Champagne sailing conditions – Sailing Logic teams revel in the glorious sunshine!
At the schedule this afternoon at 4pm BST, both teams have reported back to our head office with tales of fantastic sailing conditions and great racing against the rest of the fleet.
Visit Malta Puma has consolidated her lead at the top of Class 1, but with Aquelina hot on her heels. Philippe has said they have been sailing with each other all last night and today and it is really galvanising the team to work very hard to keep Puma sailing at optimum speed. Their track this afternoon has taken them very close inshore. They have past Cork harbour entrance and are well on their way to the Fastnet Rock with an eta this evening of 9pm BST. Tonerre de Breskens in Class Zero is still leading the fleet around at the moment but on handicap, Visit Malta Puma are lying in second place which is absolutely fantastic news! (Please note that the positions in class seen on the website are positions on the water not positions after the handicap rating has been taken into account. However, Aquelina, and Fujitsu (British Soldier) both have to give time to Visit Malta Puma and Jaguar Logic so this means we know that Puma is ahead of them on handicap).
Philippe’s message today reads:
‘Great atmosphere onboard. Everyone working very hard and relishing the amazing conditions. All looking forward with anticipation to the downhill blast. Next stop Fastnet Rock…..bring it on!’.
Other news onboard is that the heads(toilet) have blocked, so someone has spent 4 hours sorting this out…not sure who, but maybe they will need an extra beer when the race finishes!
Over on Jaguar Logic, they are battling in very close confines with Tsunami, a Beneteau 40.7. These yachts are very similar in performance to our Reflex 38’s and Skipper James Allen has been crossing tacks with them all day. James is heading on a similar course to Puma but will need to tack away at some point soon to avoid hitting land, unless the breeze frees them up to be able to lay a better course to the Fastnet Rock. They are currently 28 miles behind Visit Malta Puma and lying in 5th place, well ahead of the other 3 Reflex 38’s in the Class, Intuition and Cheetah. James called in to say:
‘All good here, we have had a fabulous couple of days sailing. We started yesterday from Wicklow in glorious sunshine and about 8 knots from the East on what seemed to be a very, very short start line for the 40 boats in the race! Anyway it will have been a spectacle for all the spectators who lined the Harbour wall to see us off! We got a good start and quickly fought our way into some clean air and picked up some good boat speed keeping us with the lead pack. We were punching a lot of tide for the first 6 hours of the race so progress was painfully slow at times but once we passed Wicklow head we hoisted the light weight kite which helped and held that most of the day...... who says you can only use spinnakers going down wind!! Anyway yesterday evening we rounded Rosslare the SE most point of Ireland in very fickle winds and strong currents which made things a little interesting! The light winds have continued overnight while we have worked our way offshore in search of better breeze. At lunch time today we finally found some 12 knots from the SW so we are now making good progress, the wind has now increased up to about 15kts and we are currently passing the entrance to Cork harbour and we are hoping to round the Fastnet Rock later tonight before we head North up the Atlantic coast which is promising us a fast downwind ride, we will have to see if it materialises! The crew are all in good form if a little tired as they haven't quite adjusted to the watch system yet, however we are all having a great time and enjoying what can only be described as perfect sailing conditions.’
Dinner tonight is courtesy of our friends at Tanfield Foods in the North-East of England: Chilli con carne and rice (boil in the bag) and Mushroom Stroganoff and rice for the vegetarians! Sounds yummy!
If you have found the race tracker yet where you can follow the antics of the whole fleet, please just follow this link.
http://www.roundirelandyachtrace.ie/2010-race-tracker.html
