Betreff: THE RICH GETTING RICHER
Absender: "Aroundalone"
Empfänger:
Datum: 06. Jan 2003 23:46
THE RICH GETTING RICHER
ItÂ’s a case of the rich getting richer as the first two yachts make their way up the Tasman. Aboard the leading Class 1 boat Bobst Group Armor lux, Bernard Stamm seems to have an almost uncanny sense of the weather. It may be luck, I would rather think itÂ’s good instincts, but Stamm seems to always place himself in the right place at the right time. Take for instance his transit of the Tasman Sea. When he and Thierry Dubois on Solidaires entered the Tasman, there was a firm area of high pressure situated midway between Australia and the coast of New Zealand. Both skippers enjoyed fair sailing along the bottom of the high. The forecast was for the system to move east and there was some speculation that it might move over the top of both boats trapping them in an area of light
winds. Both skippers gybed as they got closer to the high pressure in an effort to keep in good winds, but only Stamm was able to sneak past. He took a small jog to the east and then gybed back to the north. Meanwhile aboard Solidaires Dubois was sailing a bad angle slowly, and before he knew it the high pressure had moved over the top of him. Suddenly his speed was in single digits, while Stamm, having just escaped to the north side of the high, was polled at 16 knots. He is literally flying towards the north of New Zealand and has given his latest ETA of 0600 local time on Thursday.
Further back there is an interesting situation developing between local favorite Graham Dalton on Hexagon and Simone Bianchetti on Tiscali. Dalton has doggedly held onto his third place since Cape Town and Bianchetti has not shown any signs of taking it away from him. Until now. During the day on Monday Dalton began to feel the effects of the high pressure and gybed away to get more wind. He sailed to the east, but because of the local conditions he was only able to sail south of east. During the night he gybed back to sail north once more. The gybe does not seem to have hurt him much; Tiscali gained a few miles, but the two boats have separated. The Italian yacht is to the north and west of the New Zealand yacht. In ocean racing itÂ’s important to stay between your competitor and the next mark of the course. That way they will have to sail in the same conditions to get by you. Once the boats separate, it Â’s anyoneÂ’s guess. There does not appear to be more wind where Tiscali is sailing, but you never know. If I was Dalton I would have not let Simone get into different waters. Still, Hexagon has a decent lead and unless he parks in his own wind hole, he should have an easy go of it staying ahead of Tiscali. Interesting to watch though.
In Class 2 Brad van Liew on Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America is silently eating up the miles. With the excitement in Class 1 dominating the news, BradÂ’s progress has gone relatively unnoticed, but he has set a scorching pace matching that of Stamm mile for mile. On January 1 at 0600 he was 1254.8 miles behind Bernard (based on distance to finish). On January 6 at 0600 he was 1253.5 miles behind. He actually gained 1.3 miles. While this does not have any actual relevance itÂ’s interesting to see just how fast van Liew is sailing. The boat is in excellent shape, a testament to his great shore team, but Brad has also sailed a smart and deliberate leg. He will soon be the first Class 2 boat to enter the Tasman. "Tomorrow Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America will be rounding the southern tip of Tasmania and entering the Tasman Sea," he wrote. "Therefore the push to the finish in Tauranga begins. The weather for the transit of the Tasman is sh aping up to be better than originally forecast and with any luck this new forecast will stick. If it does I can expect a very slow day after rounding Tasmania but then a reliable southerly wind filling in. This could last long enough for me to indextain decent speed all the way to the northern tip of New Zealand." While van Liew is enjoying the fine sailing, his closest rival Tim Kent on Everest Horizontal was having a bad day at the office. "I have blown an autopilot, a headsail and the exhaust manifold gasket on the engine. Not a good day at all," he wrote without elaborating.
Brian Hancock great.circle@verizon.net
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