www.Sail-Search.com: The Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, Matt Allen this afternoon formally announced the US STP65 Rosebud, owned by Roger Sturgeon (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida), as the provisional overall IRC winner of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Roger Sturgeon, STP65 Rosebud owner with the Tattersall's Trophy for overall handicap win. Hobart, 29-12-2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
Photo Credit: ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi

The win is only the third by an American yacht, with the previous winners being Ted Turner's American Eagle in 1972 and Kialoa III (Jim Kilroy) in 1977.

Sturgeon described his feelings at winning: "Ecstatic, beyond belief. We know how hard we have worked for a couple of years on this project...we had a plan and we stuck to it. It's just unimaginable, the odds against this were huge. We're tickled to death."

Meanwhile, the skippers of the yachts denied their chances of winning the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race's major prize, the Tattersall's Cup for the overall IRC winner, due to overnight calms, and variable and transitional winds in Storm Bay, were reflective but getting on with life at crew lunches today.

While the eventual winner, Roger Sturgeon's STP65 Rosebud from the USA, with an early evening finish was tied up at Elizabeth St Pier, Syd Fischer's TP52 Ragamuffin, which placed second, Ray Roberts' Cookson 50 Quantum, placed third, and Geoff Ross' Reichel/Pugh 55 Yendys were rounding Tasman Island into a wall of uncertainty.

Quantum Racing was leading the IRC standings from Ragamuffin and Yendys approaching the island, running hard before a strong nor'westerly. The soft winds and calms over the final 41 nautical miles to the finish scrambled that order and handed the win to Rosebud.

The three finished closely under spinnakers before a wafting south-easterly just after 3:00am, with Quantum Racing beating Yendys across the line by two seconds and Ragamuffin another 6min 42sec behind, beating them both on corrected time.

In the end, Rosebud won on IRC corrected time by 1hr 21min 33sec from Ragamuffin with another 36 minutes to Quantum Racing.

STP65 Rosebud's bowman
Rosebud 2007 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
Photo Credit: ROLEX / Carlo Borlenghi

Ray Roberts said: "The Cookson was really suited for this style of Rolex Sydney Hobart race because there were two periods of really hard running, particularly the last part down the Tassie coast where we were surfing at about 22 - 24 knots, which was really fantastic and that's where we made up our time on Rosebud.

"We gained seven miles on Ragamuffin and a similar amount on Yendys so we were looking really good at Tasman light. Unfortunately we were pretty much becalmed there and spent an hour flopping around; and then at the Raoul again another period of doing about two knots.

"Then we got halfway up the Derwent and there was a transition from the south-easterly to a northerly sector breeze and then it was really slow going.

"At Tasman light we had 14 miles on Syd (Fischer) and Syd took the 14 miles out of us from Tasman light going north. So it was a gut-busting experience.

"At Tasman I thought, 'you beauty, this is my year'. I've been trying since 1984 and I thought here's my big chance. And I must admit I had to go and sit by myself most of this morning to get my head back into gear.

"You go from expectation to absolute despair so you've got to say at the end of the day it's a boat race; refocus on life and just move on."

Syd Fischer, rather than sadness over the outcome, was excited by the performance of his latest Ragamuffin. He strengthened the Farr-designed TP52 he bought from Roy Disney and gave her a new keel which has added upwind stability and power.

"We were on the plane at times, nearly up to 30 knots," he said. "It's quite different to the other boats I've had. You have to get everyone up on the back of the boat. It planes like hell and when it goes through a wave, it doesn't bury itself. As long as you've got the weight in the right place it lifts straight away. You get a lot of water over the deck but it doesn't bury itself like a submarine.

Second a good effort? "Yeah, I've had a few of them," said the man of few words.

He said Ragamuffin had hurt most in the calm around Tasman Island. "In fact the current took us around the island. We were right in against the rocks. We inched our way around the island and finally got some wind." Bruce Taylor, owner of the brand new Reichel/Pugh 40 Chutzpah, which had also been in the running for the Tattersall's Cup, was similarly more enthused by his boat's performance than the fourth-place result.

In the hard running it twice hit a top speed of 25.4 knots and sat on 20s for minutes at a time. "The boat is a rocket off the wind; a mini Volvo 70," Taylor said.

"We asked Reichel/Pugh for something that would run and reach well on the ocean and that's what they've given me. We struggle a bit around the cans but running and reaching out on the ocean it's a great boat, albeit a bit wet."

Taylor said Chutzpah lost her winning chance not in Storm Bay but in Bass Strait on the race's second night when she was becalmed for two hours and down-speed, doing only four knots, for six hours.

At 6pm, 21 boats had finished and 58 were still racing.

www.Sail-Search.com: Bob Oatley's 98-foot super-maxi Wild Oats XI, with Mark Richards as skipper, crossed the finish this morning in Hobart at 10:24am local time to take the line honours win for the third consecutive year.

The yacht's elapsed time was 1 day, 21 hrs, 24 mins, which was only just over 3 hours off their record pace set in 2005.

City Index Leopard crossed the finish line 27 minutes later, to take second place.

With the line honours trophy again going to Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI after her close, race-long duel with Mike Slade's UK-based City Index Leopard, the focus in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race shifts to an intriguing contest for the sailors' most prized trophy, the Tattersall's Cup for the top yacht on IRC corrected time.

At 7pm today local time, five yachts were positioned to win the Cup, according to computer calculations by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, as a hot nor'west wind, which has sent the temperatures soaring to more than 34 degrees Celsius, swept the next group of yachts at high speeds under spinnakers down the Tasmanian coast.

The American yacht Rosebud (Roger Sturgeon), first of the new STP65 box-rule class to be launched, currently sits in first place overall on corrected time. But her position wasn't guaranteed until the boat crossed the finish line. Less than two hours earlier, Rosebud dropped from the first place she held earlier in the day, as she slowed in light patches in the nor'wester in Storm Bay.

At 5:30pm, one mile south of the Iron Pot light marking the entrance to the Derwent River, she was almost stopped in a glassy calm patch with a crewman up the mast looking out for wind. Then a 10-12kt nor'wester filled in again, to move Rosebud up the Derwent and across the finish at 7:02 pm; she now stands as the boat to beat.

Next in line for handicap contention is Ray Roberts' canting-keeled Cookson 50 Quantum Racing, which was 48.5 nautical miles from the finish, doing 11.9 knots and expected to finish at 10:21pm this evening.

With the hard running ideal for the Transpac 52 class yachts, Syd Fischer's Ragamuffin was next on the list, 57.9nm from the finish, running at 11.3 knots with an estimated finishing time of 11:02pm and needing to finish before 2:18am tomorrow to beat Quantum Racing on corrected time.

Geoff Ross' Reichel/Pugh 55 all-rounder Yendys was fourth, 50.3nm from the finish, hitting 17.3 knots and expected to finish at 10:40pm.

However the race's notoriously difficult last 41nm of the 628nm course, from Tasman Island across Storm Bay and up the Derwent River to finish off Hobart's waterfront, handed the usual goal-achievement anxiety to the handicap hopefuls list.

Fifth was Bruce Taylor's brand new Reichel/Pugh 40 Chutzpah, a boat that has confirmed her promise of great downwind speed. She was 158.9 miles out, doing 12 knots and is due to finish at 7:22am tomorrow, inside her winning target time of 8:26am.

Matt Allen's Jones-designed Volvo 70 Ichi Ban, already hampered by a broken blade in her twin rudder system, was slowed sailing up the Derwent and finally finished at 6:01pm.

Grant Wharington's maxi Skandia, which snapped her mast at the third spreader was still 37 miles from the finish sailing at less than 2 kts under jury-rig with a storm trysail and small jib; she was estimated to arrive during the night.

The strong nor'wester was still blowing 21-27 knots at Eddystone Point on Tasmania's northeastern tip, 19-22 knots at Maria Island, and 18-22 knots at Tasman Island, the last rounding mark before the finish.

Of the 82 yachts that started on Boxing Day, three have retired (Berrimilla, Mr Kite, Cougar II), four have finished (Wild Oats XI, City Index Leopard, Ichi Ban, Rosebud) and 75 are still racing.

www.Sail-Search.com: The pace slowed at the head of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race as the three leading maxis sailed into southerly headwinds crossing Bass Strait on the approach to the northeast coast of Tasmania.

At 8pm Thursday (Dec 27) Wild Oats XI was still leading City Index Leopard by approximately 19 nautical miles with another 13nm to Skandia.

This morning's moderate to fresh sou'wester which put the three 98ft canting-keeled maxis on a fast and wet "firehose" close reach under large specialist reaching headsails eased and slowly headed them. The speeds of 12-15 knots they were hitting in the morning eased back to 8.5-12 by lunch time.

The close reaching in a moderate wave pattern suited the beamy Farr-designed Leopard. She has a chine in the aft third of her topsides when the boat is two-sail power reaching.

Owner/skipper Mike Slade from the UK explains: "If the boat is balanced properly she will heel a little bit and sit on the chine which gives you a much cleaner wake on the leeward side. It makes the boat think that it is longer than it actually is."

However throughout the morning Leopard was unable to make any gain on the 11nm lead that Wild Oats established in the straight downwind VMG running conditions overnight after the Boxing Day start.

But Leopard did hang in with Wild Oats, sailing a similar track and within distance and could be a real threat tonight in the light winds expected along the Tasmanian coast. During the day Leopard steadily stretched her lead over Grant Wharington's four-year-old Don Jones-designed Skandia to 11nm. By evening, with winds lightening and shifting southeast, Wild Oats drew away again.

While Bob Oatley's Reichel/Pugh designed Wild Oats XI, skippered by Mark Richards, is well-positioned to be first to finish for the third year in a row, her chance of breaking the race record she set in 2005 looks to have slipped away with the heading winds.

To beat the record time of one day 18 hours 40 minutes and ten seconds she would have to finish before 0740 tomorrow morning (Dec 28). Throughout today Wild Oat's estimated finish time blew out from two hours outside the record to five hours.

Forecasts and weather observations from Tasmanian coastal stations were not promising for the leaders closing in on Tasmania in the last critical miles of the 628nm course. Variable 5-15 knot winds were forecast for the waters east of Flinders Island in Bass Strait and the upper east coast of Tasmania.

Eddystone Point at the northeastern tip of Tasmania reported 15-19 knots from the southeast and St Helens, a third of the way down the east coast, had a south-sou'easter of 9-14 knots. A light southeaster is blowing in Hobart this evening.

IRC handicap overall leader was reckoned to be Huckleberry, a 25-year-old S&S 34 owned by Steve Humphries of Perth and one of the smallest boats in the race, followed by the maxis Wild Oats XI, Skandia, Leopard and then Rosebud, American Roger Sturgeon's Farr-designed STP 65.

COUGAR II, Allan Whiteley (Rolex Trophy)
COUGAR II, Allan Whiteley IRC Div 0/1 Rolex Trophy 2007.Photo Credit: ROLEX/Daniel Forster

Alan Whiteley's TP52 Cougar II retired from the race with chain plate damage and headed to Eden on the New South Wales south coast, bringing the total number of retirements to three in this unusually benign Hobart race. Seventy-nine boats are still racing.

www.Sail-Search.com: Our little ship reminds them that if they are to make Venus Point today, then they need to set off now. Extricating the anchor from the mud, the hose and scrubber come into use, removing with some vigorous pokes and vigorous strokes, the thick grey goo from the flukes. Snubbed home with the anchor washed down, she turns into the gentle breeze and sails out of harbour on a reciprocal course from her entry just a few days before. A short sail eastward along the breakwater brings her into Matavai Bay proper where she drops anchor in about eight metres of water, into black sand. This is the same black sand that the anchors of Cooks’ ‘Endeavour’ would have embedded themselves in in 1769.

Following in the anchor prints of our most famous explorer did not go unnoticed by her crew. They chatter on about what it must have been like back then and if there may be any charming south sea maidens, bedecked with leis to welcome them as they step ashore. Whether it is because they have not arrived in a three master and given the traditional full navy salute, or they are not dressed in their grand uniforms, their arrival on the strand is marked only by the attention of a small band of screeching gulls, whirling over their heads. Other than this mild irritation, the beach is pretty much empty, a black curving band stretching away equally either side of them. For maximum effect they have landed dead centre, so are a little surprised at the absence of gleaming brown bodies dashing down the beach, ecstatic at their arrival! Several disdainful hurrumphs and grunts are exchanged as they labour the dinghy up the sandy incline, but these dissipate rapidly on the realisation that directly in front of them, edging the shoreline, is a small seaside café serving cool drinks and beer.

‘Huh, Cook didn’t have one of these waiting for him when he landed!’ offers Anglo crew - dignity is preserved.

Swinging gently on her chain, our little ship chuckles affectionately at the false vanities of these folks called humans.

Lazy late afternoon sun slips clammily down their backs as they head further eastward toward the point where they expect to see the treasures of the Transit observation. A couple of cold beers washing around in their system seems to infect the male crew members’ legs with a jelly like effect, reducing their ability to place one foot steadily in front of the other without meandering. Sibling crew, striding ahead, sniffs that they would have been better sticking to carbonated water as she had done! The cackling response from behind only serves to increase sibling crews’ tempo, leaving them even further adrift. The small clump of battered and paint flaked stores huddled at the juncture in the road pass slowly by to the right as they make their way out to the end of the promontory – windswept and barren. A few straggly bushes, struggling in their attempt to retain a foothold, dot the bleached white coral. Surprisingly, the rather impressive Point Venus lighthouse constructed in eighteen sixty eight at the knolly point is surrounded by a bunch of palms and casuarinas. It is here that our fearless crew become conscious, belatedly, that they must have passed the ‘Museum of Discovery’ on the way in. Looking around, that apart from the lighthouse, there are no other buildings in the area looking anything like a museum. For such a monumental event our crew were expecting, if not an edifice likened to the Palace de Versaille, some respectable construction recognising the stature of what took place on this spot two hundred and fifty years earlier. On enquiring from a local it is established that the museum was a very little more than a humble stone hut. It was demolished recently with the contents removed to Paris, where they are now on display, location unknown. They now understood how the characters in the Da Vinci Code felt when coming up against a blank wall when unravelling a mystery. However, in the case of our crew they neither had the resources nor the inclination to board the next flight to Paris to continue their search. Admiring the stone and intricate brick work of the lighthouse once again, our crew turn away, ambling into the advancing dusk.

Extract from the ebook ‘Voyage of the Little Ship ‘Tere Moana’. You can read this on Vincent Bossley's website www.sailboat2adventure.com

www.Sail-Search.com: The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race fleet passed through light transitional winds early this morning between the strong overnight northerly, of up to 22 knots and into a weak southwest change.

Start CITY INDEX LEOPARD Sail Number: GBR1R Owner: Mike Slade Division: IRC Design: Maxi 30m WILD OATS XI Sail Number: AUS 10001 Owner: Robert Oatley Division: IRC Design: Maxi 30m 2007. Photo Credit: ROLEX / Daniel Forster

The three maxis leading the fleet were close reaching in the sou'wester at good speeds between 12.4 - 15.1 knots across Bass Strait.

Still leading the race, as she had done from the start, was Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI, skippered by Mark Richards. Sixteen hours after the start, the Reichel/Pugh 98 was 11 miles ahead of City Index Leopard (Mike Slade) with another 6.7 miles to Skandia (Grant Wharington).

The three canting-keeled 98ft maxis were about 80 miles southeast of Gabo Island, well into Bass Strait. Wild Oats had covered 263 miles of the 628 nautical mile course. The American STP65 Rosebud (Roger Sturgeon) was next, 22 miles behind Skandia.

Leopard's owner/skipper Mike Slade said from the boat this morning that the new wind angle, putting the leaders on a close reaching course towards Tasman Island, suited his beamier and heavier Farr-design, which had been unable to run angles as deep as Wild Oats before the northerly.

"Now we have the wind on the nose we are happy," he said. "We have the R2, a large reaching sail up and we are seeing 14 knots (of boat speed) in only ten knots of breeze. We have all of Bass Strait to haul Wild Oats back. These are conditions we like and we must make the most of it."

Yachts further back in the fleet slowed badly after the fresh northerly died ahead of the southwest change. Between 5am and 6am the TP52s Wot Yot (Graeme Wood) and Cougar II (Alan Whiteley) were doing 3.8 and 2.7 knots respectively and the British Volvo 70 Hugo Boss II (Ross Daniel) 2.7 knots.

But the mid-fleet group got going again with respectable speeds as the southwest change moved up the south coast of New South Wales. At 8am the overall leader on IRC corrected time was reckoned to be Bruce Taylor's new Reichel/Pugh 40 Chutzpah, with the 39-year-old S&S designed Spirit of Koomooloo (Mike Freebairn) in 2nd place. Freebairn purchased the boat, which was Syd Fischer's original Ragamuffin, last March, to replace his previous boat, Koomooloo, which sank on the second day of the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart race.

