The Transat Race 2004 Plymouth - Boston - Start 31.05.2004 www.thetransat.com - zur Übersicht 08.06.2004 www.conradhumphreys.com Onboard images attached: what a difference between Monday and Tuesday morning! Credit: Conrad Humphreys/O6T HELLOMOTO AND SKANDIA NECK AND NECK Day 8: Competition heats up as conditions get colder Plymouth, England 8th June, 2004. There are two hotly contested duels being waged on the water in the Open 60 Monohull fleet today. Firstly, at 1100GMT, just 4 miles separates the top two boats Ecover (Golding) and Pindar Alphagraphics (Sanderson), and now HELLOMOTO is just 0.1 of a mile behind Skandia (Moloney) in terms of distance to finish, as both boats vie for 4th place 126m from Ecover. The leaders are reported to be in thick fog, but Conrad called in on his Motorola satellite phone to say that he has clear skies for the moment, HELLOMOTO is averaging 13 knots and he can see Skandia 4 miles to leeward – and after covering 1,860 miles of ocean! 60ft-Banque Populaire - DPPI Both skippers spoke to each other on The Transat Radio session and exchanged details of their night. Nick Moloney suffered from serious flooding when his deck hatch opened while he slept below, and Conrad spoke of his own woes: “It was the blackest night last night…and absolutely freezing! The water coming over the deck is icy cold and I’ve been soaked to the skin and haven’t had much sleep. I actually took off my socks so I could warm my feet up on the heater! I was hallucinating badly last night too – I was convinced someone was on the helm when I was checking the radar down below, and I dreamt that I went shopping for groceries…with Jennifer Aniston! She asked me to take my balaclava off and then I woke up to find I was peeling my mask off my face! It’s just lack of sleep which does this, so I’m going to jump into my fantastic sleeping bag which Andy Dare made for me and get some well needed kip!” On a serious note, Conrad is expecting a physically arduous day ahead in his boat-to-boat battle: “The wind will begin to come aft, so we’ll be changing from genoa to gennaker and then to Code 5 and spinnaker as we head towards Boston. Right now we are sailing a more Southerly route than West, as we’re sailing towards the low pressure below us. If Nick decides to head more west and cut the corner on the high pressure, I don’t think I’ll cover him as I prefer to sail my own race and there’s truck loads of wind below us.” Still upbeat as ever, Conrad feels comfortable despite the close competition and his relative lack of experience, and has his boat to thank for this. “Thanks to the preparation of HELLOMOTO, I’ve got no major worries onboard, but I’m still surprised to be where I am against a powerful boat as Skandia, Nick’s had much more time on the water racing her too. There’s still so much I really don’t know, I’ve got a million questions for Mike Golding when we get in to Boston – maybe he’ll answer them if he beats me! I’ve got 2 sails on the ready on the foredeck, the Code E and gennaker, and I’m going to have to put them both up to see which one I should carry. It’s going to be a busy day!” The Open 60 monohull fleet are today crossing under the 1,000 mile barrier to the finish line, and Conrad expects to be on the water for another 4/5 days, but is keeping an open mind about what may happen: “There’s still a lot of water between here and Boston, and today is the start of a whole new race. Anything could still happen and the leader board could definitely change around, it’s going to be very tactical and stressful now we’re sailing through a busy area with fishing boats, whales and fog. Last time I raced off Nova Scotia I was on a boat which only went at 8 knots in any direction, with 18 other people, and we were sitting on top of a hurricane – this time I’m surfing off waves at 18 knots by myself – sailing this boat is such a pleasure!” Positions at 1100 GMT Pos Boat Latitude Longitude Speed Hdg DTF* DTL** 1 ECOVER 43 07.08' N 48 49.08' W 6.6 276 974.0 2 PINDAR 43 00.48' N 48 44.44' W 5.9 277 977.9 4.0 3 TEMENOS 43 11.48' N 47 50.64' W 7.4 214 1016.2 42.2 4 SKANDIA 44 44.00' N 45 41.92' W 10.8 240 1103.4 129.4 5 HELLOMOTO 44 43.96' N 45 41.84' W 10.6 243 1103.5 129.5 * Distance to finish ** Distance to Leader HELLOMOTO positions & performance data are updated on the new Race Console feature launched on our homepage – www.conradhumphreys.com WEATHER POINT – see The Transat web site for more details The majority of the Open 60's are now sailing away from the grip of the Mid Atlantic storm, into slightly more sedate north westerly winds of 15 - 25 knots. These are soon to decrease and become more variable before filling back in from the south east ahead of the next Atlantic low. This low is small and further south than the last, so the boats should be able to take full advantage of the south east to easterly winds around the northern edge of it to spend time eventually today and tonight on a downwind run. However looking ahead the fleet face a long upwind beat against some strong west to south westerly wind on Thursday. head winds of speeds between 20 - 30 knots will not be a welcome sight on the weather charts for the skippers. Listen in to Conrad Humphreys in the daily skippers’ chat sessions Media can call this number 0901 500 6100 (UK only – 25p per minute) between 0900 – 0945 hrs BST each day. Public can call this number 0906 540 0300 (UK only – 50p per minute) between 0900 – 0945 hrs BST each day. Audio files from this session will be uploaded onto the race web site later in the morning. The Transat Race web site: www.thetransat.com ENDS Media enquiries: Mary Ambler Communications Manager Motorola Ocean Racing Team Open 60 HELLOMOTO O6T Ltd Email: mary@o6t.com www.conradhumphreys.com – for all sports & news media enquiries & resources Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE