| Velux 5 Oceans: Stamm sailing upwind on a bone shaker ride with 446 miles lead |
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| Tuesday, 14 November 2006 | |
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Justine Ozoux: Race leader Bernard Stamm (Cheminees Poujoulat) is now half way to Fremantle, Australia, with a 446 nautical miles lead over second placed Mike Golding (Ecover). Still sailing upwind, with an average speed of 9-10 knots, Bernard is experiencing a bone-shaker ride, admitting these boats are not designed for sailing upwind. He is looking forward to opening his sails, which he hopes to do before the day is over. Despite the temperature still being a mild 20 degrees, the leader now has his boots and foul weather gear on, ready to enter the Southern Ocean. Going downwind will allow Bernard Stamm to reach the latitude 40, called the “Roaring Forties”, where he will need to put on even more layers. Due to the unstable conditions, with winds gusting between 20 and 30 knots, the Swiss sailor is spending most of his time steering or trimming and of course keeping his eye on the rest of the fleet. Quite happy with the east course he has taken, Bernard sees an opportunity for Alex Thomson (HUGO BOSS) who has to go around the high pressure system. “Even if he doesn’t have any other choice, his option could work quite well,” says Bernard. “He will sail downwind much faster than us upwind, although he has a greater distance to cover so he should still cross his fingers.” Meanwhile Alex Thomson is not enjoying his detour to the west of the high pressure system, finding it extremely tough and frustrating to sail away from his destination. He averaged the highest speed across the fleet during this afternoon’s position report, clocking up 14.1 knots compared to nine knots for the race leader. However, Thomson describes a very confused sea state with HUGO BOSS launching off waves and forcing him to crawl around on his hands and feet. His key focus is on how hard to push the boat without overloading her and knowing when to throttle back. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (Saga Insurance) has been so involved in fixing the problems on his boat, particularly the broken battens in his mainsail, that he has been paying no attention to his progress relative to the other boats. “I haven’t looked at anyone’s position for some time. I find it depressing to see how much distance I’ve lost. We’re just idling along because we can’t drive along nicely without the mainsail working properly, so that’s my priority. I’m really not interested [in the other boats] at the moment. The leaders now have such a lead. Really it’s a question of how many days behind we come into Fremantle.” In fact despite his limping progress Sir Robin has held his own against the front pack and has extended on the two boats behind, so he may not feel so disappointed when he next looks at the position reports. Spanish entry Unai Basurko (PAKEA) has been drawing ever closer to Graham Dalton, who has endured a torrid time of late, caused by an almost total absence of wind. “It’s been the day from hell, this last 24 hours. We did everything right and then we sailed into a hole where there was absolutely no wind. We parked up for about 20 hours going nowhere. I think I’ve reinvented ways to go in circles. Unai is 130 miles to the east, so we’re in two totally different bits of ocean, and he may be lucky. Some wind might move in to meet him – that would be just my luck - but I think he’ll run into a hole too.” Kojiro Shiraishi, Spirit of Yukoh: “From dawn this morning the wind shifted east as expected. The high pressure that is below will bring headwinds for a while. It is already starting to get difficult now to type while we punch upwind. My port side mainsheet winch has developed a bit of a leak which needs frequent attention. Without this particular leak we would have a very dry boat.” “Up until yesterday I have been enjoying some reading. I have four books on the boat and I have read all of them a number of times already. They are all about subjects close to my heart – Buddhism, Japanese philosophy, quotations – but when I read them I can feel my back straightening with intent and I feel good afterwards. When this punching is gone I look forward to reading them again.” Alex Thomson, Hugo Boss: “It’s not very nice to go in the wrong direction to the finish but it can’t be helped. I have plenty of wind but the sea is not moving with the wind which makes it very unpleasant. It is very uncomfortable and difficult to go fast without risking breaking something. There is still a long way to go in the race and I intend to finish it. It was difficult to walk last night as the boat was slamming down waves, so I had to crawl around on all fours. I look forward to getting further south where HUGO BOSS can surf down those waves!” Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Saga Insurance: “This drifting around in a race is driving me up the wall, so I need to get something sorted and get moving properly again. These squalls give warning by heavy black cloud. If they have rain then they have strong winds, and that means gusting 30 knots or more. The rain is freezing which is quite nice actually. Dolphins swimming with us last night. Could not see them as it was so dark, but could hear them.” Bernard Stamm, Cheminees Poujoulat: “The conditions are not stable but are between 20 and 30 knots so this is a decent breeze. It is a bit weird as I have the feeling that the air is only up to the head mast. It is not easy to choose the right sails as all the instruments give us figures, and sometimes this is the wind we really have, but five minutes after with the instruments still saying the same, in reality there is no more wind! The east trade winds are quite stable. I think it is my last day upwind as the wind should lift and allow me to reach the roaring forties. “There are still 6000 miles to go so nothing is over and it is never done until you cross the finish line anyway. A lot could still happen so it makes it really hard to make any prediction. I still think that my position is better than the others and I am quite happy about it.” Boat Positions as at 15:08 UTC [14th November] Please note: The method for calculating the DTL has now changed, resulting in large differences between the position reports. The change was made between the 15h34 and 00h44 leaderboards on 13 November, resulting in larger distances between the leader and the competitors. The previous method calculated the progress made on a theoretical course taking into account the waypoints. It was therefore an advantage and not a precise distance. The new DTL now reflects the exact distance between the leader and the following boats. 1 Bernard Stamm DTF. 6163 2 Mike Golding DTL 446 3 Kojiro Shiraishi DTL 522 4 Alex Thomson DTL 866 5 Sir Robin Knox-Johnston DTL 2114 6 Graham Dalton DTL 2402 7 Unai Basurko DTL 2464 www.velux5ocean.com/ Velux 5 Oceans album |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 14 November 2006 ) |
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