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1 June 2012
Chilling tales from the heart of the storm
Since a ferocious gale swept through the Global Ocean Race (GOR) fleet on Thursday, any thoughts of Distance To Leader figures and losses or gains have been side lined temporarily as the four double-handed Class40s recover from the storm, assess any damage and – unfortunately – look ahead to the next, intense gale sweeping towards them across the North Atlantic.
Furthest south in the fleet, Nico and Frans Budel avoided the worst of the first storm with Sec. Hayai and ran into confused conditions and fickle winds, while Phillippa Hutton-Squire and Nick Leggatt managed to take Phesheya-Racing away from the storm’s direct path, but still recorded 37 knots of wind and had a deeply uncomfortable time.
However, it was the fleet leader, Cessna Citation with Conrad Colman and Scott Cavanough, furthest east and north of the Azores, and Class40 Financial Crisis, furthest north in the chasing pack, with Marco Nannini and Sergio Frattaruolo who felt the storm’s full and unrelenting fury.
On Financial Crisis, Marco Nannini and Sergio Frattaruolo tried to take a course that would keep them away from the strongest winds: “But as we sailed deeper into the low, the wind was steadily above 40 knots and gusting occasionally at nearly 50 knots,” revealed Nannini early on Friday morning. The Italian-Slovak duo were intentionally conservative and rolled their Solent jib early, but not without incident: “When it came to furling the sail we were hit by a gust and the violent flogging put a tear in the leach of the sail,” reports Nannini and repairs will be attempted as soon as the weather clears.
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