Oceanracing 2006 - VELUX 5 Oceans

Velux 5 Oceans - Alone-Round the World Yacht Race
www.velux5oceans.com - Übersicht

22.10.2006
TIME TO LEAVE

The preparations are done, farewells have been said and the VELUX 5 OCEANS boats have left the docks to go to temporary mornings before heading towards the start line ready for the gun at 1300 local time.

An emotional departure ceremony was held in Getxo's Marina Deportivo this morning where the eight skippers competing in the VELUX 5 OCEANS were introduced to several hundred public and press, friends and well-wishers who had assembled to see the skippers on their way.

The overwhelming sentiments of skippers were relief that finally after months of preparation the time had come to set sail, and some trepidation over the weather forecast that has the boats having to endure force seven headwinds as they round the northwest corner of Spain and head down the coast of Portugal early this coming week.

"We sail west about 180 miles to Cape Finisterre," summarised Hugo Boss skipper Alex Thomson. "And we'll be very very close to the land and the wind is coming off the land so we're going to get very little sleep over the next 36 hours."

Unai Basurko, skipper of the Spanish yacht Pakea, agreed: "It is not good. We have southwest winds, strong ones, so it won't be easy to go from here to Cape Finistere with this kind of wind. We'll just have to sail very safe and very slow over the next few days. Definitely we have to survive before we start racing."

Saga Insurance skipper, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston was anxious to get under way but said he was going to ease himself into the race gently given the extreme conditions forecast. "I think four or five days, it's going to be on the nose. At present it is force seven on the nose up the Portugese coast which is just exactly what we didn't want. I suspect none of us are going to try and prove anything during that. Someone might. We just have to get through that and into the trades and get sailing."

Swiss skipper Bernard Stamm, winner of the race four years ago was more anxious about the initial round the cans course the boats must sail before they set sail properly west along the north coast of Spain. "The boats are not designed for this and it is always a little bit strange to make something like this and have the risk to break everything after all the work we've done before. But it is only the thing - after that I am very happy to go racing." Stamm anticipates they will be seeing 40-45 knots of wind within the next 48 hours.

Meanwhile two of the eight competitors are not leaving today. Graham Dalton has still got to fix his mast and anticipates he is unlikely to leave Bilboa until Wednesday or Thursday this week. However the Kiwi skipper of A Southern Man A.G.D. believes this could be a blessing in disguise. "It is a bit of a secret weapon because these guys are going to go out there and get smashed. By the time we start in the middle of the week, the wind would have gone round, they'll be tired and half way to America and we'll just whip around Finisterre and we're gone!"

American skipper Tim Troy is still deliberating about how to solve his rating problem. Around 300kg of additional lead must be fixed to the keel of his yacht Margaret Anna and the most likely option, he feels, is going to La Rochelle on the west coast of France to have the work carried out. "We don't know for sure. We came up with this idea on Saturday morning and everyone is closed, so we'll make some phone calls tomorrow morning and try and finalise the plans from there. With the south wind we can get to La Rochelle very quickly and because they have far more experience we think it would probably be better to do it there than here. I am very disappointed. This has been a dream for 15 years and I have worked very hard for the last several years putting the boat together."

Troy reckons it will take a week at least, more likely two, to get the work carried out but has had a special dispensation from the Race Committee of the VELUX 5 OCEANS allowing his to leave whenever he wants, provided he can make the restart of the race in Fremantle in early January.