Cape Breton Island finishes Southern Ocean leg of Clipper 09-10

4:10 PM Wed 16 Dec 2009 GMT

'The Cape Breton Island racing crew celebrating in Geraldton.' Clipper Ventures PLC &copy

In what has been one of the closest fought legs of the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race, Cape Breton Island has finished Race 4 in fourth place, crossing the line at 1543 local time (0743GMT). Despite battling hard to the end, the team just missed out on a podium position with third place going to Jamaica Lighting Bolt who crossed the line just 38 minutes ahead of them. Line honours for the race from Cape Town, South Africa, to Geraldton, Western Australia, went to Team Finland with Spirit of Australia taking second place into their home port.

"It was a great race, tight all the way from start to finish," said Jan Ridd, skipper of Cape Breton Island. "We had plenty of battles with different boats along the way and right down to the last mile we were in close contention with another boat."

Commenting on missing out at the Scoring Gate when his team looked as though they would be the first to cross and gain a valuable three points, Jan said, "We were unlucky with the weather. Coming up to the scoring gate there was supposedly a patch of wind beneath us but unfortunately we found ourselves with none at all. We then saw the light winds of the high pressure system towards the end of the race as an opportunity to get back out in front and we did our best to catch the boats ahead but it wasn't to be on this occasion."

Crowds of supporters, friends and family lined the breakwater to see the finish and a strong wind, gusting 30 knots, kept the boats fully powered up right to the line.

The Southern Ocean leg, which started on 22 November from Cape Town, has been a testing one for the crews - the 68-foot yachts surfing at speeds in excess of 20 knots down large ocean swells. The weather conditions have also been unpredictable from patches of light winds to sudden gale force gusts which would come out of nowhere and catch the teams off guard.

Round the world crew member, Elisa Jenkins, a physiotherapist from Sydney, Cape Breton Island, found the conditions surprising. "It was entirely unexpected from what I though it would be," she said. "Initially I thought it would be more of a downwind sleigh ride but we actually spent a lot of the race sailing upwind.

"Australia was one of my most anticipated stops of the race," said Elisa. "I learned to sail in Australia and I was quite excited to come back here under sail. Having sailed halfway around the world it was a very special moment to arrive in Geraldton this afternoon."

As the fleet left the Southern Ocean and headed north towards Geraldton an area of high pressure caused the boats to concertina with some of the yachts so close that they passed within one nautical mile of each other. The final day of racing saw the front seven teams separated by less than forty miles.

In almost a repeat performance of Race 2 from La Rochelle to Rio de Janeiro, Jamaica Lightning Bolt took third place away from Cape Breton Island, managing to hold their position in front as the boats raced through the light winds off the coast of Western Australia. Qingdao finished in fifth place, followed by Edinburgh Inspiring Capital, Uniquely Singapore and California. Cork and Hull & Humber are still making good progress to Western Australia following their collision on the start line in Cape Town.

Once ashore the crews will spend the next few days cleaning their boats and carrying out essential maintenance. The fleet will be berthed at the Batavia Coast Marina, Geraldton for the duration of the stopover and lifted at various points for their mid-race refits. Once all the work is complete the crews will have time off to enjoy Christmas and New Year in Australia. The race will restart on Sunday 3 January when the boats will race up the Western Australian coast to Singapore and then on to Qingdao in China.

by Clipper Ventures

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Cape Breton Island finishes Southern Ocean leg of Clipper 09-10

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