Catch up

Easterly option finally pays for Thierry Dubois and Emma Richards in Around Alone reports Mary Ambler

The gaps are finally starting to close between the five Class 1 boats in the final leg of Around Alone, as the front runners Bobst Group-Armor Lux and Tiscali move out of the NE trades and hit lighter winds on the SW side of a high pressure system level with Puerto Rico.

Italian skipper Simone Bianchetti is putting in a great performance by gnawing at Stamm’s heels and keeping the pace full on for the pair of them: "There’s 10 knots of breeze and we have very Caribbean conditions," Stamm reported. "I am skirting round the system which forms the Bermuda High. In 24hrs I will gybe, the wind will begin to swing round to the south east, so my route will be downwind and I’ll go close past Bermuda, then hit the North Atlantic lows, which is more or less the direct route."

Ironically for Solidaires and Pindar, this is where their easterly option has begun to pay off as these two are now on a faster sailing angle coming out of the trade winds: "We have found what we were looking for," Dubois said in a satellite call. "We are more to windward and have both got more breeze – now we are off, but it could all be too late!"

Even a difference of just 3-4 knots in boat speed over the last day or two has seen the two boats clock up the fastest runs of more than 320 mile days, and eat away their deficit mileage on the leaders. The pressure lies mainly on the shoulders of British skipper Emma Richards if she is to ensure finishing ahead or just behind Tiscali to retain overall third place.

Stuck in the middle of all this is American Bruce Schwab on Ocean Planet, who is now struggling to keep his third position in the face of the faster reaching Open 60s and leading Open 50 Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America levelling with him: "I'm working like crazy to hold them off until the next light transitional patch coming up in a couple of days, but it's tough with our current weakness in reaching conditions. Just before dawn, I put up our big genniker as the wind is going lighter, and definitely can't let up at all."

Schwab is way on the inside track and it looks like the two Open 60s will reach past him in better pressure off to the east this week.

In Class 2, leader Brad van Liew on Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America and Tim Kent on Everest Horizontal are having the closest match of the entire Around Alone, and the dialogue from and between both skippers has been entertaining as they keep close tabs on each other. Both anticipate tricky conditions once out of the trade winds, thanks to a huge low pressure system parked over Bermuda. "I am pushing to get a couple of good days in while sailing north through the trade winds," van Liew commented. "Then the tactical antics will begin as we work through light transition winds and eventually the fronts coming off of the eastern United States. Tim Kent's fancy Code 5 sail will come back into play in the lighter broad reaching conditions so I need to continue to distance myself as much as possible before the possibility of loosing miles to his not-so-secret weapon."

The two Class 2 Open 40s racing leg five passed over to the northern hemisphere over the Easter weekend and have both found wind again, now averaging 8 knots as they clear the top of South America. Japanese skipper Kojiro Shiraishi on Spirit of yukoh feels he has repeated the same performance from Leg 2 crossing the Equator the other way, where he got caught in serious calms by taking a more easterly route. Alan Paris on BTC Velocity was also frustrated to have headed to far over to the east, however is finding that the stabbing pain in his ribs has receded for some days now, despite constant gybing manoeuvres in the light conditions.

Level with Buenos Aires now, Derek Hatfield on Open 40 Spirit of Canada has survived another thrashing after a huge low pressure system kicked in with 40-50 knot winds for two days: "I have been knocked down at least 10 times over the past two days. With the rollover at Cape Horn fresh in my mind, my biggest fear was the mast. The boat has suffered some minor damage, the most frustrating being damage to the new mainsail. It is down on the deck right now and I should have it back up tomorrow. It was torn along the luff for about two feet when the boom hit the water during one of the knockdowns and the lazy jack system broke under the load." Hatfield also suffered some bruising on his shoulder blade when he fell and winded his back hitting the cockpit during the storm: "Roll on Salvador!" he concluded.


POSITIONS AT 1400GMT 22nd APRIL 2003

Class 1
Boat Lat Lon AvgBsp AvgHeading DTF

1. Bobst Group-Armor Lux 18 37.160 N, 51 30.580 W, 80.63 nm, 10.08 kt, 354 °T, 1706.05 nm
2. Tiscali 17 01.200 N, 49 33.720 W, 63.25 nm, 7.91 kt, 341 °T, 1846.85 nm
3. Ocean Planet 11 33.920 N, 50 47.300 W, 94.41 nm, 11.79 kt, 305 °T, 2094.34 nm
4. Solidaires 12 33.290 N, 47 34.560 W, 111.70 nm, 13.96 kt, 324 °T, 2135.03 nm
5. Pindar 12 53.180 N, 45 32.350 W, 100.56 nm, 12.55 kt, 340 °T, 2182.03 nm

Class 2
1. Tommy Hilfiger 11 03.240 N, 50 33.980 W, 96.93 nm, 12.12 kt, 311 °T, 2127.59 nm
2. Everest Horizontal 9 03.540 N, 47 39.300 W, 89.87 nm, 11.24 kt, 296 °T, 2314.22 nm
3. Spirit of yukoh 6 26.240 N, 41 20.400 W, 64.69 nm, 8.07 kt, 327 °T, 2641.74 nm
4. BTC Velocity 3 57.280 N, 39 04.800 W, 71.77 nm, 8.96 kt, 325 °T, 2840.10 nm

* Spirit of Canada (Leg 4) at 14:00 GMT - 35 45 .210 S , 47 38 .420 W , avg bt spd 7 kts

Emma Richards writes from on board Pindar :

Finally feeling good about the days run, I've had good reaching speed all day although tonight I have slowed down as the wind has died a little. I am not far off bigger sails but the short wait until daylight would be a more conservative option. I have caught a few miles on every boat which feels good, I just need to continue doing that all the way to Newport!

