Betreff: Alex Thomson Racing: Enjoying the Single-Handed life in the Southern Atlantic
Absender: "Mary Ambler"
Datum: 02. Dec 2003 16:51
ALEX THOMSON RACING
ENJOYING THE SINGLE-HANDED LIFE IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC
Défi Atlantique: DAY 2
2nd December 2003
12:35 GMT Position of AT Racing: 08 37 S, 34 36 W
Official Ranking at 1400 GMT (from 1200 GMT poll): 5th place
Speed: 9.7 knots
Conditions: 12-15 knots from the ENE
Location: 25m off Recife, Brazil.
* The Défi Atlantique race organisation has had technical difficulties in polling and producing position reports of the fleet at the pre-arranged times of 0900, 1400 and 1900hrs GMT. In the meantime, the skippers are ringing each other or ‘boat-spotting’ in daylight hours to find out each other’s positions as they reindex in close contact just 20 miles or so off the Brazilian coastline.
*AT Racing is up in the top half of the fleet, and Alex Thomson can see Virbac (Dick) 5 miles to his ENE off the starboard beam, and knows he has gone ahead of PRB (Riou) by 7 miles. Ecover (Golding) is presumed to be ahead despite official polling putting Golding in 6th but only 15 or so miles separates the front half of the fleet.
* Here are some extracts from Alex’s first email log from on board ‘AT Racing’…it’s a good long one so go online at www.alexthomsonracing.com to read it in full.
Alex writes about the start of his first ever Open 60 yacht race : “For me the worst part of a solo race is definitely before the start, I do not like the thought of spending so much time alone, so I do not relish the time when the team get off the boat. However this feeling was short lived as the start was only 20 minutes away and I had to get myself into position. It was the first time I had been alone on the boat and I had to keep reminding myself of all the things I had to do…
Alex recounts the initial 24 hours of his experience sailing solo against 9 other contenders for the Vendée Globe 2004 : “The first night is really hard as you are used to 7 hours kip a night. I did well and managed about 2.5 hours in 45 min bursts and felt all right with it. The wind was up and down but I managed to stay with 1 reef and Solent all night, which made me some gains as I slowly saw the starboard lights of PRB and Team Cowes slip behind, in the morning PRB was 3 m directly behind and Team Cowes was out of sight (a bit of a worry). I could see a boat on my starboard bow and one on my starboard quarter. I assumed that the one on my bow was Ecover and I hoped that the one on my quarter was Virbac. The wind shifted early morning and I was forced to tack, sailing away from the coast on Port, this did mean that I would find out who was out there and to my delight it was Virbac, she crossed in front of me by 200 yards and tacked to cover me. I cannot tell you how pleased I was, I was in the right place, with the boys at the front and it is so important not to drop away from the lead pack as the rich often get richer and the poor, poorer…”
Alex finishes by reflecting on how the single-handed life is suiting him : “I have been eating well, gorging myself on sandwiches and nuts, it seems to be better for me to snack a lot and keeps my energy levels more even, I even cooked some bacon sandwiches, which were my first since leaving England! I have had some problems, my ballast tank up forward is leaking, so I have to pump the water out of the boat for 15 minutes every 2 hours, and fill the tank every few hours. I have to say, though, I am really enjoying racing on my own, now there’s no one else but me to get out of the bunk and trim the indexsail, I go and do it. I like having a few jobs to do every day…”
FOLLOW ALEX THOMSON ON THE ATR.COM WEBSITE
You can follow Alex Thomson’s racing programme on a new-look format of the current campaign website at www.alexthomsonracing.com, where Alex’s personal updates & images taken on board, plus the latest race information and boat positions will be posted daily online. If you wish to make enquiries, sign up to receive updates or send Alex a message of support at any time please register your email through the Quick Enquiries section online or at info@at-racing.com.
The Défi Atlantique official race web site is at www.defi-atlantique.org
High resolution images of Alex Thomson / ‘AT Racing’ (on board & aerial) are available on request and copyright free.
For all photography, interviews and information, please contact Mary Ambler.
ENDS
AT Racing Ltd
Address: Unit 11, Haslar Marina, Haslar Road, Gosport PO12 1NU
Tel: +44 (0)23 9252 4343 - Fax: +44 (0)23 9252 4646
Website: www.alexthomsonracing.com
Sponsorship enquiries: sponsorship@at-racing.com
General enquiries: info@at-racing.com
Media enquiries: Mary Ambler - Email: mary@alexthomsonracing.com - Mobile: +44 (0) 7887 643 583
Open 60 ‘Sill Entreprises’ - Under the previous skipper, Roland Jourdain, the Lombard design Open 60 ‘Sill Entreprises’ has been on the podium many times since being launched in 1999 and broke the solo 24hr record by covering 436 miles at an average speed of 18.16 knots within days of arriving 3rd on the podium of the Vendée Globe. With trademark giant deck spreaders and rotating mast, ‘Sill Entreprises’ has been constantly optimised from build, particularly for upwind performance, which is second to none in the current fleet.
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