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| Gold Coast Australia, making less than 4 knots.... 03:00 GMT |
Heard from our Xena crew member in this year's Samui regatta, Tony Levett, who will be at KC this year, on our arch rivals Baby Tonga. We're competing again for the Tong-Xena Cup, as well as the Cup....
Meantime, in the Clipper Race we're following on this blog: Gold Coast Australia is drifting to her fifth straight bullet, still in front of the fleet, but battling light and shifty breezes.
Sadly, Qingdao, the Chinese boat has retired and is making her way up the coast to the finish at Tauranga, and we hope she can make the start of Race Six. Singapore is heading to the finish, also having retired and carried out repairs in Melbourne. She's going over the top of NZ: that's her in the top left of the screenshot above.
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| Gold Coast Australia at start of Race 5, from WA to NZ |
Meantime: in the RC44 Worlds, just finished in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote, with "our G" on board the Russian entry Katusha, as bowman, some news that they did very well, but not quite enough to catch the leaders of the series, Artemis Racing. In the Match Racing Katusha were second overall. Way to go "G"!
From the RC44 website;
It was Katusha (RUS), steered by Steve Howe this week with Francesco Bruni calling the shots, who relished the windier conditions in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote. The team did not put a foot wrong, as the wind touched 23 knots at times, storming to victory in every race. But even three wins was not enough to get close to the leaders Artemis Racing (SWE). [read more here]
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| "...it is simply one of the best sea sailing venues in Southern Europe." |
Of the seven main Canary Islands, Lanzarote is located furthest to the north, meaning sailors can take full advantage of the predominant NE Atlantic trade winds. Puerto Calero is situated on volcanic Lanzarote’s south coast, which is more sheltered and boasts more sandy beaches than its rugged, dramatic north coast counterpart. [more]
From the Clipper website [click here] :
ReplyDeleteGold Coast Australia is hanging onto the lead despite a long day battling fickle winds as they round East Cape, the north easterly tip of New Zealand’s North Island, towards the Bay of Plenty and the finish line for Race 5.
The chasing pack continues to eat into the Australian team’s lead but with less than 150 miles to run, they are unlikely to make up the distance before Richard Hewson and his team cross the line.
“In the afternoon the wind finally came in, and now we have a good stiff 28 knots to help us to windward around the Cape and into the Bay of Plenty with the aim of finishing in Taraunga around midday tomorrow,” Richard said.
As they close in on the finish, albeit at a frustratingly slow pace, Richard said his team is enjoying sailing so close to land again. “It’s great to see the view of the mountainous New Zealand mountain ranges and rugged coastline,” he said.
When they arrive in New Zealand, the Gold Coast Australia team will be sporting an impressive array of facial fuzz in support of Movember, an international month of moustache growing to raise awareness and funds for prostate and testicular cancer charities. Since leaving Geraldton earlier this month, the only thing to be trimmed on board has been the team’s sails leaving their facial hair to grow long and proud.
Originally a bit of a laugh between a bunch of Australian friends, last year’s Movember saw 1.1 million moustaches being grown around the world raising almost £50 million for men’s cancer charities. This year organisers are hoping to top that, and as the most isolated and adventurous ‘Mo Bros’ on the planet, the Clipper 11-12 teams will be a part of the record breaking campaign.
[There's more here]]
From the Clipper Website:
ReplyDeleteDespite being within striking distance of the finish of Race 5, the team on Gold Coast Australia has been pushed to the limit as the Bay of Plenty greeted them with an abundance wind resulting in a ripped mainsail.
With four consecutive victories already under their belts, Mother Nature is ensuring that the formidable team on Gold Coast Australia battles for every last mile in what looks set to be their latest win in the year-long series.
“Just after sunset Armageddon occurred when the wind suddenly gusted over 40 knots and it was all hands on deck to lower the Yankee and reef the mainsail,” skipper, Richard Hewson, said.
“A mixture of fatigue, poor communication, gear failure and sheer bad luck caused a number of sequential problems that lead to things going horribly wrong,” he added.
Richard said the half hour spent at the end of the boom in the wild conditions to sort out the bird’s nest of tangled reefing lines felt like a “rodeo ride”. By this time one of the battens in the mainsail had ripped out causing a tear above the number three reefing point.
“It was all hands on deck as we lowered the mainsail and hoisted the tri-sail and the crew worked tirelessly for about eight hours getting the situation under control,” he said.
“A very big well done to the crew of Gold Coast Australia for working so hard to resolve the problems we faced and getting everything in order. If such situations are not sorted out quickly things can get a lot worse and a lot more dangerous as gear and people start to fail,” he said.
But the drama was not over for the Gold Coast Australia team after the mainsail was repaired with bolts and rivets, and re-hoisted as the winds abated. The repairs only lasted a few hours and soon the mainsail was back on deck and the small tri-sail back up.
The team carried out a further repair but due to the wind staying above 30 knots they are continuing to sail under the tri-sail. “No doubt we will finish this race under tri-sail in the early hours of the morning,” Richard said.
PS: the the link for the above snippet (there's more) is here
ReplyDeleteFrom the Clipper Site, (click here):
ReplyDeleteIt was a nail biting and frustrating finish for Gold Coast Australia, one of the ten 68-foot yachts competing in the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race, as they closed in on the Race 5 finish line at Tauranga, New Zealand, to secure their fifth consecutive victory in the 15-race series.
Beating into a strong north westerly breeze they crossed the finish line at 03.26 local time on Friday 25 (1426 UTC Thursday 24).
The team had led from the start of the 3,800-mile stage, which set out from Geraldton, Western Australia, 19 days ago and has seen all ten teams face the full fury of Mother Nature as they raced across the Southern Ocean, riding out storms and surfing waves as tall as buildings. But, as they closed in on the finish line in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty, the brakes went on for the front runners and they had to watch as the chasing pack closed down their lead. As they rounded the East Cape, 100 miles from the finish line, disaster struck and they damaged their mainsail, forcing the team to complete the race under a much reduced sail plan.
Arriving in Tauranga Bridge Marina, the fleet’s base for the next ten days, Tasmanian skipper, Richard Hewson, said, “The whole race was really hard. After we left Geraldton, we got around Cape Leeuwin and it was on. Basically it was blowing over 40 knots the whole time or we were becalmed. There was nothing in between. The gusts seemed to last hours at a time.
“As we came around the East Cape we had a fair bit on and the other boats were catching us. With that bunch of five boats so close together we could easily have gone from first to sixth place if we didn’t get everything in order so I’m really happy. The crew dug really deep and I’m very proud of them. It’s nice to have another pennant.”
Gold Coast Australia’s winning streak equals that of Ras Turner and his crew on Ariel in the first edition of the event, Clipper 96. The record of six consecutive wins is held by Alex Thomson, winning skipper in Clipper 98. [more...]