Velux 5 Oceans - Alone-Round the World Yacht Race www.velux5oceans.com - Übersicht 26 January, 2007 VELUX 5 OCEANS - Leg 2, Day 13 Report BASURKO AND KNOX-JOHNSTON headING FOR A WEEKEND CLASH * Bernard Stamm (SUI) dives south into freezing waters to round the high pressure system * Kojiro Shiraishi (JPN) sailing with old sails after ripping his precious code 6 * Unai Basurko (ESP) holds off Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (GBR) in unstable conditions but the fight is on over the next 48 hours as the back markers converge for a battle royal Currently separated by only 220 miles of Southern Ocean, Unai Basurko on PAKEA and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston on SAGA INSURANCE are lining themselves up to converge over the weekend and play out a close fought battle for last place. Knox-Johnston, currently sailing without weather information or position data of the fleet, is sailing around 7 knots directly east. Further north, the Basque skipper is heading south west at 8 knots away from Tasmania, and the position reports suggest that the back markers will come together in the next 48 hours. The clash will make the battle for last place even more intense as they look to pass below New Zealand. The young Basque skipper has held onto fourth place over the sailing legend despite highly variable and unstable wind conditions, whilst Knox-Johnston continues to be plagued by technological problems and glitches. Meanwhile at the front of the fleet, Bernard Stamm on CHEMINEES POUJOULAT has been diving south to navigate around the high pressure system. The air and water temperatures have been dropping rapidly as he edges nearer the Antarctic. Although the Swiss skipper never likes to sail in waters below 7-8 degrees Celsius, he is preparing to hit waters just above freezing and will therefore be extra vigilant. The defending champion and race leader will soon turn back north with the weather and although he will have sailed a greater distance, Stamm believes he will extend his lead over Kojiro Shiraishi on SPIRIT OF YUKOH and the fleet. The last few days have been difficult for the Japanese skipper, who ripped his new code zero sail yesterday. This has left Koji with an old code zero, which he has been mixing up with his genoa, also an old sail. The sail changes are especially tiring for Shiraishi who stores both sails below deck, therefore meaning he must lug heavy sails around the boat. The young skipper from Japan is expecting difficult times ahead with respect to weather and conditions and is preparing himself for head winds, although he is praying the weather forecast is wrong. Bernard Stamm, CHEMINEES POUJOULAT: "I am forced to go around the high pressure system in front of me. I am heading south and should head north again in 24 hours to get back on track. I will probably sail an extra 100 miles at the end. I am 54 degrees south and it is starting to get really cold. The sea temperature is still quite warm (9 degrees) but it should go down really quickly. I shouldn't sail in waters colder than 7 or 8 degrees; but I will have to and the water temperature will probably only be 3 or 4 degrees soon so I will have to be really, really vigilant." "I have 15 to 20 knots of westerly wind and the boat speed is around 13 to 14 knots. It is not too bad at the moment but the motion should come more brutal when we start to sail fast with the next low pressure system. At the moment, the movement of the boat is quite gentle and so I am able to rest whenever I want. I haven't made the same mistake as I did during the first leg (not enough food and no fleeces). And I am happy to say that this leg is completely different to the previous one! I am managing to stay rested because I am warm and eating properly, and it makes a big difference." Kojiro Shiraishi, SPIRIT OF YUKOH: "Since yesterday the wind has been slowly reducing. So I was able to get up the spare old C6, after the drama with the torn C6 and we could sail with that for a while. The wind changed again and I put up the Genoa. On our boat the Genoa is not fixed on deck so we have to drag it out from the sail locker each time. So we take down the C6, pack away, drag out the Genoa and hoist it. It's a time consuming and tiring. This Genoa is also an old sail and it will be not be a surprise if it's does not stand up to the strain. But I have said a nice little prayer that sail will last." "From now the navigation will be very difficult. The wind is set to die and after that we will have head winds. But the forecast are changing with every grib download and it is important to pay attention now. My feeling too is that the forecasts are not so accurate down here. So I have a hope that the weather forecast will be wrong. We have to keep patient." Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, SAGA INSURANCE: "Currently I've got a front about eight miles astern of me. I'm just waiting for it to hit now. I've been gybing quite a lot, I think we'll be gybing again fairly shortly. What bothers me is I can't get the weather and that's really hurting. I can't plan ahead as much as I'd like. I can't use the information that I would be using to race more competitively." Unai Basurko, PAKEA: "I'm in the middle of some highly variable winds. I'm in a transition between one wind and the other and it isn't very stable; I'm in a cold front and it's rained a lot. Besides that everything is all right. I had some sunshine this morning, so I put my boots and my gear to dry... but tonight it will rain a lot again. It's really uncomfortable the wind, because it goes up and down, and you can be in a storm with 30 knots and suddenly goes down and stays in 15, very uncomfortable... but I have the feeling it's getting more stable." "Now I'm sailing with one reef and the solent, as I'm expecting a storm tonight and it's hard to see them coming in the night; I can see it in the radar, but I prefer to avoid problems. During the day I sailed with the full index up and the genoa, but I think tonight will be very windy and it'll increase by the hour." Boat Positions as at 10:20 UTC 26 January 2007 Yacht Skipper Latitude Longitude Course (°) Speed (knot) DTL (nautical miles) DTF (nautical miles) Dist - last Pos (nautical miles) Dist - 24h (nautical miles) Average speed - 24h (knots) VMG - 24h (knots) 1 Cheminées Poujoulat Bernard Stamm 55° 18.72 S 163° 26.32 W 134 13 10420 62.3 294.9 12.29 9.72 2 Spirit of Yukoh Kojiro Shiraishi 52° 16.00 S 179° 08.60 W 102 13 540 10961 53.5 252.3 10.51 9.87 3 A Southern Man-AGD Graham Dalton 46° 30.16 S 162° 20.92 E 83 10.4 1399 11819 54 218.9 9.12 3.96 4 PAKEA Unai Basurko 45° 08.44 S 152° 38.04 E 93 9 1742 12162 42.6 196.8 8.2 7.66 5 SAGA Insurance Sir Robin Knox-Johnston 47° 59.52 S 148° 31.04 E 60 11 1793 12213 43.5 177.2 7.38 6.42 - END - For more information on VELUX 5 OCEANS please visit www.velux5oceans.com , or contact: Tim Kelly / Justine Ozoux / Kate Fairclough RACE PRESS OFFICE: + 44 20 7494 1616 E: tim.kelly@pitchpr.com / justine@pitchpr.com / kate@pitchpr.com About Norfolk, Virginia (USA) Norfolk, which is home to Naval Station Norfolk, the largest military station in the world, can host hundreds of vessels at one time including cruise ships, destroyers and submarines and once made history when it berthed five nuclear aircraft carriers at the same time. The port will provide the skippers and ground crews of the VELUX 5 OCEANS with world class facilities. The City is bordered by the Chesapeake Bay and the Hampton Roads Harbour, one of the most famous sailing areas in the USA which attracts hundreds of thousands of yachts and sailing fanatics to the area every year and has played host to some of the world's major sailing events including the Volvo Ocean Race and the Mount Gay Rum Sailing Week. The situation of the City also makes it an idea venue for the VELUX 5 OCEANS providing unique opportunities to watch the fleet arrive from vantage points on the coast and on the water. www.norfolk.gov Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE