Neck and neck at the front of the fleet!
Sailing Logic’s Reflex 38’s, Visit Malta Puma and Jaguar Logic are locked in their own private battles this morning.
Visit Malta Puma is sharing the lead in Class 1 with Aquelina, a J122 skippered by James Tyrell from the Arklow Sailing Club. They have converged tacks this morning at 8.30 BST and are now sailing in sight of each other – it must be very tense but extremely exciting onboard. It is a little bit of déjà-vu for Skipper Philippe Falle, as in 2008, Puma were locked in a tense battle with another J122, Pen Azen for most of the offshore season.
Jaguar Logic are battling against another Reflex 38, Intuition, sailed by friend of Sailing Logic, Paul Adamson. Paul runs a sailing school in Dublin and has a very similar set up to Sailing Logic in the fact that all the crew onboard are novice racers who have come together to form a team and train to do this race. There is a lot of pride at stake here and Skipper of jaguar, James Allen is pushing hard.
Fujitsu (aka British Soldier), lying 3rd in Class 1 at the moment have decided on a different tactic to most by heading much further south. They are mirroring the course of Visit Malta Puma and Aquelina, but are some 15 miles south of them.
The yachts are all tacking underneath the south coast of Ireland at the moment, as the wind is south-westerly which means they are not able to sail a direct route and have to gauge when to change direction, to make the most headway towards the next waypoint, This is a very tactical part of the race and many placing’s can be won and lost on the timings of the tacks made.
The leaders overall at the moment are only 16 miles ahead of Puma and with them having to give Puma lots of time on handicap, our guys are doing really very well.
All is good onboard both yachts. Constant communication this morning from both teams, sees them up and about, driving the yachts hard and match racing against the nearest yacht.
The weather forecast for the rest of the day is a settled one of 15 knots South-Westerly with sunshine. What more could the crews ask for – a perfect forecast and fantastic sailing conditions!!