Third on the handicap calculations was Bill Wild's Welbourn 42 Wedgetail, which enjoyed the hard running conditions of the race's earlier stages.

Only two yachts have retired, bringing the fleet to 80: Andrew Buckland's unorthodox Andrew Cape-designed Mr Kite, with a broken rudder and the Brolga 33 Berrimilla, after its only spinnaker wrapped itself irretrievably around the forestay.

Alex Whitworth on BERRIMILLA
Race day preparation at CYCA Alex Whitworth BERRIMILLA Sail Number: 371 Division: TBA Design: Brolga 33. Photo Credit: ROLEX / Daniel Forster

After competing in the 2004 Rolex Sydney Hobart race owner Alex Whitworth and Peter Crozier sailed Berrimilla to England, competed in the 2005 Rolex Fastnet Race and then sailed back to Australia just in time to start in the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart race.

Michelle Colenso's Oyster 55 Cappricio of Rhu diverted into Wollongong to get hospital treatment for an injured crewman. The yacht rejoined the race this morning.

At current speeds, the first of the maxis are expected at the finish in Hobart on Friday morning.

www.Sail-Search.com: The Sydney maxi Wild Oats XI took round one in the battle of the maxis at the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race today. From a good start, and with smart tactics, she was able to slow her British rival City Index Leopard on the short beat to windward to the first turning mark inside Sydney Heads and then extend that lead on the leg out to the second turning mark.

Wild Oats XI works through spectator chop
Sydney, 26-12-2006. Photo Credit: ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi

As the yachts rounded the second mark, about 2.5 nautical miles from the start, to set reaching headsails and spinnakers on track for Hobart, Wild Oats XI led by a morale-boosting 40 seconds from City Index Leopard with another 50 seconds to Skandia, the third 98 foot canting-keeled maxi in the race.

Next came the American fixed-keel 65-footer Rosebud, another good starter, two minutes 20 seconds behind Skandia. Rosebud is the first of the new "box rule" Storm Trysail Transpac (STP) 65 class to be launched.

The 82-yacht fleet started simultaneously from two starting lines set 0.2 nautical miles apart about 1.5 nm inside Sydney Harbour.

Mark Richards, who skippers the Reichel/Pugh 98 for owner Bob Oatley, steered Wild Oats XI into one of his trademark winning starts at the pin end of the line.

The forward line was biased to slightly favour the leeward end in the 8-10 knot northeasterly breeze. Mike Slade's Farr-designed City Index Leopard started well a third of the way up the line and was able to lay the first turning mark on one starboard tack.

But Wild Oats XI had enough leverage to leeward to tack over onto port and cross ahead of Leopard. Wild Oats XI then tacked back onto starboard, ahead and to windward of Leopard, then bore down to slow Leopard with disturbed air.

At the first turning mark, Wild Oats XI delayed her tack onto port and out to sea to again, and planted herself firmly in Leopard's air and accelerated away cleanly to a handy lead at the seaward mark.

Grant Wharington's older maxi Skandia was obviously underpowered after a cautious mid-line start. Wharington, realising that with the forecast weather pattern his four-year boat would have trouble matching the newer Wild Oats XI and Leopard for speed in lighter air, has chosen to concentrate on winning the race's major handicap trophy, the Tattersall's Cup. To this end, he is racing with his smaller "pin-headed" mainsail instead of his latest square-topped main of the type carried by both Oats and Leopard.

American Roger Sturgeon's Farr-designed STP 65 Rosebud re-affirmed her credentials as a favourite for the Tattersall's Cup with a clean fast start that left her hanging in with the maxis and well clear of the converted Jones-designed Volvo 70 Ichi Ban (Matt Allen).

Ichi Ban hurt in the Harbour by working the eastern shore where there was lighter wind and less push from the outgoing tidal flow.

One of the Tattersall's Cup favorites, Alan Brierty's Corby 49 Limit, was about 18 minutes late for the start, waiting for owner Brierty, who is also the tactician, who had a hiccup in travel arrangements from his home in Perth where he spent Christmas Day.

When Corby's scheduled midnight flight across Australia was cancelled, the next available one got him into Sydney airport only 20 minutes before the start. A dash by cab and speedboat got him aboard late, but Limit still managed to be within the fleet leaving Sydney Harbour and in distant touch with the boats she has to beat.

The fleet of smaller boats starting from the second line was severely scrambled when 12 boats were recalled for being premature starters. Two of them, the Jutson 43 Another Fiasco (Damian Suckling) and the West Australian Beneteau 34.7 Palandri Wines Minds Eye (Brad Skeggs), lost significant time before realising they had been recalled and returned to re-start. Another yacht, Jim Holley's one-off Farr 40 Aurora, did not return and will be protested by the race committee.

Downwind start to the 2007 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race fleet.
Sydney, 26-12-2006. Photo Credit: ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi

An estimated 300,00 spectators, on boats and Harbour headlands, saw the fleet on its way on a perfect, warm, sunny summer day. Public interest in the race is exceptionally high this year with quite intense local media coverage for the past two weeks.

A traffic jam formed this morning on the New Beach Road approach to the race's host club, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, as spectators joined the sailors' families and friends to bid farewell to the yachts and board spectator boats.

After three and a-half hours of fast sailing in the freshening nor'easter, Wild Oats XI had covered 55nm and was 20nm offshore, east of Kiama on the New South Wales south coast, doing 19.4 knots and virtually on the rhumb-line course to Tasman Island, last turning point of the course before the Hobart finish of the 628nm course.

The northeaster at Kiama had freshened to 15-20 knots which propelled Wild Oats XI to a 2.3nm lead over Skandia and City Index Leopard. Skandia slightly ahead, doing 16.7 knots and Leopard 18.4 knots; Rosebud was another eight miles behind, doing 16.2 knots.

www.Sail-Search.com: Soft and swinging winds on the second day will slow the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race fleet; probably removing any chance of the 98 foot canting-keeled maxis have of breaking the race record and producing a handicap winner from the mid-fleet 40-65-footers behind them.

Commercial and government forecasters two days out from the Boxing Day start agree that a 12-18 hour period of lighter winds, 5-15 knots, after a mild southerly change, will follow up to 18 hours of fast running before a freshening nor'easter from the start on Wednesday.

There's a chance that the three maxis racing to be first to finish in Hobart will "park up" through this stage of the race, which will be just as emotionally draining as the hard running at speeds of 25 knots and more on the first night.

That weather scenario would rob Wild Oats XI (Bob Oatley), the British visitor City Index Leopard (Mike Slade) and the older Australian maxi Skandia (Grant Wharington) of their chances of breaking the record time of one day, 18 hours, 40 minutes and 10 seconds that Wild Oats XI set in the 2005 race.

And it would certainly deny them the opportunity of breaking away from the fleet by riding a more favourable weather system to the finish of the 628 nautical mile race to win the race's major trophy, the Tattersall's Cup for the overall handicap winner, as Wild Oats XI did in 2005.

Meteorologist Roger Badham, who provides specialised forecasting and weather routing to a number of boats in the fleet including Wild Oats XI and City Index Leopard, sees the fleet of 82 yachts running at high speeds under spinnakers before a north-east to north-west breeze that would increase from 10-15 knots at the start to 25 and possibly 30 overnight. "Wild Oats and Leopard will be ahead of the record," he said.

But the following day a weak southerly front would hit the 82-boat fleet, sending the breeze around the clock from southwest through south, southeast, northeast and finally back to north, with strengths of only 5-15 knots. "I cannot see them being ahead of the record after that," said Badham. "They will certainly be close but, in my opinion, not close enough."

He said the leaders would finish some time on the morning of Friday the 28th and would have to negotiate light wind in Storm Bay on the final 40 miles of the 628-mile course.

A very strong northerly would develop later that day to bring home fast the strong group of 40ft-65ft boats. "That's probably where the handicap winner will come from," he said.

At the official race briefing for skippers and navigators, Rob Webb of the Bureau of Meteorology's Sydney office, had a similar assessment and said the period of lighter winds before the northerly re-asserted itself would be 12-18 hours.

Mark Richards, skipper of Wild Oats XI, said afterwards: "That's why records are called records; they are elusive things and very hard things to beat. Thursday could be a very slow day and for the record you can't afford to have too much time going slowly. We could even park up for four or five hours so that really hurts.

"It's going to be a very tricky race out there and we'll have to work very hard tactically. Anything could happen. It's still a couple of days out but it's looking trickier every day."

The powerful Leopard, which hit speeds of 34 knots in breaking the record for the Rolex Fastnet race earlier this year, could be race leader after those first 18 hours of fast running. But in the expected long period of light air the narrow Reichel/Pugh Wild Oats XI, with less wetted-surface resistance, should break away from the Farr-designed City Index Leopard, which is ten tonnes heavier.

Leopard's owner/skipper Mike Slade concedes that Wild Oats XI and the Don Jones-designed Skandia, the 2003 line honours winner, would in those conditions probably beat City Index Leopard, but the record would remain intact.

"We are heavier and we do need that extra bit of grunt," he said. "We need 12 knots (of wind) to really get the boat out of the water and flying."

Breaking the record needed straight line sailing for much of the course and 20 knots of breeze. "In those conditions, any one of the top four could break the record and the race could be done in 30 plus hours."

He said the converted Volvo 70 Ichi Ban, owned and skippered by Matt Allen, who is Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia which conducts the race, could join the 98-footers if they "parked up" in the light winds predicted for Thursday.

"We've all got some pretty exciting sails on board to deal with these situations so if the boats do stop and another boat is doing two knots to your none, it can change the ball game pretty quickly. "It could go either way. It all comes down to who's in the wind and who's not."

Tattersall's Cup prospects

The stop/go factor in the weather pattern enhances the strong chance the US entry Rosebud has of winning the Tattersall's Cup. This Farr-designed first-launched boat of the new STP65 class, owned by Roger Sturgeon, showed good all-round speed in winning the Rolex Rating Series warm-up regatta for the Hobart race.

She will have the downwind speed to hang onto the leading group of maxis overnight from the start and then gain on them in handicap rating terms through the uncertain wind pattern of day two.

The scenario also suits Geoff Ross' season-old Reichel/Pugh 55 Yendys, second in the Rolex Rating Series only two points behind Rosebud. She was designed, built and has been campaigned for robust offshore racing rather than around-the-buoys regattas. But she surprised her owner and experienced crew by winning the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week in predominantly light air in August.

The TP52s Wot Yot (Graeme Wood), Ragamuffin (Syd Fischer), Cougar II (Alan Whitely) and the two Farr-designed Cookson 50s, Ray Roberts' Quantum Racing from Sydney and Michael Hiatt's Living Doll from Melbourne, with their ability to plane downwind early should be similarly well placed to hold onto the maxis in the race's early stages, through the spell of lighter winds and gain again as the northerly kicks in again after the maxis finish.

Best suited of all the IRC handicap prospects if the unfolding weather pattern includes some light-air running is Alan Brierty's Corby 40 Limit, which has two-times Sydney Hobart race winner Roger Hickman aboard as principal helmsman with Brierty as tactician.

Against the general recent trend towards asymmetric spinnakers flown from a bowsprit instead of the traditional spinnaker pole, Limit has continued to fly symmetrical spinnakers from a pole.

This proved effective on the lighter-air days of the Rolex Rating Series in which she won Division Two. The spinnaker allowed her to sail deeper angles towards the mark to pick up four places in one race from her asymmetric-powered rivals chasing speed by sailing higher angles.

Hickman says: "We can surf at 14 to 15 knots and milk the wave train better by having the ability to run deeper."

Many more boats in the fleet are capable of winning the Tattersall's Cup given their favoured conditions and above all, luck.

Ray Roberts says more than 20 boats in the fleet have the form to win the Tattersall's Cup, among them Bruce Taylor's new Reichel/Pugh 40 Chutzpah, which has shown promise of great reaching speed. "But it's a new boat and they probably need to spend more time on the water."

"There are so many variables," Roger Hickman adds, with opportunities even in the last 11 miles to the finish on the Derwent River. "You can pick up an hour or two very easily if you are lucky enough in the Derwent. Everybody has a chance."

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www.Sail-Search.com: Near perfect sailing conditions prevailed offshore Durban on Friday for the closing stages of the J22 World Championships with Mark Sadler of the Royal Cape Yacht Club capping a superb performance over the past week aboard Orion Express to claim the world title in this class for the first time.

In second place overall was defending J22 champion, Jeroen den Boer of the Netherlands on HBB/ Slam with the Point Yacht Club entry, Eikos, skippered by Ian Ainslie, third and Greenlight (RCYC) with Dave Hudson at the helm fourth.

Sailing in 15 knot light to moderate north-eastery winds, Sadler and crew members Paul Wilcox, Gary Sindler and Julia Sfarlea (stet) underlined their undeniable superiority in this regatta by winning three of the last four races to make it six wins from 10 starts for the week-long regatta which was curtailed by strong winds resulting in two-and-a-half day's racing out of five being lost.

Four yachts dominated the final four races, Orion Express, HBB/ Slam, Eikos and Greenlight.

The overall winner was virtually a foregone conclusion after the sixth race on Thursday with Orion Express out in front of the leaderboard, nine points ahead of its nearest rival, HBB/ Slam, and Ainslie at this stage a distant 12th in a fleet of 35 yachts.

Racing on Friday was always going to be about deciding which of the nearest challengers would fill the minor placings with the overall result in doubt right up until the last race of the day, Den Boer finishing second to Hudson and Ainslie slipping back to fifth leaving Den Boer the runner-up to Sadler.

Sadler, who skippered Shosholoza with distinction in the America's Cup regatta earlier this year, put his considerable marine knowledge and racing skills to good use to finish with an event aggregate of 23 points and a nett result of 10 points after two discards which gave Orion Express the overall title by 12 points from runner-up HBB/ Slam on 22, only one point ahead of third-placed Eikos on 23.

Then came Greenlight on 27 with Macs and its all-woman crew of Penny Alison, Kim Rew and Claudia Meek skippered by Dominique Provoyeur (RCYC) fifth on 46 with the satisfaction of a first place in the third race.

Den Boer did well to retain the runners-up berth which he held throughout the championship in the face of some stiff opposition from Ainslie who had Greg Davis at helm and Marcello Burricks at bow, and had it not been for Ainslie's poor start on the first day when he suffered a disqualification in the first race, he might well have overhauled the Hollander.

But at this level it is all about consistency and in this department Sadler had no peer.

RESULTS J22 World Championships. Overall, after ten races (provisional)

Showing total points/ nett score after 2 discards:
1. Orion Express (RSA/ RCYC; Mark Sadler) 23/ 10 points,
2. HBB/ Slam (NED; Jeroen den Boer) 35/ 22
3. Eikos (RSA/ PYC; Ian Ainslie) 67/ 23
4. Greenlight (RSA/ RCYC; Dave Hudson) 50/ 27, 5 Macs (RSA/ RCYC; Dominique Provoyeur) 77/ 46
6. Rampant III (RSA/ Aeolians; Phillip Baum) 113/ 62
7. Quantum Sails Design Group (RSA/ TYC; David Rae) 100/ 65
8. Essent Banana-Jama (NED; Kasper Kieft) 123/ 67
9. Orion Contender (RSA/ PYC; Craig Millar) 103/ 74
10. Team Gaastra (NED; Eelco Blok) 116/ 76
11. Majic (RSA/ DAC; B Szalek) 101/ 77
12. Haka Hana (RSA/ PYC; Alex Lanham-Love) 142/ 85

Source: Tommy Ballantyne, J22 Worlds
Related: J22 World Championships
J22 World Championships Day 4
J22 World Championships

www.Sail-Search.com: Shosholoza skipper, Mark Sadler, continued to set the standard at the Eikos J22 World Championships being sailed offshore Durban on Thursday when he made the most of the 20 knot winds that greeted the fleet of 35 boats in the forenoon.

But rising wind and sea conditions once again forced the race management committee to postpone the event after only two races had been completed, bringing the total of races sailed to six with only one day of the regatta remaining.

Sadler, at the helm of the Royal Cape Yacht Club's (RCYC) Orion Express, claimed his third outright victory in the series of six so far when he won the first race of the day from Dave Hudson (RCYC) aboard Greenlight with PYC's Ian Ainslie getting Eikos into third place.

The same three yachts contested the top three places in the sixth race with Ainslie taking the kudos from Sadler with Hudson third in heavy sea conditions.

The provisional overall results show Sadler still in the lead and already virtually certain of claiming the J22 world title for the first time barring a disaster.

He has a nett score of only seven points from a six-race total of 16 after a one-race discard of nine points.

Defending J22 world champion, Jeroen den Boer of the Netherlands, remains second overall despite finishing in fifth place in both races yesterday (THURSDAY) and has a nett score of 16 from a total of 23 (7 point discard).

