Oceanracing 2002 - Around Alone

Absender: "Mary Ambler"
Datum: 09. Jan 2003 18:00

LEG 3: BERNARD’S SWISS ‘STAMM-INA’ WITH 3 LEG VICTORIES
Tauranga, New Zealand – 10th January 03. Class 1 leader Bernard Stamm on Bobst Group – Armor Lux, crossed the finish line of Leg 3 in the shadow of Mount Maunganui in Tauranga, New Zealand at 11:24:43 local time on Thursday Jan 9th (22:24:43 GMT Wed January 8th), proving for the 3rd time that he is the master of this Around Alone. Even with 4 reefs in the indexsail the Swiss skipper was surfing at over 14 knots over the quick succession of tall waves under a storm grey sky, sending white spray from the bow after falling into each trough. His elapsed time is calculated at 25 days, 12 hours, 24 minutes, 43 seconds, knocking a shade under two days off the old record set four years ago by Giovanni Soldini on Fila (NB: to Auckland).
Stamm had held the lead shortly after leaving Cape Town on the 14th December 2002, and yet after 7,000 miles, he was in serious danger of being ‘shot before the ceasfire’, as he battled through nasty seas in strong South Easterly headwinds for the last two days. His finish was not a moment too soon; seconds after crossing the line the tiller on the boat came off in his hands and he lost all steering.
Bernard would not say that it had been an easy victory: “Yes, I was a bit lucky getting through the high pressure, but the last 36 hours were the worst - the waves were very steep and dangerous. The steering came loose yesterday and so I had to stop the boat and fix it. If it had completely come off yesterday like it did just after the finish, Thierry would be winning this leg.” Huge pieces of the hull were delaminating, although this was only the “first skin” of the structure, plus the indexsail was torn below the 4th reef. Stamm had not slept in the past 36 hours but looked fresh and in good humour, just glad to have been delivered from his hell. When asked how he is able to keep his motivation up day after day, Bernard replied simply, "Thierry, Graham and the rest, they keep me motivated!"

Brian Hancock mit B.Stamm auf dem Podium

Prosit auf den 3.Sieg

Das verdiente Siegerlächeln

This is his first time sailing the Southern Oceans and Stamm reflected that it had lived up to his expectations but that some things surprised him: “I just loved the constant surfing but the conditions were always really cold and humid at the same time. The weather systems are nothing like what you get in the Atlantic as there is no land to stop these huge seas, but tactically I treated this leg like the first one in the North Atlantic navigating round the low pressure systems.”
One sailor who has been there before is second placed French circumnavigator Thierry Dubois with Solidaires. As Bernard was finishing, he was rounding Cape Reinga a few hundred miles behind, and heading into the same boat-breaking conditions as Stamm had just experienced. Dubois was in a black mood when he heard that his index rival had finished: “Yet again victory has eluded me and I am getting so frustrated to always be just one step behind. So now I will let you know that since the Crozet Islands the reacher, its replacement and the brand new large gennaker have blown up and I have spent 4,000 miles sailing downwind with only the staysail and Solent. Also near the magnetic South Pole, which caused my undoing in the last Vendée Globe, yet again screwed up my electronics depsite assurances from the experts that it was all regulated, so my Northern route to the Tasman was not so voluntary. To top it all off, one of my rudders sheered off laterally, no collision, no explanation.”

As the community in Tauranga prepare to give their warmest welcome a heavy-hearted Dubois within the next 24 hours, they are also rising in excitement watching the duel between Italian sailor Simone Bianchetti on Tiscali and New Zealander Graham Dalton on Hexagon, which reindexs close with 25 miles between them as they skirt the Western coastline of Dalton’s mother country. If Dalton is going to get into his first podium position coming into his home port, the pressure is doubled by the fact that Tiscali has drawn level after nearly 7,000 miles despite being sailed under potential as she is carrying Stamm’s spare mast and temporary rigging still. The final stretch will be the decider, and the skipper who can read the conditions better and push their boat harder will be justly rewarded.
British skipper Emma Richards is valiantly making the best of her last days of Leg 3 on her ‘wounded’ boat Pindar, trying to stay as far South coming up the New Zealand coastline so as to escape the worst of the light airs.Yesterday she wrote: “I am pushing this little '3 reefed' boat as fast as it will go just to stay in it, but it will soon be right on the nose, and slow me down then I will be lucky if I can get to 41S before it dies in this area, where I could be stuck for a while! hmm!”
Today Pindar has hit the headwinds and slowed to 3 knots, hopefully a temporary situation, as to her North Bruce Schwab on Ocean Planet is creeping up over her just 100 miles behind. Schwab is unfortunately sailing his “hobbled horse” in South Easterly winds too but without ballast on the starboard side after the tank blew out. “Imagine sailing along with 25 good sized football players sitting on the rail, and if they all hopped off....you would suddenly heel WAY over! So without the ballast, I can't put up as much sail as usual or we get overpowered and spin out.” However, he has reported some “excessively thrilling weather - big squalls, lightning, and 50-60 knots of wind. There was an intense low pressure imbedded in the front. We knew about the front coming but had no mention of this intense local low (surprise!) with the barometer going down to 997mb. The sea conditions were wild as the new southerly blast smashed into the northerly swell from the big blow that was just in front.”
Ocean Planet has now been caught by Class 2 leader Brad Van Liew on Open 50 Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America, himself only 30 miles behind Pindar too. Experiencing the same conditions as Schwab, but faring much better through it, Van Liew is under the 1,000 mile barrier, his lead stretching to 773 miles ahead of Tim Kent on Everest Horizontal.
POSITIONS AT 14:00GMT 09th JANUARY 2003
Track the Around Alone fleet with Raytech Navigator 4.1 – go to www.aroundalone.com positions page and follow the link at the top of the chart.
Leg 3 Provisional Rankings
1. Bobst Group-Armor Lux finished at 22:24:43 GMT 8th JAN 03 after 25 days, 12 hours, 24 minutes, 43 seconds

Class 1
Boat Lat Lon AvgBsp Avgheading DTF
2. Solidaires, 35 02.020 S, 174 12.360 E, 103.93 nm, 13.00 kt, 122 °T, 194.94 nm
3. Hexagon, 38 47.000 S, 167 24.400 E, 68.89 nm, 8.61 kt, 38 °T, 655.80 nm
4. Tiscali, 38 34.170 S, 166 26.550 E, 64.85 nm, 8.11 kt, 38 °T, 680.40 nm
5. Pindar, 43 01.360 S, 164 02.100 E, 17.48 nm, 2.19 kt, 12 °T, 947.46 nm
6. Ocean Planet, 42 25.380 S, 160 07.120 E, 70.74 nm, 8.83 kt, 86 °T, 1049.90 nm

Class 2
Boat Lat Lon AvgBsp Avgheading DTF
1. Tommy Hilfiger, 40 32.240 S, 160 28.000 E, 57.90 nm, 7.23 kt, 67 °T, 975.62 nm
2. Everest Horizontal, 45 23.480 S, 143 35.020 E, 49.66 nm, 6.22 kt, 116 °T, 1769.85 nm
3. Spirit of Canada, 44 30.000 S, 138 12.400 E, 67.33 nm, 8.42 kt, 84 °T, 1980.45 nm
4. Spirit of yukoh, 45 10.000 S, 133 46.000 E, 70.04 nm, 8.75 kt, 100 °T, 2173.07 nm
5. BTC Velocity, 43 31.480 S, 119 39.050 E, 60.15 nm, 7.52 kt, 58 °T, 2783.83 nm

International Media Relations:
Mary Ambler - Email: mambler@clipper-ventures.com Tel: +44 (0)7887 643 583
Local Media Relations – Tauranga, NZL Julie Chadwick, Tauranga Around Alone – Email: julie@taa.co.nz Tel: +64 (25) 595 083
Around Alone TV - APP Broadcast Andrew Hawthorn - Email: ahawthorn@appbroadcast.com APP Broadcast London Office - Tel: +44 (0)208 964 4992
Official Photography - Marinepics Distribution: Ali McKichan - Email: info@marinepics.com - Tel: +44 (0) 1489 573753
Official Schools' Programme: HSBC Glocal Education Challenge - www.education.hsbc.com