24 January 2012
South African skipper Adrian Kuttel arrives in New Zealand
ready for GOR Leg 3
With four days reindexing to the start of double-handed, Class40 Global Ocean Race (GOR) Leg 3 in Wellington on Sunday 29 January, South African sailor, Adrian Kuttel, has arrived in New Zealand to join Kiwi skipper, Conrad Colman, for the 6,300-mile course through the Pacific Ocean, around Cape Horn and through the South Atlantic to Punta del Este, Uruguay, on the Akilaria RC2 Class40, Cessna Citation.
Both Kuttel and Colman are fully absorbed with pre-start preparation at Queens Wharf in
Wellington Harbour. “There are a lot of boat details to complete before we start,” confirms the 40 year-old South African. “We’re checking the sails, provisioning the boat and we’ve put together a programme of three days of training.” While the duo cram in as much sailing as possible in Wellington Harbour and Cook Strait, Kuttel is looking forward to the challenge ahead and with Colman’s Akilaria RC2 taking first place in Leg 2 from Cape Town to New Zealand and holding the GOR’s 24-hour run record of 359 miles, the duo will be pushing hard: “We’d be disappointed if we didn’t match the last leg’s performance,” confirms Kuttel. “But this is ocean racing and anything can happen, but we’ll do the best we can.”
In Leg 2, the GOR fleet encountered a series of brutal, fast moving fronts that combined with cross-seas and mid-ocean currents to deliver harsh conditions and Kuttel and Colman have already been studying the weather for the early stages of Leg 3 across the Pacific. “I’m very excited about it,” says Kuttel. “I think the weather patterns between New Zealand and Cape Horn will be a bit more stable than they were in the Indian Ocean with a bit more heavy-air, downwind sailing, which we’re really looking forward to.” There is also the issue of known ice fields in the high latitudes of the Pacific and the GOR Race Committee have installed a waypoint at 127.30W and 47S, 2,000 miles WNW of Cape Horn at the southern limit of the bluQube Scoring Gate. “Ice is always a concern,” Kuttel admits. “But the waypoint has been put there by the GOR for everyone to go round which confronts this issue and allows us to focus on sailing.”
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