Ainslie showed the greatest improvement following a slow start on Wednesday, moving up nine places from 12th to third overall with a nett score of 18 points from a total of 54 (36 point discard from a disqualification in Race 1).

Dominique Provoyeur's all woman team aboard Macs (RCYC) dropped from third overall to fourth with a nett score of 26 points (54 point total) while the third Dutch entry, Essent Banana-Jama with Kasper Kieft at the helm, fell back from fifth place overnight to 10th following a poor result in the fifth race (19th) and a DNF in the sixth.

Greenlight's good showing saw her climb from 16th place to fifth overall, Rampant III (Aeolians) with Phillip Baum at the helm retained his sixth place while Craig Millar, skipper of last year's Durban Clipper, remains in ninth place overall aboard the PYC's Orion Contender.

The event, hosted by Point Yacht Club, goes into its final day at 10am on FRIDAY.

Durban, Thursday, December 20 2007

RESULTS J22 World Championships

Overall, after six races (provisional) showing total points/ nett score:

1. Orion Express (RSA/ RCYC; Mark Sadler) 16/ 7 points
2. HBB/ Slam (NED; Jeroen den Boer) 23/ 16
3. Eikos (RSA/ PYC; Ian Ainslie) 54/ 18
4. Macs (RSA/ RCYC; Dominique Provoyeur) 46/ 26
5. Greenlight (RSA/ RCYC; Dave Hudson) 58.5/ 34
6. Rampant III (RSA/ Aeolians; Phillip Baum) 73/ 37
7. Quantum Sails Design Group (RSA/ TYC; David Rae) 59/ 39
8. Majic (RSA/ DAC; B Szalek) 55/ 44
9. Orion Contender (RSA/ PYC; Craig Millar) 67/ 51
10. Essent Banana-Jama (NED; Kasper Kieft) 88/ 52
11. Haka Hana (RSA/ PYC; Alex Lanham-Love) 91/ 55
12. Team Gaastra (NED; Eelco Blok) 77/ 57

www.Sail-Search.com: After 3 years of development and in view of potential growth, Zeydon recently moved into its new production facility in Arendonk (Belgium). The new production hall is 5 000 square meter and attached to it is a new 700 square meter office building. The total available shipyard space is now more than 30 000 square meters. State-of-the-art machinery, including a 24 meter long spraybooth and curing oven are now operational and will contribute to the quality of the Z60's under construction.

"We believe that attractive and adequate facilities offer a wide range of amenities which have a tangible impact on the value of our company and the quality of our yachts. These significant and continued investments are creating a strong future for our company, our employees and our customers. It also reinforces our strong foundations," says Ben Van Hool, the company's CEO. "The new facility in Arendonk will play a vital role in the company’s current expansion plans. "

The facility in Arendonk allows Zeydon to increase its production capacity and to ensure flexible and fast reactions to market demands for the next years. If ordered today, Zeydon is now one of the few companies to guarantee deliveries before 2010. The new facility also allows an intensified contact with the customers.

The new factory in Arendonk reinforces Zeydon’s upcoming international presence and will help the company establish its position as one the world’s leading luxury sailing yacht builders.

The new Zeydon shipyard address is Hoge Mauw 170, B-2370 Arendonk, Belgium.
The phone, fax and email remained unchanged.

Zeydon Contact Details

www.Sail-Search.com: The first "ExclusivE 76", luxury cruising catamaran is now under construction in Olonne sur mer (Western France) after being ordered by a European owner. In addition a West Indies based charter company has already signed up for the second "Exclusive 76".

Built in the Mulitplast shipyard in Brittany, the Exclusive 76 molds are now set within the King Cat/ VIP composite shipyard in Vendée by highly skilled technicians. The first hull has already been cast.

Thanks to her hull design and light weight, the Ollier design will guarantee fine sailing performance and maximum comfort offered by her high decking and high waterline. The "ExclusivE 76" boasts huge living and cockpit space, (70 sq. M.), making her the roomiest in her category. Her infusion building process allows total control over displacement issues. At last but not least, the "ExclusivE 76" can be totally customized.

It took Georges Benarroch, creator of ExclusivE Marine, 4 years to develop the "ExclusivE 76" specifications. The launching and marketing commenced in October 2004. The ExclusivE 76 is a "semi custom" luxury yacht able to offer great response to any demand.

Rigorous partner selections, optimization and space adaptability are the fundamentals of this sailing concept. The molding process and construction have been designed for that purpose. The entire maxi cat can be modified according to the owner's wishes and tastes.

Many different interior design plans are offered, from owner's version with four cabins, independent interior design, carbon or aluminium mast, removable dagger boards (draught is 1,25 meters), tender lift, the list goes on. ExclusivE 76 is designed to fulfill every demanding owner's wishes.

The first two yachts have each been designed to fulfill their owners specific needs.

Contact Exclusive Marine

www.Sail-Search.com: At half past six on Wednesday morning, Falmouth Coastguard were contacted by the Race Control of the Transat Ecover B to B race reporting that Dee Caffari's yacht Aviva had been dismasted in rough weather with the forecast worsening.

The Aviva was in a position 140 miles North West of the Spanish Coast which placed the vessel 8 miles within the UK Search and Rescue region.

Dee is safe on board the yacht and the weather has steadily improved throughout the day. She has had to cut away the mast and is able to steer the Aviva but has a limited amount of fuel onboard to enable her to get the vessel to land for repair.

Falmouth Coastguard contacted the Royal Navy to ascertain whether there were any warships in the area. The Royal Navy confirmed that HMS Northumberland which has been operating in the Meditteraen and is en route back to Devonport for Christmas was in a position approximately 90 miles away from the Aviva could divert to assist. They will assess what help they can give on arrival.

Andy Cattrell, Watch Manager, Falmouth Coastguard said:

Whilst this is not a distress situation at the moment, incidents such as this can sometimes deteriorate very quickly into one. It is prudent to get some assistance to this yachtswoman to enable her to get to safety as at the moment she has limited means of propulsion.

We are very grateful to the Royal Navy for responding to the call for assistance and diverting from their home passage back to Devonport for Christmas leave.

Source: Fred Caygill, MCA

www.Sail-Search.com: American Roger Sturgeon's new Farr-designed Rosebud, with a close win over top Australian contender Yendys (Geoff Ross) in the Rolex Rating Series, firmed as a strong prospect to win the Tattersall's Cup, the major trophy of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, awarded to the top yacht on IRC corrected time handicap.

Rosebud is the first launched of the new STP65 "box rule" class of high-performance fixed-keel yachts intended, like the successful TP52 class which inspired it, to provide both close class racing and competitive performance in mixed offshore fleets racing under IRC handicap.

Rosebud also won an earlier warm-up event on Sydney Harbour, the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge's IRC handicap division.

Sturgeon, who raced his previous Rosebud in the TP52 class, is a well-organised campaigner with a crew that has sailed many miles together. Principal helmsman is Jack Halterman. Bowman Justin Clougher, a Tasmanian with eight Hobart races on his CV who now lives in Newport, Rhode Island, is familiar with the fastest route by sea to his family's home in Hobart.

Rosebud beat the well-sailed local Reichel/Pugh 55 Yendys by just two points in the Rolex Trophy rating series of short windward-leeward races off the Sydney coastline, sailed in a good mix of wind conditions.

ROSEBUD, Roger Sturgeon IRC Div 0/1 Rolex Trophy 2007. Photo Credit : ROLEX/Daniel Forster	YENDYS, Geoff Ross IRC Div 0/1 Rolex Trophy 2007. Photo Credit: ROLEX/Daniel Forster

The two boats went into the last race tied on points. In a light and tricky south-east breeze, Rosebud placed second to Yendys' fifth to win overall.

Yendys, now in her second season, has proven to be an excellent all-rounder. Although she was designed and built for reliability in rough conditions as well as speed in long offshore races like the Rolex Sydney Hobart and the Rolex Fastnet Race, earlier this year she won the strong IRC division at the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week, including three race wins in light air.

Her crew is strong in experience, again including Sean Kirkjian, Greg Johnston, Richie Allanson and Danny McConville, with Will Oxley navigating.

The Corby 49 Flirt, owned by Alan Brierty, won division two of the Rolex Trophy rating series, including five wins in her scoreline for the eight race series. The boat is helmed and organised by Roger Hickman, who was sailing master for Kevan Pearce aboard Ausmaid in her 1996 Sydney Hobart race win.

Tasmanian born Hickman, who is a master mariner, has sailed in 30 Hobart races and certainly knows his way south, particularly over the often difficult last 200 miles of the 628 nautical mile course down the Tasmanian coast.

TP52s Wot Yot and Ragamuffin, bought from American owners, have shown startling downwind performances in the opening coastal races of the Sydney racing season that would make them strong Tattersall's Cup contenders if the Rolex Sydney Hobart has predominantly hard running conditions.

Graeme Wood's Wot Yot, a Nelson/Marek design built in 2000, after a promising debut in the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, in which she finished fifth over the line, is leading the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's Bluewater Pointscore.

Her sailing master Michael Green, a veteran of 29 Hobart races who filled the same role in Quest's win in 2002 leads a crew with Quest veterans Hugh Brodie and Simon Reffold joined by some large, young newcomers.

Green says the total crew weight has been increased by 100 - 105kg, the new base to swing down the lightweight TP52. "It has been a conscious effort to make the boat younger and stronger," he says. "You can't afford to carry the older guys on this type of boat."

Wot Yot hit speeds of 25 knots running home before a 20 knot southerly in winning the Flinders Island race earlier this season.

Syd Fischer, aged 80, is enjoying racing aboard his TP52, his tenth ocean racer bearing his trademark Ragamuffin name. She is a Farr design, originally owned by Californian Philippe Khan and called Pegasus.

Roy Disney bought her and organised a crew of 15 youngsters with an average age of 22 to race her to third placing in division two in this year's Transpac Race.

Fischer has beefed her up for the Rolex Sydney Hobart race, replacing the Transpac keel with a heavier one designed by Farr, to increase upwind stability, reinforcing the internal structure to carry the heavier keel and adding another ring frame between the mast and the bow.

He has also fitted a bowsprit in place of the spinnaker pole and replaced the mainsail, which originally had only one reef, with a new one with three reefs to handle the almost inevitable southerly blow on the way to Hobart.

RAGAMUFFIN, Syd Fischer, IRC Div 0/1 Rolex Trophy 2007. Photo Credit: ROLEX/Daniel Forster

The greater downwind speed of the TP52 has had Fischer and his crew reviewing their downwind sailing angles in the VMG trade-off between running deeper close to course or higher and faster but over more distance.

"If you are not planing, you are going too slow," says crewman Tony Ellis who has sailed 40 Hobart races, most of them with Fischer. "It's certainly a lot of fun to sail."

Fischer, always spare with words, says: "It's quick, different and a bit of fun." He says the boat is also fast to windward, achieving nine knots. "We could not do that in the last boat (a Farr 50)."

The CYCA in its annual Ocean Racer of the Year Awards named Fischer, Ocean Racing Veteran of the Year. He is in his 45th season of ocean racing, sailing his 39th Hobart race. He won the Tattersall's Cup in 1992 and has taken line honours twice, in 1988 and 1990. Ragamuffin is lying second on CYCA's Bluewater Pointscore for this season.

The third TP52 entered Cougar II, a Farr design built in 2005, purchased recently by Alan Whitely of Melbourne, won the last race of the Rolex Trophy rating series. Whiteley sailed his first Cougar, a Beneteau First 44.7, to second place in IRC division D in the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race.

Two Farr-designed Cookson 50s, Ray Roberts' Quantum Racing from Sydney and Michael Hiatt's Living Doll from Melbourne, must also enter handicap win calculations.

Roberts' strong team has been campaigning intensely in Asia with his DK46, winning the inaugural China Cup in October and placing second in the Kings Cup at Phuket, Thailand, in December.

Since last year's Hobart race, Roberts has had Cookson Boats in Auckland fit a forward canard on Quantum Racing to contribute side force resistance when the keel is canted, making the boat more efficient when sailing to windward.

Quantum Racing will race with substantially the same crew as last year, including tactician/helmsman Steve McConaghy, Scott Hinton and Don Buckley helming plus Carl Crafoord as navigator. Crafoord has sailed 21 Hobart races and been on three winning boats: Sagacious (1990), Raptor (1994), Quest (2004).

QUANTUM RACING, Ray Roberts IRC Div 0/1 Rolex Trophy 2007. Photo Credit: ROLEX/Daniel Forster	LIVING DOLL, Michael Hiatt IRC, Div 0/1 Rolex Trophy 2007. Photo Credit: ROLEX/Daniel Forster

The 40-50 footers

In the 40-50ft size range, watch out for Mr Beak's Ribs, Shogun and Chutzpah.

David Beak's Beneteau 44.7 Mr Beak's Ribs, sitting in third place on the CYCA's Bluewater Pointscore, will do well if the Hobart has a good share of working to windward.

The boat, carefully optimised for IRC racing by Michael Spies, placed ninth overall and second in IRC division C in the 2004 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, then won the 2005 Sailing South Race Week in Hobart, Skandia Race Week in Geelong and the IRC Cruising Class at Hamilton Island. She withdrew from the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart with a broken spreader.

Sailmaker Ian Short has been running her campaign this season with a "works team" that includes former Moth class world champion and Australian 16ft skiff champion David McKay.

Shogun, owned by Rob Hanna from Melbourne, is a new Rogers 46 lightweight. She showed great downwind speed to place second overall and win division C in the Audi Sydney-Gold Coast Race.

Then she had to withdraw from Audi Hamilton Island Race Week after suffering mast damage in the first race. A further setback came on the delivery voyage back to Melbourne with damage to the internal structure when a 40-knot southerly front hit her in Bass Strait.

The mast maker, King Composites in Argentina, has fixed the spar and the structure around the keel has been strengthened with extra carbon fibre.

Chutzpah is a new, quite radical, 40-footer from the Reichel/Pugh design team owned by Bruce Taylor from Melbourne. Taylor, who will be sailing his 26th Hobart race, has been a regular campaigner in the Hobart race. He has had seven divisional wins; a second (1990) and third (2003) overall in previous, smaller Chutzpahs. This Chutzpah is his sixth and he says it will be his last.

The boat is similar in shape to Yendys, very beamy aft but also with a distinct chine in the topsides aft for cleaner water flow at high speeds. Taylor says: "The boat is extraordinarily fast off the wind, something like the 14ft skiff I sail with my geriatric brother from time to time; the feelings are similar. With asymmetric chutes we are starting again..it's a fun boat."

Joining Taylor in the experienced crew of weekend sailors are his son Andrew, who flies in from Hong Kong each year for the race and 20-year Hobart veteran and round-the-world race sailor Ian ("Barney") Walker.

SHOGUN, Rob Hanna IRC Div 2 Rolex Trophy 2007. Photo Credit: ROLEX/Daniel Forster	CHUTZPAH, Bruce Taylor IRC Div 2 Rolex Trophy 2007. Photo Credit: ROLEX/Daniel Forster

But also..

While the Tattersall's Cup winner has mostly come from the 40 - 65ft overall length range in recent years, the unpredictable nature of the weather patterns over the race course - which spans ten degrees of latitude - can roll out winners from opposite ends of the size spectrum.

A 35-footer, AFR Midnight Rambler, designed by Robert Hick 35 and owned by Ed Psaltis and Bob Thomas, won the storm-ravaged 1998 race. The 98ft Reichel/Pugh canting-keeled maxi Wild Oats XI owned by Bob Oatley and skippered by Mark Richards won the 2005 race in strong following winds.

And age does not matter if your boat gets her favoured weather pattern and/or a lucky break. So the 33-year-old Sparkman & Stephens design Love and War, owned by Simon Kurts and skippered by Lindsay May won the Tattersall's Cup last year.

Recent withdrawals, including the New Zealand canting-keeled super maxi Maximus (Bill Buckley) with irreparable damage to her keel fin on the delivery voyage from Auckland, left a fleet of 82 committed to lining up for the start on Boxing Day, December 26.

Full list of nominated yachts available from: www.rolexsydneyhobart.com

www.Sail-Search.com: Hugo Boss closed to within 12 miles of race leader Paprec-Virbac 2 on Wednesday, before slightly falling back again over the afternoon at the Barcelona World Race. At the 16:00 position report, Hugo Boss was 21 miles behind, but sailing a couple of knots slower. Still, it’s been an 18 mile gain over the past day, so the cat and mouse game continues.

“At one stage we were 400+ miles behind the leader, so we’re feeling pretty happy about where we are now. It’s taken a long time. We left the Mediterranean in eighth place,” Alex Thomson said today, when asked about closing the gap.

