2:17 PM Sat 17 Sep 2011 GMT
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'The Clipper 11-12 fleet with Corcovado in the background ahead of the start of Race 3'
Daniel Zeppe/onEdition
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Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2011-2012, at over 40,000 miles, is the the world's longest ocean race. Leg two, from Rio De Janeiro to Cape Town, is currently underway.
Historically the South Atlantic leg of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race has produced some of the closest finishes of the competition - in Clipper 07-08 two of the top three teams crossed the line just 40 seconds apart after 3,500 miles of racing.
Clipper 11-12 is shaping up to provide some more edge-of-your-seat viewing for those of us watching events unfold on our computer screens.
The lead has changed and changed again in the last 12 hours with Welcome to Yorkshire, Visit Finland and Gold Coast Australia trading places. The English entry held the lead at midnight, Gold Coast Australia crept ahead by 0600 and by the 0900 position report on the Race Viewer Visit Finland had overtaken both of them. All change again at 1200 when the Aussies had retaken the lead.
But how long will it last? Skipper Richard Hewson is realistic about what the winds are likely to bring and the likely consequences for his team. He says, 'Because we are the most south easterly boat in the fleet the changing pressure affects us earlier than the other boats. Unfortunately this will mean that, as the wind continues to back and we start sailing north again, the boats to the north east of us will make significant gains until the wind starts to veer again. Gold Coast Australia's original tactics had us sailing to the south of the high pressure system that dominates the weather at the moment. However, due to its movement to the west, this option is becoming less and less available and we must create a contingency plan.'
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Olly Osborne, Visit Finland's skipper, is of the same opinion. 'The nature of the sailing has changed with the wind coming forward throughout the night and putting the boat on a close reach. All the boats will be experiencing a similar wind change and there will be some important tactical decisions to be made over the next couple of days, and we will see if the breeze favours the more northerly part of the fleet.'
Chichester-based Olly had the biggest of the crew changes in Rio de Janeiro with seven new crew members joining the boat. 'The crew are really settling into the swing of life on board now and the guys that joined us in Rio are a big part of the team now,' he comments.
Welcome to Yorkshire's crew is getting ready for the wind shift as well, according to skipper Rupert Dean, who says they've had some 'glorious days of reaching in the South Atlantic.'
De Lage Landen have been holding their own in fourth place, despite the setback of their steering gear breakage.
Skipper, Stuart Jackson, describes the mood on board, saying, 'The crew's good spirits after crossing the scoring gate were short-lived when, a few hours later, we experienced a catastrophic failure of steering, significantly dampening the crew's jubilant mood. We were on secondary steering with a reduced sail area necessary to hold our course until our engineering team could fashion a creative repair. Needless to say, this had a deleterious and not insubstantial impact on our boat speed and, therefore, our position. We are now having to be far more conservative with our sail plan as well, keeping our fingers crossed that the jury-rigged repair holds until we can undertake a proper repair in Cape Town. Despite this setback, the crew is upbeat.'
More than 1,500 miles into Race three of the competition and there are just 47 miles between the top eight teams in terms of distance to the finish line in Table Bay - but the yachts are spread across almost 300 miles of South Atlantic Ocean and out of sight of each other. It's like a Formula One race where each team is on a different race track and they're still trying to outpace each other.
New York and Qingdao have been matching each other mile for mile - in spite of the distance between them. It's been hard work, according to Ian Conchie, the skipper of the Chinese yacht.
He reports, 'With frequent squalls coming through it's been hard to pick a sail plan as the wind would change from 15 knots to 40 knots with each band of clouds. We kept reefing and changing headsails to try and maximise our boat speed but being conservative at the same time, mindful of the damage that some of the boats have been reporting.'
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Geraldton Western Australia at the start of Race 3 of the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race - Daniel Zeppe/onEdition
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Juan Coetzer and his team on Geraldton Western Australia have been similarly frustrated by the squally conditions which require physically demanding sail changes, effort which sometimes goes to waste. 'They hanked on the sail - got everything prepared. Then the wind came back in full strength again. It has been blowing 30 knots plus all day long. So unfortunately they had to unhank sail and put it back down below,' he reports to the Race Office.
Ian continues, 'Life on board now consists of those on deck in full foul weather gear and thermals to stay warm and dry while conditions below are beginning to get damp with the smell of drying kit filling the boat. A complete contrast to the sweltering conditions of leg one.'
