The Velux 5 Oceans race, which at one stage threatened to become a boring procession, with such big gaps between the competitors that the order was unlikely to change before they reached the end of the first leg in Fremantle, Australia, is getting more interesting by the day.
Race leader Bernard Stamm has passed the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean and has less than 4,000 miles to sail to the finish of the leg, with a seemingly unassailable lead of 744 miles. But the skipper of Cheminées Poujoulat is far from complacent.
"My lead is quite comfortable, but we never know if that will be enough. We will see in Fremantle. It's not over till it's over. There could be a high pressure system right off Fremantle as there often is and 700 miles could easily be caught up in those conditions and we saw that Alex and Mike can hold some good speeds," he said.
In Stamm's wake, there is a fierce battle for second place between Alex Thomson and Mike Golding as the two yachts plummet south-east through the Roaring Forties on parallel headings. Throughout the night, Golding has pushed Ecover hard, shaving Thomson's lead in Hugo Boss to less than 20 miles.
In fourth place, north of Golding and Thomson, Kojiro Shiraishi on Spirit of Yukoh has dropped back from the battling British duo, trailing Ecover by 190 miles. "Last night we sailed straight into the middle of a wind hole and completely stopped!" he wrote in an e-mail, "I never thought that I would ever see such little wind in this area of the world. For a while the wind speed was down to zero.”
Meanwhile Sir Robin Knox-Johnston continues to have a frustrating race, battling broken battens, failing autopilots, water in the forepeak and a blocked bilge pump aboard Saga Insurance.
"Worst nightmare, the autopilots have failed again!” reported the 67-year-old master mariner yesterday. “I am genuinely puzzled. I have used these units for about 30 years and never had a problem before and cannot believe I should suddenly get two bad units.”
But he found a way to get them working again. Then, while checking through the boat he found the sails afloat in the sail locker: “Too much water to pump so opened the hatch and started to bucket it clear. Of course a bit of ocean took advantage of the open hatch and I should have stripped, as my clothes got soaked.
“Bailing is one of those dull monotonous jobs where there seems to be no progress and you begin to wonder if there is a source re-filling the compartment as fast as you try to empty it. And then you notice the sail bags are not quite so mobile, and then they go aground, and then you have to heave them out of the way to get to the lower level. It was an hour and a half of bucketing; probably a ton and a half of water, but then it was down to the bilges. Not sure where it all came from but suspect the ballast system somehow.”
He described the bucketing operation as “an unnecessary active bit to an active retirement!”
Although he claimed to be “losing faith” in weather forecasts, and has often expressed his distrust of new technology, it seems the veteran competitor is learning to love the communications age.
“This is where I made a mistake 38 years ago, and turned for the Cape of Good Hope too early,” said Sir Robin, of his position off the coast of Brazil. “The result was that I got the wrong side of the South Atlantic High pressure system and had headwinds for a couple of weeks and lost a lot of time.
“What a difference time has made. Now, subject to accuracy of course, I have regular Met information and a pretty good idea of where the high is centered and can plot a course to its west. It is this availability of weather that has so speeded up round the world races and voyages in recent years.”
He added: “You cannot run one of these boats as you might a racing car or aeroplane. In addition to being the driver/pilot, you have to be the mechanic.” Sir Robin described how he had fixed the stove, which “fell to bits,” and the bilge pump which jammed.
“You do have to know the boat and its equipment and it's a hands-on thing, not a book learning matter. It's one of the reasons I like to be right in the middle of a re-fit with my sleeves rolled up. I get to know where everything is and how it works and that can save time in emergencies."
About 260 miles behind Saga Insurance are New Zealander Graham Dalton and A Southern Man - AGD, followed in seventh place by Basque skipper, Unai Basurko, a further 64 miles behind.
"The battle between Graham Dalton and me is really interesting" Basurko said. His Open 60 can be expected to overtake the only Open 50 in the race. But who will win the battle between Golding and Thomson - and whether either or both of them will catch Stamm before Fremantle - remains anybody's guess.
For more information visit www.velux5oceans.com
