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Posts tagged ‘australia’

Dec 15

Visit Finland celebrates victory of Clipper Race 11-12, race 6 from Tauranga (NZ) to Southport (AU))
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Sweet victory, thank you awesome team!

What a race finish!

Only six minutes separated us and Gold Coast Australia in the final charge towards the finish line, which we crossed first thanks to relentless trimming all the way until the very end. The video shows Tea sitting on the pulpit and Carl standing next to the inner forestay calling the trim of their respective sails. I manned the staysail winch during the approach to the finish line.

It is very funny to see yourself and the team on video, after all we never get to see ourselves from outside the boat. Those few walking steps that I take on video does resemble very much a gait of a baby gorilla, and somehow I think this is perfectly fair comparison. After all we trot around the deck with bent knees and taking knuckle support from which ever surface happens to be on the way to the destination, and bagging salopettes do not help either. We’re less hairy though, however give it another 7 months and perhaps we’d start looking more like our big ape cousins.

The approach to finish line was nerve wrecking, thanks to Gold Coast steaming on our heels. The finish line was marked with two yellow buoys. We were expecting a hoot of some sort from the committee boat, that’s why we kept checking the buoys behind the headsails as we were not sure whether we were across the line yet or not. The hoot never came, therefore the cheer was a little late from the actual crossing.

Below photo of the Visit Finland leg 4 team is linked from Clipper Race website. More photos in the gallery there. Clipper Race news article also gives more insight into the race 6 finish.

Visit Finland team

Visit Finland team before setting off from Tauranga, NZ to Southport, AU in The Clipper Round the World 11-12 Race 6. From left to right: Perttu Monthan (FIN), Lexi Van Geest (UK/NZ), Tea Melsom (FIN/UK), Carl Palmer (SWE/FR), Greg Puttock (UK), Riikka Puustinen (FIN/UK), Paul Arkell (UK), Paul Knighton (UK), Nick Brooke (UK), Jo Poulton (UK), MC Chapman (UK), Carter Croft (UK/FR), Derek Baker (UK), Skipper Olly Osborne (UK). Inga Monthan (FIN) is missing from the photo.

 

Support team on shore waved flags on our arrival. Photo by Kit de Guymer.

 

Visit Finland after finishing Clipper Race 11-12 race 6. I'm holding the big Finnish flag in the middle with Carl.

 

Visit Finland arrives to Southport Marina

 

Visit Finland crew and skipper make their way to Southport Marina Yacht Club for a breakfast reception. Photo by Kit de Guymer

My photos at flickr:

Dec 26

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Hunting high and low for footage

Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2010 started 10 hours ago, and now a hunt for video footage has begun. It is a Christmas tradition in Australia to watch the start of the race on telly, but here in UK (the other side of the globe) it is incredibly difficult to get access to any proper footage.

What I gather from news is that the start has been exciting: Wild Thing hit a stern of a media boat (which arguably should have kept clear), but fortunately she did not get damage and was able to start the race. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston is also interviewed in the same news clip.

It would be so great to see the full start sequence for education and excitement. Each race boat tries to hit the start line at full speed exactly when the gun goes off. This can be nerve-wracking or exhilarating, yet always electrifying onboard. The art of start is something one learns through experience only, however it would be magnificent to get a view on the pre-start manoeuvres of professional crew. When one is on a start line herself, there is no big picture but only the boat, countdown and the start line. Other boats are inconveniences between you and the ideal course over the start line. Afterwards one may not recognise any of the situations the other crew members tell about, for everyone focuses on sailing the boat in their own role. The big picture seems to escape everyone else but the navigator / tactician. As a bowman my eyes are always peeled on the start line transit, so I really cannot recall anything else but the nervousness when trying to see the transit through other boats sails!

The race itself is going to be taxing with the southerlies, with a current traveling the opposite direction of the wind. This will mean lumpy seas and high waves, rather reminiscent of a washing machine. A race news article explains that the first part of the race is the helmsman’s race, second part is the navigator’s race.

By Monday night, life on board will be a proverbial washing machine.  The drivers’ job will be to get the boats down to Flinders Island in contact with their rivals, while keeping them in one piece. —

Once in the lee of Tasmania the second race begins:  the navigators’ race.  In difficult to predict conditions, they will have to make the tactical decisions that will win the Tattersalls Cup, or lose it.

“You will be able to lose the race in the first 300 miles,” says Will Oxley, the navigator of Rodd & Gunn Wedgetail, “but not win it.  The second half, off Tasmania, is where the race will be won and lost. —

Ironically, while this will be the time for the navigators and tacticians to star, it is also precisely the half of the race when the boat drivers will need to lift their game an extra gear.
Cold, wet and tired after some 36 hours of drenching watches perched on the rail, crews will need to find the reserves  to drive themselves and their boat just that bit harder than anyone else, putting in that extra sail change, executing maneuvers with the same precision as they do on a day’s sprint around the buoys.

“You’ve got to be 95% fighting fit on the Tasmanian coast, otherwise you’re out,” says YuuZoo skipper Ludde Ingvall.

“Managing tiredness will be a huge part of every skipper’s job in the first half of the race.”

Read the article for good insight on managing watch systems. It seems that discipline and fighting spirit are the key. Ah, how lucky! I just happen to know a minuscule Finn who fits that description, perhaps the race 2012 could be an option? (Subtlety has already escaped. Where’s my berth?)

Video Gallery / Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2010 (very slow connection – or a lot of traffic!)

Audio Gallery / Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2010

Race tracker

Photos from the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race 2010 start:

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ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi

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Wild Oats XI at the turning mark during the Rolex Sydney Hobart 2010. ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi

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Grant Wharington’s supermaxi Wild Thing exiting Sydney Heads. ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi

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Wild Oats XI just before she encountered the southerly. ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi

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Bill Wild’s Rodd & Gunn Wedgetail in open water. ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi.

Jan 3

Spirit of Australia leads the fleet across the start line for Race 5 to Singapore

The Xmas stopover in Australia is over, and the clipper fleet has started their Race 5 to Singapore. Press release from Clipper Ventures today from Geraldton, Western Australia:

Spirit of Australia was first across the start line to the delight of the home crowd as Race 5 of the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race got underway. Hundreds of supporters lined the breakwater in Geraldton, Western Australia, and cheered as the Australian team raced past with the other nine internationally sponsored yachts in hot pursuit. Conditions were perfect for the beginning of the next leg to Singapore with a strong southerly breeze blowing 15-20 knots.

Speaking ahead of the race start, Spirit of Australia’s skipper, Brendan Hall, said, “I’m really looking forward to this one, it’s going to have a different flavour – a bit of an ocean race to start off with but then going up through Indonesia the navigational hazards are going to be a real challenge. It’s something a bit different but also something to sink our teeth into. “The enthusiasm and the effort put into this stopover by the people of Geraldton has been absolutely fantastic. Words can’t describe the welcome we’ve had, all the crew have had a fantastic time in Western Australia and we’ll all be very sad to leave.”

Spirit of Australia was followed across the line by California and their closest rivals, Team Finland, with only three points separating the Finns and the Aussies on the overall leader board. Chasing the front three and in order across the line were Cape Breton Island, Uniquely Singapore, Edinburgh Inspiring Capital, Jamaica Lightning Bolt, Cork, Ireland, Hull & Humber and Qingdao.

The Clipper 09-10 Fleet as they leave Geraldton, Western Australia for Singapore at the start of race 5 in the Clipper 09/10 Round the World Yacht Race. The race is contested by ten identical stripped down 68-foot racing yachts, each sponsored by a city, region or country. Clipper was founded by sailing legend Sir Robin Knox Johnston and the Clipper 09-10 race will be the seventh time his teams of amateur sailors will circumnavigate the planet. The Clipper 09-10 route has taken them from the Humber to La Rochelle to Rio de Janeiro and South Africa. The rest of the route consists of Western Australia, Singapore, Qingdao, California, Panama, Jamacia, New York, Cape Breton Island, Cork and then back to the Humber, where they are due to arrive on 17 July 2010. Photo: Cliper Ventures PLC

The Clipper 09-10 Fleet as they leave Geraldton, Western Australia for Singapore at the start of race 5 in the Clipper 09/10 Round the World Yacht Race. Photo: Cliper Ventures PLC

Race 5 is one of the most interesting and varied races of Clipper 09-10. The initial part will deliver some very high average speeds as the teams head north across the Indian Ocean. Approaching Christmas Island the conditions will then change quite dramatically as they sail across the Monsoon Trough, an area similar to the Doldrums where the winds will drop and temperatures will soar.

Race Director, Joff Bailey, says, “The crews face a number of challenges on this race and the winner will be the team that can quickly exit the light patch of winds and get themselves into the steady airflow further north. The boats will also be crossing the Equator again and the new crew joining for this leg will have to meet King Neptune just before the finish.”

The fleet will arrive at Marina at Keppel Bay, Singapore, in a spectacular and colourful welcome ceremony on the morning of Saturday 23 January.

Main photo: Clipper Ventures PLC

Dec 4

High sea drama season

The best way to start the weekend is right here by my computer, looking back the past month of the salty and slippery world of Clipper Round the World Race 09-10. This is what happened last month:

Drama! Sea beasts! Wrecks! Life-threatening danger!

Soap at the Sea

Ouch ouch ouch. Team Finland skipper Eero Lehtinen has announced his resignation for family reasons. What a sad loss it is for the crew of Team Finland, Clipper Race and spectators at home, but naturally family comes first. Eero will be replaced by a Southampton-based skipper Rob McInally, who will take over the boat during the Xmas stopover in Australia. We will see how the new skipper will spank inspire his crew to reach podium places in the races around the other half of the globe.

The Curious Case of a Whale

Team Finland had a close encounter with a whale on South Indian Ocean a few days ago. It was recorded as a collision, but surely enough it hardly can be an accident as whales can detect objects through ultrasound. In a middle of a South Indian Ocean! It would be just as likely as Brian being saved by a flying saucer. My theory is that the whale was either curious, territorial or amorous and therefore decided to kick the boat. The strike did not stir up any reaction, and therefore the whale decided to find someone else to play with. There is no way a sail boat could crash into a whale just like that. Interestingly this incident also revealed that each clipper boat has a crew member assigned as a conservationist, who records sightings of whales, dolphins, porpoises and sea monsters.

Kerfuffle between Irish and Englishmen

What’s new with this then? Instead of a pub quarrel over stout vs. ale, this is about boats clashing on the start of Race 4 from Cape Town, South Africa to Geraldton, Western Australia. The collision resulted in the two teams returning to harbour. Fortunately none of the crew were hurt but boats took some damage: Hull & Humber’s port aft quarter required a good week’s repair and Cork’s bow about 5 days. Now both of the boats are back in race, and catching up the leading fleet. However, it’s a long way to Australia – let’s keep fingers crossed that both boats will make it there by Xmas. (Main photo by Clipper Ventures PLC)

A dramatic rescue at sea
Dramatic rescue at sea.

Man Overboard!

A man went overboard on Hull & Humber in South Atlantic already a month ago. It must have been daunting event for the whole crew, but they handled it professionally and fortunately nobody got hurt in this accident. This thing has resurfaced (geddit) through the most popular videos of the BBC news site. Fortunately digital media keeps important things floating (I’m cracking myself up), as this was a really big thing. See the video of a yachtsman overboard in South Atlantic in the BBC News. This is the SECOND EVER man-overboard incident in the whole history of Clipper Race Round the World events.

Good going, but stay clipped, folks!