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BT GLOBAL CHALLENGE - LIGHT WINDS AS THE FLEET START TO LEAVE THE DOLDRUMS BEHIND Southampton (UK), Sunday May 25th 1997 AS the yachts of the BT Global Challenge fleet leave the doldrums behind, they now have a new weather system to look forward to, the Bermuda high where the backmarkers should see an opportunity to close the 394 miles gap between the race leader, Group 4 and backmarker Time and Tide. Aboard 3Com, crew volunteer, Kieron O'Connell writes: "It is sometimes possible to play catch up when behind in ocean racing, but as well as careful tactical consideration and sailing skill, it requires a little luck and this element has escaped us on this occasion. We will have to hold our souls in patience until our next 3 likely opportunities, being the negotiation of the Azores/Bermuda high, the horse lattitudes immediately north of this and the Gulf stream leading to Boston. They are all potential traps and we must be ready to capitalise on the leaders errors if we want to improve our position. Although morale is relatively high it is inevitably difficult for some to keep the concentration levels up in these fickle conditions, but the challenge has many different guises and this is just one of the many". With the race leaders, Group 4, Save the Children and Concert all averaging 9.1 knots in the North East trade winds they are 65 miles ahead of Heath Insured II, Nuclear Electric, Ocean Rover and 3Com who are all within 50 mile of each other and still frustrated with their slow progress. Sally Stewart, the medic aboard Heath Insured II reports: " We have had a frustrating day with no wind watching other boats sail away from us. We do at last seem to be getting a little breeze but will it last ? It seems strange to be sailing at an angle after 20 days r & r". Courtaulds International, out to the west of the fleet is also suffering from light winds. However the flat conditions suited Colin Moss as he faced some unexpected challenges yesterday:" There have been many challenges in this race but for me the latest one was not one I had orignally thought of, 'sewing'. We have just completed the repair to our spinnaker and for the past 60 hrs I have worked with Sue Goulder and Dianne Timmis to make a spinnaker out of the pieces which were brought below decks. Trying to untangle 3,000 sq foot of sail cloth torn into two parts is a challenge on the grand scale. Trying to find all the pieces and put them back into the right place is like building a giant jigsaw puzzle without a picture and only being able to see and area the size of the dinning room table. This experience is not new to the BT Global Challenge fleet and is uunlikely to be the last spinnaker to be blown before the race is finished but now I will have first hand experience of all that is involved in the sail makers challenge but an experience I would rather not repeat" Pause to Remember, now moving again in 10 knots of wind and with a little under 3,000 miles to Boston, saw a steel hulled yacht yesterday. Crew volunteer, Matthew Reeves expresses his views of the doldrums:" Came across a steel hulled yacht yesterday heading for Brazil. Got chatting to him about sail configuration and he told us that he had opted for a headsail rather than the cruising chute, less hassle for only two crew and anyway it gave him an extra knot and a half ? On the stress free days of ocean cruising, how we envied him. He then asked us what to expect in the doldrums. We told him to expect to switch on his engine and motor, unless he wanted to suffer the excrutiating agony and frustration of flogging sails, simiilar to that being experinced by the likes of Ocean Rover, Nulcear Electric and Heath Insured II. 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 only) |
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