Close competition has always been a basis of the Class40 Association, but after one week and over 1,300 miles of racing through the Indian Ocean, the five, double-handed, Class40s in the Global Ocean Race 2011-12 (GOR) are taking this characteristic to extremes. The Franco-British duo of Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron took the lead on Monday night with their Pogo40S² Class40, Campagne de France, before Conrad Colman and Sam Goodchild regained pole position at 05:00 GMT on Tuesday with the New Zealand-British team’s Akilaria RC2, Cessna Citation, but relinquished the lead to Mabire and Merron just four hours later.
West of the leading pack by 200 miles, the two first generation Akilaria’s – Phesheya-Racing of South Africans, Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire, and Marco Nannini and Hugo Ramon’s Financial Crisis are racing through the high latitudes within sight of each other at 41 degrees South. Meanwhile, the New Zealand father-and-son team of Ross and Campbell Field in third on BSL continue to stalk the leaders, chiselling away at the distance deficit and shadowing Campagne de France and Cessna Citation.
At 15:00 GMT on Tuesday, Campagne de France was leading the fleet by a margin of four miles over Cessna Citation. For Conrad Colman’s co-skipper on Cessna Citation, the Artemis Offshore Academy sailor and Figaro specialist, Sam Goodchild, the first stage of GOR Leg 2 from Cape Town to Wellington, New Zealand, has been a tough introduction to the Southern Ocean: “We've been at sea for a week now and it seems a long time ago we were smashing our way south away from South Africa and towards the Roaring Forties,” says the 22 year-old, British yachtsman. As the fleet chase a high-pressure system across the Indian Ocean there has been a brief period of relatively soft, reaching conditions. “We’ve now had two days of peace and quiet following our three days 'going through a car wash in a convertible' sleigh ride,” he reported early on Tuesday morning. “The progress is still good and the intensity is high as always with Campagne de France, who we have been insight of for days now, just to the north of us. As the wind goes up and down and we change sails accordingly, the two of us, with two different sail plans, exchange the lead,” says Goodchild. “We had a close call when we crossed within 50 metres of them on Sunday and at worst we were four miles behind last night, but are now back alongside again.”
Current weather models suggest the breeze may go forward and slightly east of north over the next 24 hours as the fleet continue towards the eastern extremity of the ice limit, 190 miles ahead of the leaders. On Cessna Citation, the current conditions have provided an opportunity to regroup: “With a full day of sunshine on Monday, we were able to dry out ourselves, the boat and all the sails and are now using the 'down-time' to catch up on as much sleep as possible,” says Goodchild. “As, no doubt, it will be back to the car-wash soon and it’s encouraging hearing the updates from the far more experienced BSL that the slamming upwind is equally un-enjoyed and is considered a bad day in the office and just something we'll have to get used to....phew!”
For Conrad Colman, the obsession in all conditions is sail trimming: “With our days an ever-revolving cycle of sleeping, eating and sailing and very little else, each takes on outsized importance in the absence of other stimuli,” he explains. “With Campagne de France just a couple of miles to leeward, trimming is exact and we're hoping to stop yo-yoing with them and try to extend as strategic options open up towards the end of the ice gate.”
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