Increasing speeds, increased risks for the Global Ocean Race Class40s

After 38 days and 6,000 miles of racing, the double-handed, Class40 Global Ocean Race (GOR) teams are into the final push for the Leg 1 finish line. While the Leg 1 winners, Ross and Campbell Field with BSL and second placed Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron with Campagne de France work on their boats in The V&A Waterfront Marina in Cape Town, the four Class40s in the fleet’s main pack are hammering across the final 1,000 miles of the South Atlantic, climbing from the high-latitudes to the finish line off the city’s main breakwater.

At 09:00 GMT on Wednesday, the four boats were spread over 240 miles with the pack compressing to 100 miles north-south as the fleet fast reach underneath the swelling St. Helena High-Pressure System. For the past three days, the second wave of the GOR fleet has been led by the Italian-British duo of Marco Nannini and Paul Peggs with their first generation Akilaria, Financial Crisis, building a strong lead of over 100 miles with 750 miles of Leg 1 remaining.

However, the threat to their leadership has now increased on two fronts: the youngest team in the GOR, Conrad Colman and Hugo Ramon in fourth place on their new Akilaria RC2, Cessna Citation, have rejoined the pack from temporary exile in the north and are fighting hard to regain poll position sailing north of Financial Crisis, with the Dutch duo of Nico Budel and Ruud van Rijsewijk in sixth on Sec. Hayai 100 miles astern. Further south, 152 miles off the starboard quarter of Financial Crisis, the South African duo of Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire are shadowing Nannini and Peggs, with both boats simultaneously hardening up at 21:00 GMT on Tuesday night and heading directly for Cape Town.

For Nannini and Peggs, the pressure is really on with a latest-generation, reaching weapon hard on the chase in the shape of Cessna Citation and an Akilaria sistership with Phesheya-Racing threatening from the south. On board Financial Crisis, Marco Nannini is on high alert: “We’ve managed to keep our distance from Phesheya constant during the reaching conditions and whilst our left eye is firmly on Cessna, our right one is still firmly on the South African duo,” he reports. “They sail an identical boat to ours where boat speed differentials are minimal.” Nannini and Peggs lifted the speed to 11-knot averages on Tuesday afternoon and stepped up a gear to over 12-knot averages early on Wednesday morning: “For us, averages over 11 knots are difficult without compromising safety,” warns the Italian skipper whose GOR campaign budget is reliant on preserving his boat and limiting costly repairs. “I lost control of the boat a few times during the night under walls of spray, masthead reaching kite and two reefs on the main on the constant edge of a broach.”