6 March 2012
Finally, downwind sailing for Phesheya-Racing
At 15:00 GMT on Tuesday, the final Class40 racing in Leg 3 of the Global Ocean Race (GOR), Phesheya-Racing of Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire, has finally found following winds as the South African team closes in on the coast of Argentina with 205 miles reindexing to the finish line.
However, the final yards of the 6,300-mile leg from Wellington, New Zealand, to Punta del Este, Uruguay, are proving to be punishing. Following a knockdown on Sunday, the upwind sailing continued throughout Monday despite the promise of off wind sailing from GRIB files. “We continued to beat into a fearsomely steep and nasty sea throughout the day,” reported Phillippa Hutton-Squire early on Tuesday morning. Damage had been sustained to the staysail, forcing the South Africans to sail with the headsail reefed, but the option of changing up to a bigger sail was denied: “With Phesheya-Racing being pummelled by one squall after another, we were reluctant to go all the way to the Solent jib, especially as we were still optimistically hoping that the wind would shift behind us and we would have to gybe soon,” she continues.
Throughout daylight on Monday, Phesheya-Racing slammed upwind: “So all day long we continued to beat northwards into miserable conditions, only broken by the sighting of a lone fishing boat and, later, a lone cargo ship, but otherwise there was not much else to be seen on the windswept horizon,” explains Hutton-Squire. Relief came at midnight GMT Monday/Tuesday: “We crossed the 40th parallel of latitude and suddenly the long awaited wind shift was upon us,” she says. Once again, close to the coast, the GRIB files were conflicting with reality. “It wasn’t the gradual shift predicted by the weather forecast, but rather an almost instantaneous 180 degree change that called for a quick easing of the sheets followed by an immediate gybe.”
Marco Nannini and Hugo Ramon take 2nd in Leg with Class40 Financial Crisis. See the gallery here.
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