GOR - Global Ocean Race Class40s - Leg 3

http://globaloceanrace.com - Übersicht Leg3

23 February 2012

Nannini and Ramon are next up for Cape Horn
Having crossed the Felipe Cubillos Cape Horn Gate at 06:25 GMT on Wednesday at the head of the Global Ocean Race (GOR) fleet, Conrad Colman and Adrian Kuttel made a steep climb north-east out of the Southern Ocean with Class40 Cessna Citation. Leaving Cape San Juan at the eastern end of Isla de Los Estados to port almost 24 hours after rounding Cape Horn, Colman and Kuttel entered the South Atlantic on Thursday morning chased by the low pressure system they had outpaced at Cape Horn.

Nannini vor Kap Hoorn
Foto: Financial Crisis

On Wednesday morning, Marco Nannini and Hugo Ramon, south-west of Cape Horn in second place, were underway again while the low pressure system moved ahead of them. As the Italian-Spanish duo pushed east, Marco Nannini was satisfied with the decision to hove-to: “I think we found the right balance,” he confirmed late on Wednesday night. “We had sustained winds of 40-45 knots with occasional gusts into the 50-55 range, in line with what we expected,” says Nannini. “On two occasions we were hit by hailstone squalls and the only piece of advice I can leave you with is: Don’t look at a hailstone storm!” he advises. “The small pellets of ice shot into your eyeballs at nearly 100 kilometres an hour and really hurt!”

Nannini and Ramon pursued the low pressure system towards Cape Horn, gradually increasing sail. “We started sailing again during the night and when things seemed to have calmed down further, we changed from the smallest of sails, the storm jib, to the larger staysail and increased the area of the indexsail by removing the 4th reef and moving up to 3rd reef,” he reported as Financial Crisis barrelled east averaging between nine and ten knots. “We are surfing down the waves in 30-35 gusting 45 knots of wind and a rather messy residual sea which hopefully will start to ease over the next 12 hours.”

The gale peaked at Cape Horn at around 03:00 GMT on Thursday with Financial Crisis keeping up the pace 190 miles to the south-west as Nannini began to plot for another comeback. With the low pressure moving east from the cape and delivering strong WSW winds to Colman and Kuttel in the open water of the South Atlantic, the Italian skipper saw an opportunity. “Interestingly, the strong winds will force them to go east of the Falklands,” reasons Nannini as the alternative would mean Cessna Citation beating into 30+ knots. “This adds about 100 miles to their course, leaving us with a chance of cutting to the inside and perhaps closing some of the gap?”