Betreff: SOUTHERN OCEAN SLEIGHRIDE Absender: "Aroundalone" Empfänger: Datum: 21. Feb 2003 23:51 SOUTHERN OCEAN SLEIGHRIDE 21st February 2003 Class 1 leader Bernard Stamm on Bobst Group Armor lux has dived south lining himself up for rounding Cape Horn. He is sailing another spectacular leg and is due to round the infamous corner at the bottom of the world on Monday. With each position report he seems to be widening the gap between himself and Thierry Dubois on Solidaires, and at the last poll he was 171 miles ahead of the French sailor. It seems that nothing is going to stop him from leading the fleet around the Horn, and if his luck holds, leading the fleet into Brazil. There is still a long way to go yet, and Dubois, who by his own admission is not pushing as hard as Stamm, is ready to pounce as soon as Bernard lets up the pace or breaks something. In a satellite phone call Thierry described life on board Solidaires and his strategy for the leg. "I am not interested in following Bernard south or worrying too much about Graham and Simone behind," he said. "My goal is to get to th e Horn with the boat in perfect condition. I could have followed Bernard, but have decided to stay on this direct route to the Horn. The gaps between the boats are pretty close but I'm looking forward to the competition once we've turned left as that's where the race will really start." It seems that Thierry has a similar plan in mind as the rest of the skippers; to keep their boats together until the Horn, and then push hard from there to the finish in Brazil. Despite the tough sailing Dubois has not lost his sense of humor. "We'll probably round the Horn on Monday," he continued, "which is my Birthday so I've asked Bernard to wait for me there and we can go find a Bistro that's open and celebrate together!!" 3D image courtesy of Voyager 2020 www.voyager2020.com Tim Kent, skipper of Open 50 Everest Horizontal photo Andreas Hanakamp/Marinepics Behind the leaders the rest of Class 1 has stretched out a bit with roughly 700 miles separating Stamm from Emma Richards on Pindar. The close racing of the last few days has ended with Graham Dalton on Hexagon opening up a 100 mile lead on Simone Bianchetti on Tiscali, and Bruce Schwab on Ocean Planet opening up a 150 mile lead over Emma on Pindar. All of the Class 1 yachts are into the Fifties, but only Bobst Group Armor lux is below the latitude of Cape Horn. The rest of the fleet will have to dive south in the next few days in order to get around the corner. In Class 2 Brad Van Liew on Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America still holds a commanding lead over the rest of his class. With rig problems on Everest Horizontal it's unlikely that Tim Kent will be able to mount a challenge, and so Brad is pacing himself knowing that the only thing that stands between him and victory is a major breakdown. Brad has stated on more than one occasion that his goal is to arrive in Brazil with as little damage as possible, and his conservative tactics and steady pace are evident by his performance. Despite not having a headstay, Tim Kent is still indextaining a decent lead over third placed Kojiro Shiraishi on Spirit of yukoh. Koji has been pushing hard since leaving Tauranga intent on a podium finish for the leg despite feeling seasick most of the time. His email today describes typical Southern Ocean conditions. "The whole sky is covered with clouds," he wrote. "The wind is coming directly from the west. Huge ocean swells ar e coming from the southwest. The waves are overpowering the weak wind and the boat speed is unbalanced and slow. I feel like the high pressure system is following the boat and me as we go east." It looks like the leading yachts will round Cape Horn early next week and will miss an intense low pressure approaching from the west. The back of Class 1 and all of Class 2 will be treated to a final gale before they escape from the southern latitudes and head north. We will keep an eye on the weather and keep you updated as the low approaches. --- Brian Hancock great.circle@verizon.net Betreff: TIM'S TERRIBLE DAY Absender: "Aroundalone" Empfänger: Datum: 21. Feb 2003 23:36 TIM'S TERRIBLE DAY Tim Kent has had an interesting day at the office as his email describes a near disaster on board Everest Horizontal. "I was awakened from a nap last night by ominous noises coming from the bow