Sea, Sail & Surf newsAround Alone • Leg 4
Tim Kent on Everest Horizontal narrowly avoided dismasting
vendredi 21 février 2003 –
The halyard was holding up the headstay alone. Kent had to jettison the entire unit and lose the genoa too. "What was important was that the rig was tested and passed. Period. I’ll deal with the hole in the sail inventory. When you consider what could have happened when the headstay let go, this is no big deal. Not every boat in this fleet would have made it through that event without a dismasting." He is back on course now and still holding second place : "We are almost half way to the Horn and I’m ready to see that rock already."
Around Alone Class 1 leader Bernard Stamm on Bobst Group-Armor Lux has predicted his arrival at Cape Horn to be during Sunday night and Monday morning, and he is currently at 57 degrees South, with 700 miles to go : "I am sailing an arc-like course to reach the Horn. I don’t need to go any further South now, but I can’t just keep a straight course in these conditions, and you have to anticipate these machines when they are surfing at 26/7 knots boatspeed in winds gusting 40 knots." Stamm had to drop the mainsail yet again to replace another broken batten, not an easy task in such a cold climate. "Each time I have to go outside it takes me half an hour just to get dressed and then I only get drenched in ice cold water when I do !"
His nearest rival, Frenchman Thierry Dubois on Solidaires, has decided that running around on deck in freezing temperatures and getting soaked is not his style, and he stays in his cabin as much as possible, eating, reading and sleeping : - "that is the secret to surviving the South !" he declared. Dubois has steered a straight course on the 55th degree parallel and remains true to his goal : "I have to get to the Horn with the boat in perfect condition - for once I have no damage - so I don’t chase Bernard South. In fact we’ll probably round the Horn on Monday, which is my Birthday so I’ve asked Bernard to wait for me there and we can go find a Bistro that’s open and celebrate together !"
Third placed Graham Dalton on Hexagon is finding that his boat is revelling in the strong weather of late, but that his battery-charging problem on board persists. So far Dalton has had to wire the batteries that are used for moving Hexagon’s keel into the main circuit, which has provided enough power to keep all of the instruments working. American Bruce Schwab on Ocean Planet is back on starboard gybe and after shaking off Pindar is hoping to get on the tail of Tiscali and Hexagon before the Horn. The same distance Stamm is from the Horn is the deficit that Emma Richards and Pindar has on the Class 1 leader, as the British skipper continues to single handedly control her 60ft boat surfing at top speeds in the strong winds and confused seas. Richards has gybed North as the wind shifts to the West and is "looking forward to turning left."
At the back of the fleet - 2,100m behind the top Open 60 - the ’Catch-up Canadian’ Derek Hatfield has been blessed by a 22 knot following wind, generated from the high pressure above him, which he has nick-named ’The Spirit of Canada High’. "I’m making inroads into the fleet but being cautious, sailing in a narrow band of water between the ice that was reported to the south and less wind in the high pressure to the north. I’m hoping that the wind continues until I can go drop further south after the position of the last reported ice."
And finally, some things that happen at sea are inexplicable, at least according to Kojiro Shiraishi on Spirit of yukoh, whose port autopilot had broken down and then mysteriously started working again. "I didn’t do anything to fix it although I thought about it. Thanks to all those people who prayed for this boat. I think those prayers were the key ingredients which fixed it. Without me knowing it seems to have broken and fixed itself. As I still don’t know the reason it broke, I am not sure if it will stop or not so I’m going to use the starboard autopilot at night."
POSITIONS AT 1400GMT 21st FEBRUARY 2003
Class 1
Boat Lat Lon AvgBsp AvgHeading DTF
1 Bobst Group-Armor Lux, 57 23.330 S, 87 20.040 W, 16.65 kt, 103 °T, 3609.28 nm
2 Solidaires, 55 05.280 S, 91 55.360 W, 14.77 kt, 95 °T, 3780.83 nm
3 Hexagon, 54 52.270 S, 97 23.420 W, 14.77 kt, 89 °T, 3965.79 nm
4 Tiscali, 53 30.360 S, 99 36.120 W, 9.98 kt, 88 °T, 4065.66 nm,
5 Ocean Planet, 52 45.610 S, 102 12.430 W, 12.36 kt, 91 °T, 4169.38 nm
6 Pindar, 51 42.940 S, 105 50.100 W, 12.83 kt, 41 °T, 4316.65 nm
Class 2
Boat Lat Lon AvgBsp AvgHeading DTF
1 Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America, 52 53.660 S, 109 05.280 W, 14.15 kt, 119 °T, 4394.27 nm
2 Everest Horizontal, 51 38.370 S, 124 52.630 W, 14.32 kt, 130 °T, 4958.62 nm
3 Spirit of yukoh, 50 28.510 S, 128 41.780 W, 10.04 kt, 109 °T, 5118.60 nm
4 BTC Velocity, 51 11.570 S, 138 22.020 W, 8.97 kt, 137 °T, 5432.66 nm
5 Spirit of Canada, 48 29.570 S, 143 40.240 W, 8.31 kt, 88 °T, 5712.90 nm
Dans la même rubrique
Around Alone • Leg 4 : Solo sailors now 1500 nm from Cape Horn
Around Alone • Leg 4 : Grand prix racing in the Roaring Forties
Around Alone • Leg 4 : Open monohull fleet has left New Zealand to Brazil via Horn Cape
Around Alone • Leg 3 : Class 2 podium for Leg 3 sealed by Canadian Derek Hatfield
