Leg 2 - Kapstadt - Wellington - Start 28.November 2011
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28 December 2011
An upwind hammering is on the cards
as the fleet leaders approach Wellington
With the double-handed Global Ocean Race (GOR) Class40s spread over 1,200 miles to the west of New Zealand, there are, naturally, immense differences in the conditions for the five boats. The leading duo of Cessna Citation and BSL were separated by 110 miles at 03:00 GMT on Wednesday and had entered an area of light airs off the western coast of South Island with 253 miles of Leg 2 reindexing for Cessna Citation, while Campagne de France in third, 306 miles astern of BSL, was also trapped in a breeze vacuum tantalisingly close the finish line in Wellington. Further west, straddling Tasmania, Financial Crisis in fourth and Phesheya-Racing in fifth were in strong westerly wind and making good progress, despite a batten-breaking crash gybe for the Italian-Spanish team on Financial Crisis.
Marco Nannini and Hugo Ramon on Financial Crisis had been making solid speed averages of 10-12 knots as they sailed south of Tasmania: “We were in yet another 45 knots stinker, making excellent progress under staysail and reefed index, occasionally surfing in the high teens,” reported Nannini on Tuesday morning. With the passage of a cold front, Financial Crisis was in big seas with decreasing wind strength. “Increasing the sail area would keep you surfing on rails, but the waves were just too big and you have to wait, the boat slows down and you surf some waves then skip a few, then surf another one,” he explains of the duo’s winning technique.
So far so good, until a wave with Nannini’s name on it rolled in from the west: “I was in the cockpit, standing and watching the majestic waves, a bit preoccupied as they were steeper than in the past days and some of the wave crests were breaking heavily,” he recalls. “Then, a massive wave with a very steep front lifts our stern and I could only hold on and watch the boat speed surge past 23 knots in what felt like vertical free fall.” As Financial Crisis dropped into the trough ahead of the wave, the Class40 was screened from the gale’s blast: “Both headsail and indexsail flapped powerless and we gybed gently but, almost immediately, as the wave caught up and lifted the boat from trough to peak, the full force of 45 knots of wind slammed the indexsail across,” says the Italian skipper. “The index’s square top had flipped to the other side of the runner and as we crashed gybed again, this time very violently, I could only watch helplessly as three battens held captive by the runner snapped and one batten pocket ripped open.”
Nannini and Ramon leapt into action lowering the indexsail and as Financial Crisis rolled and bucked. They coaxed the broken battens and shattered batten-shards from the pockets, measured and cut new lengths from the spares strapped to the stanchions and fitted the replacements – remarkably quickly considering the conditions: “It must have taken us a good hour whilst the boat was still being tossed around a lot,” Nannini confirms.
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