Race 1 Day 10: CLIPPER RACE LEADERS FEELING THE HEAT

The Clipper Race fleet continued to make good progress under spinnaker in the Trade Winds but the race leaders further south are starting to feel the heat, quite literally.

Qingdao and GREAT Britain continue to hold on to first and second position respectively but HotelPlanner.com and Dare To Lead have snuck into third and fourth position, overtaking Sanya Serenity Coast from the east.

Skipper of Qingdao, Chris Kobusch, reports: “We are experiencing the finest spinnaker weather and are flying towards our destination at around 10 knots. The rest of the fleet is chasing us at a similar course and pace and a lot can happen over the next 4 days.

“The only real struggle at the moment is the heat inside the yacht. [With the] ventilated fiberglass hull that gets heated from the inside as well as from the burning sun outside…you get one of the finest saunas available. The crew takes it with more or less humour and the occasional salt water bucket shower at the back of the boat becomes more and more frequent.”

IMAGE: Shorts are making an appearance instead of waterproofs as the heat turns up on the Clipper Race fleet.

HotelPlanner.com has clearly benefitted from being able to keep their medium weight spinnaker flying for over 80 hours although the Skipper, Conall Morrison, is finding the more temperate climes a bit challenging: “The heat is a bit much for me personally, and there was a welcome cheer from the crew when our Engineer, Greg Glover, declared that there was enough water for everyone to have a shower.”

Sanya Serenity Coast has slipped into fifth position and Skipper, Wendy Tuck, reports: “Tonight has been a tough night, started off lovely, then the cloud cover came over which made helming under kite a tad difficult. We only had our more experienced helms on but, at times, was still tricky. So far, so good, and it is just getting lighter now so hopefully we have got through this one unscathed.”

IMAGE: Latest positions on Race Viewer at time of publishing.

Visit Seattle, Garmin, Unicef, and Liverpool 2018 all follow closely behind in the leaderboard with PSP Logistics a bit further back along with Nasdaq who has been busy making sail repairs. Rob Graham, Skipper of Nasdaq, explains the dilemma he faced about re-hoisting the recently repaired spinnaker: “The wind and sea conditions were perfect for a spinnaker run, but I eventually decided to play safe: continue the helm coaching under Yankee 1, and plan for a kite hoist at first light tomorrow.”

Greenings has made a welcome return to the race after a brief diversion to Porto, following the injury to the Skipper (David Hartshorn). Further information on Greenings re-joining the race can be found here.

Deputy Race Director, Daniel Smith, who has taken over as interim Skipper for the rest of Race 1 says: “We plan to continue with the high standards that Dave has set onboard and will sail safely, perfect our skills and race the boat to Uruguay. We are a few days behind the fleet but we will aim to keep hot on their tails and wait for some opportunities to open up. We need a bit of luck and some good weather but I've always said the harder we work the luckier we get.”

The Trade Winds are expected to increase gradually, and there will be more gusts at the north end of the fleet, but for the next 24 hrs these should stay less than 25 kts. The Clipper Race fleet is expected to make the most of these winds before entering the Doldrums corridor. Squall activity is still quite low although some drizzle is expected, which will come as a relief from the increasing heat!

All positions correct at time of writing. To stay up to date with the fleet’s positions keep a close eye on the Clipper Race Viewer.

To read all the Skipper reports in full and also read the Crew Diaries for insightful views into life onboard, visit the Team Pages.