“We’re not doing anything different from what we’ve done the whole race. We’re not pushing very hard…it is a long way to go and we’re fast enough and when the conditions allow and the boat’s in its sweet spot, then we’ll be faster than them anyway.”

On board the race leading Paprec-Virbac 2, a composed Jean-Pierre Dick said he and co-skipper Damian Foxall would choose a more southerly option compared to Hugo Boss, now that the safety gate is in their wake.

“We are finally getting the wind that we have been waiting for. Hugo Boss came back on us again last night, which is normal, as there is more wind behind. But now, we are sailing further south than them, let’s see what will happen…”

Now in third place, Temenos II skipper Dominique Wavre is still nursing his boat towards the next scoring gate at the Cook Strait in New Zealand where the team is planning a pit-stop to make repairs to its keel.

"With the depression expected which is going to cross the Indian Ocean, we prefer to head further north than the normal route to protect the keel. This way we will avoid the strong winds close to the centre of the low,” he said. “The barometer is seriously dropping. We’re really seeing all the signs of a low coming soon…The aim is to get the boat to Wellington to check everything thoroughly. So we are being conservative. We are ok, but sad to feel our boat hurting.”

Mutua Madrileña is sailing in 30 to 35 knots of wind with a reefed mainsail and a staysail. Skipper Javier Sansó says he and co-skipper Pachi Rivero are getting tired of the Furious Fifties and its relentless cold and wet weather. But he says the boat is ok and they’re just trying to get to the next waypoint as quickly as possible. Similarly, Educación sin Fronteras appears to have come through its stormy night well, and is making good progress today averaging between 13 and 15 knots. They’ve made up nearly 70 miles in the past 24 hours.

Day 39 – December 19, 16:00 GMT - Position report with distance to leader

1. PAPREC-VIRBAC 2 - Jean Pierre DICK / Damian FOXALL - 0
2. HUGO BOSS - Alex THOMSON / Andrew CAPE - 21
3. TEMENOS 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele PARET- 1339
4. MUTUA MADRILENA - Javier SANSO / Pachi RIVERO - 1867
5. EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS - Servane ESCOFFIER / Albert BARGUES - 2635

Abandoned - VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT - Roland JOURDAIN / Jean Luc NELIAS
Abandoned - ESTRELLA DAMM - Guillermo ALTADILL / JONATHAN MCKEE
Abandoned - DELTA DORE - Jérémie BEYOU / Sidney GAVIGNET
Abandoned - PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien JOSSE

In Quotes – Andrew Cape, Hugo Boss: “It’s good to warm up a bit. Coming up to this gate has been a bit like a summer holiday. I can see it on the map (that I’m getting close to home) but it doesn’t feel anything like home,” he said laughing.

www.Sail-Search.com: The Royal Cape Yacht Club's (RCYC) Orion Express with Shosholoza skipper, Mark Sadler, at the helm is the provisional leader of the Eikos J22 World Championships at the end of the first day of racing offshore Durban.

The event, hosted by Point Yacht Club (PYC), finally got the go-ahead on Wednesday 19 December, in ideal light north-easterly 8-10 knot wind conditions with a full programme of four races completed by the end of the day, much to the satisfaction of the race management committee following the cancellation of all racing on Monday and Tuesday.

The day was not without incident and several protests have been lodged so that results at this stage are provisional.

Sadler got off to a flying start, winning the first of the four races before finishing ninth in the third race and taking second place in the last race to score 13 points, two less that the Dutch entry, HBB/ Slam skippered by defending J22 world champion, Jeroen den Boer who had a disappointing ninth place in the first race but bounced back for a third and a second and a win in the fourth race for 15 points.

Lying third overall is the RCYC's Macs with an all-woman crew skippered by the experienced Dominique Provoyeur who had an impressive win in the third race following a second place in the opening race to end up with 20 points overall, 12 points ahead of the fourth-placed PYC entry, Haka Hana skippered by Alex Lanham-Love.

Another Dutch entry, Essent Banana-Jama with Kasper Kieft at the helm lies fifth with 33 points.

Craig Millar, skipper of last year's Durban Clipper which was runner-up in the Round the World Race, is down in ninth place overall aboard the PYC's Orion Contender on 48 points with Ian Ainslie, a twice former J22 world champion and the Team Shosholoza stratedist in the last America's Cup, lies twelfth on 50 points sailing on PYC's Eikos.

Race officials are looking to complete another full programme of four races on Thursday and Friday when the event comes to a close.

J22 World Championships results after four races (provisional):
1. Orion Express (RSA/ RCYC; Mark Sadler) 13 points
2. HBB/ Slam (NED; Jeroen den Boer) 15
3. Macs (RSA/ RCYC; Dominique Provoyeur) 20
4. Haka Hana ((RSA/ PYC;Alex Lanham-Love) 32
5. Essent Banana-Jama (NED; Kasper Kieft) 33
6. Rampant III (RSA/ Aeolians; Phillip Baum) 35
7. Majic (RSA/ DAC; B Szalek) 37
8. Da J (RSA/ SPYC; DL Manten) 46
9. Quantum Sails Design Group (RSA/ TYC; David Rae), Orion Contender (RSA/ PYC; Craig Millar) 48
11. Kamikazi Express (USA; Keith Zars) 49
12. Eikos (RSA/ PYC; Ian Ainslie) 50

Source: Tommy Ballantyne, J22 Worlds
Related: J22 World Championships

www.Sail-Search.com: The big excitement today was the arrival of New York who crossed the finish line at 0725 local time (2225 GMT Tuesday 18 December). After 25 days at sea racing between Durban and Fremantle skipper Duggie Gillespie and his team looked happy and relieved to finally reach their destination. They were greeted by a crowd of well wishers and fellow sailors, and provided with the traditional Fremantle Sailing Club welcome of hot dogs and cold beer. Had they not had to turn round to land an injured crew member at the beginning of the race New York would have arrived with the fleet a couple of days before.

Durban 2010 takes first place on race 4 from Durban, South Africa to Fremantle, Australia in the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race. Photo credit: Adam Wilson/onEdition.

Fremantle is the halfway refit point and two of the boats, Durban 2010 and Beyond and westernaustralia2011.com, are now back in the water. Whilst the boats are ashore the crews are busy scrubbing hulls, cleaning propeller shafts and propellers and anti-fouling the bottoms of the boats. The biggest task so far has been fairing the keels, which requires hard work and concentration.

Currently Nova Scotia, Qingdao and Hull & Humber are ashore with Glasgow: Scotland with style being lifted first thing in the morning. Each of the boats are hauled out and re-launched using the large boat travel list that is part of the equipment provided by Fremantle Sailing Club. Barring an unknown problem, all the boats will have been serviced and re-launched before Christmas. This makes a nice divide between the arrival and maintenance period, and the preparations for the next race to Singapore.

The number of Clipper crew and supporters involved in the stopover in Fremantle has now risen above 250 and once the boats are back in the water many of the crew will take the opportunity to explore Western Australia with friends and family over Christmas. The stores are currently ringing with carols, but the sight of Santa fully dressed walking around in bright WA sunshine still comes as a bit of a culture shock for those from the Northern Hemisphere.

www.Sail-Search.com: Veolia Environnement has become the third boat to suffer catastrophic mast failure in the Barcelona World Race when the French entry dismasted on Monday evening. Skippers Roland Jourdain and Jean-Luc Nélias were unhurt and are safe.

Bilou & Jean-Luc set up a jury rig on Veolia Environment

“We were sailing very quiet, downwind, with a big gennaker and a full mainsail,” explained Jean-Luc by video conference this morning. “Suddenly there was a big cloud and the wind increased a lot. I went on deck to ease the main sheet. Then we hit the bottom of the wave and the boat stopped and the mast broke…"

They’ve made a jury rig and are sailing at seven knots towards the southwest tip of Australia, more than 1 500 nautical miles away. Last week, it was Delta Dore who dismasted and today, skippers Sidney Gavignet and Jérémie Beyou arrived safe and sound with the boat in Cape Town.

Jérémie & Sidney in Cape Town, with their shore and rescue team

Meanwhile, out on the race course, Hugo Boss has put on a powerful and impressive display of speed. Skipper Alex Thomson has clawed back over 90 miles in the past 24 hours as Hugo Boss chases Paprec-Virbac 2 up to the Australian safety gate. Both are expected to pass the gate later today before bearing off and heading for Cook Strait; and this afternoon, it’s clear the pace of Hugo Boss is making skipper Alex Thomson very happy.

“We’ve made up loads of miles. It’s a mixture of it being the right conditions for this boat and Paprec in front of us have had less wind,” said an understated Alex Thomson. “But we haven’t really been pushing very hard. It’s been pretty relaxed. Been getting lots of sleep and watched a great movie last night…We were shocked and disappointed to hear about Veolia this morning. It’s a stark reminder of how fragile we all are out here.”

It’s a different story on board the race leader, Paprec-Virbac 2, where co-skipper Damian Foxall sounded tired and more than a little frustrated.

“We’re pushing water uphill,” he said. “For a couple of days now we have been sailing along a very slow moving front and there’s nowhere we can go apart from straight forward. There are light winds ahead and there’s fresh wind coming in from behind with Hugo Boss…we’ve really got a race on our hands.”

Further back, skippers Dominique Wavre and Michèle Paret continue to nurse Temenos II towards New Zealand where they will stop to repair a keel problem. Behind them, Mutua Madrileña has been the fastest boat polled over the past 12 hours as they enjoy favourable power-reaching conditions.

At the tail end of the fleet, Educación sin Fronteras appears to have positioned itself well to escape the worst of a powerful Southern Ocean depression. Servanne Escoffier said they expect 30 to 40 knot westerlies over the next few days, and they are taking all the necessary steps to be safe as they power along in the Furious Fifties.

Day 38 – December 18, 16:00 GMT – Position report with distance to leader

1. PAPREC-VIRBAC 2 - Jean Pierre DICK / Damian FOXALL - 0
2. HUGO BOSS - Alex THOMSON / Andrew CAPE - 38
3. VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT - Roland JOURDAIN / Jean Luc NELIAS - dismasted
4. TEMENOS 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele PARET- 1295
5. MUTUA MADRILENA - Javier SANSO / Pachi RIVERO - 1950
6. EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS - Servane ESCOFFIER / Albert BARGUES - 2702

Abandoned - ESTRELLA DAMM - Guillermo ALTADILL / JONATHAN MCKEE
Abandoned - DELTA DORE - Jérémie BEYOU / Sidney GAVIGNET
Abandoned - PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien JOSSE

In Quotes – Javier Sansó, Mutua Madrileña: “We are now going fast; under storm jib and with two reefs in the main we are making 17 knots of boat speed and surfing with 24 knots. We are happy and not forcing anything, we want to keep our speeds up but also want to get out of this area as soon as possible for safety reasons. We are also looking forward to seeing the sun even if only for a few hours especially to be able to take everything out of the boat to dry. When we get into our sleeping bag it’s wet, our boots are wet and there is always water dripping on us- it is bearable for a few days, but we are now actually just about ready to get out of here and in three or four days I think we will be in higher latitudes where things should get better.”

Related: Delta Dore Recovery

www.Sail-Search.com: The J22 World Championships, scheduled to run in Durban, South Africa, from the 14th to the 22nd December 2007 have yet to sail the first official race of the regatta.

The tune up race was completed on Sunday the 16th of December in cool and overcast conditions. The J22 World Championships, hosted by Point Yacht Club (PYC), has attracted an entry of 35 boats of which five are from abroad; one each from United States and Zimbabwe and the other three from the Netherlands, including that of the world champion title holder, Jeroen den Boer.

Of the remaining 30 yachts, seven are from the Transvaal Yachting Club (TYC), five from Denysville AC (Gauteng), four from the Royal Cape YC (RCYC), three from host club PYC and two with all-women crews.

Results of the practice race:

1. HBB/ Slam (NED) Jeroen den Boer
2. Orient Express (RSA, RCYC) Mark Sadler
3. Jumping Jive (RSA, RCYC) Dale Kushner
4. Essent Banana-jama (NED) Kasper Kieft

The maximum wind speed permissible for J22 racing is 20 knots and both day one and two have seen wind speeds in excess of 20 knots.

On Monday the 17th of December with the onset of a cold front, winds were 25 knot south-westerly gusting up to 35 knots and the race committee had no option but to put the event on hold until Tuesday the 18th of December.

But on Tuesday racing was again not possible owing to the 25 knot south-westerly wind which prevailed, making it the second day in succession that the race management committee had to put the five-day event on hold.

However the forecast for the rest of the week is more favourable with a wind shift to the north-east expected for the fleet of 35 boats at anchor in the Durban Marina. Race officials are hoping to complete four races on each of the four remaining days with the start time brought forward by one hour to 10:00 am.

Link: Eikos J22 Worlds Contact

www.Sail-Search.com: Bostik, Charles Caudrelier's Veolia Oceans® one-design, left Caen this afternoon en route to Wellington (NZ), the end of the first leg of the round-the-world Reconnaissance Tour of the SolOceans. Bostik will reach Wellington in about 50 to 55 days.

Bostik crosses the start line between the committee boat and the buoy "Ouistreham", at 2.00 pm on Sunday 16 December 2007. Photo Jean-Marie Liot - SailingOne.

The SolOceans will be the first single-handed oceanic round-the-world race sailed on totally identical 52.5 foot high-tech one-design monohulls: the Veolia Oceans®, named after the main sponsor of the SolOceans race, Veolia Environmental Services.

The first SolOceans race will start on 25th of October 2009, from the town of Caen-la-mer and will stopover in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. It will then return to Lower Normandy, to Cherbourg-Octeville where the final stop of this round-the-world, via the three Capes (Good Hope, Leeuwin, Horn) will be made.

Each leg will take between 50 to 55 days of sailing for a total voyage of 26 000 miles (48 000 kilometres) around the planet.

www.Sail-Search.com: Over the past couple of days eight out of the ten-strong Clipper fleet have crossed the finish line into Fremantle at the end of Race 4 of the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race. It has taken the fleet three weeks to race the 4,220 nautical miles from Durban, South Africa to Fremantle, Western Australia and during this time the majority of the boats dipped into the region below 40 degrees south known as the Roaring Forties.

In contrast to Race 3, which saw the fleet enjoy some exhilarating downwind racing, the Southern Ocean did not deliver the big wave surfing conditions that were expected. Despite this the fleet made excellent progress thanks to steady wind conditions and relatively calm seas with the majority of the yachts arriving in Fremantle on 16 December, the estimated day of arrival.

On arrival each of the teams have been welcomed to the Fremantle Sailing Club, their home for the two-week stopover, by local dignitaries including Western Australian sailing legend John Longley. Also to cheer in the boats were crowds of local supporters, friends, family members and Clipper crew past and present. The teams also got enjoy a ubiquitous Australian barbeque and some much-anticipated cold beers.

Victory in the Southern Ocean race went to the South African team, Durban 2010 and Beyond, whose points total of 27 sees them return to the top of the overall leaderboard. westernaustralia2011.com crossed the line in second place for their first podium position of the 07-08 Race - great achievement for the home port team. Taking the final podium position of Race 4 was Qingdao and the result marked the first ever podium place for the Chinese team in their two-race history.

The next five teams into Fremantle crossed the finish line as follows:
4th place – Hull & Humber
5th place – Nova Scotia
6th place – Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper
7th place – Uniquely Singapore
8th place – Jamaica

Liverpool 08 is expected to arrive during the morning of Monday 17 December with New York bringing up the rear sometime on Wednesday 19 December.

The Clipper crews will spend the next few days cleaning and carrying out maintenance on the boats, which will be berthed at Fremantle Sailing Club for the duration of the stopover. During this time the entire fleet will be lifted for a routine service and inspection of their hulls, keels, propellers and rudders. The first two boats are scheduled to be lifted tomorrow, with two lifted each day until all ten boats have been serviced.

The teams are now looking forward to spending Christmas and New Year in the Western Australian sunshine. The Western Australian Tourism Minister Sheila McHale welcomed the skippers and crews to WA for the two-week festive season stopover. “I know all Western Australians will join me in extending a warm welcome to the 200 international crew members, their families and friends,” Ms McHale said. “I can only be in awe at the skills and tenacity required to take part in such an amazing ten month adventure.”

The Race 5 restart of the Clipper 07-08 Race will take place at 1400 local time (0500 GMT) on New Year’s Day 2008. An exciting race start course through Fremantle’s Inner Harbour and along Perth’s city beaches will make it a wonderful spectator event and promises to attract thousands of people to watch as the ten teams continue on their 35,000-mile race around the world.

www.Sail-Search.com: The second placed boat in the Barcelona World Race fleet has made a dramatic gain over the past 24 hours, cutting the lead of Paprec-Virbac 2 by more than half. More distressing for skipper Jean-Pierre Dick and co-skipper Damian Foxall, their plan to sail further south in an attempt to find more favourable conditions resulted in them seeing an iceberg – the first one spotted so far in the race.

