24.05.2002
The latest daily news from TEAM KINGFISHER to Dr Krumnacker
Segel.de
Kingfisher plc, a leading European retailer, is the title Sponsor of Ellen MacArthur.
Read all the news about Ellen & Team Kingfisher at http://www.teamkingfisher.com
* ANOTHER NIGHT OF CLOSE TACTICAL RACING in light winds as the leaders close the Straits of Gibraltar and the entrance in to the Med. SILL has indextained a 25 mile advance, as KINGFISHER, TISCALI and BOBST fight between them for second place - in sight of each other for the past day - KINGFISHER even had to 'duck' the stern of BOBST yesterday.
* LEADERS SHOULD PASS GIBRALTAR this morning, and now have less than 1000 miles to the finish in St.Margerhita, near Genoa, Italy. They are not going to be easy miles though...
* THE WIND GODS MIGHT SHAKE UP THE ORDER as the skippers, poring over their computer screens and weather information predict that the race might restart at the entrance to the Med - complex weather coming up , its never simple in this part of the world. Whilst every mile gained so far is critical, it can all melt away in just a few hours
LOGBOOK FROM NICK OVERNIGHT
sailing across smoothish seas in 12 kts of wind straight towards Gib at 8.5kts bs. At sunset we could just make out Tiscali and Bobst in the distance right on our stern. Am very happy to have tiscali behind as I believe she is faster in these conditions.
managed to get some sleep this afternoon when the wind lifted and we all fell into line. now feeling a lot better. eagerly awaiting 1st poll for the day to see how we have held against others. The grib shows that we will still have to tack before gib but for now we are happy to be sailing straight at it.
Yesterday was quite stressful with the amount of change in forecast and true wind direction across the course. I was very relieved to come off the easterly option still ahead of bobst and tiscali. as usual during black-out period you hope that your speed has been sufficient to hold or gain on the others. in 2 hours we will know. we are very focused on trying to put sill astern.
i have just started to look at met in the med....it looks difficult right from the beginning and we could see a total re-start from gib. i hope not as we have worked hard for our position so far and are still in a position to attack first. i dont want to see the boats astern again as the fleet is so competitive. Dominique is very experienced in the med so i think we will need every mile of the buffer we have right now on Teminos.
clear skys and a big bright moon on our stern. a lot of shipping about 82 miles to entrance of straits.
team kf
POSITIONS
Positions at 0900 GMT 24/05/2002
Regatta Rubicon map page : http://193.104.87.4/default_mono60.htm
1. Sill Plein Fruit : Jourdain, 879.9 miles to finish
2. KINGFISHER : MacArthur/Moloney, 25.0 miles behind leader
3. TISCALI GLOBAL CHALLENGE : Simone BIANCHETTI, 26.4 miles behind leader
4. BOBST GROUP-ARMOR LUX : Bernard STAMM, 31.8 miles behind leader
5. VIRBAC : Jean Pierre DICK, 61.5 miles behind leader
6. TEMENOS : Dominique WAVRE, 67.9 miles behind leader
7. L'Heautontimoroumenos : Antoine KOCH, Retired
8. Adecco : Escoffier, Retired
Read all the news about Ellen & Team Kingfisher at http://www.teamkingfisher.com
Official site of the race http://www.regataderubicon.com
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