Singapore's skipper, Ben Bowley, agrees.
'The whole boat is now soaking wet as the air below has reached some kind of saturation level. The atmosphere below is so thick with damp, it feels like you could cut it with a knife! Moisture clings to every surface then runs down the headlining and bulkheads until it reaches clothes, sleeping bags and finally shoes. By the look of the grib files we should get used to this for the next 48 hours at least, after which we will be praying for the wind to come back and get us moving again. It appears that the South Atlantic high is forming directly over the top of the fleet and we shall have several days of being becalmed. This will be very interesting as the boats that get the wind first as the high gives way to new lows will be the boats that win for sure.
'I also anticipate that the first 24 hours of being becalmed will be the worst; there is bound to be a large amount of residual swell to stir the boat and her flaccid sails about in a sickening fashion, slap slap bang flap... For the moment the wind has stated to shift round to the south east and we are hoping that our more southerly position will be translated into height on the fleet and therefore an improvement in race position; none of us are happy with eighth place right now.'
Good news for Ben and the Singapore team: at the 1200 sched they had moved up to sixth place.
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Derry-Londonderry at the start of Race 3 of the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race - Daniel Zeppe/onEdition
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Derry-Londonderry has also gained a place and 'LegenDerry' skipper, Mark Light, comments, 'As skippers we are all fully aware that the next two to three days are critical towards deciding the outcome of Leg 2. Right now we have changeable conditions with the usual mix of strong winds, lulls, gusts, squalls, heavy rain, poor visibility and so on. It has amazed me just how wild it really is out here, a vast desolate area that has an almost eerie feeling to it.
'We all watch in amazement as the many albatross glide by with little effort, swooping down and then climbing missing very large South Atlantic waves by inches. I wish I had the same knowledge of wind and waves that they do and could get this boat sailing as fast with such little effort! As magical as it would be though, it wouldn't be the Clipper Race!'
Scottish skipper, Gordon Reid, writes this morning, 'The raw power of the ocean and mother nature is all too apparent as Edinburgh Inspiring Capital is side swiped by another monster wave and everything and everyone on deck is drenched from head to toe. But somehow we are inspired by being out here thousands of miles from anywhere the rest of the world seems so far away.
'In these extreme conditions the crew are all digging a little deeper to find the strength of character it takes to race a yacht and do all that is required to ensure boat speed is optimised at all times.'
Digging deeper is what it's all about on these long transoceanic races and every day a crew member overcomes a personal hurdle or finds a seam of inner strength they had no idea existed. Yesterday was the turn of New York crew member, Roberto Sani, who managed to complete his first Mother Watch since the start of the race on 31 July.
'Being a Mother has not been easy for me,' explains the 57-year old company president. 'This was my fourth time in the galley and cleaning duties since leaving Southampton and I had not yet managed to complete my tasks without being sick. The first time was during the Southampton to Madeira leg. I vaguely remember being cuddled up in the foetal position in the mother's bunk.
'I have to report that today Liz (Allan) and I performed and completed all the duties of Mothering without a hint of sea sickness or nausea. This initial challenge has been dealt with.
'With the assistance of caring team mates, who were strangers less than a month ago, I believe I will deal with future challenges this adventure will throw my way. The team spirit, the helping of one another, the stepping in when required to assist a fellow team mate is alive and well and becoming stronger and stronger aboard New York.'
Positions at 1200 UTC, Saturday 17 September
Boat - DTF**
1 Gold Coast Australia - 1,951
2 Visit Finland - 1,960 (DTL* 8nm)
3 Welcome to Yorkshire - 1,967 (+16nm)
4 De Lage Landen - 1,975 (+24nm)
5 Derry-Londonderry - 1,982 (+31nm)
6 Singapore - 1,998 (+46nm)
7 New York - 1,998 (+47nm)
8 Qingdao - 1,999 (+47nm)
9 Geraldton Western Australia - 2,047 (+95nm)
10 Edinburgh Inspiring Capital - 2,075 (+124nm)
DTF* = Distance to Finish. DTL** = Distance to Leader. Full positions are updated every three hours and can be found
here
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Clipper Round the World Yacht Race website
by Heather Ewing
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Double Is Pt, QLD
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