“We were at nearly 55-degrees south this morning when we saw an iceberg off the bow,” said Damian Foxall this afternoon. “It was about a mile long, I would guess, and it was pretty impressive. Hopefully it’s the last one we see.”

Since the sighting, Paprec-Virbac 2 has sailed up to a slightly warmer latitude, decreasing the odds of seeing another iceberg. But they are still quite far south at over 54-degrees latitude. In addition to the stress caused by the iceberg, Foxall also said he and Jean-Pierre Dick were distressed to see how much Hugo Boss had gained overnight and throughout the day.

“Hugo Boss has sailed up with the new breeze,” Damian said. “We expected to take a big hit and we expect it to keep going for a while yet, but even though we knew it was coming, to wake up and see 75 to 100 miles go in an evening is pretty tough.”

The boat in third place, Veolia Environnement, remains moored at the Kerguelen Islands this afternoon, after stopping yesterday to fix and engine problem. The team has said they are making progress and expect to leave late this afternoon or evening. Skipper Roland Jourdain told his shore team he was happy to have discovered such a beautiful part of the world, but he’s anxious to get back into the race before too many miles are lost. Behind them, Temenos II has made significant gains over the past 24 hours.

Mutua Madrileña and Educación sin Fronteras continue to make progress towards the south as well. Mutua Madrileña in particular is the second furthest south in the fleet this afternoon and on the lookout for icebergs. Servane Escoffier on Educación sin Fronteras reported that it was getting noticeably colder as they approached 45-degrees south latitude, but said it was still possible to work on deck without gloves.

And Delta Dore, who was forced to abandon the Barcelona World Race earlier this week following its dismasting, has now made a rendezvous with an assistance ship dispatched by its shore crew. The team has taken on 150 litres of diesel and been given a small 8 metre mast to fashion a jury rig. As of this evening, Delta Dore was under tow and heading for South Africa.

Day 35 – December 15, 16:00 GMT – Position report with distance to leader

1. PAPREC-VIRBAC 2 - Jean Pierre DICK / Damian FOXALL - 0
2. HUGO BOSS - Alex THOMSON / Andrew CAPE - 120
3. VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT - Roland JOURDAIN / Jean Luc NELIAS - 633
4. TEMENOS 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele PARET- 1095
5. MUTUA MADRILENA - Javier SANSO / Pachi RIVERO - 1874
6. EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS - Servane ESCOFFIER / Albert BARGUES - 2588

Abandoned - ESTRELLA DAMM - Guillermo ALTADILL / JONATHAN MCKEE
Abandoned - DELTA DORE - Jérémie BEYOU / Sidney GAVIGNET
Abandoned - PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien JOSSE

In Quotes – Javier Sansó, Mutua Madrileña: “We keep getting asked by people from shore who don’t know about sailing about whether we stop, or anchor at night, or how we sleep. Of course we don’t. Our main references are our electronic tools that give us information about our course and speed. We’re very reliant on these. If they shut down one night when it is very dark or very cold, I think we might die from an ulcer from the stress!!”

www.Sail-Search.com: International Man of Mystery, Michael van Wyk, is having a really tough life lolling in Cape Town amongst the rich and famous. But, someone has to do it. As Michael says:

"For the past few days we have had two boats, PRB and Estrella Damm as our neighbours at Cape Grace. For those of you following the Double Handed Barcelona World Race PRB lost about 3m off the top of her mast and Estrella Damm had severe rudder problems, both are out of the race.

This morning I was approached by PRB asking if they could use Warrior to unstep their mast to get the boat ready for shipping back to France. Being the ABYC pleb that I am I had no idea what this would entail so I checked with the powers that be and was given the go ahead.

With Estrella Damm on one side and Warrior on the other side we took the spinnaker halyards from each boat and clipped them onto a makeshift strop and by using the grinders lifted the mast and then gently lowered it onto the brackets that had been made for the boat.

Although the mast only weighed 350kg it was an amazing feat and the whole episode took about an hour.
As I have been told you never know everything in this industry."

Related: Landmark 43 - First Images

www.Sail-Search.com: Two of the yachts participating in the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race rendezvoused this morning to transfer medical supplies. A 29-year-old female crew member on board Jamaica has been suffering from seasickness since leaving Durban and in order to combat dehydration and treat a kidney infection she has been given intravenous fluids by the onboard medic, a round the world crew member who is a fully qualified doctor. At 0630 GMT today (13 December) Jamaica's skipper, Simon Bradley, reported to the Race Office that they had run out of intravenous fluids and had arranged with fellow skipper, Mark Preedy, to rendezvous with Uniquely Singapore who would transfer over their supply.

The transfer took exactly ten minutes to complete, and the whole operation, including starting the engine and motoring towards Uniquely Singapore then returning to the position at which they had started their engine in order to resume racing without penalty, took 38 minutes and was completed in textbook fashion at 1108 GMT. Both yachts are racing again and the Race Committee will now consider whether to award redress to Uniquely Singapore for their assistance in the transfer. The ill crew member on Jamaica has spoken by satellite phone to her family who are fully aware of the situation.

At the head of the race, even though Durban 2010 & Beyond has managed to pull away almost a 100-mile lead, and the crew are getting excited about their imminent arrival in Fremantle, they have not forgotten the boats racing hard in their wake. "We are still very wary of the fierce competition behind us. Keeping the sails trimmed ('Trim it like a Brazilian' is our mantra) and concentrating on a nice straight course is our absolute focus. Stopping the gains of the other boats behind us is very important as the winds of the 'Fremantle Doctor' await us. We need to cross the finish line at least an hour and ten minutes ahead of the second placed boat to guarantee the coveted yellow pennant."

However, the home boat, westernaustralia2011.com, which is currently lying in second place, is still optimistic about closing that gap. Roger Lee, Stormy Watch leader on the Australian yacht, reported this morning, "Excitement and tension is building amongst the crew with less than 500 miles to home. Besides making small gains on Durban 2010 and Beyond during the past 12 hours, the chase is still on and the Aussies are, as ever, optimistic. With winds forecast to back anticlockwise in the future 24 hours, the BBB will have a windward advantage that we must capitalise on to beat the 'home port curse'."

According to their email this morning, the crew of Qingdao is doing everything possible to protect and improve on their current podium position. "'What can we do to go faster?' The constant question being asked on board. Every effort going into pushing the boat to catch westernaustralia2011.com and Durban 2010 and Beyond. We also need to watch Hull & Humber and Nova Scotia as their time adjustments mean we have to beat them across the line by over an hour. No mean feat in this very close race. Every race sched is eagerly awaited and dissected for six hours."

This would be the first podium finish for both westernaustralia2011.com and Qingdao, proving how evenly matched these boats are and how it very often comes down to the tactical decisions taken on board. Qingdao led the fleet on the race to South Africa for a long period but lost out when they stayed and stopped in lighter winds, allowing others to sail past them in the south. The high spirited crew of Qingdao will surely be irrepressible if they secure their first podium finish and the home crowds will go wild to see the big blue boat representing this region on the podium.

Durban 2010 and Beyond is expected on Saturday morning outside the Maritime Museum on the Swan River. Unfortunately New York, which has been struggling to catch up with the fleet since the medivac of an injured crew member, has missed the low pressure system speeding the rest of the fleet towards Fremantle and has got stuck in a high pressure area with lighter winds.

Further information for friends and families travelling to Fremantle is available in Race News on www.clipperroundtheworld.com.

www.Sail-Search.com: It’s been another cold, difficult day for the race leaders in the Barcelona World Race as they battle the elements deep in the southern ocean. Race leading skipper Jean-Pierre Dick on board Paprec-Virbac 2 has confirmed that he and co-skipper Damian Foxall are taking turns on the wheel during the day, with shifts of up to four hours on deck.

“It’s very difficult to be out there for so long – you have to have all the gear because it’s so cold,” Jean-Pierre said. “It’s freezing…the sky is very grey and the waves quite chaotic, seas coming from everywhere…”

The reason they are pushing so hard is to stay ahead of Veolia Environnement and Hugo Boss, both of whom are keeping the race leaders honest by pushing along at a relentless pace. But in contrast to Jean-Pierre and Damian, the guys on board Hugo Boss are spending less time on deck.

“We just put loads and loads of layers on, go to bed dressed and spend as little time as possible on deck,” Thomson explained. “Conditions are bloody miserable, rainy and long, big, waves and even with the little sail up and taking it (relatively) easy, before you know it, you are surfing down a wave at 25 knots.”

But despite the different strategies, 24-hour ‘distance made good’ for each is remarkably similar – ranging from 398 for Paprec-Virbac 2 to 384 for Veolia Environnement and 382 for Hugo Boss. So none of the three can afford to give an opening to the others.

Further back, both Temenos II and Mutua Madrileña have found some good breeze over the past 24 hours, and are averaging speeds near 15 knots. And Mutua Madrileña crossed through the fourth scoring gate today. But event at this improved pace, they are dropping miles to the leaders. And today, Educación sin Fronteras escaped the clutches of a high pressure system. On the 16:00 poll, they were the second fastest boat in the fleet.

Shoreside, Estrella Damm is alongside in Cape Town after arriving late last night and the shore team is working feverishly to make the repairs necessary to get the boat back on the race course. Skipper Guillermo Altadill explained the situation mid-afternoon:

“‘We arrived in Cape Town last night at midnight. We had a drink with PRB and following a shower and a few hours of sleep, we are now working on the boat. Within a few hours, the two rudders systems will be installed and then we will go on the water to test the boat.”

Meanwhile, the Delta Dore shore team has dispatched a motor vessel to rendezvous with the race boat. The boats should meet in about 48-hours and Delta Dore will either take on more fuel, or if the conditions are suitable, be towed back to South Africa.

Day 33 – December 13, 16:00 GMT – Position report with distance to leader

1. PAPREC-VIRBAC 2 - Jean Pierre DICK / Damian FOXALL - 0
2. VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT - Roland JOURDAIN / Jean Luc NELIAS - 136
3. HUGO BOSS - Alex THOMSON / Andrew CAPE - 221
4. TEMENOS 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele PARET- 1011
5. MUTUA MADRILENA - Javier SANSO / Pachi RIVERO - 1730
6. ESTRELLA DAMM - Guillermo ALTADILL / Jonathan MCKEE - 2400
7. EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS - Servane ESCOFFIER / Albert BARGUES - 2494

Abandoned - PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien JOSSE
Abandoned - DELTA DORE - Jérémie BEYOU / Sidney GAVIGNET

In Quotes – Javier Sansó, Mutua Madrileña: “Visibility down here is only about one or two miles maximum; there is always a rainy mist which makes it quite a lot more difficult to detect icebergs. The race committee has informed us that for the moment there have been no sightings of icebergs in the area, and the fact is the only way of really knowing is if another boat has seen them. In other words it isn’t that they can tell us what the situation is, only that nothing has been spotted yet, and we all know that here it isn’t exactly like sailing between Ibiza and Formentera in August.”

www.Sail-Search.com: A recovery vessel out of Cape Town, The Adventurer (Ocean 7), a 115 ft trimaran capable of speeds up to 24 knots, departed on 13 December at 13.10 UTC with 9 crew on board including the Skipper Dave de Villiers and 2 NSRI crew.

The Adventurer plans to rendevous with Delta Dore on Saturday lunch time, the 15th of December at around 40 degrees South and 30 degrees East and she is carrying sufficient diesel and jury rig equipment for the Delta Dore.

The return voyage is estimated to take three days and it would appear at this stage that she is headed back to Cape Town. If the weather window worsens then they will be re-routed to Port Elizabeth.

Delta Dore was dismasted in the Southern Ocean on the 11th of December whilst taking part in the Barcelona World Race. Along with PRB and Estrella Damm, Delta Dore is the third yacht to fall victim to gear failure in the Southern Ocean.

Related Links: Southern Ocean claims another victim - Delta Dore is dismasted
Photo Credit: Yunus Mohamed

www.Sail-Search.com: The strong 85-boat fleet gathering in Sydney for the 2007 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race includes nine overseas entries; six from the UK and one each from the USA, Mexico and New Zealand.

AFR Midnight Rambler. Ed Psaltis IRC Div 2 Rolex Trophy 2007.
Photo credit: ROLEX/Daniel Forster

Two of the visitors, Mike Slade's Cityindex Leopard from Great Britain and Bill Buckley's Maximus from New Zealand, are expected to strongly challenge Australian entries Wild Oats XI (Bob Oatley) and Grant Wharington's Skandia in the battle of the canting-keeled maxis (98ft, 30m overall length) at the head of the fleet for line honours in the 628-nautical mile race to start on Boxing Day, December 26.

The Reichel/Pugh-designed Wild Oats XI, which set a new race record in 2005 taking line honours as well as winning on IRC handicap, and again took line honours in the 2006 race, has been fitted with a new stiffer carbon mast by Southern Spars to replace the one she broke at the Rolex Maxi World Cup at Porto Cervo, Sardinia in September.

And with new carbon rigging in place of PBO used on the previous mast, the complete rig is 100kg lighter than the old. Wild Oats XI will also be carrying more sail area: a square-topped mainsail adds 15 per cent upwind, as well as larger gennakers flown from the longer bowsprit that add 20 per cent to her downwind sail area.

She has sacrificed some of her IRC rating and the chance of another handicap win to concentrate on a line honours win against the tougher competition at the head of the fleet.

Skandia, the 2003 line honours winner, with a longer waterline and fuller hull shape aft, was only three miles behind Wild Oats XI, two-thirds of the way down the course in Bass Strait in last year's race when her forward canard fin broke off, ending her chances.

She has been fitted with a new re-configured keel for this year's race with the fin shaved down for a more efficient shape and a reduction of 1200kg in weight. Wharington says the boat in total is one and-a-half tonnes lighter than last year.

Both Cityindex Leopard and Maximus were designed and built primarily for long offshore passage races, capable of surviving the roughest conditions, while Wild Oats XI is aimed at inshore regatta sailing as well as offshore racing.

Wild Oats XI's sailing master Mark Richards says: "Leopard will be hard to beat -- she is much bigger, carries more sail area. Maximus has a deeper keel and a taller mast; she is going to be an absolute weapon." He says the four maxis are very different boats: "It will come down to who gets their favoured conditions."

Leopard, designed by Farr and built by McConaghy Boats in Sydney, showed her ability to handle rough conditions in smashing the Rolex Fastnet Race record in August by eight hours and 50 minutes. At 36.5 tonnes displacement, she is more than 10 tonnes heavier than Wild Oats XI. Her hull is wide and powerful, has a distinct chine running aft for about two-thirds of her length to improve water flow off the hull and is especially suited for high-speed downwind sailing offshore.

Maximus, designed by Greg Elliott, has had a thorough refit since her broke her rotating wing mast in the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. She now has a fixed mast that is five metres taller and a deeper forward canard. Structural changes inside the boat have given her a greater power-to-weight ratio as well as making her stronger. Her project manager Ross Field says the boat is carrying a lot more sail area and has a lot more stability.

One of the race's most interesting entries is American Roger Sturgeon's Rosebud, first launched of the ST65s built under the new "box" rule formulated by the USA's leading offshore racing clubs, the Storm Trysail Club and the Transpacific Yacht Club. The rule, following the example of the TP52 rule, intends to encourage high-performance light-displacement fixed keel yachts within set parameters for both inshore and offshore racing.

Florida-based Sturgeon, who previously owned a TP52 called Rosebud, has planned a program of world-wide inshore and offshore events including the Onion Patch series and the Newport Bermuda Race in June and later, England's Cowes Week. Rosebud finished third in class and had the third fastest time in this year's Transpac Race, from Los Angeles - Honolulu.

Sturgeon opened his Australian campaign by winning the IRC handicap section of the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge - a spectacular warm-up event for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - on Sydney Harbour. He says the level of competition was the main reason for bringing Rosebud to Australia. "It's the best competition in the world; this time of year especially. We thought it would do the most for our program to be here. We thought we would learn a lot. One of our primary things is to try to go to new places and do new things; not just stay in the same little patch."

Also among the overseas entries is the 2001 line honours winner, then named Assa Abloy, now named Hugo Boss II. This Volvo 60 from the UK is campaigning under the banner of Alex Thomson Racing, alongside the British short-handed sailor's Open 60 campaign. Thomson is currently sailing in the two-handed, non-stop Barcelona World Race around the world with Australian Andrew Cape.

Meanwhile, Hugo Boss II is in Sydney on the last stage of a world tour that has kept the sponsor's flag flying on a passage from Portsmouth to New York, the Transpac Race and passages through Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, to Sydney for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, where she will be skippered by Ross Daniel. Alex Thomson Racing gave her a three-month refit before she sailed from New York in May.

