mike Golding) zum Matchrace. Schon an 3.Stelle - holte sich SILL auf den letzten Meilen den 2.Platz zurück und passierte 04:58 die Ziellinie unter der Chesapeake Bay Brücke, ganze 9 Minuten vor ECOVER.
"At last, look ECOVER was sailing 15.4 knots to Sill's 11.5 knots. Ever since Sill broke a forestay clamp last week, her crew has been forced to sail the boat cautiously. That caution, while allowing them to finish the leg, has cost them dearly.
Meanwhile, still in fourth place, Gartmore is finally benefiting from the same winds that are driving the two leaders. It is the first time since the start that Josh Hall has steered his boat in the wake of any other member of the fleet."

30.07.2001
The latest daily news from Ellen to Dr Krumnacker Segel.de
KINGFISHER takes victory in leg 3 of EDS Atlantic Challenge
by nearly 300 miles over nearest competitor, and overall race leader SILL PLEIN FRUIT
* Ellen sails her boat over the Chesapeake Bay bridge finish line at high speed in a ball of spray, in the pitch black at just after 0730 GMT
After 3300 hard miles of racing across the Atlantic Ocean, Ellen MacArthur and KINGFISHER ripped across the finish line in first place at the Chesapeake Bay bridge, USA, with a lead of nearly 300 miles over her arch rival SILL. The final 100 miles were at breakneck speeds, and she crossed the line with the spray hurtling across her decks in the pitch black at just after 0730 GMT.

After finishing second in the two first legs of the EDS Atlantic Challenge, Ellen's sights were firmly set on winning this 3rd leg from Portsmouth (UK) to Baltimore (USA east coast). Overhauling ECOVER as they reached out her home waters in The Solent, KINGFISHER led the fleet west down the English Channel, but the first three boats reindexed in view and just a few miles apart as far as Lands End. At that stage, all 3 made slightly different tactical choices with respect to a deep and violent storm depression that was heading towards the UK. SILL took the most northern option, ECOVER the southern of the three with KINGFISHER in the middle. Everyone got hammered, even the all girls crew on ALPHAGRAPHICS who had chosen a deep south route to cross the Atlantic - longer but usually more clement. They had a crewperson overboard, but thankfully recovered them.
Those early choices were to shape the ranking for the following 2000 miles of mostly upwind sailing across the cold climes of the North Atlantic towards the shores of Newfoundland. The rankings reindexed SILL, KINGFISHER, ECOVER for 11 days with rarely more than 50 miles separating them - in most conditions these leading boats were well matched for speed, and every mile gained was cherished, concentration required 24 hours a day, made tough by icy waters and extreme discomfort at times onboard in the wet and damp conditions. But each mile gained required a high level of endurance of the crews, but also of the boats as well as the constant and often violent slamming in to the waves took its toll. Fourth placed FILA was forced out with a broken forestay and indexsail torn, and on day 12 race leader SILL, holding a slim 27 mile lead on KINGFISHER at the time, suddenly slowed allowing Ellen's team to pass in just 3 hours. By the time they had made a repair, there were just 3 miles separating SILL and KINGFISHER, but this time KINGFISHER were able to choose the options and attack, and picked their way across the north west corner of a newly formed depression - 'It was pretty nerve-wracking at the time, trying to work our way basically through the middle of a depression, and out the other side in to the strong following breeze. But with a bit of luck thrown in we made it and SILL didn't, probably by minutes rather than hours, and we left them standing. For the next 24 hours we were just hooning, surfing along with the gennaker and full index, at between 14 to 20 knots. After 10 days of making rarely more than 8 or 9 knots towards the finish, to be covering 50 miles in each 3 hour watch was fantastic!'

As the lead increased, it was certainly not all over in MacArthur's mind. 'We had to negotiate the same high pressure system that had given us the gradient breeze to get away in - only this time it was coming to sit over us. Our strategy worked though, and worse for the guys behind the door really shut on them as the centre of the system stopped right over them leaving them pretty well becalmed as we stomped our way towards the finish - with big grins our faces!''

In her first victory with KINGFISHER since the solo transat race in June 2000 (the qualifying race for the Vendee Globe that follows a similar course to this leg 3), MacArthur was clearly content to have gained a point back on SILL the current event leader. But what was it like mid-ocean racing with 4 other guys on the boat? Ellen:
'It has been a good race for us. We have lived through such a variety of conditions, pulled together, and looked out for each other. It's a great school of life to be out here with a handful of people on a relatively small boat on a massive ocean. Each of us had to pull our weight, do things that we may or may not enjoy doing, and push hard when we are tired... It is a joy to sail with these guys - Kingfisher had been our world for the past two weeks, and it's been not only an amusing, humorous world - but a competitive and thoughtful world....Despite working together, and giving our all to try to cross that line first. I know there shall be a sadness when this is over. It's hard to recreate something as special, natural and instantaneous as what we have here right now...'

Moloney, a keen prospect for Vendee Globe 2004, was clearly happy with the performance of KINGFISHER and the crew. 'We pushed hard all the way, and never let SILL get very far away, so when they had their breakage we were able to capitalise and make a move - one that worked better than we imagined possible. It was a tough 2 weeks out there, the first storm really stretched the guys and the boat. But I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be in a storm than with KINGFISHER and Ellen - the combination is dynamite - not sure which is tougher! There is no question these boats are just as good with a crew as they are solo - and 5 up is a great number - there is no time for boredom and we can drive harder than the single-hander."
The fleet now have a week to repair, recuperate and prepare for the next leg which takes the Open 60s north again to Boston, before the final leg of the race back to the UK (starts Aug 13). Ellen leaves KINGFISHER in Baltimore to head back to the UK to start two-up training onboard the 60 foot trimaran FONCIA-KINGFISHER with Frenchman Alain Gautier, their season culminating in November with the Transat Jacques Vabre - 5000 miles across north and south Atlantic this time, to Brazil.
Meanwhile co-skipper Nick Moloney will drive KINGFISHER for the final stages of the EDS Atlantic Challenge, supported by Anthony Merrington and Mark Turner (for leg 4) with navigator Adrienne Cahalan. For leg 4 they will be joined by American Olympic medalist Jonathan McKee, and leg 5 a particularly strong lineup with top offshore sailors Frenchman Herve Jan and Brian Thompson.

POSITIONS : 30th July 2001, 08.01 GMT
1 Kingfisher , MacArthur/ Moloney Finished at 07:34:19
2 Sill Plein Fruit, Jordan/Le`Cleach, 268 miles to finish
3 Ecover, Golding , 274 miles to finish
4 Gartmore, Hall, 536 miles to finish
5 FILA, Scarabelli, 641 miles to finish
6 Alpha Graphics, Darvelid , 1006 miles to finish
7 La Rage de Vivre, Pochet / Tabarly, Not racing