Friday, September 03, 2010
I can barely dare to watch the subtle changes every hour now. After 12 days of intensive fighting, the latter stages of the race are ending up being just as exciting as the beginning, in fact, even more so. There are 3 battles raging in IRC Class 1.
Battle 1 is with Encore and British Soldier. Encore is leading class on handicap but British Soldier are ahead of her on the water. The distance between these 2 yachts changes at every schedule – at present British Soldier are 5 miles ahead but two hours ago they were 12 miles – it can change that quickly. We need Encore to stay ahead of British Soldier to give Puma as much chance as possible of winning the overall Class 1 season championships….
Battle 2 is between Playing Around and British Soldier. Playing Around is some 29 miles behind Encore on the water but ahead of British Soldier on handicap. However, BS and PA have been yo-yoing up and down all day, sometimes they are second, sometimes third….it is obviously very close on handicap. If PA manage to take 2nd on handicap, then even if Visit Malta Puma stay in 5th place, they will have enough points to win the season overall. However even being 29 miles behind does give PA a chance to come back at Encore, especially with the conditions being so light and fickle, and ever so tactical.
Battle 3 is between Cheeki Rafiki and Visit Malta Puma. After being some 83 miles behind Cheeki at one point, Puma is now ahead on the water, They have just crossed tracks on the last schedule and they should be able to see each other – amazing! This will surely galvanise both teams to try even harder to get that last bit of boat speed. Puma need to stay ahead of Cheeki both on the water and on handicap to make sure that they keep British Soldier at bay. If they do, then their destiny is in their own hands not in those of others, always a better option in my book!
As I set off 4 more Reflex 38’s on the RORC cross channel race tonight bound for Cherbourg,I have suddenly realised that we have over 60 crew out racing tonight – a very scary thought! On their way back on Sat night/Sunday morning it is likely that they will be coming back into the Solent around the same time as 1 or the other of our 2 teams are finishing this amazing race. Wouldn’t it be great for them to have a guard of honour at the finish!! Keep your fingers crossed…..
Allie
