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BT GLOBAL CHALLENGE - ALL YACHTS ROUND CONCERT GATE Southampton (UK), Monday 16 December 1996 At 07:50 hrs GMT today, all the yachts had rounded the Concert Gate. Now that each yacht is able to make their own route to Wellington, it will be exciting to see who's course strategy pays off, especially with the strong winds that are forecast. Real match racing has been taking place between Group 4 and Save the Children over the last 24 hours. The yachts have been so close to each other that Group 4's skipper, Mike Golding, even claimed that he saw a crew member on board Save the Children climb up the mast to undertake a rig inspection! At 07:50 hrs GMT today, Group 4 had managed to take the lead again by 5 miles over Save the Children. Save the Children has blamed the loss of her lead on having to take the mainsail down for repair during an irregular swell, which threw the crew violently fore and aft making it particularly challenging. Motorola's skipper Mark Lodge, has apparently got so much confidence in his crew that even during these rough conditions he managed to sleep undisturbed for 12 hours while his crew accomplished three sail changes and 6 reefs. She has remained in 5th place despite tough pressure being put on by Toshiba Wave Warrior and the crew have even had time to write a poem about Lodggy their skipper: Our Skipper oh what can I say? He models himself on Chay, He screams and shouts Shuffles about And ends up sleeping all day. Meanwhile Global Teamwork (3), who has been a hot contestant for the lead, has fallen behind by 40 miles. She blames the loss of ground partly on the time spent inspecting the rig from up the mast (after breaking a strand on her backstay), and partly due to a wind shift that left her on the wrong side of a tack at a critical time. As a result she was forced to sail further north than she wanted and at the same time found herself caught in a light spot which slowed her down. The other boats were able to take advantage of this wind shift which pushed them from a slow beat to a fast reach round the waypoint. Global Teamwork is confident that the choice of her more northerly course will help her gain ground by using the high pressure that is forecast nearer New Zealand. Pause to Remember (8) reported that today is a special day for her, as she was the British Steel II yacht in the 1992/3 British Steel Challenge. Exactly 4 years ago today, British Steel II (skippered by Richard Tudor, who is skippering Nuclear Electric in the BT Global Challenge) was dismasted not far from her current position. Pause to Remember is presently about as far away from any land as possible - 2,500 miles from both South America and New Zealand, and will be thinking of Richard and his 1992/3 crew today. Contrary to counting the number of shopping days left to Christmas, as they are more accustomed to, the crew on board Commercial Union are counting the days remaining to their arrival in Wellington, where they look forward to the luxury of hot showers and walls that do not drip condensation. Hopefully the crew on Nuclear Electric will do likewise, as they reported that they haven't showered for a fortnight, and "a change of clothing is almost as rare". One crew member reported that she only changed her underpants for the first time since leaving Rio today and is wanting to know if this is a fleet record! Despite dreams of hot showers and fresh water, the crews on board The BT Global Challenge have still got some tough racing for the next 15 days ahead of them. The weather conditions are forecast to worsen over the next few days with very deep depressions moving eastward leading to some very disturbed weather today with winds of storm force 10. For updated information on the BT Global Challenge : Internet site : http://www.btchallenge.com Fax database : 0990 321123 (+44 990 321123 from outside UK) Recorded telephone information line : 0891 505550 (UK only) Public enquiry bureau : 01703 212124 (+44 1703 212124 from outside UK) Ceefax page 388 (UK) |
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