Betreff: Clipper 2002 Race Report
Absender: "Clipper News" 
Empfänger: "Irvin Krumnacker" 
Datum: 20. Sep 2003 16:19

>From Clipper Ventures
To: Dr Irvin Krumnacker
E-mail: Dr.Krumnacker@t-online.de


Dear Dr Irvin

Clipper 2002 Race Report
20 September 2003

BRISTOL STILL OUT FRONT

The radio schedules both last night and this morning ruffled the feathers of
the Clipper 2002 leaderboard once more. Bristol Clipper, out in front with
only 460 miles to go, have however swapped a Jersey Clipper on their tail
for a Liverpool Clipper.  This match race is close, with Liverpool also up
in the Northern flank of the fleet and the yachts in sight of one another.
The Bristolians are sailing hard, with Liverpool only a mile behind.

What has happened to Jersey some might ask. Now in third place and some 25
miles behind Bristol, the North/South divide is now taking its effect.

In the North Bristol reported that instead of being headed as expected, the
wind actually backed a little yesterday afternoon and decreased slightly,
allowing them to hoist their spinnaker once more.  Conditions then changed
as the wind increased to around 20 knots and since then they have been
reaching under headsail and making good speeds as they make their way
further South.

In the South the boats are of course dealing with this East North Easterly
wind. Duty skipper Simon Rowell aboard Jersey Clipper reported that they
have been beating into 20 knot winds in a moderate sea. Having followed this
race for the past year, we all know that reaching produces more boat speed
than beating into wind, which is illustrated by the difference in the
mileage covered by the boats in the South.

The result for Race 15 to Jersey is far from decided however and there are
certainly a few tricks up sleeves that might see the leaderboard change
again. Not to mention the weather, for instance! At present the Clipper
fleet is sitting in between a cold and a warm front, which will make the
winds changeable. The winds are then forecast to veer further and
Southerlies should develop as the Low pressure establishes itself.

This should make every Hong Kong Clipper supporter sleep a little easier.
There is a theory being put to test in the Southerly pack. "We are going to
try something different," said skipper Justin Taylor yesterday and so we
watched and waited. Their sudden flyer to the South is brave, but as we
know, Justin and his team are not keen on following in the wake of others.

IF (and remember it is just a forecast) the winds do turn more Southerly,
both Hong Kong and Jersey could be the boats to reap the most benefit. Or as
skipper Simon so joyfully put it this morning: "For everyone back home who's
about to drown themselves in gin and tonic, fear not." The boys in the North
know this too, as Richard Butler added: "The sched was great, but we'll have
to see how things work out with this low."

Many crews seems to be getting a little nervous as the UK gets bigger on the
right hand side of the electronic ARCS charts on their computer screens and
this incredibly close race moves into its final stages. Still covering
fairly good daily runs, the rest of the fleet have held on to their
respective positions on the leaderboard apart from Glasgow who have been
elevated to 6th Place as Hong Kong take their dive South.

Glasgow or should we say Magnet Clipper have, over the past two days managed
to bump into two of perhaps the largest floating objects around the North
Atlantic. No serious damage was caused, after they met with a rather large
piece of tree trunk yesterday but they are slightly worried for the health
of the whale that made friends with their keel yesterday!

Clipper 2002 - Race 15 Positions
03:00, 20 September 2003

Pos     Yacht          Dist To Finish (Nautical Miles)
1    Bristol          460
2    Liverpool    461
3    Jersey          485
4    London      494
5    New York     534
6    Glasgow      555
7    Hong Kong     557
8    Cape Town      575

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