10:55 AM Sun 13 Dec 2009 GMT
Clipper 09-10 Day 22 Cape Town to Geraldton, Western Australia.
'This one is going to be down to the wire,' says Brendan Hall, skipper of Spirit of Australia, and voicing what followers of the Clipper Race are also realizing as the fleet continues to bunch in the light winds. 'We are pushing our boat and sails as hard as we can, trying our best to catch back the miles on Team Finland and build a buffer between Cape Breton Island and Uniquely Singapore.
'I've just been told we can see a white sail a white sail on the horizon ahead of us... game on!'
Team Finland's skipper, Eero Lehtinen, rightly suspects that he is being hunted, saying, 'A sail has just broken out on the horizon behind us, so now we know where one of them is.
'Getting this close and slowing down, eventually stopping and going backwards, feels unfair. It is ocean racing and it is sailing but it is not fun. By now the concern has moved on from maintaining the hard fought lead to the repeated question, 'when are we going to get there?' At this point we make no further estimations on our arrival.'
The next few hours will be critical in deciding the final outcome of this close fought race. Cape Breton Island's skipper, Jan Ridd, is only too aware that keeping his crew focused and motivated is the key to success. 'In these conditions it is very easy to just accept that there is no wind and sit there and drift,' he explains. 'But we have
continually monitored our course, wind strength, wind angle and boat speed and adjusted our sail trim to match.'
Having been overtaken by the Canadian Team, Uniquely Singapore went into Stealth Mode yesterday in an attempt to move back up the fleet. However, as they re-emerged on the Race Viewer it was clear that this tactic had not worked in their favour.
'Even in Stealth Mode we can work out our boat speed and have seen Cape Breton Island make substantial gains on us,' says skipper of the Singaporean entry, Jim Dobie. 'While this is hard on morale it also makes the crew focus and they know that even 0.1 of a knot can make such a huge difference over 24 hours. So we keep trying to keep boat speed up as much as possible and can only hope to come out of the weather system first.'
The neck and neck battle between Edinburgh Inspiring Capital, Qingdao and Jamaica Lightning Bolt in the light winds has led to some position changes over the last 24 hours. 'For once we worked it to our favour and have made up a few places, but we are not out of it yet,' says the Scottish entry's skipper, Matt Pike, on their move up to fifth place.
Despite losing out to Edinburgh Inspiring Capital, Qingdao's skipper, Chris Stanmore-Major is pleased with his team's performance. He says, 'We have been able to maintain good boat speed most of the time and made reasonable mileage towards Geraldton, despite the natural barrier placed before us. Team effort is really not a problem on Qingdao so it is a simple case now of whistling up a wind.'
Of the three, Jamaica Lightning Bolt has had the poorest run and despite playing their stealth card yesterday, the team has emerged in seventh place.
'For a large part of the last 24 hours we have been in sight of either Qingdao or Edinburgh Inspiring Capital,' says Pete Stirling, Jamaica Lightning Bolt's skipper. 'Though it would have been nice to have a healthy lead over the nearest competition, seeing another yacht was a great joy to the crew. It was the first sign of human life we have seen since the second day of the race. The other bonus is that there is now something tangible to race against and in these situations the whole crew up their game.'
California remains optimistic that they can catch up with the boats ahead and with less than 100 nautical miles between the American entry and the race leaders, skipper Pete Rollason believes that it is all still to play for. 'As we know only too well, with 700 miles to run, anything can happen,' says Pete. 'The crew have probably been working
harder over the last 24 hours than at anytime in the Southern Ocean with constant trimming to ensure maximum speed.'
Pete has also announced that he will be going into Stealth Mode at 1200GMT today, something that will certainly be a cause of concern to the crews of the seven boats in front. From his position, Pete can clearly see the routes that are working and it will be interesting to see what gain the American team can make as they vanish off the race viewer for 24 hours.
Something that is causing concern to Piers Dudin, skipper of Hull & Humber is the slow onset of the next low which will give his boat a much needed push towards Geraldton. 'We're falling slowly behind schedule in Op:GKHFX (Operation Get-Katy-home-for-Xmas, the mission to try and ensure that crew member Katy Bell arrives in Geraldton in time for her flight back to the UK for Christmas)' says Piers. 'In fact we're 46 miles behind schedule, but if we can post some 10.5 knot averages we should be able to catch that up in a few days.'
Positions at 0600 UTC, Saturday 13 December
Boat DTF* DTL*
Team Finland 588nm 0nm
Spirit of Australia 595nm 6nm
Cape Breton Island 615nm 27nm
Uniquely Singapore 629nm 41nm
Edinburgh Inspiring Capital 639nm 51nm
Qingdao 644nm 56nm
Jamaica Lightning Bolt 645nm 57nm
California 685nm 97nm
Cork 1314nm 725nm
Hull & Humber 2296nm 1708nm
(*DTF = Distance to Finish, *DTL = Distance to Leader)
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