| Spain. Velux 5 Oceans race skippers working on yachts as deadline approaches |
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| Wednesday, 18 October 2006 | |
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Tim Kelly: Only five days remain until the start of the VELUX 5 OCEANS race on Sunday 22 October and work on all of the yachts continues as skippers and shore crews prepare for Leg 1 from Bilbao, Spain, to Freemantle, Western Australia. The cockpit on Pakea, Open 60 of Basque solo sailor, Unai Basurko, is the busiest area on the pontoons. Basurko's status as local hero has magnified since his 2nd place finish in last Sunday's Bay of Biscay prologue race and while a hectic media schedule prevents the thirty-three year-old skipper from working on the yacht today, his team are fully occupied with pre-race preparation. With Basurko's increasing popularity, the shore team are keen to finish work on the yacht and devote at least two days before the start to enjoying celebrations surrounding their skipper's spiralling fame. On the pontoon next to Mike Golding's Open 60, Ecover, a team member carefully assembles the wind vane used as a vital, back-up battery charging system in preference to delicate - and often temperamental - solar panels. Work on Alex Thomson's Hugo Boss, moored on the adjacent pontoon, continues on deck with mast tuning, while below deck, a UK technician has arrived to fit load sensors on the keel and hull to record the magnitude of strain exerted on this immensely powerful yacht. While Sir Robin Knox-Johnston checks the lashings at deck-level on his Open 60, SAGA Insurance, a member of his shore team is hoisted aloft to check the masthead wind instruments and similar aerial work is carried out on Tim Troy's Margaret Anna: an operation made more difficult by southerly gusts of 20 knots blasting through the Puerto Deportivo marina. Strong winds did not stop Spirit of Yukoh from leaving the dock: a tense operation for the ultra light Open 60, in conditions where a prolonged gust could easily sweep the yacht into boats moored on pontoons just 20 metres downwind. However, after three weeks alongside, the yacht's skipper, Kojiro Shiraishi, is keen to try out his entire sail wardrobe and test all the on board systems in a final, pre-race, shake-down sail. Also absent from the race pontoons today is A Southern Man - AGD, the bright yellow Open 50 of Graham Dalton. The yacht remains in her cradle, 500 metres from the race fleet and her Kiwi skipper has flown a rigger from England to assist in stepping the mast. With her new rudders fitted and new PBO standing rigging, Dalton expects to have A Southern Man - AGD back in the water on Thursday afternoon. During the VELUX 5 OCEANS, inter-team go-karting championship in Bilbao last night, the only sight of Bernard Stamm was the back of his Cheminees Poujoulat T-shirt as the Swiss skipper applied his normal offshore sailing tactics to four-wheeled competition and carved through the opposition. Out of the driving seat and installed at the nav station on his Open 60, Stamm is spending the day calmly transferring essential navigation and metoeorological files and programmes from his land-based laptop to the yacht's on board computer. www.velux5oceans.com |
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 18 October 2006 ) |
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