Hugo Boss II, a Farr design, as Assa Abloy skippered by Neil McDonald for the Swedish sponsor, finished second in the 2001-2002 Volvo Ocean Race and took line honours in the 2001 Rolex Sydney Hobart, which was a leg of the course.

Also among the nine overseas entries is British skipper Chris Bull's J/145 Jazz, which placed second on the CYCA's Bluewater Pointscore last season and placed third in Division C of the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. Australian legend Hugh Treharne, who has sailed 27 Hobart races, will add tactical strength and local knowledge.

The race's first Mexican entry is the Beneteau 40.7 Iataia, owned by Marcos Rodriguez which, skippered by Mark Rosenfeld, arrived in Sydney after a six-month cruise from Acapulco. Iataia raced in the 2005 Transpac Race.

The British Beneteau First 47.7, Decosol Marine Sailplane finished sixth in division and 14th overall in this year's Rolex Fastnet Race. She will be skippered by John Danby and Robert Bottomley.

The Frers-designed Swan 57 Noonmark VI from Great Britain, owned by Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy and skippered by Mike Gilburt is on an around-the-world cruise interspersed with some racing. Since her launching in 1998, she has raced in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean; placed fifth overall and won IRC Division B in the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race last year.

Michelle Colenso, with Andrew Poole as skipper, will again race her Oyster 55 Capriccio of Rhu. A brush with breast cancer halted an around the world cruise in Sydney in 2006 but she raced in the Rolex Sydney Hobart last year, winning the Cruising Division and now, much fitter, is looking forward to doing it again.

Full list of nominated yachts available from: www.rolexsydneyhobart.com

www.Sail-Search.com: "So many boaters find this area of navigation confusing. A simplified explanation of true course, the magnetic compass, compass error and compass correction of correct variation and deviation and relative bearings is given on this navigation tool and can be done on the fly."

Solve tvmdc is a formula, which helps when making a magnetic compass correction regarding the misalignment of true north and magnetic north, dealing directly with the magnetic compass. T = true north; V = variation in degrees between true north and magnetic north; M = the magnetic compass reading after adjustment is made between true north and magnetic north; D = deviation of the magnetic compass as it may be affected by the magnetic forces on the boat such as electronic devices and/or metal parts located near the magnetic compass.

After only a few moments of experimentation with this navigation tool you will be able to solve tvmdc, correct magnetic compass error and make magnetic compass corrections of correct variation and deviation, find course to steer and convert relative bearings to true bearings easily, quickly and accurately with a turn of only three dials.

This coastal navigation tool is non-electronic, made of a durable plastic with holes made for a three ring loose leaf book and is guaranteed to be accurate within ¼ of 1 degree, simple to use, and inexpensive. No pencil is needed when using this device. The calculator is an incredible device that will benefit any boater, whether it be in a classroom or on a boat. It can also be used to verify GPS or other electronic readings. The Course Conversion Calculator comes with easy to follow instructions and an unconditional warranty.

For more information, visit LearnToSail.Net

www.Sail-Search.com: Northern Child Daily Log Tuesday, 11th December 2007, Rodney Bay Marina.

Ah, you see from the title that we have arrived! I tried to do this final log entry just after we had had a little celebratory drink, or two, in Scuttlebutts, but it just wasn't happening for me! Not sure why, any ideas? So I am now typing this on Wednesday, on a very quiet Northern Child in slip A36 in Rodney Bay Marina. There's no movement, no noise, no laughter, just me and my keyboard, sad really.

Tuesday was pretty windy and bumpy as we rounded the north tip of St Lucia and made our way quickly down to Pigeon Island, round which we could see the finish line. We were all pretty excited by the thought that we were having a daylight arrival, imagining blue skies and golden beaches. But it wasn't to be: all morning stayed grey and threatening until the final 10 minutes as we headed across the bay towards the finish line when a huge squall swept across soaking us with heavy rain! But we didn't care, half a mile to go, and then, we're there! Fantastic, what a high.

Lowering the mainsail one final time and putting the sail cover on reminded us that the trip is over but also that we have completed our mission: we sailed and steered every mile across the Atlantic. With a finale from Rick on his bagpipes we edged in towards the dock and finally, after 16 days and 1 hour at sea, we had arrived, 2,724 miles from Las Palmas. A good moment, a great moment, to be met by the ARC staff with rum punches on the dock! We were then forced to spend several hours in Scuttlebutts reliving it all and the stories got better, the waves higher, the storms bigger, you get the idea!

We were the 37th boat across the finish line, first across in our class and the fifth arrival of any class or size not to have motored on the Atlantic. Not bad for a bunch of strangers two weeks ago in Las Palmas, we should all feel proud of what we achieved. The docks have gradually filled up since we arrived and we have had great fun meeting other crews and hearing their stories of their trip.

Lots of people asked me what I remember most about this trip, was it any different? Every Transatlantic voyage has its own flavour and they are all different, all the same. But what I remember most is the laughter floating down the hatch as I was working away in the Nav Station, watch after watch of people laughing and having fun, how good is that? Can we ask for anything more? I don't think so.

It has been a rollercoaster ride from meeting up in Las Palmas, through our preparations and expectations, to the start, the voyage and finally now here to St Lucia. Northern Child loves the passage, she makes it year after year and nothing goes wrong. She is built for it and excels at taking a group of us safely off on another mad trip - for some of us it is outside our normal envelope, so she challenges us as well. But what a great boat to come across on, we are lucky to have her, and yet again she has repaid our faith in her handsomely.

Thanks must go to everyone on board as it really has been a team event. To Dave and Rick for being volunteered to act as watch leaders, to Susie and Kate for looking after us so well, to the power house of the trip Ali, John, Daniel, Billy, Marc, Tim, Steve, Jeremy. All of you have put your heart and soul into the trip, listened to me far too much and contributed fully to the success of ARC 2007. We hope that your memories are good ones, farewell until we sail together again one day.

Behind the scenes has been the boss, my long suffering wife Magali. She has organised us with her usual efficiency, got together a great crew and supported us all the way across. We couldn't have got here without you so we lift our glasses to you and salute you, Veuve Cliquot will do fine!

What happens next to Northern Child? Susie, Kate and myself head north on Friday the 300 miles to Domenica and St Martin to meet Magali for Christmas. We're not sure where we'll be, it doesn't really matter as Northern Child can be relied upon to take us somewhere nice. Until then some TLC and lots of cleaning on board!

I hope that you have enjoyed reading these logs, they have been written for you. At times it isn't easy to write them, but I hope that you have picked up a flavour of what has gone on, enjoyed the pictures and felt like you were a part of what we have achieved together; I have enjoyed writing them. If you hear of anyone looking for adventure on the high seas, send them our way and you can be guaranteed that they will meet lots of characters like those who have completed ARC 2007!

Happy holidays, stay in touch, keep safe and fair winds.

A bientot, Julian and Magali
Northern Child

www.Sail-Search.com: Durban 2010 and Beyond's lead has been trimmed by a few miles overnight by their closest rivals westernaustralia2011.com. In reply to Ricky Chalmers's warning yesterday that the South Africans are coming, Martin Silk, skipper of westernaustralia2011.com hit back today. "The decision to drop the medium weight spinnaker last night was a good one," he writes. "Our bullet-proof heavyweight has stood up to a night of close reaching and the odd broach, and remains flying as we track our Great Circle route with good speed. The last sched showed a 12-mile gain on Durban. Look out South Africa, the Aussies are coming!"

Nova Scotia have been threatening the leaders for the majority of this race and have made a significant move north in the last 24 hours which has lost them some ground to the teams around them. Rob McInally the skipper of the Canadian entry reported earlier today, "We continued north unaware of the fleet's movements to find they had an earlier change in wind direction allowing a good easterly approach. We have lost 50 miles overnight and are now fighting our way east in the knowledge we have the boat speed and the time to put this right. Podium. Podium. Podium. The crew are helming and trimming very well."

One thing Rob and his crew will be happy about is the Race Committee's decision to award Nova Scotia redress of one hour and seven minutes following the assistance they gave Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper when they transferred their oxygen bottle and medical supplies earlier in this race. Once they finish in Fremantle this time will be deducted from their finishing time and they may be able to pick up another place or two if, as in Durban, the boats finish in close succession.

New podcasts from Durban 2010 and Beyond and Nova Scotia will be available on www.clipperroundtheworld.com later today.

When approaching the finish in a long race it is always tempting to push harder to gain those few extra miles. Many of the skippers and crew have reported that they are working longer and longer watches and getting more and more tired and the odd broach is occurring. Hannah Jenner, skipper of Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper says, "Big black clouds whilst beam reaching under spinnaker at night are always a little unnerving. Needless to say, minutes after one such cloud popped up over the horizon the boom got a good dunking and the black boat spun into a broach (only a baby one though so all good)."

With just over 600 nautical miles to the finish it looks like the lead boat will finish outside the Maritime Museum on the Swan River this Saturday, a day earlier than anticipated, with the rest of the fleet finishing during the following 72 hours or so. For friends and family who are in Fremantle at the moment the area near the Maritime Museum provides the best vantage point to watch the yachts sail up the Swan River and across the finish line.

More details for friends and family visiting the fleet in Fremantle are available in today's race news on www.clipperroundtheworld.com.

www.Sail-Search.com: The leading boats in the Barcelona World Race have entered the ‘Furious Fifties’, that region south of 50-degrees latitude where the wind and waves roar around the planet uninterrupted by land.

But overnight, the fourth-placed boat, Delta Dore, was knocked out of the race after being dismasted. Both sailors, Jérémie Beyou and Sidney Gavignet, are in good health and were uninjured when the mast crashed to the deck. Fortunately, both were below at the time as skipper Jérémie Beyou explained.

"Sidney was at the navigation station and I was sleeping, but not really sleeping. We both heard this big crack and I asked Sidney, 'What is that?' And he told me, 'I don't know but it's a major.’ He had a quick look outside and he told me, 'It's the mast, it's the mast!'”

With the carnage on deck threatening the integrity of the hull, the two sailors had no choice but to cut the damaged rig free. They lost the entire mast and boom in the process, and have had to be very inventive in coming up with a jury rig that will help get the boat to South Africa, some 850 nautical miles away. They have rigged up a small sail using spare battens and the raised daggerboard for support and are making 3.5 knots towards the African coast. Both sailors are bitterly disappointed that their race has ended this way.

“When PRB broke their mast I spoke about the importance of the guys being safe more than anything else in this race, and now here we are in exactly the same situation. Suddenly we are not looking at things from the outside or speaking so lightly about the facts,” wrote Sidney Gavignet, about 12 hours after the dismasting. “I feel very empty. All of this - for nothing! It is a feeling of not having finished anything, of it all having been useless. Now we are just up against ourselves rolling around in the waves…The position report comes in and I can see how the rest of the fleet is moving away. It brings a lump to my throat. I really have nothing more to say. I really believed in this adventure, I was waiting for it be our moment, I had real faith…I’m going to miss writing to you. We wish good wind for those who are left in the race…”

For the boats still racing, the conditions are getting colder with each hour. Paprec-Virbac 2, the race leader, has added to its lead and entered the ‘furious fifties’. Skipper Jean-Pierre Dick wrote in to say the water temperature was now less than 4-degrees Celsius, meaning growlers (relatively small – but still dangerous – bits of ice that break off bigger icebergs and drift around the southern latitudes) are now a real possibility.

Behind, both Veolia Environnement and Hugo Boss are pressing hard, trying to catch the leader and the latest position report has them south of 50-degrees as well. While further back, Temenos II and Mutua Madrileña have been struggling in lighter, upwind conditions. Temenos II has now escaped and is racing along at 15 knots. But Mutua Madrileña is still battling upwind.

“(We’ve lost) nearly 400 miles to the leaders and the counter continues to rise,” said a frustrated Javier Sansó. “Our spirits on board have been a little dampened by 48 hours of constant upwind sailing at 9 or 10 knots, whilst seeing that the rest of the fleet, particularly Temenos II who is only 250 miles from our bow, have got out of the calm spot that is holding us back.”

PRB has reached Cape Town and retired from the Barcelona World Race, while Estrella Damm is still en-route and has its shore crew setting up in Cape Town to make repairs and get the boat back into the race.

Day 31 – December 11, 16:00 GMT – Position report with distance to leader

1. PAPREC-VIRBAC 2 - Jean Pierre DICK / Damian FOXALL – 0
2. VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT - Roland JOURDAIN / Jean Luc NELIAS - 142
3. HUGO BOSS - Alex THOMSON / Andrew CAPE - 217
**4 - DELTA DORE - Jérémie BEYOU / Sidney GAVIGNET - 645
5. TEMENOS 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele PARET- 886
6. MUTUA MADRILENA - Javier SANSO / Pachi RIVERO - 1475
8. ESTRELLA DAMM - Guillermo ALTADILL / Jonathan MCKEE - 1834
9. EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS - Servane ESCOFFIER / Albert BARGUES – 2190
Abandoned - PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien JOSSE

** Delta Dore is heading for the South African coast and is expected to rendezvous with an assistance vessel.

In Quotes – Alex Thomson, Hugo Boss: “Both Capey and I are very, very sorry to see PRB out of the race. They've done a fantastic race so far, obviously one of the pre-race favourites and Vincent and Seb did a fantastic job of preparing the boat and had done very well so far. And of course we're gutted to hear about Delta Dore. It was a big surprise. Again, a well prepared boat. The conditions were completely heinous, but losing a mast, especially the whole mast is pretty awful, especially when the nearest land is 800 miles away.”

www.Sail-Search.com: Sylvie Viant, Race Director of the Barcelona World Race, has been notified by skipper Jérémie Beyou onboard the fourth-placed IMOCA 60 Delta Dore that his boat has been dismasted. Both he and co-skipper Sidney Gavignet are unhurt and safe onboard and the boat itself is structurally intact.

Jérémie contacted the Race Direction team by Iridium satellite phone at 0120 GMT (11 December) just minutes after the incident: “We have just been dismasted, we have wind from 300°, 25 knots increasing to 35 knots sometimes, and waves not too bad at about 4 metres. We were sailing with one reef in the mainsail and staysail (small headsail). The mast seems to have fallen backwards.”

Just under an hour later Jérémie reported: “We had to quickly cut the mast and boom away in to the water because it they were becoming dangerous and was going to start damaging the hull. The boat is okay, the deck is okay, only there are no more lifelines. And we have nothing big to use to make a jury rig for now.”

The boat’s position at the time of dismasting was 47°00 S 033° 25 E, nearly a thousand miles south east from South Africa, drifting slowly at between 1 and 2 knots east. The reason for the dismasting is unknown at this time.

The Race Direction Team is in regular contact with the two French sailors Jérémie Beyou and Sidney Gavignet and their shore team headed up by Gilles Chiorri. The skippers have 188 litres of diesel onboard, which will provide approximately 60 hours of motoring, the equivalent of approximately 240 miles. The team are also already studying the options of a jury rig using spare mainsail battens onboard.

Nearest land to their current position:
Edward Islands 175 nautical miles to the east (uninhabited)
Crozet Island 685 miles to the east (uninhabited)
Port Elizabeth (South Africa) 850 miles to the north west
Perth (Australia) 3700 miles to the east

The Maritime safety organisation, MRCC Cape Town, has been informed, however the skippers have not requested any outside assistance at this time.

The weather forecast until midnight on 12/12/07 is WSW 25 knots and decreasing to W 15 knots, and fortunately there are no big Southern Ocean depressions bearing down on them at the moment. If they can make their way north they may be able to benefit from some southerly winds to help them back to land.

“These professional skippers always know that there is a risk involved in ocean racing of any kind. Indeed, in any sport where the boundaries are being pushed. This does not lessen the immense disappointment that Jérémie and Sidney must be experiencing and everyone from the race organisation shares in their disappointment and wishes the skippers a safe passage to land,” said Andor Serra, Director General of the Fundació Navegació Oceànica Barcelona, co-organisers of the Barcelona World Race.

Mark Turner, CEO of OC Events, co-organisers of the Barcelona World Race added: "It’s easy to become complacent about sailing around the world, but the last few days during which we have seen PRB lose the top 3 meters of their mast and Estrella Damm suffer severe damage to their rudder are a strong reminder just how hard it is to race at this kind of pace, on these 60-foot racing machines, racing around the planet non-stop. Nearly 10,000 miles in, and the damage toll is mounting. Ocean racing competition at this level has many human performance factors, but it remains nonetheless a mechanical sport. The adage ‘that to win you must first finish’ has never been more true. This is a cruel fate though for this well prepared team that was working so well together onboard, and sailing prudently by their own admission. Also, just as Jérémie was getting his first taste of the Southern Ocean, an ocean he will now have to wait until the 2008 solo Vendée Globe in a year's time to revisit."

