3:53 AM Thu 11 Feb 2010 GMT
Clipper Round the World Yacht Race - Singapore to Qingdao Day 9.
'It's funny how you can go to a place for a second time and it is so different,' reflects Team Finland's skipper, Rob McInally. As skipper of Nova Scotia in the Clipper 07-08 Race, the conditions he and the rest of the fleet encountered were far removed from those he and his Clipper 09-10 crew and competitors are experiencing now.
'The last time I was here it was so grey that it seemed hostile. The wind had been a Force 8 for the ten or so days that it had taken us to get here from Singapore. Here we are with a little wind that, if you try really hard, will push you along at a nice pace. Blue, blue sky, beautiful blue water and dolphins playing all around; it is so gloriously different,' he says.
The wind is coming but right now there's not a lot about. The teams are taking advantage of this to continue the constant checks that every ocean racing yacht requires to keep her in peak condition. As Uniquely Singapore's skipper, Jim Dobie, says, 'It's a lot easier in a gentle Force 3 to repair sails or fix the generator than in a heaving Force 8 gale.'
He explains, 'Racing a yacht is never a static environment; you are constantly able to keep occupied and sometimes the quiet times can also be the busiest times. There are always jobs to be done and whilst the yacht is relatively flat this is the best time to do them.
'Our engineers, Hugh (Smith, a technical manager in the telecoms industry) and John (Newberry, a student) have changed an impeller on our generator which was beginning to get worn out. Craig (Davey, a hydrographic surveyor) and Sean (Robertson, a financial controller), our bosuns, have been looking over our sails, changing out worn hanks,
repairing any chafe marks and replacing a leech line on our lightweight kite. The rest of the crew are kept busy with steering checks, rig checks and safety checks; and don't forget the moms who not only do the cooking but make sure the bilges are empty of water and the interior is wiped down and disinfected. The idea is to pre-empt as much as you can and catch potential problems before they arise.'
Spirit of Australia's crew are doing much the same. Skipper Brendan Hall reported this morning, 'During one of our routine inspections we noticed some broken strands of wire on one of our steering cables which connect the steering wheel to the rudder. Swapping the old cable for a new one was a simple but time consuming process, taking two hours. During this time, we used our emergency steering system, which is usually slow, but we managed to keep Spirit of Australia dead on course with speed over seven knots and the spinnaker full. Lucky we found the damage now, rather than the steering system failing altogether in the rough conditions ahead.'
While all this is going on the crews are still helming, trimming and navigating to keep pace with the leaders, trying to close in on Cape Breton Island, Hull & Humber and Jamaica Lightning Bolt.
Hull & Humber's skipper, Piers Dudin, and his team are pulling out all the stops to pick up the points at the Scoring Gate - and keeping a watchful eye on the opposition as they creep up on them.
'About two days to go to the gate and it's gonna be tight!' he says. 'We've been watching Jamaica Lightning Bolt's progress out to the west. Soon there might be three of us covering each closely. We're still in touch with Cape Breton Island and, as the wind starts to go light and we fall into our own individual wind holes, it's a constant game of snakes
and ladders. We're able to track each other via the VHF tracking system, AIS, so we know what course and speed each of the others is doing, which is great when you're going faster but pretty demoralising when you see your hard work being eaten up.'
Hull & Humber, too, is making ready for the rougher conditions they know are forming after the gate. 'Tom (Salt, a Management Consultant) has been up the mast during the flat conditions to undertake final preparations,' Piers continues.
'We expect a short but bumpy section of weather which is due to fill in just after the gate. Until then we still have a light wind forecast where anything can happen. It's time for the Race 6 Gate Lottery - anyone's a winner... Up until now we've all been in very similar conditions but over the next 24 hours we're expecting to see a lot of compression in the fleet, which helped us hugely in the last race.'
That compression has already started, with the rest of the fleet making significant gains on the leading pair, and leading the charge is Jamaica Lightning Bolt.
Skipper, Pete Stirling, reports, 'The wind speed has dropped off significantly in the last 24 hours and now every mile gained is even more hard earned than before. The race to the scoring gate has now become much more tactical and less of a procession. The conditions most certainly don't suit Cape Breton Island and Hull & Humber as it is going
to be much harder for them to maintain their lead over the rest of the fleet. It is relatively easy to keep the boat moving fast with stronger winds but in light wind conditions the crews' sailing skills are tested to the maximum. There is also a big psychological factor involved as in each six-hour period between position updates you are never quite sure how well you have done against the rest of the fleet. The burning question at sched time is always not how many miles we have logged but how many more or less than us the rest of the fleet have managed to log. Only by comparing ourselves directly against the other teams can we monitor and, hopefully, improve on our performance.'
They won't be able to check themselves against Edinburgh Inspiring Capital for the next 24 hours. The Scottish team has gone into Stealth Mode - a tactical move to hide their position from the rest of the fleet in a bid to gain an advantage. Only those in the Race Office know where they are for safety's sake.
Before he and his team went undercover, Edinburgh Inspiring Capital's skipper, Matt Pike, reported coming up against another of the shipping hazards in the South China Sea: fishing nets.
'For five miles we trekked away from our target until we found the end, hardened up back onto the wind and our course for nearly ten minutes before we came across another one! It's not so bad in daylight but at night it's terrible - just a maze of flashing lights stretching miles from the boat and spreading in all directions. So, a short delay but now
we're back on track and chasing as hard as we can. It's catch up time!'
Cape Breton Island, too, has had a close encounter with the nets. 'They're strung across our path with little or no warning they are there,' explains skipper, Jan Ridd. 'We have been keeping a sharp lookout and try to navigate directly between two 'floats' which could be anything from random bits of polystyrene or balloons to footballs -
basically anything that will float! We started to try to avoid the first string of nets we saw but we soon realised that it went on for miles so we were left with no alternative but to cross the line and hope we did not snag the nets.'
In the battle for dominance of this race the Canadian boat has been trying every weapon in their arsenal to make a dent in Hull & Humber's lead. 'We have been playing with sails and trying some new ways of sheeting them to try and catch up with Hull & Humber,' Jan says. 'And I must admit, so far it seems to be working...'
As the fleet compresses, California's crew are starting to see the benefit of their more northerly position. Skipper Pete Rollason says, 'The wind had veered sufficiently for us to hoist our medium weight spinnaker. Instantly California dusted off her heels and leapt forward, increasing speed to the dizzy heights of 10.5 knots. It is now six and a half hours later and she is still propelling us onward towards the front of the pack. Our strategy of staying to the north of the fleet and achieving a better wind speed and wind angle is beginning to pay off, although we will only know that for sure over the next couple of scheds. This is also before the southerly and easterly boats in the fleet
encounter some very light winds over the next 24-36 hours and if the GRIB files are correct, our course should keep us flying the spinnaker with seven to ten knots of breeze continually for the same period. We have thrown our dice and will now just have to wait and see whether the strategy we have adopted pays dividends.'
POSITIONS AT 1200 UTC, WEDNESDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2010
1 Hull & Humber DTF 1211
2 Cape Breton Island DTF 1217 DTL +6
3 Jamaica Lightning Bolt DTF 1220 DTL +9
4 Uniquely Singapore DTF 1239 DTL +29
5 Qingdao DTF 1252 DTL +41
6 Team Finland DTF 1268 DTL +57
7 California DTF 1279 DTL +68
8 Spirit of Australia DTF 1296 DTL +85
9 Edinburgh Inspiring Capital DTF 1333 DTL +122 (Position at
0900 UTC - in Stealth Mode)
10 Cork Did not start
(DTF = Distance to Finish, DTL = Distance to Leader)
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