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10:24 PM Wed 10 Dec 2008 GMT
 | | 'Cape Town photo call for race skippers - Portim?o Global Ocean Race'
Brian Hancock |
This morning nine of the skippers racing in the Portim?o Global Ocean Race gathered in the Chart Room of the Royal Cape Yacht Club for a briefing on Leg 2, one of the toughest legs of the race.
The tenth skipper, Felipe Cubillos is currently returning from Chile after recoperating in a clinic. Shortly after Cubillos returned to Chile at the end of Leg 1 he fell gravely ill and has been hospitalized since. He is now fully recovered and ready for Leg 2.
The leg from Cape Town, South Africa to Wellington, New Zealand is clearly a long and difficult passage. The estimated distance is over 7,500 nautical miles, but the long distance is only part of the story. This leg will take the sailors deep into the Roaring Forties, under Australia, to the Wellington located on the south end of the north island of New Zealand. To make the race safer a number of gates have been introduced.
Race Director Josh Hall explains. 'We have three gates essentially. The first is not a gate as such. Rather it's a safety line. No boat may cross below 50 degrees south. The competitors need to observe this line of latitude as if it's land. Should they get forced south of 50 degrees we will consider it bad planning and we will impose a severe time and points penalty.' The great circle course or the shortest distance from Cape Town to New Zealand dips far below the 50th parallel, but in order to keep the fleet closer together for safety reasons and to stop anyone from running deep into iceberg territory Hall and Hancock have decided on a southern limit for the leg.
'The first scoring gate is a line of longitude starting just north of the Kerguelen islands and running due north for 300 miles,' Hall continued. 'Again this will keep the fleet up from the deep south yet allows the sailors a broad approach to the gate.' Points will be awarded to each boat based on their position in class as the pass this transit as viewed on their race tracker beacons.
'The next gate is not a scoring gate but is in place to keep the boats up and away from an area where there is known to be a lot of ice,' Hall said. 'We reserve the right to move this gate at any time if we get new information about the location of ice but in the event we have to do this, we will transmit the new waypoints well in advance of it having any effect on any of the competitors.'
The non-scoring gate is a line of latitude running east west for 400 miles and is currently located south and west of Fremantle, Australia. The coordinates were worked out with the Australia sea safety authorities who will be charged with sending out a search and rescue party should there be any problems among the fleet.
Despite the gates and waypoints the leg to New Zealand can be arduous. The sailors will be transiting a region where numerous yachts have foundered over the years. 'We are acutely aware of the risks involved for everyone,' Hall said. 'We have put in place as many safety precautions as we can reasonably impose. To be frank if one of the sailors have a problem and needs rescuing, their best chance of rescue will come from a fellow sailor so we are encouraging all the boats to try and stay as close together as possible.'
Leg 2 starts from Table Bay at 10:30 local time (08:30 UTC) on Saturday morning. Despite a furious southeasterly gale blowing for the last few days the forecast for Saturday is for a light southwesterly wind. The yachts will start in Table Bay, honour a few marker buoys and then head south as fast as possible in order to pick up the strong westerly winds that blow under the African continent.
portimaorace.com/
by Brian Hancock
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