| Velux 5 Oceans: Cheminées Poujoulat & Stamm extend lead to 381 miles |
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| Tuesday, 14 November 2006 | |
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Event media: Just as had been gloomily predicted by his rivals yesterday, Bernard Stamm is cruising away down the South Atlantic extending his lead comfortably by the hour. Yesterday afternoon Mike Golding had cut the Swiss lead to 170 miles, the closest since the first week of the race. This morning Cheminées Poujoulat had streaked away to stretch the gap to 381 miles, although Stamm's brief email message suggested it was all he could do to hold on to his 60-foot bucking bronco. "Not so easy to write. The boat is like a shaker going upwind in 30 knots of wind. I've got a very small keyboard and very big fingers. Just the minimum to say everything is OK on board." In the same 14-hour period overnight, the gap to Koji Shiraishi on Spirit of Yukoh has grown from 244 miles to 464 miles. Most devastating of all is the distance to Hugo Boss. Despite clocking the fastest speed through the water at the time of this morning's 05:32 position report with 17.3 knots, Alex Thomson has conceded 400 miles to Stamm in the past half-day, to trail by an ominous 777 miles. In the second pack, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston may have lost a few miles to the leaders but has gained on Graham Dalton despite ongoing trials and tribulations aboard Saga Insurance. "Well, all yesterday's work trying to repair battens was for nought. In one of those heavy wind and rain squalls at 01:30 this morning I reefed the mainsail and whilst I was hauling the clew in, every single one of the repaired battens broke again. The internal splint I used just broke. So back to square one on this and in the meantime we are drifting slowly in the right direction but we are lacking power. I have another idea I'll try as soon as it gets light this morning. This drifting around in a race is driving me up the wall, so I need to get something sorted and get moving properly again. The port autopilot has definitely gone senile. In a calm patch I switched over to it but all it could do was flash its screen on and off and squeak. No message at all. That is beyond me." Graham Dalton meanwhile is looking over his shoulder as Unai Basurko draws ever closer in his bigger boat, threatening to overtake the New Zealander's 50-footer and relegate him to last place. 10:20 UTC 14/11/06 Velux 5 Oceans race positions Position Yacht Skipper Latitude Longitude Crs Spd DTF/L 1 Cheminees Poujoulat Bernard Stamm 28° 49.64 S 014° 11.96 W 126 9.3 6197 2 Ecover Mike Golding 27° 26.16 S 021° 56.28 W 196 10.9 418 3 Spirit of Yukoh Kojiro Shiraishi 26° 14.68 S 023° 10.60 W 184 13.0 502 4 Hugo Boss Alex Thomson 28° 10.80 S 029° 55.08 W 192 12.4 830 5 SAGA Insurance Sir Robin Knox-Johnston 04° 08.68 N 026° 20.36 W 188 5.2 2102 6 A Southern Man-AGD Graham Dalton 09° 40.44 N 026° 11.84 W 160 9.1 2416 7 PAKEA Unai Basurko 11° 25.40 N 023° 08.44 W 168 10.1 2474 www.velus5oceans.com Velux 5 Oceans album |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 14 November 2006 ) |
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