of the boat," he wrote. "I quickly geared up and headed forward. What I found chilled me a lot more than the waves that were trying to get into my foul weather gear. The tack of the headstay had parted and the headstay, loaded with the big genoa, was flailing around at the bow. Only a piece of light line tied onto the basket to keep sheets from getting fouled was holding the headstay in place." A critical piece of equipment, the stay that holds up his mast, had failed, and only quick thinking on behalf of the skipper averted what could have been a major disaster; a dismasting. It seems that the pin that holds the forestay to the toggle on the boat had somehow worked its way out despite a safety screw, and the stay had come loose. Tim managed to effect a temporary repair and retired to the warmth of the cabin to contemplate his next move. It was to be a drastic one. By morning the seas had calmed down a bit and Kent returned to the foredeck to continue with the repair, but to his horror he noticed that the headstay had also come loose at the top of the mast. All the flogging of the fully loaded furler had been too much for the rod inside the unit, and it had parted at the top of the mast. The mast was being held up by the jury rig at the bottom, and the genoa halyard at the top. There was no way Tim could reattach the stay at the top of the mast and so his only option was to ditch the entire thing overboard. headstay, furling unit and sail, and that's exactly what he did. His email continued. "First I stopped the boat, rolling up the solent and dropping the index. Then I flaked out the genoa halyard so that it would run freely. I went forward, cut the furling line, then unlashed the tack line holding the headstay in place and let it go. It immediately started to whip away from the boat and then slam into the side, sending chunks of paint and carbon flying as I hurried back to the mast to ease the halyard. As soon as the drum was in the water, the sail was controllable again. I pulled it up to the side of the boat and removed the sheets, then eased the halyard down until only the head of the sail was visible. I grabbed the halyard and cut it loose, and it was gone. Just like that." With the sail overboard Tim proceeded to shore up the mast using the Genoa halyard tacked to the deck and tightened with a winch. For the moment anyway the mast was secure, but his sail inventory was severely compromised without the large headsail, and his limited finances had just taken a huge hit. The sail, furling unit and headstay had cost well over $10,000. In typical Kent fashion he chose to focus on the positive and ignore the negative. "On the bright side, I just lost my headstay and kept my rig. This is HUGE!" he wrote. "We have faced another challenge and made it through. I wish that I could have recovered the sail, but there was no way to unfurl the sail to get it off the furling unit. We will, as always, make it through somehow. For now, the bow is pointed back towards Cape Horn, the Atlantic, and home." --- Brian Hancock great.circle@verizon.net Betreff: READY FOR THE ROCK Absender: "Aroundalone" Empfänger: Datum: 21. Feb 2003 18:27 READY FOR THE ROCK NEAR DISMASTING ON EVEREST HORIZONTAL CAPE HORN BY MONDAY FOR LEADERS HATFIELD'S HIGH Southampton, England - 21st February 03. Drama unfolded overnight as Around Alone Class 2 skipper Tim Kent on Everest Horizontal narrowly avoided dismasting. He was alerted in the night by noise at the bow to find the tack of the headstay had parted and, loaded with the big genoa, the headstay was flailing around at the bow. The pin holding the headstay to the toggle had come undone and also the rod had parted at the top of the headstay after all the flogging of a fully loaded furler. The halyard was holding up the headstay alone. Kent had to jettison the entire unit and lose the genoa too. "What was important was that the rig was tested and passed. Period. I'll deal with the hole in the sail inventory. When you consider what could have happened when the headstay let go, this is no big deal. Not every boat in this fleet would have made it through that event without a dismasting." He is back on course now and still holding second place: "We are almost half way to the Horn and I'm ready to see that rock already." Around Alone Class 1 leader Bernard Stamm on Bobst Group-Armor Lux has predicted his arrival at