zur Übersicht WHY THEY DO WHAT THEY DO Empfänger: redaktion@segel.de Datum: 11. Feb 2003 19:21 The pace may be slower than the Around Alone skippers are used to, but the racing is as close as it's ever been. At the front of the pack Thierry Dubois on Solidaires is holding a slim 4.9 mile lead over Bernard Stamm on Bobst Group Armor lux, who in turn is less than a quarter of a mile ahead of Simone Bianchetti on Tiscali. Even Bruce Schwab on Ocean Planet is in the hunt 6.8 miles astern of Solidaires. In fact if the waypoint used by the race organizers to calculate the distance-to-go was moved a little (it's location is subjective and only there as a guide) one could easily argue that Schwab is leading the race. It seems as if the modifications he did to his boat in Tauranga are paying off, at least in these early stages. The current weather pattern is dominated by a high pressure system located in the South Pacific. It's firmly established, and because the boats are on the west side of the High they are getting winds from the north. It looks as if the pattern will reindex steady for the next few days allowing the yachts to get down into the Roaring Forties without much trouble. Derek Hatfield auf dem Weg photo Mary Ambler Tommy Hilfiger unter dem Sternenbanner photo Billy Black/ www.billyblack.com In Class 2 Brad van Liew on Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America has opened up an big lead over his fellow competitors, in fact he is ahead of Class 1 competitor Emma Richards on Pindar and just astern of Graham Dalton on Hexagon. Behind Brad there is a new face at the front of the fleet. Alan Paris on BTC Velocity is finding the light conditions to his liking and is sailing along in second place with Tim Kent on Everest Horizontal a mile behind. Alan Paris is enjoying being back at sea and sent a poignant email. It answers the question that has been on the minds of many people since this race started five months ago. What is it about this event that makes otherwise ordinary people give it all up and head out into the unknown? The reasons are varied and the results never the same, but there is an underlying attraction shared by all solo sailors, indeed by all adventurers. Alan quoted an excerpt from a ne w book by David Lewis, one of the original single-handed ocean racers. It very eloquently sums up why these sailors do what they do. Here is Alan's log with the book excerpt. "One of the most difficult elements of this race is attempting to explain to many why it is we do this," he wrote. "Leaving family and friends as well as beautiful places such as Tauranga, NZ is not easy on the sailors and those left on land. I am reading a book by David Lewis, some will know his name, but many will not. He passed away late last year and had a full life, including being one of 5 people in the first Solo Trans Atlantic race in 1960 This is an excerpt from an Autobiography of David Lewis called 'Shapes on the Wind' as he prepared for the 1960 Solo Transatlantic. "In the rare intervals of peace and quite amidst those feverish preparations, I could not help but ponder the rationale of it all. Why should I, a staid general practitioner, venture out, at the cost of not an inconsiderable discomfort and expense, over a predictably stormy ocean ? It seems to me that there must be some outgoing imperative, a sense of wonder at the world around us, a curiosity manifested in research, art, philosophy, or just the simple urge to find what lies over the ranges, that is an essential part of the human spirit, without is Homo Sapiens could hardly have evolved. In earlier times this urge would have found ready outlet in a generally perilous world, but in the increasing mechanized and impersonal societies of today, where perspectives tend to become limited to amassing dubiously useful possessions, the free spirit is liable to suffocate. Surely its no accident that it was only from about the mid-nineteenth century that people began to climb mountains, not f or the view, but simply because they were there. Men like Joshua Slocum and John Voss did not sail around the world for gold or empire, but simply to fulfill something within themselves." Well said David and thanks to Alan for bringing us this insight. You are modern day David Lewis. --- Brian Hancock great.circle@verizon.net Betreff: GRAND PRIX RACING IN THE ROARING FORTIES Absender: "Aroundalone" Empfänger: redaktion@segel.de Datum: 11. Feb 2003 16:48 GRAND PRIX RACING IN THE ROARING FORTIES SPIRIT OF CANADA headING TOWARDS NZ WITH CHARGING PROBLEMS Tauranga, New Zealand - 11th February 03. Canadian skipper Derek Hatfield, the first to cross the line on Sunday's restart of Around Alone Leg 4, has today informed the race office that he is experiencing from charging problems