I had a chat with Tim Kent on Everest Horizontal today who is on great form and has been enjoying a slightly less one-sided race this time with Brad on THFA in class

2. As you can see though my work is still cut out for me so I must go and concentrate on that again and stop my mind wandering past this race which it is tending to do now the end is drawing closer. 2300 miles to go and for the first time would want it to be longer so I have more time to catch the others!

Em x


Meanwhile from his class 1 yacht Ocean Planet, Bruce Schwab sent this:

Yikes! Thierry and Emma are flying up from behind with better wind and faster reaching boats. I'm working like crazy to hold them off until the next light transitional patch coming up in a couple of days, but it's tough with our current weakness in reaching conditions. Just before dawn, I put up our big genniker as the wind is going lighter, and definitely can't let up at all. Even Brad's 50 is just as fast as us right now since his boat is really optimized especially for reaching. In any case, this is exciting racing and I'm enjoying the suspense...I think.

In case you John Fahey fans thought that I forgot about last years music contest when we crossed the equator heading south, not so! In fact, for all of you who correctly named Mr. Fahey as the composer of "On the Sunny Side of the Ocean (Planet)," you will be invited for a sail and fun day on Ocean Planet in late May. Date and place soon to be announced for the first annual "Ocean Planet's John Fahey Memorial Sail and Guitar Day," as soon as I figure out where we're going to be.

On another musical note, thanks to school teacher and bluegrass aficionado Glenn Dewell! Glenn is organising a bluegrass jam and Ocean Planet fundraiser to be held at Christie's in Newport on May 14th. Be there or be square! After all this sailing, I'll be ready for some good down home pickin, trust me. Hope to see a lot of you there.

Anyway, fun stuff to look forward to aside from picking up all the poor little dead flying fish all over the boat every morning. During the sail change in the dark this morning, they kept landing all around me, so I try to throw them back while they're still alive. Apparently their flight controllers are on strike and they don't know where they're
going!

Later for now,
Bruce and Ocean Planet

Attached: a nice shot of our unstayed rig at work, with both the working
jib and staysail flying along with the full mainsail. The jib luff sag
is intentional, the running backstays are eased off to make the jib
fuller.

Tim Kent writes from on board Everest Horizontal :

The last two days have seen the wind come more and more to the north, starting out with a beam reach and now almost hard on the wind to maintain the same course. The winds north of here are being affected by a huge low centered over Bermuda that is muddling the weather picture to the north. The only thing I can say for certain is that the relatively idyllic sailing conditions that we have been experiencing are not going to be with us permanently.

There were a some Easter gifts to open; a nice box from Cheri and the girls with a few presents to liven up Easter morning. Kels Gilkison, the Around Alone race director, sent each skipper off with a small box and directions to keep it sealed until Easter; a large chocolate Easter egg was inside - thanks, Kels!

There was some Easter Eggs-citement as well. HAL has been misbehaving again. We started out yesterday beam reaching with the Code 5 roller-furling spinnaker up. As the wind built during the day, HAL started his wandering ways again, rounding up finally. This put so much pressure on the tack line that the line pulled right through the jammer for some 20 feet before it was stopped by the stop-knot I had put in it about three feet
before the end. I tied another line onto the end, brought it back to a mast winch, and proceeded to grind in the tack line, furler and all.

Just as I was about to get the tack line all the way in, the boat rounded up again, causing the big kite to wrap itself up in a nice hourglass knot. I got the tack line all the way in, then tried to trim in the sheet to kill the hourglass. No luck, nor had I really expected any. The only way I have been able to rid myself of this problem has been to ease the halyard down until the foot of the sail is touching the water. The top of the sail is blanketed by the main then, and the sheet can be trimmed in until the sail unwraps itself. This I did, and then had the task of grinding the sail back up to the top of the mast. By this point, the wind was moving forward, so I furled the sail up and took it down to store below. We have been under the Solent ever since.

It seems that the bad tooth has succumbed to the onslaught of antibiotics loosed upon it. It seems to be back to normal.

As for Everest Horizontal, we cranked out 240 miles over the last 24 hours, so we are making great time toward home. The Open 60s that had been behind us have finally found their wind and rocketed off, as has Brad; he can crank that canting keel over and fly in these conditions. But I am very happy with our performance so far this leg and am looking for the fastest way through the confusing weather to our north.

Tim