Velux 5 Oceans - Alone-Round the World Yacht Race www.velux5oceans.com - Übersicht Monday 27 November, 2006 VELUX 5 OCEANS - Day 37 Report STAMM REACHES THE KERGUELEN ISLANDS Golding ponders his future as ECOVER heads towards South Africa * Bernard Stamm (SUI) reports damage as he breaks halyard and indexsail battens * Mike Golding (GBR) reflects on his options as ECOVER sails to South Africa with broken mast * Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (GBR) waits impatiently for the Roaring Forties to make up ground Bernard Stamm, the defending champion on CHEMINEES POUJOULAT, is in an upbeat mood despite reporting damage sustained in a 'crash'. The Swiss skipper, who leads the VELUX 5 OCEANS by a comfortable 960 miles, reported that he has again broken the same halyard as earlier in the leg from Spain to Fremantle. He has also broken three battens in the indexsail. Furthermore, one of the indexsail battens is also caught in the leeward backstay, meaning Stamm is currently not able to lower his indexsail beyond one reef. Now 2,300 miles from the finish in Western Australia in cold temperatures and harsh conditions, Stamm will be looking to make the necessary repairs as he will certainly not wish to be caught by strong winds with no flexibility to his indexsail setting. However, the damage hasn't stopped CHEMINEES POUJOULAT from recording the highest speeds within the fleet. Stamm will soon round the Kerguelen Islands, a mandatory waypoint en route to Australia. Following Alex Thomson's decision to abandon HUGO BOSS, Stamm now reindexs on track to be the only skipper to complete three around the world races in three years, an incredible feat. Meanwhile Mike Golding, who was at the centre of last week's drama, continues to make best speed towards South Africa onboard ECOVER with the indexsail now set. Golding must be reflecting on the rollercoaster of emotions that saw the British skipper turn back and successfully rescue fellow Brit Alex Thomson deep in the Southern Ocean, only to have his mast break in two places hours after the act of heroism. The FICO World Champion is now surely weighing up all the options left to him in the VELUX 5 OCEANS. ECOVER does have a spare mast in Southampton, but the team must decide on the merits of continuing based on costs and his overall position in the race. Further west, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (SAGA INSURANCE) leads the three back markers as they head south in search of the Roaring Forties. The final three boats are desperate to make up the lost ground on the front markers and start to eat up the miles into the Southern Ocean. Sir Robin continues to be plagued by problems with his auto pilot system, but will continue through to Fremantle rather than stop to make repairs along the way. Basurko (PAKEA), the newest Open 60 in the fleet, will be looking to move out of last place and pass Dalton (A SOUTHERN MAN AGD) as the winds and speeds pick up. Bernard Stamm, CHEMINEES POUJOULAT: "I had a big crash yesterday morning and I'm still fighting to get things in place. The same halyard broke again and there are three broken battens in the indexsail. I also have my leeward backstay caught in a batten in the middle of the index, so I cannot lower the indexsail more than one reef. But otherwise everything is OK. Yesterday I had some part of the day with snow but today it is a sunny day..." Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, SAGA INSURANCE: "The weather was quite calm yesterday and progress slow as a result. We need to get into the Roaring Forties so we can try and hold onto the leaders as at present they have the favourable winds and are racing away whilst we have not yet turned the corner. But we do have wind now, about a Force 6, from the NNW, so are pushing south, with speed surges to 17 knots, with sail being reduced as the wind rises." "I currently have the Solent and three reefs, index up, not a great deal, but this is the first time I have had Saga Insurance in these conditions, the strong following wind and building seas, and I want to see how she handles it before I get too adventurous. According to the weather files the wind should back round to the west any time now which will suit us fine." "I played with the port auto pilot again yesterday, found a loose wire, tightened it and switched on. It switched itself off after an hour. Set it again but the same thing happened. So at least it was controlling the ram, but not for very long. A couple of hundred miles to the east lies Tristran da Cunha Island, a very isolated British island with a population of about 600 with no airfield and just occasional visits by ships, but we should not go close enough to see it... You would think that this would be a pretty deserted area of ocean but last night a large bulk carrier passed just three miles astern of us, heading east." Mike Golding, ECOVER: "During the past 48 hours I have enjoyed the greatest feelings of success and joy at the successful rescue of a fellow competitor and then, just hours later, the crashing despair brought on by a mast failure which effectively puts me out of contention in the VELUX 5 OCEANS. Ecover is making progress north towards South Africa, probably Cape Town, where we can make a measured assessment of what comes next." "One thing I am sure of right now, we may have lost an expensive mast, we may also have lost our place in this race, but I would not trade any of it for what we have gained in getting Alex off Hugo Boss - right now we might all be looking at a far more tragic outcome than a lump of broken carbon mast. As for our future in this race, well Gringo and the team are exploring all the possibilities, we have a mast in Southampton, it is possible to ship it but this would take time, we could fly it but this is prohibitively expensive. For now I think we need to concentrate our thoughts and efforts on getting safely to shore, only then can we make a proper valued judgment on what sensibly comes next." "However, when we do get to wherever we choose to go in South Africa - they had better watch out - cause two Angry Bulls are coming to town and its going to get very messy!" Boat Positions as at 10:20 UTC November 27 Yacht Skipper Latitude Longitude Course (°) Speed (knot) DTL (nautical miles) DTF (nautical miles) Dist - last Pos (nautical miles) Dist - 24h (nautical miles) Average speed - 24h (knots) VMG - 24h (knots) 1 Cheminées Poujoulat Bernard Stamm 48° 03.92 S 069° 19.92 E 86 13.1 2298 67.1 373.4 15.56 15.11 2 Spirit of Yukoh Kojiro Shiraishi 48° 24.00 S 045° 14.84 E 105 19 960 3258 59.2 291.5 12.15 11.94 3 Ecover Mike Golding 43° 49.24 S 026° 14.24 E 350 9.4 1795 4093 23.1 122.1 5.09 -3.19 4 SAGA Insurance Sir Robin Knox-Johnston 36° 10.60 S 016° 11.12 W 105 9.3 3680 5992 49.4 195.8 8.16 6.27 5 A Southern Man-AGD Graham Dalton 34° 08.04 S 020° 41.60 W 161 9.4 3927 6245 44.3 228.6 9.53 7.93 6 PAKEA Unai Basurko 29° 09.40 S 016° 09.44 W 87 8 3961 6497 34 194 8.08 2.5 - END - Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE