Betreff: Clipper 2002 Race Report
Absender: "Clipper News" 
Empfänger: 
Datum: 25. Sep 2003 14:59

Clipper 2002 Race Report
25 September 2003

PENULTIMATE SPRINT BEGINS

After a fast passage across the mouth of the English Channel, the Clipper
2002 fleet started Race 16 to Holyhead at 02:30 GMT this morning.

As predicted the breeze picked up and they were able to go into the Le Mans
start routine shortly after rounding Lands End.  Jersey skipper Simon Rowell
in his usual guise as flag officer for the start reported, "The fleet
started off on a bearing of 007 degrees True, aiming for South Bishop
waypoint, and started in order from E to W of Cape Town, London, Liverpool,
Bristol, Glasgow, Hong Kong, Jersey, New York.

"It was a good clean start and all the boats got away smoothly. The fleet
has a mixture of medium and heavyweight kites up and we are sailing with a
fair tide and 20 knots of breeze from the SE.  It's a lovely night, superb
vis and not much traffic."

The eight yachts have just under 200 miles to the finish line at Holyhead
and as well as the normal considerations of wind and crew work, the skippers
will also have to consider the strong tidal effects across the mouth of the
Bristol channel and up the Irish sea.

After thousands of miles in open ocean, this will mean a quick return to the
basics of tidal navigation and we could well see some interesting tactics as
the skippers battle it out on this short but intense sprint.

Presently things are not swinging in Bristol's favour, which will make the
islanders of Jersey more than happy. Jersey trails Bristol by 2 points
overall, so will need to finish three places ahead to regain the overall
lead. If they have equal points Bristol's greater number of wins means she
is ahead. It is getting closer and closer…

The latest message from the fleet, sent by Richard Butler, the Duty Skipper
on Bristol Clipper at 1115 BST, reads:

”When we finally started this race, there was a good breeze, up to 18 knots
apparent, from the beam. It was a Le mans start, where all the boats get in
line, with just indexsails up, then on the off, headsails can be raised and
finally, after ten minutes, kites if required. We had a good start, first
with the headsail filling. Like several other Clippers, we started with the
heavyweight kite, but some others had their medium weights up.  After an
hour or so, we peeled to the medium weight and then about breakfast time, we
peeled again to the lightweight, the first boat to do so.

“Things aren't all good at the moment though. With 133 miles to the finish,
Jersey has crept a couple of miles ahead, and Hong Kong is a mile ahead.
Glasgow is close on our port beam, Liverpool and New York well off to port,
slightly behind, Cape Town a mile directly behind and London way off to
starboard.

“The next problem is that the wind is light, from the south east and well
back. We could do with heading up more to increase the apparent and boat
speed, but 30 miles ahead, we have Skomer Island and if we head up, we won't
clear it, which would result in us heading well off course towards the west
on the other gybe. This means that the guys off to port are better off
because they have more scope for heading up. The wind will veer later,
probably taking us on to the other gybe, but not soon enough to help out
with this problem. It’s amazing that 11 months racing have come down to a
final few hundred miles in to Liverpool!”

The yachts chasing Jersey are still tightly bunched and it will only be when
they round Skomer that we shall get a proper order, which will be published
on the leaderboard section at www.clipper-ventures.com.

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Clipper 2002 Round the World Yacht Race
Race 15 Jersey to Holyhead ETA 26/09/03