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Designer: Tony Castro
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Pacific for Grant, the Indian for Tony & a Record for Loick
Author: Denis van den Brink
It's been smashed! The absolute record for the distance covered in 24 hours by a yacht has just been broken. Innovation Explorer covered more than 629 miles since yesterday noon and far from slackening off, she is continuing her wild ride along the New Zealand coast. So the 625 mile barrier set last June by Club Med has been struck off the tables. But the big blue catamaran
of Dalton and Proffit entered the Pacific Ocean this morning. Once clear of the zone of instability created by the tall mountains of South Island, they should quickly pick up the blustery systems of the Southern Ocean, and perhaps numerous occasions to claim back her due. Far behind, an ocean away,
Tony Bullimore has passed the longitude of the Cape of Needles speeding into the Indian Ocean.
Sailing in waters in the shadows of his mountains, Grant Dalton, the Kiwi skipper of Club Med certainly made it a point of honour to pass through the Cook Straits, this narrow stretch of water that separates the two large islands of his homeland, without a hitch Following a perfect course close to the rocks and beaches along South Island, reducing the number of miles and the number of tacks to a minimum, Club Med entered the famous straits this morning, close hauled, in a sea whipped up by the tidal stream. The port of Wellington was left to port in bright sunshine. Grant's family and friends were out in various craft to celebrate, with lots of beer, the passage of
the local boy, in the lead. Then with the southern night, the wind progressively fell. Now Club Med is going to have to struggle for several hours to get away from the wind shadow of the islands and once again find the latitudes of the Southern Ocean and the powerful Westerly winds. The next stage, and the next landfall, the Horn, barely one week away!
However, while Club Med is bogged down in her descent to the South-east, Innovation Explorer is charging along to the West of New Zealand in the direction of Cape Farewell. Euphoric, Loпck Peyron's boys (and girl) clawed back 140 miles from the leader since yesterday morning. The reward; the record for the greatest distance sailed in 24 hours: 629.52 nautical miles, or 26.6 knots average. Much concentration at the helm and some judicial changes in sail combinations were the ingredients of this success. Without waiting for the figures to be analysed and made official, Loпck shared with his crew the Bordeaux grand cru reserved for such an occasion. And it was in
a hearty atmosphere that the big white catamaran speeded along the windward coast on the edge of the high pressure under the stars. But hilarity doesn't exclude lucidity and Peyron's boys hope to be able to pass Cape Farewell without slowing and run down the wind into the Straits. Still topical, the question of the stopover in Wellington is leaving us hanging, the enigmatic Loпck reserving his decision until the very last moment.
By entering the Indian Ocean this morning, Tony Bullimore had several reasons to be satisfied: his Team Legato charging along at more than 20 knots in a well established Westerly flow, is getting into her stride and is checking off the miles covered hour after hour by this venerable Irens
design since leaving Barcelona, also Tony can lay claim for the first time since the start of this crazy adventure, that he is sailing in the same weather system as his immediate adversaries, the Poles on Warta-Polpharma, with the jubilation that the system of high pressure blocking Roman Paszke
is favouring their return into the fray. By wedging herself onto the Northern edge of a huge low, Team Legato can gamble on several days of ideal surfing on a manageable sea, under beautiful clear skies and 25 knots of steady Westerly winds. Given their lead, Warta-Polpharma is not going to
risk skirting the anticyclone. Roman Paszke hopes to be able to cross the 300 miles of unstable light airs without too great a setback before quickly setting off again along the direct route.
300 miles to the North of the Kerguelens, a "missile" is scudding across the ocean: After leaving Cape Town and pledging that they would be "sparing the gear", Team Adventure was "caught by the patrol" at more than 34 knots instantaneous speed! On starboard tack in 30 knots of South-westerly,
sliding with the long swell, Cam Lewis's giant cat seems drunk with speed. The ridge of high pressure they are aiming for will force them to sail on a beam reach, at high speed with fountains of spray. With icy air and water straight off the Antarctic, Team Adventure and her crew are having a much more rugged crossing of the Southern Ocean than the leaders had, already a week ago.
In brief...
Franckie and the fishermen!
A number of helicopters, several craft and a few fishing boats escorted Club Med this morning off Wellington. Grant Dalton was able to exchange a few words with his wife and two children. Franck Proffit and the Frenchies on board seemed impressed by the Haka, the Maori dance made famous by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team, that was performed on board a small fishing boat by a band of joyful and rather tipsy "natives".
Ready for the Pacific
In warm sunshine and in view of the superb mountains of New Zealand, the crew of Club Med took advantage of the dying wind to dry their boat and clothes, tidy up and carry out a few minor repairs before attacking the redoubtable Pacific Ocean. A huge depression centred well to the South is generating steady Westerly winds, tracing a nice boulevard ahead of Club Med's bows.
Long swell:
The approach of an area of high pressure is slowing down the nice progress of Warta-Polpharma. The crew is having to work hard at sail changes, often adapting the sail plan to the intense variations in the wind. Spectacular and difficult to manage from a sail plan point of view, the legendary "long
southerly swell", more than 200 metres long according to Dariusz Drapella, is propelling the Poles along the direct route.
Quote/unquote...
Darius Drapella: (Warta Polpharma): "The albatrosses are alone a unique spectacle to watch for hours on end. Some accompany us from evening to morning without ever beating a wing. It's quite stupefying! And this morning, while I was observing one to windward of the boat, its trajectory
suddenly turned back towards us, and it was totally deprived of wind by our mainsail; the ungainly flapping of its wings to find its balance again was most comical."
Loпck Peyron: (Innovation Explorer ): "We are celebrating in a dignified manner, with a Bordeaux grand cru, a little record... Roger (Nilson) is checking the figures closely but it would seem that we have performed rather well. We put our foot down, gently, but just enough, on a nicely smoothed
sea, for a long time with full main and big gennaker. We even took in a reef in the middle of the day before sending it all back up again with the night. We even took advantage of the obscurity to hoist our poor "patchwork" reacher, horrible to look at but terribly efficient."
Franck Proffit (club Med): "There we are, 2 knots on the speedo! Flat calm! I suppose that Loпck is roaring up behind. We have done 25 miles in 10 hours. We must pick up some South-westerlies to head down South. New Zealand was superb. Now it's Cape Horn, here we come!"
Tony Bullimore (Team Legato): "Gennaker and two reefs in the main; we're doing between 20 and 25 knots on a choppy sea. We have brought out the 'oilies'. The boat is behaving nicely even if it is a bit wet. Nobody's complaining. We're happy to be in the Indian. We're hoping to considerably
reduce the gap with Warta-Polpharma. We have to report a little problem though; we've run out of sugar on board. The consequences are most disagreeable, everybody is stealing my artificial sweetener!"
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