Betreff: AROUND ALONE 2002-03: 100 HOURS AT SEA
Absender: Mary Ambler
Empfänger: mambler@clipper-ventures.com
http://www.aroundalone.com
Leg 1: 100 hours at sea
Southampton, England – 19th September. It has been four days since the spectacular sendoff in New York harbor and the Around Alone fleet of 13 Open class yachts is now well out in the Atlantic sailing south of Newfoundland. It has been a wet and windy trip for all the boats with some sailors reporting squalls bringing 40 knots of wind and drenching rain. American sailor Bruce Schwab summed the conditions up with a single word. Yuk!
From the outset Bernard Stamm of Switzerland seemed determined to set a fast pace and rocketed out of New York harbor aboard his Pierre Rolland designed yacht, Bobst Group - Armor Lux. Stamm, holder of the monohull transatlantic record and clearly knows his boat and this ocean. He has led from the outset, fending off charges first from New Zealander Graham Dalton on Hexagon, and more recently from Thierry Dubois on Solidaires. His communications with race HQ have been cryptic; it’s obvious that he is putting his full effort into sailing the boat and he is happy to be pushing out max performance from his new rig and sails on every angle of sailing.
While Stamm places a loose cover on the rest of the fleet, there have been many changes behind him. Dalton displayed terrific boat speed for the first 24 hours, but got caught in a vicious squall that broke his indexsail halyard and damaged his boat. “The first thing I knew about the problem was when the indexsail fell down,” he reported in a phone call to Race headquarters. He has since been limping along and dropped back into 6th position. Emma Richards has also been sailing compromised on Pindar. She sent a harrowing account of dropping her gennaker in a squall south of Nantucket Island and as a result has had to do without that very important sail. Her speed has suffered accordingly. She was only able to reset the sail Thursday morning, but then she had other problems. “My computer keeps crashing each time I launch off a big wave. It took me an hour between crashes to pick up my email”, she wrote.
One of the pre-race favorites, Italian Simone Bianchetti on Tiscali had a lackluster start and was trailing the leaders. He sent a short email saying that he had been suffering from the flu and was not feeling good. The clean sea air must have blown the bug out to sea because this morning Bianchetti called in to say that he was feeling 100% and looking forward to seeing some pretty English girls when he gets to Torbay. He had also rocketed up into 3rd place.
In Class 2 there have also been some ups and downs. The most consistently inconsistent performance has been by Tim Kent on Everest Horizontal. The self proclaimed amateur sailor has been experiencing autopilot problems and they have forced him to reduce sail to work on the situation. “My autopilots have been acting like temperamental teenagers,” he wrote. “We have been wandering all over the ocean scaring the living daylights out of me.” Kent was not far off Class 2 leader Brad van Liew on Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America when his problems started, but he has since dropped back. Meanwhile from on board Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America the sole race veteran reports a conservative start to the race. “It was a bit of a dreary night for my first offshore evening alone with rain and lightning, however daybreak and a cup of coffee makes it all seem much nicer.” Van Liew might need more than a few cups of coffee to stay ahead of Canadian sailor Derek Hatfield who has turned in a remarkable performance by staying close to the front of his class despite sailing a 40 footer. “Spirit of Canada has just been planing along at 10-12 knots,” reported. “The boat is sailing itself.”
The rains have passed and the wind has died down leaving the sailors to enjoy calm, sunny conditions. It’s perfect beach weather, however for a bunch of competitive sailors the calm seas will provide their own frustrations as they try to eke that extra tenth of a knot from their boats. The first boat to break free from the high pressure will gain the advantage. Will it be Stamm, Dubois or one of the smaller boats. Stay tuned.
Positions at 2130 UTC
Class 1 – Open 60ft
Boat Time Lat Lon Av. Boatspeed DTF
Bobst Group Armor-Lux 09/19/02 21:38 44 28.960 N 47 40.760 W 15.74 kt 1821.37 nm
Solidaires 09/19/02 21:38 43 26.360 N 48 38.280 W 11.81 kt 1886.36 nm
Garnier 09/19/02 21:30 44 38.840 N 51 13.720 W 14.27 kt 1953.78 nm
Tiscali 09/19/02 21:38 44 01.160 N 51 19.320 W 11.92 kt 1974.10 nm
Hexagon 09/19/02 21:38 43 30.360 N 51 44.120 W 11.45 kt 2004.12 nm
Ocean Planet 09/19/02 21:38 43 19.120 N 51 37.520 W 10.37 kt 2005.12 nm
Pindar 09/19/02 21:38 42 06.320 N 52 41.160 W 10.81 kt 2081.19 nm
Class 2 – Open 40ft & 50ft
Boat Time Lat Lon Av.Boatspeed DTF
Tommy Hilfiger 09/19/02 21:30 42 27.960 N 54 03.360 W 11.75 kt 2123.40 nm
Everest Horizontal 09/19/02 21:38 39 07.400 N 54 54.520 W 8.14 kt 2261.36 nm
Spirit of Canada 09/19/02 21:38 42 34.760 N 57 58.920 W 7.50 kt 2271.01 nm
Bayer Ascensia 09/19/02 21:38 42 53.960 N 59 05.280 W 7.30 kt 2303.82 nm
BTC Velocity 09/19/02 21:30 41 39.240 N 58 22.600 W 6.43 kt 2314.26 nm
Positions will be posted online three times a day, at 0630UTC, 1430UTC and 2230UTC
NOTES:
For more information or images on Around Alone 2002-03, contact:
Mary Ambler, Media & Race Communications Manager
T: +44 (0)2380 237088
F: +44 (0) 2380 237 088 – M: +44 (0)7887 643 583
Email: mambler@clipper-ventures.com
Around Alone TV - contact:
Andrew Hawthorn, APP Broadcast
E: ahawthorn@appbroadcast.com
T: +44 (0)795 025 8062
Around Alone 2002-03 takes the fleet from New York to Torbay (England), then Cape Town (South Africa), Tauranga (New Zealand) and Salvador de Bahia (Brasil), before returning to Newport in April 2003. The official entry list of competitors consists of 13 competitors from 10 different nationalities; 7 in Class I and 6 in Class II.
Visit the official web site: http://www.aroundalone.com
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