Stamm breaks away

Shiraishi and Golding across Equator in Velux 5 Oceans

Wednesday November 8th 2006, Author: James Boyd, Location: Transoceanic

Images courtesy of Expedition Navigation Systems and ProGRIB

Positions at 0700GMT

Pos	Yacht	Skipper	Lat	Long	Spd	Crs	Spd	Crs	Spd	Crs	DTF/L
					Inst		Last pos		24 hr
	8 Nov 05:32GMT
1	Cheminees Poujoulat	Bernard Stamm	07° 48.04 S	028° 56.16 W	13.4	162	13.87	270	13.27	267	7855
2	Spirit of Yukoh	Kojiro Shiraishi	01° 48.40 S	028° 35.16 W	12	185	10.98	268	10.56	266	340
3	Ecover	Mike Golding	00° 53.24 S	028° 05.28 W	13.1	181	12.42	258	10.9	263	386
4	Hugo Boss	Alex Thomson	03° 19.16 N	026° 15.40 W	10.1	196	10.97	246	11.23	255	620
5	SAGA Insurance	Sir Robin Knox-Johnston	17° 53.88 N	023° 02.28 W	9.1	266	4.7	224	7.26	255	1515
6	A Southern Man-AGD	Graham Dalton	25° 19.88 N	020° 44.96 W	11	204	9.25	241	8.34	241	1979
7	PAKEA	Unai Basurko	30° 31.48 N	019° 49.48 W	10.1	208	9.63	238	6.32	262	2294

	7 Nov 19:56:00GMT
1	Cheminees Poujoulat	Bernard Stamm	05° 32.60 S	028° 51.80 W	13.2	180	13	267	12.15	266	7984
2	Spirit of Yukoh	Kojiro Shiraishi	00° 02.88 S	028° 30.32 W	11	200	10.79	259	9.56	264	313
3	Ecover	Mike Golding	00° 59.60 N	027° 48.44 W	9.7	198	10.19	256	10.53	263	364
4	Hugo Boss	Alex Thomson	04° 52.80 N	025° 40.00 W	10.3	200	11.05	263	10.77	263	589
5	SAGA Insurance	Sir Robin Knox-Johnston	18° 47.32 N	022° 42.36 W	8.4	195	9.11	256	9.92	262	1443
6	A Southern Man-AGD	Graham Dalton	26° 35.00 N	020° 01.40 W	9.1	199	7.31	251	8.04	233	1933
7	PAKEA	Unai Basurko	31° 53.60 N	019° 10.00 W	8.2	182	7.13	278	3.61	277	2254

	7 Nov 15:08GMT
1	Cheminees Poujoulat	Bernard Stamm	04° 30.40 S	028° 48.68 W	12.3	180	12.63	269	11.87	264	8042
2	Spirit of Yukoh	Kojiro Shiraishi	00° 47.88 N	028° 20.40 W	11	178	10.48	265	9.18	265	301
3	Ecover	Mike Golding	01° 46.96 N	027° 36.52 W	11.2	199	10.46	264	10.49	263	349
4	Hugo Boss	Alex Thomson	05° 45.36 N	025° 33.60 W	11	180	11.42	258	9.58	265	583
5	SAGA Insurance	Sir Robin Knox-Johnston	19° 29.88 N	022° 32.12 W	7.4	200	10.11	258	8.48	264	1428
6	A Southern Man-AGD	Graham Dalton	27° 08.52 N	019° 49.96 W	4	232	8.05	244	8.07	224	1910
7	PAKEA	Unai Basurko	32° 27.56 N	019° 14.60 W	7.2	162	4.55	307	2.84	280	2227

	7 Nov 10:20GMT
1	Cheminees Poujoulat	Bernard Stamm	03° 29.88 S	028° 47.76 W	13	190	12.45	264	11.53	263	8101
2	Spirit of Yukoh	Kojiro Shiraishi	01° 37.92 N	028° 16.32 W	10	173	9.63	271	8.93	265	291
3	Ecover	Mike Golding	02° 36.84 N	027° 31.52 W	9.5	164	10.3	273	10.42	263	340
4	Hugo Boss	Alex Thomson	06° 39.00 N	025° 22.68 W	14.2	184	13	255	7.83	266	580
5	SAGA Insurance	Sir Robin Knox-Johnston	20° 22.02 N	022° 20.86 W	13.3	180	4.37	262	8.85	270	1423
6	A Southern Man-AGD	Graham Dalton	27° 43.80 N	019° 32.40 W	9.4	200	8.83	232	7.94	227	1890
7	PAKEA	Unai Basurko	32° 46.00 N	019° 28.40 W	4.3	120	3.29	269	3.61	281	2184

	7 Nov 05:32GMT
1	Cheminees Poujoulat	Bernard Stamm	02° 30.56 S	028° 41.24 W	11.4	188	11.19	264	11.01	261	8156
2	Spirit of Yukoh	Kojiro Shiraishi	02° 24.04 N	028° 17.48 W	9	165	9.03	266	8.52	262	280
3	Ecover	Mike Golding	03° 26.12 N	027° 33.96 W	11.8	186	11.44	258	9.95	259	332
4	Hugo Boss	Alex Thomson	07° 39.20 N	025° 06.48 W	16	200	11.08	265	7.12	266	587
5	SAGA Insurance	Sir Robin Knox-Johnston	21° 07.48 N	022° 16.36 W	8	189	7.46	269	8.88	264	1413
6	A Southern Man-AGD	Graham Dalton	28° 18.80 N	019° 05.52 W	8	230	7.9	208	7.98	228	1874
7	PAKEA	Unai Basurko	33° 01.76 N	019° 28.04 W	5.2	211	1.64	235	4.47	293	2144

Further lifted the more south he sails, so Bernard Stamm's Cheminees Poujulat has been making miles once again on those chasing him, extending his lead over second placed Kojiro Shiraishi on Spirit of Yukoh by 60 miles in the last 24 hours and 54 miles over third placed Mike Golding on Ecover.

Yesterday in a radio interview Bernard Stamm described how the Doldrums had been a complete nightmare for him. "I was just stuck for one complete day and had two days with really slow speeds which allowed the others to get closer. I have the feeling that the Doldrums were following me south and that they shrunk by the time they arrived. It was really unlucky for me. I have told Neptune that he did a rubbish job.

"Now I am in the trade winds of the South Atlantic and it is quite windy, so it is not too bad. I am going upwind. The boat is healing a lot and I am doing my best to go as fast as possible. All the power is here : ballast, keel canted at the maximum and everything stacked to weather. I am trimming at the moment under autopilot."

As we mentioned in our report yesterday there is the very attractive option possibly available to the skippers if they hurry of sailing a direct route to the Southern Ocean rather than having to sail many more miles than they need to west, to skirt the edge of the South Atlantic high. As Stamm explains: "In front of us should be Saint Helena High , that we either cross if we can or by-pass. But it seems a bit special this time as Saint Helena is not here! It is south of South Africa so another one should replace it. This is a weird system and we don’t really know where it will take us. But at the moment, we don’t really have the choice. We have to go south. Once we will be in front of Salvador, then we will have important course options to take."

This morning finds Stamm level with Recife and he will now be making these decisions. If he can get to a position 1,000 miles to his SSW over the next four days or preferably sooner then he should be able to jump on to the strong northwesterly winds on the northeast side of a Southern Ocean depression. It seems probable that this is pretty much Stamm's only option and if he succeeds in doing this he will effectively shut out his opposition as a new high pressure system is closing in from the west at this time and if those chasing Stamm try this tactic they will find themselves upwind. This scenario will be an interesting one to watch over the next few days.

This morning Kojiro Shiraisi and Mike Golding have both crossed the Equator and are now into the South Atantic. Mike Golding's attempts to catch Kojiro Shiraishi are taking a little longer than anticipated, having only taken eight miles out of the Japanese sailor in the last 24 hours. The problem is that Golding has perhaps been focussing on a few technical issues with his steed. Yesterday Golding reported having been "buried in the engine bay for the last 18 hours". A broken fuel clip was discovered as the possible culprit as to whyhis engine has been working properly. "To make matters a little worse Ecover is charging along at 12kts and healing over at 20/25 degrees, I am sail changing roughly every two hours and it is stiflingly hot, the engine bay is a good deal hotter again with diesel fumes everywhere as I try to trace the problem," reports Golding in his blog.

In addition to a potential fuel crisis on board Ecover, the valve for aft water ballast tank has started to leak filing up Ecover's aft compartment with water. "The ballast valve has been fixed courtesy of one unreturned Hotel Hesperia (Coruna) magnetic room key which has been scored, glued, sealed and lashed into place over the offending hole - Thank you Hotel Hesperia!"

Alex Thomson on Hugo Boss this morning still has 200 miles to go before he reaches the South Atlantic. He reports: "Well yet again the last 24 hours have been a fairly painful experience for me; a loss of over 50 miles to the leaders and absolutely nothing I could do about it. Yesterday morning started okay with some wind, but come 10.00 am, the plug was pulled and the wind shut off. Shut off is the right term, zilch, nothing, zero wind until 19.00 yesterday evening. So, so frustrating flopping around the ocean with not even enough breeze to pull the dial up from 0.00, whilst all the time the leaders are zooming away at 10 knots.

At one point I got pretty angry but what can you do? I shouted and screamed a little, a few profanities left my otherwise clean lips, but hey makes no difference, so I chilled, had a cup of tea and calmly waited. At 19.00 the breeze filled in from the north east, I had my large light luffed, furling gennaker up but was forced to put the spinnaker up as I was sailing too high The spinnaker allowed me to sail lower and therefore nearer to the course. However I hate using the chute as in the doldrums the wind is so changeable and there is nothing worse than being caught out in a big squall with 30+ knots of wind.

"Anyway I had been on deck for hours as the wind was very changeable and the pilot struggled to keep the kite filled. When the breeze steadied I went below, grabbed the weather and gave my mate a call. I was on the phone to his wife when suddenly the wind direction changed and the wind went up, I rushed on deck and there was the mother of all clouds behind me. I half panicked as I had been caught out and I had visions of 30+ knots, a wiped out boat and spinnaker in tatters so I rushed onto the foredeck and wrestled the kite down in 25 knots of wind and pulled up my reaching headsail. Twenty minutes later the wind was back to what it was so I had to drop the headsail and pull the spinnaker backup. Typical!

"After I had done all that work I put my head down and woke when the boat lurched. I rushed up on deck and there was another squall - a massive one. A voice said inside my head, take it down, take it down but alas, I already had my fingers on the off button of the pilot and my hands on the helm. The afterburners were fired, the wind built from 15-25 and topped out at 35 knots, 400 sqm masthead spinnaker and full mainsail. The voice inside my head was still saying 'get it off, get it down' but one hand was on the tiller and the other was on the spinnaker sheet and there was no way I was going to stop.

"The frustration of the last couple of days got the better of me and despite the spinnaker sheet nearly being ripped from my hand, I was going to make something back no matter how small. I toughed it out and got away with it, sitting at 24 knots at times – little old me in a lonely ocean blasting along at 28 knots with way too much sail up, wearing a pair of boxer shorts and a t-shirt. After that I kept some wind and have been averaging good speeds, but I am not out of the woods yet. I am still getting big black clouds and still finding holes in the wind. I just hope I can continue like this until I reach the south easterlies and stop the rot and maybe even crawl back a few miles."