3:19 PM Sat 26 Sep 2009 GMT
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'Spirit of Australia skippered by Brendan Hall at the start of the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Race in Hull'
onEdition ©
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Clipper 09-10 Race 2: La Rochelle - Rio de Janeiro Day 5.
The Clipper Race Viewer (
www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/Follow/RaceViewer
) indicates that it is neck and neck between the front runners today, with only 3 nautical miles separating Spirit of Australia, Qingdao and Hull &
Humber. The Austrlian team has had an excellent run, closing the gap between their two nearest rivals and stealing pole position from the English entry.
Spirit of Australia's skipper, Brendan Hall, says, 'We've had a stonkingly fast night of racing and have really tretched our legs, reeling Hull & Humber back in by 10 nautical miles in the last 12 hours and slowly extending our lead over Qingdao.
'The rest of the fleet has really spread out and I've heard reports of bad sail damage to other boats,' he adds. 'We've taken the reports in our stride and become doubly vigilant with our chafe and rigging checks.'
Following 48-hours of spinnaker wraps and sail damage across the fleet, the majority of the teams opted for a conservative sail plan overnight as restricted visibility and large Atlantic swell continued to test the crews helming abilities.
'Flying the heavy spinnaker was getting pretty hairy yesterday evening,' says Hull & Humber skipper, Piers Dudin. 'So we played cautious and dropped down a gear to a poled out headsail. A bit of a slower option but much easier to steer with, especially in restricted visibility. We figured our lead would take a battering and that seems to have been the case. Although it looks like Spirit of Australia and Qingdao have pushed out west, which suits us fine as I don't think that side of the course is going to payout.'
One victim of a particularly vicious spinnaker wrap yesterday was Irish entry Cork. Their kite became so tightly wrapped around their forestay that the team was forced to cut it down.
'I'm sorry to say we had to cut it off,' admits Cork skipper Richie Fearon. 'From when we first wrapped the spinnaker to removing it and finally getting the next one up has taken 21 hours! We have taken as many positives as we can out of the wrap in terms of what we have learnt and how to react quicker if it happens again. We are chasing the pack again but hopefully we will start seeing those miles closing in as we settle down to our routine on board.'
With regards to weather routing the teams that have kept further west have generally benefited the most. Not only has it enabled Spirit of Australia and Qingdao to catch Hull & Humber but has also allowed Edinburgh Inspiring Capital to claw back some miles on the rest of the fleet. Skipper of the Scottish entry, Matt Pike, says 'We are hoping that time spent studying the weather files pays off! There seems to be a good wind tunnel from north west of Cape Finisterre right down to the Canary Islands, so west we went to find it.'
Joff Bailey, Race Director, says, 'There is nothing in the latest weather forecast suggests the teams do nothing but push on driving down the shortest route to Rio. The wind strength is due to reduce over the next 48 hours which will see the sailing angles change as the teams try and keep up a high Velocity Made Good (VMG). VMG is the true speed that a boat is doing to a specified position or waypoint and should not get confused with actual boat speed.
To ensure that all the teams have the same weather information and that one boat does not have an advantage over another, the race office provides the same weather data to all the teams.
Joff says, 'We know that there are a lot of armchair sailors out there amongst the friends and family of the crew and that some have email contact with the boats. Whilst they may feel that they are being helpful by forwarding additional weather information, the Clipper Race Committee requests that they refrain from doing this. It could lead to a claim of outside assistance which would result in a protest and a team could eventually be disqualified from the race,' he warns.
Positions at 0600 GMT, Saturday 26 September
Boat Latitude Longitude
DTF* DTL*
Spirit of Australia 38.8.3N 13.40.3W 4065nm
onm
Hull & Humber 37.57.24N 13.7.6W 4067nm
2nm
Qingdao 38.6.56N 13.28.16W 4068nm
3nm
Team Finland 38.39.27N 13.5.48W 4105nm
40nm
Uniquely Singapore 39.35.13N 13.18.27W 4150nm
85nm
Cape Breton Island 39.37.18N 12.41.33W 4165nm
100nm
Cork 39.23.20N 11.35.10W
4177nm 112nm
California 39.55.57N 11.37.36W
4204nm 139nm
Edinburgh Inspiring Capital 40.16.55N 12.15.43W 4209nm
144nm
Jamaica Lightning Bolt 40.24.19N 11.27.43W 4233nm
168nm
(*DTF = Distance to Finish, *DTL = Distance to Leader)
Full details of positions, updated every three hours can be found at
www.clipperroundtheworld.com
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by Clipper Event Media
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Sailing
