GOR - Global Ocean Race Class40s - Leg 5

Charleston - Mallorca
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20 May 2012
Class40 Financial Crisis gambles with the Gulf Stream

The first night at sea was wet and lumpy for the four Global Ocean Race (GOR) Class40s with a tough reintroduction to offshore racing following their stopover in Charleston, South Carolina, as the fleet sailed straight into headwinds as they cleared the coast of the USA.

Although the South African duo of Phillippa Hutton-Squire and Nick Leggatt crossed the start line first with Phesheya-Racing on Saturday morning, the Kiwi-Australian duo of Conrad Colman and Scott Cavanough led the fleet out of Charleston Harbour with Class40 Cessna Citation, clearing the protection of the city’s offshore piers and hardening up into the north-easterly wind and long, rolling seas.

Start nach Mallorca

With headwinds forecast for the first 24-48 hours of the 3,600-mile Leg 5 to Les Sables d’Olonne, France, the option of heading into the Gulf Stream came with the certainty of steep seas as the strong, northerly-flowing current churns into the north-easterly wind.

With the addition of Tropical Storm Alberto lurking east of Charleston, three of the Class40s - Cessna Citation, Phesheya-Racing and the Dutch team of Nico and Frans Budel on Sec. Hayai - kept west of the current, tacking in towards the coast between Cape Fear and Cape Lookout while the fourth Class40, Financial Crisis of the Italian-Slovak duo, Marco Nannini and Sergio Frattaruolo, shot away from the coast, thundering into the Gulf Stream early GMT on Sunday morning.