13 April 2012
Good speeds for the fleet as the easterlies arrive
It’s official! All of the four Class40s racing north along the coast of Brazil in the Global Ocean Race (GOR) Leg 4 from Uruguay to Charleston have finally hooked into easterly breeze and are making good progress.
With the fleet leader, Cessna Citation of Conrad Colman and Scott Cavanough, 500 miles from the Celox Sailing Scoring Gate, the Kiwi-Australian duo have maintained a 193-mile lead over Marco Nannini and Sergio Frattaruolo on Financial Crisis in second, but have only added three miles to the deficit in the past 24 hours as the chasing pack pick up speed. With 74 miles separating Financial Crisis from third place Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire on Phesheya-Racing on Friday afternoon, the two Class40s have been pushing hard with the distance deficit expanding and contracting. Meanwhile, the Dutch duo of Nico Budel and Erik van Vuuren stalled badly in a personal breeze vacuum on Thursday with Sec. Hayai and dropped 50 miles behind the fleet, trailing Phesheya-Racing by 85 miles at 15:00 GMT on Friday.
For the South African duo of Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire, the past 24 hours have been highly profitable. “Friday the 13th is considered lucky by some and unlucky by others,” reasoned Hutton-Squire early on Friday morning. “We’re going to start off the day on a positive note and hope that this is our lucky Friday!” Throughout the morning, the situation was looking favourable with Financial Crisis and Phesheya-Racing – both first generation Akilaria Class40s - averaging above eight knots
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