Cape Horn to be during Sunday night and Monday morning, and he is currently at 57 degrees South, with 700 miles to go: "I am sailing an arc-like course to reach the Horn. I don't need to go any further South now, but I can't just keep a straight course in these conditions, and you have to anticipate these machines when they are surfing at 26/7 knots boatspeed in winds gusting 40 knots." Stamm had to drop the indexsail yet again to replace another broken batten, not an easy task in such a cold climate. "Each time I have to go outside it takes me half an hour just to get dressed and then I only get drenched in ice cold water when I do!" His nearest rival, Frenchman Thierry Dubois on Solidaires, has decided that running around on deck in freezing temperatures and getting soaked is not his style, and he stays in his cabin as much as possible, eating, reading and sleeping: - "that is the secret to surviving the South!" he declared. Dubois has steered a straight course on the 55th degree parallel and reindexs true to his goal: "I have to get to the Horn with the boat in perfect condition - for once I have no damage - so I don't chase Bernard South. In fact we'll probably round the Horn on Monday, which is my Birthday so I've asked Bernard to wait for me there and we can go find a Bistro that's open and celebrate together!" Third placed Graham Dalton on Hexagon is finding that his boat is revelling in the strong weather of late, but that his battery-charging problem on board persists. So far Dalton has had to wire the batteries that are used for moving Hexagon's keel into the index circuit, which has provided enough power to keep all of the instruments working. American Bruce Schwab on Ocean Planet is back on starboard gybe and after shaking off Pindar is hoping to get on the tail of Tiscali and Hexagon before the Horn. The same distance Stamm is from the Horn is the deficit that Emma Richards and Pindar has on the Class 1 leader, as the British skipper continues to single handedly control her 60ft boat surfing at top speeds in the strong winds and confused seas. Richards has gybed North as the wind shifts to the West and is "looking forward to turning left." At the back of the fleet - 2,100m behind the top Open 60 - the 'Catch-up Canadian' Derek Hatfield has been blessed by a 22 knot following wind, generated from the high pressure above him, which he has nick-named 'The Spirit of Canada High'. "I'm making inroads into the fleet but being cautious, sailing in a narrow band of water between the ice that was reported to the south and less wind in the high pressure to the north. I'm hoping that the wind continues until I can go drop further south after the position of the last reported ice." And finally, some things that happen at sea are inexplicable, at least according to Kojiro Shiraishi on Spirit of yukoh, whose port autopilot had broken down and then mysteriously started working again. "I didn't do anything to fix it although I thought about it. Thanks to all those people who prayed for this boat. I think those prayers were the key ingredients which fixed it. Without me knowing it seems to have broken and fixed itself. As I still don't know the reason it broke, I am not sure if it will stop or not so I'm going to use the starboard autopilot at night." POSITIONS AT 1400GMT 21st 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, 57 23.330 S, 87 20.040 W, 16.65 kt, 103 °T, 3609.28 nm 2 Solidaires, 55 05.280 S, 91 55.360 W, 14.77 kt, 95 °T, 3780.83 nm 3 Hexagon, 54 52.270 S, 97 23.420 W, 14.77 kt, 89 °T, 3965.79 nm 4 Tiscali, 53 30.360 S, 99 36.120 W, 9.98 kt, 88 °T, 4065.66 nm, 5 Ocean Planet, 52 45.610 S, 102 12.430 W, 12.36 kt, 91 °T, 4169.38 nm 6 Pindar, 51 42.940 S, 105 50.100 W, 12.83 kt, 41 °T, 4316.65 nm Class 2 Boat Lat Lon AvgBsp Avgheading DTF 1 Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America, 52 53.660 S, 109 05.280 W, 14.15 kt, 119 °T, 4394.27 nm 2 Everest Horizontal, 51 38.370 S, 124 52.630 W, 14.32 kt, 130 °T, 4958.62 nm 3 Spirit of yukoh, 50 28.510 S, 128 41.780 W, 10.04 kt, 109 °T, 5118.60 nm 4 BTC Velocity, 51 11.570 S, 138 22.020 W, 8.97 kt, 137 °T, 5432.66 nm 5 Spirit of Canada, 4 8 29.570 S, 143 40.240 W, 8.31 kt, 88 °T, 5712.90 nm International Media Relations: Mary Ambler - Email: mambler@clipper-ventures.com - Mobile: +44 (0)7887 643 583 Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE