Team Mowgli leads Portimao fleet over the Ice Gate

10:54 AM Sat 28 Feb 2009 GMT

'Race tracker at 0620 GMT 28th February' Portimao Global Ocean Race

The Portim?o Global Ocean Race fleet streamed north of the western limit of the southern exclusion zone at 1800 GMT yesterday (27/02) with Jeremy Salvesen and David Thomson on Team Mowgli holding first place and the Chilean duo, Felipe Cubillos and Jos? Mu?oz on Desafio Cabo de Hornos in hot pursuit.

Overnight, the fleet's speeds fluctuated between 8-11 knots and this morning the formation remains the same with the four boats compressing as Boris Herrmann and Felix Oehme climb gradually north on Beluga Racer to link with the main pack.

In the latest 0620 GMT poll (29/02), Team Mowgli lead second place Desafio Cabo de Hornos by a little under 3 miles with the German team on Beluga Racer furthest south, 50 miles north of the ice gate, trailing the leader by 16 miles. Meanwhile, solo sailor, Michel Kleinjans on Roaring Forty is maintaining excellent speed averages, racing on level terms with the double-handed fleet and currently trails the leading Class 40 by just 18 miles.

The highest speed average in the fleet this morning is 8.5 knots by Desafio Cabo de Hornos who are clearly unaffected by a sad loss on board the bright red Chilean Class 40 yesterday (27/02). 'Unfortunately, today as the sun rose, our dear spinnaker, 'Partouche', who has given us loyal and noble service to our cause for the first two legs of the race, has ceased to exist,' reported Felipe Cubillos last night. 'Literally, it has been pulverized by a gust of wind of 24 knots. But that's life and we must continue sailing with what we have.'

Fortunately for Cubillos and Mu?oz, the exploding sail did not spark off a string of problems and recovering the spinnaker was a swift operation: 'We rescued all the pieces and nothing became tangled in the rudders or around the keel,' he confirms. 'I should also advise all our supporters that they should not worry since we still have a medium spinnaker, a heavy spinnaker and a Code 5 to play with. It is going to mean we will sail a certain wind angle less efficiently, but we are still very much in the game.'

With the Portim?o Global Ocean Race fleet spread over 20 miles north-south and roughly the same distance east-west, the smallest speed gain by any team will be reflected immediately in the leaderboard as the southerly breeze and reaching conditions look set to continue throughout the weekend.

Leaderboard - at 06:20 UTC Saturday, 28th February 2009

Double-handed class

1. Team Mowgli - DTL 0.0nm Spd 7.8kts
2. Cabo de Hornos - DTL 2.6nm Spd 8.5kts
3. Beluga Racer - DTL 16.1nm Spd 8.4kts

Single-handed class

1. Roaring Forty - DTL 0.0nm Spd 7.7kts

www.portimaoglobaloceanrace.com

by Oliver Dewar

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Team Mowgli leads Portimao fleet over the Ice Gate

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