10:07 PM Mon 30 Nov 2009 GMT
It's poised to be an exciting start to the week both on and off the race track. At Royal Cape Yacht Club there are swarms of orange uniforms all over one particular 68-foot ocean racing yacht as the crew of Hull & Humber take charge of their beloved boat once again. They are getting stuck into the clean up after the major work to repair the hole in the side of the boat, sustained in the start line collision with Cork eight days ago.
The crew are loading the wardrobe of eleven racing sails back onto the boat, along with new supplies of fresh fruit and vegetables and all their kit bags; the carpenters are installing a new toe rail along the edge of the deck; Clipper's maintenance chief, Justin Haller, is overseeing the work to install a new block, stanchions and guard wires as well as a few other fittings that had to be removed to allow the repairs to be made. Race Director, Joff Bailey, is monitoring all the activity, knowing that all that stands between the crew and the yacht's departure later today is the marine surveyor's signature on the safety report that will allow Hull & Humber to resume racing.
There is another strong south easterly blowing in Cape Town today, which will make for a lively start for Hull & Humber. Piers Dudin and his crew are anxious to get out and get going to reach Australia before Christmas.
Cork, with a different weather system in a different part of the ocean to the rest of the fleet, is also making gains on the boats up ahead. Having not yet dipped to 40 degrees south they are already experiencing the strong winds typical of the region and posted the fastest 12-hour run at the 0600 sched.
The teams are closer than ever in their race to the scoring gate. Spirit of Australia went into stealth mode at 1800 yesterday and their current position is top secret and only revealed (for safety's sake) on a need to know basis. They top seven of the visible yachts are separated by just 84 miles and any one of them could make it to the scoring gate first.
Even with the serious business of racing there is time for a few light hearted moments as Spirit of Australia's skipper Brendan Hall proved this morning in his 0600 report to the race office.
'Black face paint: Check. Black Oilskins: Check. Stealth mode engaged...
In a low whisper: 'Last night we chose to use our stealth mode in the dash to the scoring gate and so far, everything is panning out very nicely. Communication is made through tactical hand signals and curt nods and movement around the deck is restricted to tiger-crawling from one piece of cover to the next. Stealth mode is not just a race option, it's a state of mind.'
They'll be back in public view at 1800 this evening. In the meantime, Uniquely Singapore is leading the visible field, despite a frustrating night.
Skipper Jim Dobie says, 'We had light winds and the crew had to work really hard to keep the boat speed up. We had some great runs yesterday and were delighted to get into second place. It is so hard to gain precious miles so now we need to make sure we keep the concentration up especially with Spirit of Australia in stealth and a nail biting 24 hours to see where she pops out.
'The wind has finally tracked to the west and we are under kite again; the watch led by Rachel and Detlef had it up while I was snoring away in my bunk. As the race progresses the guys confidence and skills get better and better and I get more and more sleep. It's a real credit to Clipper's training that the crew are as good as they are. So we wait for the next sched report to see our progress and we watch the miles to the gate. It's still looking very close.'
Jim is not the only one to comment on the quality of seamanship the crews have developed since they began their compulsory pre-race training. (Remember, 40 per cent of the crew who sign up for this challenge of a lifetime have never sailed before they begin their training.) Jamaica Lightning Bolt's skipper Peter Stirling is equally impressed with his own team's abilities.
He says, 'In these cold conditions the crew really appreciate being kept busy on deck as they have been this morning. It stops them getting cold and helps make the watch go faster. One thing that is never lacking in any Clipper crew I have sailed with is enthusiasm by the bucketful. Such is my confidence in the crew now that as I sit here typing this they are organising another evolution on deck. As a skipper it is very satisfying now to be able to tell the crew what you want and then let them get on with it largely unsupervised.
'With the wind now out of the west it is not quite as cold as it has been. We ran through the night with a full mainsail and Yankee 1 with the wind angle just behind the beam. The plan was to hoist the medium weight spinnaker at first light but with thick black clouds gathering from behind we changed instead to a full mainsail and poled out Yankee 2. They say 'fortune favours the brave' but in this part of the world caution is the watchword. We have already seen several times how quickly the weather can change in complete contradiction to the forecast. Also, with the course required being dead downwind, we can safely lay the required line with the poled out headsail whereas we couldn't with the spinnaker.
'It's all about VMG (Velocity Made Good), as I keep preaching to the crew. This basically means that even though we may be able to go two knots faster with the spinnaker than we can with the poled out Yankee we will be 20 degrees off course. Therefore our actual speed made good to the waypoint will be the same or more with the poled out headsail.'
Team Finland is nipping at the heels of Uniquely Singapore in the race for the scoring gate but after a great start from Cape Town it hasn't been without its disappointments for the Finnish crew.
Skipper Eero Lehtinen reports this morning, 'Recently we have had several moments where we got all excited seeing a winning moment unfolding in front of us. But instead, most of the times we were let down and the magic wind hole that was supposed to land on our dear competitors never happened and a couple of times we slowed down while we were supposed to be flying ahead of everyone. The more northern track has been risky and has proved wrong so far. So, here we are hoping for a miracle and thinking when and at what cost are we going to cut south. Not before the scoring gate, but how soon after? I think we will play the gate part with open cards, saving the stealth option for later.'
Eero may be rueing taking the northerly option he thinks is wrong, but Cape Breton Island, as the most southerly boat, are also having their own challenges.
