Velux 5 Oceans - Alone-Round the World Yacht Race www.velux5oceans.com - Übersicht 08.11.2006 VELUX 5 OCEANS - Day 18 Report MIKE AND KOJI IN FIERCE FIGHT FOR SECOND PLACE * Mike Golding (GBR) just 51 miles from second-placed Kojiro Shiraishi (JPN) * Mike Golding and Kojiro Shiraishi cross the Equator * Race leader Bernard Stamm (SUI) extends his lead overnight A close battle is being fought between Kojiro Shiraishi and Mike Golding, the second and third placed skippers in the VELUX 5 OCEANS. Both crossed the Equator last night and are now separated by just 51 miles. Bernard Stamm, the VELUX 5 OCEANS race leader continued to show excellent form overnight extending his lead over the entire fleet, and with less than 8,000 miles to go he is one-third of his way through the first leg of the Ultimate Solo Challenge. Mike Golding, aboard ECOVER is pushing hard to catch Koji, the Japanese sailor who has been in second position since the night of the gale which forced four of the fleet to suspend racing along the northern coast of Spain. During the fickle winds experienced in the Doldrums, Mike has been able to really close the gap on Koji. Now sailing in the more predictable and stronger Trade winds, Koji will be able to manage his water ballast system more efficiently, and has quickly come back onto the pace. With Mike recording slightly faster speeds in the last 24 hours, Koji is looking over his shoulder as he tries to defend his position, recognising Mike's threat. Alex Thomson, the youngest competitor in the race is currently putting a couple of frustrating days behind him having experienced exasperatingly light winds in the Doldrums. After the excitement of fork lightning and thunderstorms overnight he has had a busy night full of sail changes as he gets in to the south-easterlies of the Southern Hemisphere. Kojiro Shiraishi, SPIRIT OF YUKOH: "SPIRIT OF YUKOH has put up a great fight to get here. It is great feeling to be second to the Equator. Now it will be our turn to chase ECOVER rather than be chased. My objective will be trying hard to stay with these top boats. But just saying that does not speed us up, so the plan will be to sail safe and do our best pace always." Alex Thomson, HUGO BOSS: "Yesterday was really good. The day before was pretty awful and the day before that, having spent 6-8 hours on both days going absolutely nowhere and that's really frustrating, especially as there is nothing you can do." "My speed is down a bit now as I'm into the South Easterlies finally, basically out of the Doldrums and I'm doing about 11 knots now. Yesterday was good despite being in the Doldrums, the angle was pretty good, I pushed pretty hard." "I had an amazing squall come over me last night, probably the worst squall I have ever been in. 40 knots of wind in it so that wasn't the exciting bit. The exciting bit was the thunderstorms and the lightening - it was horrendous - fork lightening coming down within a couple of miles and massive thunder claps. There's me standing outside all soaking wet on a carbon boat that sticks 30 metres up in the air. A bit frightening I suppose." "The night before was quite exciting as I had two squalls come through and the first one caught me a bit by surprise. As I rushed up on deck I panicked a little bit as I dropped the spinnaker and put a reaching headsail up. Ten minutes later I was pulling the reaching headsail down and putting the spinnaker up. Later on in the night I woke up as the boat leaned over a bit and went up on deck. There was another huge squall. I sat there in boxer shorts and t-shirt with 35 knots of wind with a masthead spinnaker and full indexsail up was rather exciting. I managed to hold onto the squall for just under an hour and got nearly 20 miles out of it. Really rejuvenated me after my depressing day." "Hope to be crossing into the South Atlantic later this evening. The South Atlantic for me looks fairly stable at the moment. The flyer I took in the Vendee was a way to avoid getting trapped by the South Atlantic high. I'll just be looking at trying to carry on down the road I am on at the moment. I suspect the guys in front will start to extend on me a little bit as the wind starts to free them and become a little bit more Easterly. I think Koji's doing a fantastic job and would like to see him hang onto that second place a little bit longer." Mike Golding, ECOVER: "Koji is going fast. He was pretty slow when we came out of the Doldrums and he was just getting caned poll after poll, and it hasn't taken him long to figure out how to make the boat go faster. He is definitely much more on the pace." "The weather is kind of weird. The high pressure which is normally mid-Atlantic is very, very far in the South. There's a high pressure just exiting the Atlantic underneath South Africa and a few high pressures coming in just under South America. What's happening is the high in the South near Cape Town is sending a ridge which basically travels up the Atlantic. That changes the normal tactical choice you have in the South Atlantic which is to skirt the high pressure because we won't have the opportunity to do that." Graham Dalton, A SOUTHERN MAN-AGD: "Yesterday was unbelievably frustrating - it was spinnaker up, spinnaker down, change sails, change angles, the wind was changing all the time. You want to get out to the West - it's very difficult, having been into Porto Santo off Madeira. I'm finding it very hard with the wind now to get out to the West. It may be that I have to go through the chain of islands." Meanwhile, back in Europe Sir Robin Knox-Johnston was commended by HM King Constantine of Greece (1960 Olympic Gold Medallist), at the ISAF World Sailor of the Year Awards last night. "He's 67 years old, I'm 66, and I think he's crazy," quipped the King. Sir Robin is currently heading for the Cape Verde Islands just off Senegal, Africa. Boat Positions as at 10:20 UTC 08/11/06 Yacht Skipper Latitude Longitude Course (°) Speed (knots) DTL (nautical miles) DTF (nautical miles) Average speed - last pos (knots) Average speed - 24h (knots) Average course - 24h (°) VMG - 24h (knots) 1 Cheminees Poujoulat Bernard Stamm 08° 55.36 S 028° 49.64 W 178 15.4 7789 14.11 13.59 270 12.97 2 Spirit of Yukoh Kojiro Shiraishi 02° 41.56 S 028° 36.92 W 169 10 355 8144 11.1 10.87 265 10.3 3 Ecover Mike Golding 01° 55.04 S 028° 13.04 W 186 13.1 394 8183 13 11.48 261 10.73 4 Hugo Boss Alex Thomson 02° 30.40 N 026° 23.04 W 186 10.4 636 8425 10.3 10.68 256 10.64 5 SAGA Insurance Sir Robin Knox-Johnston 17° 45.00 N 023° 38.20 W 159 7.2 1566 9355 7.37 7.04 243 6.82 6 A Southern Man-AGD Graham Dalton 24° 35.52 N 021° 11.12 W 222 11.2 1997 9786 10.5 8.69 242 8.52 7 PAKEA Unai Basurko 29° 45.00 N 020° 18.24 W 204 11.4 2309 10098 11 7.76 255 7.76 - END - For more information on VELUX 5 OCEANS please visit www.velux5oceans.com , or contact: Tim Kelly / Justine Ozoux / Kate Fairclough T: + 44 20 7494 1616 M: + 44 7773 325 533 / + 44 7824 310 035 / + 44 7789 268 814 E: tim.kelly@pitchpr.com / justine@pitchpr.com / kate@pitchpr.com Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE