GOR - Global Ocean Race Class40s - Leg 4

Punta del Este - Charleston
http://globaloceanrace.com - Übersicht

15 March 2012
Nico Budel re-joins the GOR in Punta del Este
Dutch yachtsman and Global Ocean Race (GOR) entry, Nico Budel, sailed into Punta del Este, Uruguay, at 08:30 local (11:30 GMT) on Thursday morning following a single-handed, 29-day delivery from Cape Town, South Africa, with his Class40, Sec. Hayai. “After 20 days, I thought it was getting close to the time to finish!” admits Budel who took first in class in the 2005 OSTAR after 22 days and took eighth out of 41 finishers in the solo leg of the 2011 AZAB Race. “But that was the only time I thought about it and the feeling soon passed,” he adds. “About two days ago I started to go a bit faster as I’ve never been to Punta del Este and was excited to get there and re-join the fleet.”

Nico Budel and Class40 Sec. Hayai re-join the GOR fleet in Punta del Este

The 72-year-old yachtsman dismasted on the first night of GOR Leg 2 off the Cape of Good Hope with his son, Frans, when rigging component failure brought an abrupt halt to continuing the course to Wellington, New Zealand. Without seeking assistance, the Budels motored back to Cape Town and immediately began making plans to re-join the GOR. New sails from North were ordered and a replacement carbon mast was built by Southern Spars and, 11 weeks after the dismasting, Budel set off from Cape Town for a 4,400-mile voyage through the South Atlantic to Uruguay. “I’ve tried to find out what is different from the original mast,” says Budel. “But it’s pretty much the same and the boat feels familiar,” he confirms of his first generation Akilaria Class40, formerly Beluga Racer of the 2008-09 GOR double-handed winners, Boris Herrmann and Felix Oehme.