'Captain Wind Hole does it again!' exclaims skipper, Jan Ridd, in this morning's report. 'It's hard to believe when the rest of the fleet are enjoying a decent breeze I manage to navigate the big blue canoe into an area of light and variable winds - pretty hard to do in the 'Roaring Forties'. On the GRIB files I was working from I was aware of the lighter winds but they were well below our predicted position. The updated weather files came in at midnight so, after plotting the midnight positions, I had a quick glance with tired eyes and nothing had appeared to change, so went of to my bunk for a couple of hours' sleep with the boat fine reaching in a Force 6 with the wind due to come aft into a beam reach.
'It was when Phil, my watch leader, woke me and said he had got the Yankee 1 on deck at wanted to know if he should change up that I knew things were not as they should be! Phil and his watch changed up to the number 1, and we spent a painful couple hours sailing very slowly in light airs with the wind direction moving all over so we had to sit it out, knowing until we got an indication of where the wind was going to fill in from, we had the best sail plan we could.
'The wind started to fill in from the south west so the crew set up the spinnaker lines and pole and waited while I pondered which spinnaker to fly; play safe and go for the heavyweight but lose speed or the lightweight and risk damaging it if the wind suddenly built. In the end I took the middle road and went with the medium which is up and flying nicely with elisa working hard on the helm keeping it filled in the shifting wind. Speed over ground is now back into double figures which is a relief. I do have an uneasy feeling of being caught out if the wind builds quickly with our biggest sail flying but we are racing and we do need to make up some ground!'
Most of the teams, it seems, are finding wind holes in between them and the scoring gate. Edinburgh Inspiring Capital's Matt Pike reports, 'The race for the gate is on but where is the wind? The sea is flat and it's perfect weather for medium spinnaker but a long frustrating wait for it to settle. In the meantime we poled out the Yankee 2 only to sit in a wind hole!! Dawn brought us some progress; we are on the move again but have we bled too many miles to catch up?' The million dollar question!
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Qingdao and California are focussed on the big picture, knowing they are unlikely to pick up scoring gate points. Although, as California's skipper Pete Rollason points out, stranger things have happened at sea. He says, 'The wind has finally swung round behind us after several days of beating into Force 6 and more, and being very wet and cold. The crew relished the opportunity to do some work and warm up so we are now running well under poled out Yankee 2 and single-reefed main. We are watching the six-hourly scheds with great interest and are focused on the bigger picture of the result in Geraldton as it is extremely unlikely that we can get any points at the scoring gate. Although anything is possible; remember the Canaries? (Sorry Qingdao!)
It is important for us to put in a good performance on this leg and even the Australian amongst our crew does not want to let Spirit of Australia win the race to her home port. We have been matching the fleet for speed over the last few days with small gains and losses but the crew now want to put the foot a little firmer on the gas pedal and show the fleet that we can work our way up the positions, especially after our unfortunate experience on Leg 2. Talking of which, it may have taken a while but the crew are getting used to steering the boat with a wheel again! It's quite a novelty, although it has been said on more than one occasion that some people preferred the emergency tiller!'
Chris Stanmore-Major and his crew remember the Canaries only too well and hasn't entirely given up on picking up scoring gate points if this morning's report from Qingdao is anything to go by. He says, 'With the gate beckoning we are indeed perhaps too far back to get points this time but much can happen in 500 miles and as we know from our own costly experience in Leg 1 these things sometimes have a funny way of not working out exactly the way one expects.'
The Chinese team are recovering ground lost after suffered some damage to their mainsail.
'Yesterday we began clawing back lost ground on the rest of the fleet after we spent the previous day dealing with our mainsail which had become damaged during heavy weather. We had multiple issues to deal with, the biggest of these being a foot long rip halfway up close to the mast. To make these repairs we reduced the mainsail area until in 20 knots we were down to what we would normally carry in 40 knots. This allowed us to work easily on the sail on deck but unfortunately left only a scrap still flying. This reduced our speed until, thankfully, after 12 hours we were able to re-hoist with all the work complete and our main pulling us back up to target speeds.
'The effect on the crew of losing what is effectively their main engine could have been hugely demoralising but instead, the Dragon Wagon team got stuck in. When the sail went back up we knew we would have taken a beating mileage-wise so we chose not to look at our DTFB (Distance to the Finish Boat) until the next morning when, to our great delight we could see exactly the point at which our sail came down and the fleet started to get further away and, importantly, exactly the point at which it went back up again and they started getting closer.
'Today it's a simple task of mile-munching for us. With a strong weather system ahead and the lead boats being held up momentarily with light winds it may be the time for us to show what we can do; if not before the gate, then after.'
Positions at 0900 UTC, Monday 30 November
(DTF = Distance to Finish, DTL = Distance to Leader)
1 Uniquely Singapore DTF 3301
2 Cape Breton Island DTF 3305 DTL +4
3 Team Finland DTF 3306 DTL +5
4 Jamaica Lightning Bolt DTF 3319 DTL +18
5 Edinburgh Inspiring Capital DTF 3347 DTL +46
6 Qingdao DTF 3382 DTL +82
7 California DTF 3387 DTL +86
8 Spirit of Australia DTF 3417 DTL +116 (at 1800, 29
November. In stealth mode.)
9 Cork DTF 4249 DTL +948
10 Hull & Humber DTF 4773 DTL +1472
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by Clipper Ventures Media
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