Clipper Leg 4: Repairs ongoing as Cape Breton threatens Spirit of Australia lead
Clipper media
Posted: 26 Nov. 2009
Repairs happening quickly for Cork - Clipper PLC pic
Cork may be ready to leave Cape Town as early as tomorrow if progress on repairs to the boat continues as it has been.
At the bow of the yacht, where it struck Hull & Humber, the repair crew is applying layers of epoxy resin. Once it is dry, they will apply a faring compound, after which the patched areas will be painted to blend in as closely as possible with the green of Cork's livery. .
Cork's departure is subject to final sign off by the MECAL surveyor, who must inspect and approve the work before the yacht is allowed to set sail. MECAL is the UK certifying authority, authorised by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to survey and certificate commercial sailing vessels such as those in the Clipper fleet.
Cork has had a vital part to play in the repairs to Hull & Humber. Overnight a fibre glass cast has been taken of the corresponding part of Cork's hull. Today it will be removed and bolted to Hull & Humber to allow the boat builders to start layering the fibreglass and foam composite, building up the new section of the hull from the inside the boat.
Hull & Humber is expected to rejoin the race on Tuesday local time, again subject to the sign off by the MECAL surveyor, who is on the pontoon to monitor each stage of the fix.
Skipper, Piers Dudin, says his crew is in great spirits. "Looking at the scheds this morning, we still have the chance to get out there and take some of the miles out of the other yachts. They're not that far ahead and it's a long crossing," he says.
Out on the race track, there's an exciting battle underway at the head of the fleet. Cape Breton Island has been slowly but surely chipping away at Spirit of Australia's lead.
At the 0300 position report Cape Breton was three miles behind, level pegging at the 0600 sched and at the 0900 update on the race viewer they looked to be ahead of the Aussies. However, after some ducking and weaving, the Boxing Kangaroo was a mile ahead again by lunch time. Exciting racing!
Jan Ridd, Cape Breton Island's skipper reports, "We have had a good 24 hours sailing. We are now in the Roaring Forties and very civilised it is, too! The wind has eased and moved to the north east and we are now fine reaching in a nice Force 4.
“The wind is shifting and gusting a lot and this has made sail selection awkward. How many times we have brought a sail on deck and started to change, only to put it back in the bag as the wind builds again? The same has been true of putting in and taking out reefs; many a time all it takes is getting the lines ready to make the wind build again.
“We are at present thinking about changing up to the Yankee 1 but, for some reason, I have an uneasy feeling about doing so.
"There is thick fog around us at the moment, so we’ve decided to wait until the 0600 schedule and make a decision then. The wind is steady at 15-16 knots, but gusting up to 20 knots, so we are on the upper edge of the Yankee 1 recommended wind.
"Before the fog set in, we saw Spirit of Australia sailing close-hauled coming up across our bow then hoisting their heavyweight spinnaker, I think without a pole - just tacked to the deck - and bearing away to reach back down across our bow; a tactic they used to their advantage on the way to Rio."
The Brisbane based skipper of the Australian boat, Brendan Hall, confirms: "It's been a night of hard and heavy sail changes on Spirit of Australia. We're keeping as good speed as we can as the rest of the fleet compresses behind us.
“We saw Cape Breton Island briefly astern of us but have now pulled away from them again. This race to the scoring gate is going to be down to the wire and, with a light patch coming up in 36 hours time; the gate could be anybody's. On a positive note, the seasickness on board has largely passed and the mood is great. We really want to win this one!"
If Spirit of Australia and crew can win Leg 4, they would be just the third team to have claimed victory to their home port in the history of the Clipper Race.
Victoria was the first to do it in Clipper 05-06 and New York succeeded in Clipper 07-08. Can Spirit of Australia be the first to break the home port curse in this edition of the race? There's another 4,200 nautical miles of hard ocean racing to go before we'll know the answer to that question.
Team Finland took a course slightly closer to the coast than the rest of the fleet, but it's one that has worked well for them and they are sitting in third place.
Skipper Eero Lehtinen said, "The wind let us down unexpectedly this morning, we had only 8 knots of wind for quite some time and we were trying to make progress with heavy spinnaker as we did not dare to hoist anything bigger or lighter in the really confused seas.
“Anyway, we got headed again after a couple of hours and had most of the pressure back, so back to white sails and sailing on course. Wait and see what happens next."
Positions at 1200 UTC Wednesday 25 November:
1 Spirit of Australia DTF 4259
2 Cape Breton Island DTF 4260 DTL +1
3 Team Finland DTF 4287 DTL +28
4 Jamaica Lightning Bolt DTF 4321 DTL +62
5 Uniquely Singapore DTF 4326 DTL +66
6 Edinburgh Inspiring Capital DTF 4336 DTL +76
7 California DTF 4381 DTL +122
8 Qingdao DTF 4451 DTL +192
9 Cork DTF 4773 DTL +514
10 Hull & Humber DTF 4773 DTL +514
Full story and check out positions updated every three hours at: www.clipperroundtheworld.com
