Budel and Van Rijsewijk take sixth place in Global Ocean Race Leg 1

Following a fast Sunday night with under 80 miles to the double-handed, Class40 Global Ocean Race (GOR) Leg 1 finish line off the main harbour breakwater in Cape Town, the Dutch duo of Nico Budel and Ruud van Rijsewijk on Sec. Hayai ran into zero breeze shortly before dawn. As the sun rose at 06:00 local time, Budel and Van Rijsewijk were ten miles off Cape Town in flat calm, drifting on the northerly current with Table Mountain and Robben Island visible through the low-level fog. With a long following swell, the mainsail slatted constantly and brief cells of breeze filled the Class40’s A6 spinnaker sporadically. Further inshore, below Signal Hill, some light breeze was eventually found, the A6 was dropped, the Solent unfurled and with an orange smoke flare burning at the bow, Budel and Van Rijsewijk crossed the finish line at 10:38:30 GMT after 42 days, 22 hours, 38 minutes and 30 seconds, taking sixth place in the first stage of the nine-month, 33,000-mile circumnavigation.

Sec. Hayai completed the 7,900-mile course just under 21 hours behind the South African duo of Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire in fifth with Phesheya-Racing. Ruud van Rijsewijk is delighted with this result: “We made it and I think we did it really well,” said the 56 year-old Dutchman as he lit a large cigar delivered to Sec. Hayai by the GOR Race Organisation immediately the Class40 crossed the finish line. “There are three important things that made the trip so special,” he continued. “A good diet is the first thing; being at sea is the second and being together with Nico is the third. It’s been a tremendous trip.” For Budel, who has spent a lifetime racing single-handed, having company on board was a pleasurable novelty: “There was no moment we regretted in the whole leg,” he reports. “In the whole 42 days we didn’t have a bad word, until 30 minutes before the finish line!” continues the 72 year-old.

The two yachtsmen clearly complement each other at sea: “We’re two different people who have two different ways of sailing,” explains Van Rijsewijk. “It’s all in the game. Nico is old school and I’m new school and sometimes he will want to do it one way and I’ll do it another.” The result was evident at watch changes. “Nico will sheet the sails in, I’ll come out on deck and ease them out and the balance seemed to work really well.”