on board his Open 40 Spirit of Canada. The latest positions at 14:00GMT (03:00hrs NZ time) show that Hatfield is heading back towards New Zealand shores just a day's sailing away, and the skipper has confirmed that until the problem is localised and resolved, he has turned the boat around whilst still not too far from land. Given that this 7,880 nm leg will take the fleet furthest away from any landfall for the longest duration into the vast oceanic deserts around the bottom of the world, Hatfield's decision is a cautionary measure. With a lot of the Around Alone teams still based in New Zealand, his shore support is currently being aided by nearly every other team in the race in order to have ready on hand all the possible solutions to this electrical problem. Meanwhile the front-runners in Class 1 & 2 have crossed the International Date Line to have February 11th twice over, and the skippers have not had much more than an hour's sleep since the start as they race towards colder climes grand prix style in 20 knot winds from the North West underneath the large high pressure system spread out above. In the last 24 hours the current lead Bernard Stamm on Bobst Group-Armor Lux has only pushed out a handful of miles over Thierry Dubois on Solidaires who is "sticking like glue". Bruce Schwab on Ocean Planet is pulling off a fine performance holding third, keeping the new modified bow of his narrow boat up with the beamy spaceship-style yachts skippered by the more experienced sailors. Also it is refreshing to have Italian Simone Bianchetti back in fighting form with the new rig on Tiscali - he has never been so determined to chase a podi um finish in this leg. Thanks to the lighter reaching conditions, the Class 2 fleet are indextaining high average boat speeds, and leader Brad Van Liew on Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America is holding his own with the back markers in Class 1 Hexagon and Pindar. "My strategy this leg is based on a priority of getting safely to Brazil," Van Liew wrote in his log, " so a bit of a push in the mild weather for the first couple days has made an early lead possible. This will allow me to take it easy in the deep Southern Ocean and hopefully stay north of any ice fields." Behind him the podium spots have been rotating between every other boat in the fleet - including Alan Paris on Open 40 BTC Velocity whose average boat speed has been ticking over 8 knots in these optimum conditions. Tim Kent on Everest Horizontal has opened up a 15 mile lead over Japanese skipper Kojiro Shiraishi on Spirit of yukoh, and with index rival Derek Hatfield having peeled off to the West, Kent will be focused on keeping the best speeds up and the pressure on Van Liew ahead. Kojiro has never had his boat in such a good state of repair and so his goal to reach the podium in Leg 4 is very much in sight. A high pressure lies ahead, which will stall the boats temporarily until they dive deeper below the 40th parallel and pick up the oncoming low pressure systems. POSITIONS AT 1400GMT 11TH FEBRUARY 2003 You can track the race boats using RayTech 4.1 navigational software by going to the Positions page online and clicking on the link to the Raymarine website at the top of the index chart. Free copies of the RayTech 4.1 software are available on CD - please contact Sabina Mollart-Rogerson on email: sabina@adpr.co.uk Class 1 Boat Lat Lon AvgBsp Avgheading DTF 1 Bobst Group-Armor Lux 43 08.340 S 174 31.310 W 12.31 kt 133 °T 6925.11 nm 2 Solidaires 43 13.370 S 174 50.320 W 12.12 kt 138 °T 6932.87 nm 3 Ocean Planet 43 08.240 S 174 57.290 W 11.49 kt 140 °T 6940.04 nm 4 Tiscali 42 09.480 S 174 10.310 W 10.89 kt 124 °T 6950.14 nm 5 Pindar 42 54.020 S 175 16.500 W 11.82 kt 131 °T 6959.88 nm 6 Hexagon 42 22.430 S 175 22.240 W 7.93 kt 151 °T 6983.02 nm Class 2 Boat Lat Lon AvgBsp Avgheading DTF 1 Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America 42 59.020 S 175 18.020 W 10.79 kt 139 °T 6957.64 nm 2 Everest Horizontal 42 01.840 S 176 31.950 W 10.53 kt 140 °T 7035.98 nm 3 Spirit of yukoh 41 44.830 S 176 39.480 W 9.83 kt 138 °T 7051.17 nm 4 BTC Velocity 40 59.190 S 17 6 25.430 W 7.67 kt 126 °T 7072.70 nm 5 Spirit of Canada 39 23.930 S 179 39.280 E 7.04 kt 284 °T 7270.39 nm International Media Relations: Mary Ambler - Email: mambler@clipper-ventures.com - NZL mobile: +64 (0)21 706 519 Local Media Relations - Tauranga, NZL Julie Chadwick, Tauranga Around Alone Ltd - Email: julie@taa.co.nz - Tel: +64 (25) 595 083 Website: http://www.taa.co.nz Official Photography - Marinepics International distribution: Ali McKichan - Email: info@marinepics.com - Tel: +44 (0) 1489 573753 Production & New Zealand distribution: Roy Riley - Email: royspics@aol.com Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE