Yachting News 28th November 2011
Greetings yachties,
In this issue:
Jules Verne Trophy – update,
Laura Dekker – update,
Volvo Ocean Race – leg 1 update,
GOR – southern ocean start – rig down,
Jules Verne Trophy – update,
WMRT – Williams Wins Double,
America’s Cup Uncovered – episode 18,
Enjoy
Shortly before midnight GMT on Tuesday, Nico and Frans Budel were holding fifth place in the GOR fleet 30 miles south of Cape Town following the start of Leg 2 to Wellington, New Zealand. Sailing in around 17-21 knots of breeze and a rough sea-state, the Dutch duo tacked inshore 19 miles off the appropriately-named Mast Bay carrying the Solent with one reef in the mainsail. As the tack was completed, the starboard shrouds failed and the mast toppled over the boat’s port side. “We had the backstays on and I was just moving across the cockpit to release the old backstay when there was an enormous bang,” reported 41 year-old Frans Budel shortly after arriving back at the GOR’s race pontoons at North Wharf in Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront Marina on Wednesday morning. “The mast dropped over the side and then snapped in two pieces in the water.” The two sailors responded calmly and quickly in the pitch black night: “The sea was pretty rough, but we tried to pull the sails back on board and save them, but it was too dangerous with the broken mast hitting the side of the boat,” explains 72 year-old Nico Budel.
This last leg to Cape Town was really tough. On the last night coming in I reefed the mainsail three times and we rounded the Cape of Good Hope in five metres high breaking waves, Guppy going at 8 knots under the storm jib only. The 35 knots wind that were forecasted soon turned to 40 knots, then to 45 knots and finally to 50 knots with at times 55 knots gusts! This was more than what the storm jib could take, but for some reason it jammed rolling so I couldn’t furl it in… The small sail area left was too much and being knocked down was still a real possibility – it had to come down. In the early morning light as I could barely figure out the huge mass of the Table Mountain nearing, its top rising high above into the clouds, I made my way to the foredeck where under multiple ice cold showers I managed to take the storm jib down. On this side of Cape Agulhas the water temperature drops significantly and for the first time since the Galápagos Islands I saw penguins and seals swimming around. With her now bare masts Guppy was still heeling heavily as we were heading for the harbor and I was blinded by all the water washing over and the rising sun shining straight into my eyes. Don’t ask me how but I did manage to manoeuvre Guppy through the breakwaters and with its smaller waves I could see that I was now right in with … the Volvo Ocean Race boats! I was allowed to dock and I started to wait for some feeling to come back to my frozen fingers and toes…I saw a few hours later the ‘Camper’ come in
Just as the Global Ocean Race 2011-12 (GOR) Race Committee made the decision on Friday to postpone Sunday’s Leg 2 start in Cape Town due to a forecast of strong headwinds, news arrived at the GOR HQ in the V&A Waterfront Marina of keel problems with one of the fleet’s double-handed Class40s.
Since arriving in Cape Town 20 days ago after 42 days of racing in GOR Leg 1, Nico Budel, joined by his son, Frans Budel for Leg 2, have been working on their three year-old, first generation Akilaria, Sec. Hayai. On Friday morning, Frans Budel checked the Class40’s keel bolts and discovered that both of the keel-head bolts had failed completely – an unhappy development since the mandatory keel inspection earlier this year enforced by the GOR Race Committee.
With 7,500 miles of the Indian Ocean’s high latitudes and around one month of hard racing ahead of the Budels, only a 100 per cent-effective repair was acceptable before the Class40 could cross the Cape Town Leg 2 start line and head for Wellington, New Zealand. Allowing Sec. Hayai to start later than the main fleet risked isolating the Dutch team and – should Sec. Hayai encounter problems mid-Leg 2 – made the option of a swift rescue by another GOR Class40 less practical.
CAMPER SECURE SECOND PLACE AFTER TESTING NIGHT
CAMPER skipper Chris Nicholson (AUS) nursed his boat through heinous sea conditions overnight and into Table Bay to clinch second place at 10:48:04 UTC (12:48 local time) in Cape Town on Sunday after 21 days, 21 hours, 48 minutes and 4 seconds (21:21:48:04) at sea.
CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand, throttled back overnight in winds gusting 35 knots and mountainous seas, but once daylight broke, they were up to speed and screamed across the finish to take 25 points to add to their four points earned for a third-place finish in the Iberdrola In-Port Race in Alicante on October 29.
They are now in second place overall on the Volvo Ocean Race leaderboard with 29 points – two behind Team Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP) who finished first on Saturday evening. Groupama sailing team are expected to finish on Tuesday, with third place set to take them up to third overall with 22 points. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (6 points), PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG (5) and Team Sanya (3) were all forced to retire from Leg 1.
On stepping ashore, skipper Chris Nicholson/AUS spoke of the decision to stay on the African coast early in the leg:
“Everyone was trying to get to the coast and we were getting there nicely, but it was the wrong call. It’s been 20 days playing catch-up from that decision. We weren’t able to make up that deficit. We would have loved to have been head to head with Telefónica and PUMA.
He added that it was a tough leg: “The conditions were pretty rough as you can see with all damage from the boats. We handled it well, we’re here in second and so that’s a good result.”
Co-skipper Stu Bannatyne (NZL) said: “It’s very nice to be in Cape Town finally. It felt like a very long leg. We got a podium result so we are very happy. Last night we backed off once Telefónica had finished, with winds between 35 and 40 knots. We nursed it in last night as there was no point pushing at that point.”
The highlight for CAMPER was their run of 554.16 nautical miles in the 24-hour period up to 1755 UTC on November 24. That will almost certainly make them the winner of the IWC Speed Record Challenge for Leg 1. The overall fastest time, over all nine legs of the race, will land the 11 members of the winning crew with an IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph Edition ‘Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12’.
Williams Wins the Double
Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia – 27 November, 2011: Ian Williams has added the Monsoon Cup to his third ISAF Match Racing World Champion crown after the British sailor defeated Johnie Berntsson 3-1 in the final of the World Match Racing Tour’s finale event in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.
The double is a feat Williams first achieved in 2007 and is the second consecutive year a British sailor has won both the Monsoon Cup and the World Championship after Ben Ainslie in 2010. Speaking after his victory, the British skipper of Team GAC Pindar, said: “This really tops off a terrific season! We couldn’t let our emotion run too high yesterday because we were so focused on winning today. We came here to win and to take the World Championship yesterday and then this today, it’s just superb.
“The team has done so well, we are a new team who have come together and just got stronger and stronger all year. We won all three regattas on five man boats so I think that just shows the strength of the team.”
