Global Ocean Race - Squeezing down the coast of Africa

The first week of racing on Leg 1 in the double-handed, Class40, Global Ocean Race (GOR) has taken the fleet 1,300 miles from the start port in Palma, Mallorca, out into the North Atlantic, along the coast of Morocco to the Canary Islands completing approximately 20 per cent of the 6,800 mile route to Cape Town. Following a light winds start on Sunday 25 September, north-easterly breeze arrived with the fleet surfing towards the 100-mile wide funnel between Africa and Spain leading to the Strait of Gibraltar. After two and-a-half days of racing, the fleet shot through the Strait into the Atlantic in an easterly, Force 7-8 gale led by the father-and-son duo of Ross and Campbell Field with BSL and followed by four Class40s in the space of four hours. While the bulk of the fleet turned hard left along the coast of Africa, the Dutch duo of Nico Budel and Ruud van Rijsewijk were battling to preserve their downwind sail inventory on Sec. Hayai with damage to the A2 asymmetric and the total destruction of the boat’s A6.

During the fleet’s first morning in the North Atlantic, the Franco-British duo of Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron took an offshore option with Campagne de France, overhauling the Fields and taking the lead. By Tuesday morning, Campagne de France and BSL were averaging eight knots in northerly breeze and separated by less than one mile with Conrad Colman and Hugo Ramon on Cessna Citation 40 miles to the north-east, just seven miles ahead of Marco Nannini and Paul Peggs with Financial Crisis. While Budel and van Rijsewijk trailed the leaders by 162 miles in sixth place, they took Sec. Hayai west into stronger breeze as Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire opted to remain near the coast, running into a personal wind hole that trapped their Class40, Phesheya-Racing, for almost 24 hours and the South African duo watched the fleet stretch out ahead of them to the south and Budel and Van Rijsewijk close in from the north.

Towards the weekend, the fleet’s approach to the Canary Islands was dictated by a predicted windless zone engulfing the archipelago and expanding north-east of the islands directly in the path of the GOR boats. Campagne de France and BSL squeezed east of Lanzarote on Saturday morning and headed for the African coast and towards what little breeze was available, while the remainder of the fleet were smothered by light airs. As the breeze shut-off, Marco Nannini and Paul Peggs in fourth place were north-west of Lanzarote with Financial Crisis: “It’s been a slow day trying to get the boat moving in patchy airs topping 3-4 knots,” reported Nannnini late on Saturday. “A cloudy morning meant that none of the typical sea-breezes formed during the day over Lanzarote, so we were left floating about like the many turtles we have seen in the area.” As the Italian-British duo bobbed around helplessly with the nearest hint of breeze 60 miles to their south-east on the other side of the island, the team’s mascot attempted to assist. “Typically, frustration and desperation are common feelings in these conditions, but Clubby cheered us up with his total lack of knowledge of the basic laws of physics, running up and down the deck armed only with his enthusiasm and a 12 volt electric fan trying to get some wind into the sails.” Defeated by Newton’s First, Second and Third Laws of Motion, the mascot abandoned further activity. “Eventually, exhausted, Clubby sat down and solemnly declared ‘there is more wind in my pants then in the whole of the Canaries’,” says the Italian skipper. “This we can confirm,” he adds.

On Saturday morning, Phesheya-Racing was 180 miles from the Canary Islands: “Nick and I did many sail changes trying to keep on the move,” explains Phillippa Hutton-Squire. “We were rather unsuccessful as it was very difficult in the dark, dark night. We could only feel a little wind or light air on our faces and believe what our instruments were telling us.” Putting two reefs in the main to stop the endless slapping of the sails, the South Africans could only sit and wait for some breeze: “We struggled most of the night with boat speed and trying to keep each other motivated,” she admits and eventually they started sailing south again at just four knots. “The sun soon came up and made it much easier to see the wind on the water, but it was only towards the middle of the morning that we really started to move,” Hutton-Squire confirms as Phesheya-Racing finally started to make four knots.