Update: Enquiries are being made from ships in the Southern ocean if they will be able to drop off a few hundred litres of fuel whilst Delta Dore heads North North West towards Port Elizabeth, South Africa

www.Sail-Search.com: Daily Log, Northern Child, Monday the 10th of December 2007

The difference a day makes - a nice little strengthening to the wind from the south and the south east, and we're off at a proper pace again. A great lift to us all as the mileage starts counting down and we look forward to dry land, rum punches and everything that St Lucia has to offer. Everyone has different feelings at this stage; it's been a long trip so for some the thrill of arrival is all important. For others there is a realisation that the voyage is coming to an end, an ambition they have held, sometimes for years, has been realised. Sadness underlining the arrival, as good friendships made at sea will inevitably change as land is gained. Ocean sailing, there's nothing to beat it.

We have an interesting weather situation developing to the north of us at the moment; although the main system shouldn't affect us, we are feeling the effect of the moisture produced from the system. An area of disturbed weather associated with a broad area of low pressure centred about 370 nm east of Puerto Rico might develop into a tropical storm, but is forecast to move away to the west.

A huge thank you from all of us on board has to go the two watch leaders, Dave and Ric, who were volunteered all those miles back in Las Palmas and who have put heart and soul into the trip to make it better for all of us on board. Somehow I feel that they will also be leading the charge to the bar and other shore based activities; they have been a great choice and deserve our thanks.

As we close in towards St Lucia we are starting to see more boats around us. Off our starboard bow about 7 miles away is an 18 metre catamaran called Caribbean Soul and somewhere in our radio range area is the Beneteau 57 Southern Princess. Both of these boats are bigger than us, owe us time on handicap and have motored as well, so we are happy to be amongst them.

It is impossible to tell how we have done over the last couple of weeks in regards to other vessels as every time there is a calm a lot of the boats motor. Although it looks like we are slipping in the rankings, we are lying somewhere around 30 - 40th overall, it of course takes no account of who has motored, size of the vessel or handicap. As we haven't motored and are probably about the 90th biggest boat size wise, we are doing just fine. In our class we are having a closely fought battle over the water with one other boat, Aquaholic (great name!) that we are now currently beating by a few miles. As we owe him time on handicap he has sailed really well and we will certainly congratulate him in St Lucia; if he has motored at all on the crossing, then we'll have him!

Susie continues to be a trooper in the galley and her usual high standards are being maintained. With fresh leeks, sautéed potatoes and pork chops followed by chocolate cake for desert you can guess that our diets are going really well, not! I am sure that she is looking forward to a meal cooked by someone else in St Lucia and we will spoil her, rest assured!

As I finish typing this we have passed the 200 miles to go mark and we will be looking at an ETA into St Lucia of lunchtime Tuesday local time, if the winds hold!

A Bientot, Julian
Northern Child

www.Sail-Search.com: The stronger winds and wet weather caused by the passing front have left the fleet and the boats are once again bathed in sunshine. The change in conditions has made them feel tantalisingly close to the sunshine and beaches of Western Australia and has definitely lifted the spirits of the home team, westernaustralia2011.com: “Although spirits were high yesterday the mood has definitely changed onboard as the sun has an amazing effect on everybody,” said skipper Martin Silk. “The spinnaker is full, we've had bran muffins for breakfast and even the sextant has escaped from its dusty box.” Despite the pleasant conditions the sunny weather brings with it changeable winds and the WA team, like the rest of the fleet, will have to concentrate hard on navigating through the high pressure system.

Durban 2010 & Beyond has increased their lead over the last 24-hours, as skipper Ricky Chalmer’s plan to stay ahead of the pack comes to fruition: “We have resurrected the original ‘go north of the Rhumb line’ plan,” explained Ricky. “With some minor modifications it seems to be working quite well, at least if the midnight scheds are anything to go by. We are essentially chasing a narrow band of diminishing wind, which gives us a better wind angle and slightly better wind speed than if we had continued towards the waypoint. Also, as the wind clocks around to the south, being north will again give us a slightly better angle to point east and trade some of our north for extra boat speed. That’s the plan for now.”

The teams south of Durban 2010 & Beyond are doing everything possible to keep up with the leader and to keep their boats moving. It’s been a busy morning on Hull & Humber as skipper Danny Watson explains: “Hectic morning trying to keep our beloved yacht moving in changeable light airs. The crew reckon it has been like Clipper Training - only the storm sails to hoist and a practice MOB and we’ll have completed a Part B training course in a 12-hour period!”

Qingdao, Hull & Humber’s current rival for second place, has had a similar night according to skipper Marcus Cholerton-Brown: “What a changeable night, we’ve gone from 12 knots in the persistent rain and cloud to a spinnaker run in glorious sunshine. Strangely, the weather change coincided with us leaving 40 degrees south and entering the Indian Ocean. It’s been disappointing having Hull & Humber overtake us and although we could see it coming for a while, with our more southerly line, there’s still a long way to go. We’re all up for a very exciting finish that may go right down to the wire.”

Nova Scotia and westernaustralia2011.com are still the southern most boats in the fleet, and it will remain to be seen whether their tactics of staying south that bit longer will pay out in the longer term. Certainly it has kept their 12-hour runs up at the higher end of the fleet. For Nova Scotia’s Rob McInally it is just a matter of remaining close to the pack so that when the fluky winds come they can take advantage of them: “The last 48-hours into Fremantle will be full of surprises and many sail changes. It will be at this point the race will be won or lost. For now we have to find a path through the light winds to be at the same distance from the finish at the same time as the leaders.”

Meanwhile the rest of the fleet is making the most of the flatter seas, the sunshine and the warm weather to clean up and dry out, the boat and themselves. According to skipper Ben Galloway this has led to an air of freshness onboard Liverpool 08: “The first bit of sunshine for several days and the wet locker has been emptied on to the deck to dry our kit, and now that people are having washes with water and soap and not just baby wipes, the smell has improved immensely.”

Jamaica’s Simon Bradley was also grateful for the warmer weather: “Goodbye to mid-layer and boots, welcome back to flip flops, tee shirt and shorts! The miserable grey, wet weather has been replaced by nice sunny, hot weather, hurrah! There’s not much wind though, just enough to keep us moving in the right direction.”

It has been announced today that the Race Committee is satisfied that New York and Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper both complied with the Sailing Instructions during New York’s medivac and Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper’s recovery of the MOB. This means that neither boat will be subjected to a penalty. The Race Committee congratulated both skippers and crew on the professional way in which they handled the situations.

Race Director, Joff Bailey: “The Race Committee is still considering applications for redress from Hull & Humber and Nova Scotia for any racing time lost whilst transferring medical kit to Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper following the MOB. We hope to have an answer on this in the next couple of days and certainly before the fleet finishes in Fremantle.”

The first boats are still expected to arrive at the Fremantle Sailing Club on 16 December where they will be berthed for the duration of the Western Australian stopover.

www.Sail-Search.com: Temenos II hits 34 knots of boat speed in the Barcelona World Race.

The Proof

www.Sail-Search.com: Entries from the 420, Bosun, Enterprise, GP14, Mirror and Sonnet Classes, which, with the exception of the Bosun Class, hold valid Measurement / Registration Certificates issued by South African Sailing or in the case of foreign entries, the appropriate Member National Authority, will be accepted to take part in the 2008 Macs Shipping 24 hour Challenge.

The Challenge will be hosted by and held at the Milnerton Aquatic Club from Saturday 23rd February 2008 to Sunday 24th February 2008 inclusive and sailed on the waters of Rietvlei Dam, in Milnerton, Cape Town, South Africa.

This annual event has proven to be very festive and competitive with the total number of sailing crew permitted per boat capped at seven, inclusive of a nominated manager, all of whom may sail.

More information can be obtained from macinfo[at]maclub.co.za.

Contact info for Milnerton Aquatic Club

www.Sail-Search.com: At five minutes past eleven British time this morning, Falmouth Coastguard received a satellite phone call from the skipper of a 9.3 metre yacht called Spam, declaring a Mayday.

The yacht had been travelling on the same route as the ARC rally, but was not taking part in the race. The ARC yacht race starts from Las Palmas De Gran Canaria, and takes you across 2700 miles of ocean on the trade wind route to finish at Rodney Bay St Lucia in the Caribbean.

On board were two British men from the Isles of Scilly, Peter Kyne 48, Alan Kyne 17 and another crewman called Augustine aged 33.

The yacht had become dismasted and holed and was sinking. The weather at the time was Easterly Force 6 with rough seas.

Falmouth Coastguard received the satellite phone call from Peter Kyne who gave all the necessary information required by the coastguard in a calm and controlled manner. The yacht was well equipped with good communications and all the necessary life saving apparatus. The men were instructed to stay with the yacht as long as it stayed afloat, but ready to evacuate to a liferaft if required.

Falmouth Coastguard contacted ARC race control who were able to broadcast to all their race yachts as well as making a distress relay broadcast into the area 750 miles away from the Caribbean. Several commercial vessels responded to Falmouth Coastguards broadcasts and were prepared to change their courses to go and assist. Fortunately another yacht that was also accompanying the race but not taking part responded to the distress broadcasts and was identified as being in a position to go to the aid of these three men.

They are now onboard that yacht heading for St Lucia and the yacht Spam which is holed has been marked but it is believed that it will eventually sink.
Henry Purbrick, Watch Manager, Falmouth Coastguard said:

We are very pleased to report that the three men are safe and well on board another yacht heading for St Lucia. Mr Kyne remained calm on the satellite phone reporting his distress situation and was well equipped to be able to deal with his situation until we could get help to him. Several commercial and leisure vessels in the area responded and we are pleased that we could coordinate assistance to these three men

Mrs Kyne has also commented:

"I would like to thank Falmouth Coastguard for the assistance they gave in organising someone to go to the assistance of my husband and son.

I am very relieved that they are safe and well."

Source: Fred Caygill, MCGA

www.Sail-Search.com: The following statement has been issued by the Estrella Damm team:

At 1800 GMT co-skipper Jonathan McKee on board Estrella Damm, skippered by Guillermo Altadill, contacted the shore team to report serious damage to their port rudder. The duo had experienced damage to their starboard rudder only the day before, after colliding with an object in the water, which they had managed to fix; however, in this separate incident, the damage to the port rudder can not be fixed on board the boat and Altadill and McKee have made the decision to divert to Cape Town to effect repairs with the assistance of their shore team. Estrella Damm is approximately 620 miles south-west of Cape Town.

Jonathan reported to his shore team: “We were sailing along in 30 knots of breeze in big seas, the same thing happened as with the other one but unlike the starboard rudder [damaged the previous day] this time it didn’t swing up in the same way so I guess it spent a longer time in the water. The damage is a lot more severe, the shaft around the rudder stock is completely broken (this is the tube that surrounds the stock and holds the two bearings at the top and bottom of the stock together) and appears split horizontally. Is it fixable? We’re not sure. It would require a lot of carbon work, more than we could achieve on board. We’ve made the decision to head to Cape Town and have informed Race Direction team of the Barcelona World Race. We’re 620 miles from Cape Town and we would estimate getting there in around 2.5 days. I think we will get by on one rudder to Cape Town as its predominantly port tack which is good. For me and Guillermo, I think we’re still a bit in shock and we need to think more about it and how we fix things.”

The shore team are now working on the action plan to effect the necessary repairs to the rudder system on board Estrella Damm and the timeline involved. More information on their passage to Cape Town and the plan to effect repairs will be made tomorrow (Monday, 10th December).

The Race Direction team of the Barcelona World Race received an email from Guillermo Altadill onboard Estrella Damm requesting the technical stop in Cape Town: "Guillermo made the official request to make a technical stop at Cape Town by email and the Race Direction team have agreed so that the team can make the best endeavours to repair the rudder damage," commented Sylvie Viant.

www.Sail-Search.com: Daily Log, Northern Child, Sunday the 9th of December 2007

What a beautiful morning to wake up to - a flat sea, the sun's rays pouring down between banks of clouds on the horizon and enough wind to gently waft us on our way towards St Lucia. All is great, except for the 'wafting' part which isn't what we want at all. Less wafting and more foot to the floor, acceleration in the seat of your pants type stuff will do! It's not going to happen though, not today at any rate.

We have had a frustrating 24 hours run of extremely light winds with really only enough puff to just keep us believing that St Lucia is just over the horizon. The skipper is definitely taking a beating having spent a lot of time talking about the trade wind sailing conditions that we expected to find on this route! Hah, broad shoulders, no problem. The wind has come forward overnight and we are now reaching towards St Lucia with the wind on our port bow at about 7 knots of true wind speed, with our boat speed around the 5 or 6 knot mark, not bad.

It's Sunday back home and we too are enjoying the Sunday papers. Maybe not quite as up to date as yours, having been brought out to Las Palmas by Ric, but still devoured by most of the crew - a lot of the stories don't really change anyway: Mr Brown and his merry band of children are always doing something ridiculous. It does of course mean that we are celebrating our 2 weeks at sea, having left Las Palmas exactly 14 days ago. The passage seems to have gone fast this year, albeit we are now facing a delayed ETA with this new trough and band of disrupted, light winds. We've had a great crossing so far, some lovely sailing, good company and great food, so it is important to keep trying until the very end to achieve our goal.

B watch are on back on deck, with Marc currently using my father's bird book to identify a mystery bird. So far they have dismissed the penguin, in all forms, and the common Shag, although I'm convinced that they have made that one up! I keep on telling them it's a Frigate Bird, but their belief in the skipper doesn't stretch as far as ornothological matters! Another night where A watch kept dry on their two shifts and B watch got soaked in a squall; Dave decided to wash his hair in the middle of the night in the rain, half way through they needed to put in a reef, so with shampoo all over him the reef went in. Mad as a hatter!

Billy's' fishing exploits continue apace. Yesterday afternoon he was tempted by the actual sight of some fish swimming along in the lee of the boat, that's it, dinner! After an hour of man verses ferocious aquatic beastie, bringing home the dinner to the cave etc, the fish won - nothing. We can't however, doubt his enthusiasm, they are out there and he will get some before we get in, and at our current speed that gives him plenty of time for fishing!

We have completed another 120 miles towards Scuttlebutts, our all time low for this passage. The question is, will this be our lowest run of the trip or do things get slower from here on in?! Ah, that is indeed the question and in the answer lies the secret, our actual arrival time. We now have 372 miles left to run, having sailed a total of 2,344 miles from Las Palmas in our two weeks at sea. Impressive, it's a long way to sail. All is good on board, we are pretty chilled for the most part about our ETA, as Billy rightly says the bar will still be there when we arrive! The only thing we do know is that Northern Child's record crossing time is intact and we won't be getting anywhere by Monday!

A bientot, Julian
Northern Child

www.Sail-Search.com: Following the finish of the last race into Durban many of the race followers said that it was the most exciting race yet and even maybe in the history of the Clipper Race. However, looking at the race viewer this morning this race is also producing some close exciting racing as the fleet race towards Fremantle. The finish could be just as close as that into Durban and it is made more interesting by Nora Scotia and Hull & Humber’s recent request for redress following their division to support Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper’s MOB incident last week. The redress applications are currently being mulled over by the Race Committee and their decision will be announced before the fleet reach Fremantle.

With only 40 nautical miles now separating the top 6 teams in terms of Distance To Finish any small slip up in tactics, sail selection, helming or trimming could be very costly. The skippers and tacticians onboard will be agonising about the best route take in order to cover the remaining 1300 nautical miles to Fremantle in the shortest time possible.

Joff Baiey, Race Director: “As explained in yesterday’s report the wind conditions as the fleet start to approach Fremantle will become more changeable and I think it will be the team that makes the most of the last 200 nautical miles that will come out on top.”

In the meantime the teams have to negotiate the high pressure system that is slightly ahead of them, which also looks like it will disperse over the next 48-hours. Rob McInally, Skipper on Nova Scotia, commented this morning: “Another day of fairly high winds, although that really wet fine rain has come with it. We are riding the front that is coming through to apparently leave very little wind behind. Once the low has moved past we will be left with the two highs to amalgamate between ourselves and the finish line.”

This race has been heavily influenced by the presence of several high pressure systems which has prevented the depressions and frontal systems that sweep west to east across the Southern Ocean from travelling further north and reaching the fleet. Despite this many of the boats have reported a considerable amount of rain and fog over the last 24-hours created by the tail end of the latest front. Marcus Cholerton-Brown, skipper of Qingdao, reported this morning: “All well onboard, if a little moist. There is no such thing as a waterproof sailing glove unless you don the marigolds, a great look!” The Western Australian team, more used to the sunshine coast, are also suffering from the wet conditions and also a touch of sea sickness according to skipper Martin Silk: “Most of the westernaustralia2011.com crew are enjoying the challenging conditions of reefing and headsail changes with waves washing over the deck. Others are still doing the 10 metre sprint from cockpit to bunk, the only way of not succumbing to seasickness as they come off watch. Everything on board is now wet, people, clothing, sails, bunks but morale could not be higher.”

As well as holding onto pole position for the last few days the crew of Durban 2010 and Beyond had another reason to celebrate today as skipper Ricky Chalmers explained: “We reached a bit of a milestone this morning as we hit 90 degrees east which means we have now circumnavigated one quarter of the planet.”

The first boats are predicted to arrive in Fremantle around the 16 December. They will be berthed at Fremantle Sailing Club for the duration of the stopover with open days for the public on 29, 30 and 31 December. The race is scheduled to restart on New Year’s Day.

www.Sail-Search.com: This afternoon, Catherine Chabaud christened, in Caen, the Veolia Oceans® one-design with Bostik's colours which will be skippered by Charles Caudrelier with Liz Wardley, Erwan Tabarly and Erwan Lebec.

Bostik will leave Caen la mer on Sunday 16 December towards Wellington the capital of New Zealand, on the Reconnaissance Tour of the SolOceans race, the start of which is set for the 25th of October 2009 towards Wellington for the first leg, followed by a second leg which will link New Zealand to Cherbourg-Octeville through Cape Horn.

Photo Jean-Marie Liot - SailingOne

www.Sail-Search.com: Daily Log, Northern Child, Saturday the 8th of December 2007

Life continues on board, an endless succession of changing watches. Our days are ruled by the watches as they end, and tired bodies tumble down the main hatch to be replaced by fresh crew eager to continue to work Northern Child on our way towards Scuttlebutts.

In the rain. Did I mention the rain? Some Arcs I remember for wind, some for sun, some for lack of squalls, but ARC 2007 I will remember for the amount of squalls we have encountered. Normally squalls in these latitudes tend to be easy come, easy go and at least they are brief. Not at the moment; boy, when we get a squall we get a squall! B watch were heard muttering this morning at 0400 during a gybe that in the last 3 watches they have been soaked three times! Each watch is convinced that the other has better weather than they do..... skipper was heard saying something about the law of averages!

We had fun and games with Steve our cameraman yesterday afternoon. Steve is an adventurous sort of chap and with our big American spinnaker up and perfect filming conditions we decided to try and get some interesting camera angles with him - first out on the end of the pole and then up the mast! The footage looks great and I am sure that the final film will have some great shots. It does need most of the crew to do the hard work and get him up the mast, so thank you guys.

Around 0200 this morning we noticed a red, port hand navigation light coming down towards us from the north on a converging course. After conversation on the VHF radio we discovered that she was an English yacht called Aqualuna also on the ARC and heading towards St Lucia. It seemed odd finally to see and chat with another yacht after so many days of not much out here. We lost her disappearing down to the south in the middle of a squall!

Having manoeuvred ourselves out to the west during the previous 24 hours on starboard tack (with the wind coming over the right hand side of the boat) to get ourselves in a favourable position for an expected wind shift during Saturday daytime, the wind shift came at us at 0400 instead, so it was time for a gybe. In the pitch black night and lashing rain, under bright decklights throwing crazy shadows around us and bringing our effective world right in close to us, Rupert (Jeremy) Dave, Steve, Marc and with Tim on the helm, carried out a perfect gybe. For a while we were pointing at Las Palmas for a wee while, with B watch claiming a new VMG record -2.6! Way to go guys!

We are now sailing along in very light winds, sunshine and a flat sea towards the north west corner of St Lucia just under 500 miles away, another significant milestone passed. We are currently sailing under our big American Spinnaker at 4 knots, with those 500 miles ahead of us, it's not fast I must admit! However we won't show any weakness, we still haven't motored a single mile, it is getting quite tempting, but we shall resist.... Oops, we have just had a big wrap on the forestay with the spinnaker, so time for me to go on deck and sort it out, no problem.

Unfortunately I think that the Northern Child forecast issued by me yesterday is actually going to be a lot more accurate than the World Cruising forecast issued from the comfort of someone's meteorological office; in other words what I said in yesterday's log, very little wind over the next couple of days. Having said that, we have managed to sail another 162 miles towards Scuttlebutts, leaving us at midday today with 492 miles to run to the corner of the Island.

A bientot, Julian
Northern Child

www.Sail-Search.com: Race 4 is proving to be a very close run thing with the top eight boats split by less than 80 nautical miles in terms of Distance To Finish. With the fleet so close to each other it will make for exciting viewing over the next week as they approach the Western Australian coast and the eventual finish line at Fremantle’s Swan River.

Despite not getting the infamous Southern Ocean surfing conditions that are legendary to the stretch of ocean south of 40 degrees the whole fleet as enjoyed some impressive 12-hourly runs since the start of Race 4. This has been due to the steady wind conditions and relatively calm seas they have been experiencing in the region. The latest cold front that is going through the fleet at the moment, with wind strengths approaching 40 knots from the north, has helped to maintain the consistent daily runs. Nearly all the teams have recorded runs of over 120 nautical miles in the past 12-hours.

New York has done a great job in managing to reduce their earlier deficit by half and the US team were the first to feel the effects of the approaching front. Skipper Duggie Gillespie commented: “There’s a feeling of relief on board New York this morning after being passed over by a front last night. We’re now in sunshine, drying out a week’s worth of soaking wet gear from down below.”

A high pressure system has now developed in front of the fleet and is moving eastward at a similar speed to the boats. This should enable the teams to continue to achieve high daily runs over the next few days.

With the fleet packed so closely together there is excitement onboard every 6-hours as the Race Office informs each boat of the location of their nine competitors. Hannah Jenner, skipper on Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper, commented this morning: “As the fleet tightens up the nav station gets swamped with eager crew desperate to find out if we are still ahead of Nova Scotia or if we have gained on westernaustralia2011.com. This is one crew with a lot of fighting spirit in them!”

Once the teams get closer to the finish the winds will become more changeable as the heating and cooling of the land effects the wind over the sea and can provide some good overtaking opportunities.

Joff Bailey, Race Director: “The local sea breeze near the finish is known locally as the ‘Fremantle Doctor’ as each afternoon it arrives exactly on time and blows at considerable strength on to the shore. The down side of this is that in the evening the wind drops to nothing for a while and then a slight offshore breeze can sometimes develop as the land mass cools down. This will provide further opportunities to overtake at the eleventh hour. There is nothing worse than being in the lead and being becalmed within sight of the finish knowing that he second placed boat still has wind and is charging up behind you. This race is so close we could see positions gained and lost even once the teams enter the finishing straight in the Swan River.”

The first boats are predicted to arrive in Fremantle around the 16 December. They will be berthed at Fremantle Sailing Club for the duration of the stopover with open days for the public on 29, 30 and 31 December. The race is scheduled to restart on New Year’s Day.

www.Sail-Search.com: Daily Log, Northern Child, Friday the 7th of December 2007

What could we possibly be afraid of out here? Sunburn? More good food? No wind? Whales. But whales are big cuddly things aren't they? Everyone knows that they are endangered; we rescue them when they get stranded on beaches, we take lovely photos of them. Agreed; I agree to all that. But, and a big but, when there are three of them and they spend the best part of an hour following us, they go from Paddington Bear to Big Ugly Grizzly Bear in a flash.

The whole thing started with a call from Rupert (Jeremy) of whales, or big dolphins anyway! With a crystal clear sea and gentle rollers coming up under our stern we could see them clearly arrowing in towards us just under the surface. A quick blow and they were underneath us, right underneath. Passing rear right to mid left under the rudder a few feet and then surfaced on our port side. Phew, amazing, weak from adrenaline, short of breath relief surges through us. They swiftly move away, thank goodness, 150 metres and clear of us. The remorselessness of them as they came close, the speed and indifference to us were simply awe inspiring. We all relax, visibly moved by what we had all seen.

We thought that was it, but no, they came back at us from astern, so we altered course quite sharply, hah got you whale, play elsewhere. No, they can't do this to us, back again on our stern, one second to port and the next crossing back to midships on starboard. Again, right beneath us, we see the white of their underbellies as they roll over for a quick look at us. Okay we can play your game, 30 degrees to port and off we go. Wow, we just cannot get rid of them. Okay, let's go 500 metres the other way? Nope, no good, they are right back on us again. We feel hunted, how they must have felt for the hundreds of years that Man has been hunting them - payback time.

This is getting...? worrying. We get the liferafts ready just in case. Send a position report home so someone knows what's happening. Okay guys, this is too close, it's no longer David Attenborough in a tree observing, these things are bigger and faster than us, and they live out here. Let's lose them, but how? They follow us with the ease and disdain of the masters of the sea that they rightfully are. Whatever we do, they find us easily. We turn hard to starboard towards the north west at 9 knots; come on friends, you go your way, we'll go ours. We'll happily meet for a beer in Scuttlebutts, but please, enough is enough. Finally it is, we've lost them. The picture shows our track in red and where the mouse is pointing is the starboard turn we had to do to finally lose them. After much discussion they could either have been Minke or Brides whales, and our bet would come down on the side of Minke whales.

Following on from this we had Champagne and Tapas on deck, with presents for Kate for her birthday. A lovely present for her from Ric, a bagpipe lesson! Both Susie and Kate had a go, it's much, much more difficult than it looks!

We have sailed 170 miles towards St Lucia in the last 24 hours and have now sailed 2062 miles from Las Palmas. We now have two versions of what the weather will do over the next few days: 1 - the ARC forecast of strong steady tradewinds of between 20 and 25 knots. 2 - The Julian on board Northern Child forecast of light winds today of 10 - 15 knots falling off to around 10 knots for the next few days. Let's see who is right; obviously I hope that they are as we will get there much more quickly!

A bientot, Julian
Northern Child

www.Sail-Search.com: The long anticipated stronger winds have at last arrived for the whole fleet and this is reflected in the higher speeds and longer 12-hourly runs reported this morning. The change in the weather will be a welcome relief to the skippers and crew who have yet to experience the renowned southern ocean surfing conditions. The northerly winds, currently gusting at 25 knots, mark the leading edge of the front whose approach the tacticians have been plotting. However, this is still not the downwind sleigh ride that is often expected, as Hull & Humber skipper Danny Watson exclaims: “My understanding was that this was a down wind leg, what happened to the westerlies? Booming along under whites.”

The conditions both on deck and below decks will also have changed, as the increased wind on the beam causes sail changes and a steady heal on the boat. Durban 2010 & Beyond skipper Ricky Chalmers describes the relief that has come with the change in conditions, albeit to more uncomfortable living conditions: “Heeled over, messy sail change to the Yankee 1 in too much wind, Reef 1 when its howling – all the while charging to the finish line at over 10 knots VMG - nice. At last our period of benign cruising is over and the boat is once again creaking, groaning, and thudding with the strain of some ocean racing. Spray is again coming into the cockpit, and daily chores are again done at an angle with a bit of bounce added in for good measure.” Qingdao’s crew is also experiencing similar conditions and “remembering what it’s like when every movement is like doing a press-up.”

The stronger winds filling in from the west means that New York has had the opportunity to take a few more miles from the back of the fleet. At the 0600 schedule, they ticked down to less that 300 miles from the leader and less than 150 miles to ninth place. This will be a huge psychological hurdle for the New York crew to have overcome and they will be working hard to do everything they can to lessen that gap. As skipper Duggie Gillespie knows it is very much a mind game: “Respect for the elements, you need it in abundance around here!”

Liverpool 08 is also glad to moving again. Their more northerly tactic has them sailing less miles overall but they have been punished for this with lighter winds so far. Skipper Ben Galloway commented this morning: “Well finally some good winds. The crew are picking up some good speeds so we'll hopefully catch up to the rest of the fleet in a few days. Morale and the desire to win are still high with the crew regardless of our current position and what seemed like constant light airs. The race is back on!”

Martin Silk, skipper westernaustralia2011.com at the beginning of race 4 from Durban to Fremantle. Photo Credit: Russell Cleaver/onEdition

The home team, westernaustralia2011.com, has moved themselves into a strong southerly position, and skipper Martin Silk evidently plans to take advantage of the stronger winds there for a little longer yet: “Hoping the fleet goes north early and in a week or so our current plan will pay similar dividends to first few days of this leg.” Meanwhile the ‘locals’ are already showing their support to the big blue boat: “Pilot whale spotted on port side this morning, leaping a good 3 metres clear of the water. They’re a welcome site whilst we’ve been fast reaching at 12 knots. Overnight we’ve had some consistent white sail work and with over half the distance to Fremantle covered it feels like we are heading home.”

These stronger winds are likely to stay with the fleet more or less until their arrival in Fremantle, although they will begin to come round more from the west. The difficult decision for each skipper and tactician on board will be when to make the move north up to Fremantle and trying to coordinate this with the wind shift. The fleet is currently between the latitudes of 40 30S and 42 04S but Fremantle is at approximately 32 03S. This equates to 10 degrees of latitude or 600 miles pure north to make before the finish. A move north too soon could mean missing out on the stronger winds pushing the fleet eastwards.

With the current progress made by the fleet the first of the boats are still expected to arrive in Fremantle around 16 December.

www.Sail-Search.com: 2008: Yesterday, Jean-Marie Nusse, Chairman of the Papeteries de Clairefontaine (Clairefontaine Stationery), handed out on the Morbihan Stand of the Paris International Boat Show the prizes of the 18th Trophée Clairefontaine which was held last September at La Trinité-sur-Mer (Brittany). Five invitations were then officialy extended in anticipation of the 19th edition which will take place between Thursday 4th and Sunday 7th of September 2008, in a yet to be announced venue.

Photo Credit: Jean-Marie Liot

Michel Desjoyeaux won his fourth Trophée Clairefontaine on the 2nd of September, ahead of Alinghi Team lead by the Swiss Luc Dubois and Loïck Peyron.

The 19th Trophée Clairefontaine des Champions de Voile will also mark the occasion to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Papeteries de Clairefontaine.

The five champions who have already been invited to the 2008 19th Trophée Clairefontaine are:

Michel Desjoyeaux, skipper of the monohulls Foncia, is invited as titleholder, but also for his numerous victories in 2007 in the Solitaire du Figaro single-handed race, in the Transat Jacques Vabre and his FFVoile Sailor of the Year 2007 title.

Luc Dubois and the Alinghi Team are also invited to sail again the Runs of the Trophée Clairefontaine. The winner of the America's Cup missed out on victory by just one point. They really want to have the privilege to be the first international team to win the title.

Loïck Peyron, got his invitation for 2008 thanks to his third place on the 2007 podium. His declared objective is an eighth victory in this regatta.

Franck Cammas, was invited for his exceptional 2007 season during which he broke numerous prestigious records including the North Atlantic Crossing Record and the 24-hour Record.

Claire Leroy is invited for her world and European Match Racing titles, her first position in the ISAF women's match racing ranking list (for two years running) and her title as "ISAF Rolex World Sailor" recently awarded by the International Sailing Federation.

There are now only three places left: one for a competitor from the America's Cup and two for 2008 Olympic medallists.

Since it began, in 1990, the Trophée Clairefontaine is the only event in the world to unite champions from different disciplines on a totally equal footing, on spectacular catamarans exclusively designed and used for this purpose, showing that sailing is both varied and unique, in the spirit of the general policy of the Fédération Française de Voile (French Sailing Federation).

www.Sail-Search.com: A good night for Estrella Damm, Temenos II and Hugo Boss as strong winds enabled the crews to make good progress and to catch up on the leaders.

Estrella Damm skippered by Guillermo Altadill/Jonathan McKee at the start of the Barcelona World Race prologue at the RORC Rolex Fastnet Race off Cowes, UK. Photo credit: onEdition/OC Events/FNOB

Jonathan McKee and Guillermo Altadill have been the first team to break the 400-miles per 24 hours barrier in this Barcelona World Race, and are still going strong after having gained a place. Meanwhile, Hugo Boss is threatening Veolia Environnement.

As we were expecting yesterday afternoon, Estrella Damm took 7th place from Mutua Madrileña and has been maintaining impressive average speeds for 24 hours, consistently hitting the 20-knot mark under big gennaker. Jonathan McKee, who prior to this experience only had a taste of the Open 60's raw power, admitted today during the video conference that it's a thrilling but exhausting ride: "It's difficult to be pushing hard all the time, but we're keeping the pressure on to try and stay in touch with the front guys. As we have to hand steer, we don't get that much rest." The American sailor also stressed that maintaining the right balance between speed and safety was not always an easy job, but the duet he forms with Guillermo Altadill seems to work well, both men being on the same wavelength when it comes to race tactics or boat handling. It certainly has been a great pleasure to feel the wind kicking in and to be able to overtake Mutua Madrileña, who in contrast did not have such a great night...

"We got trapped in a totally windless zone", explained Javier "Bubi" Sanso, who admitted venturing a bit too far east, "and overall it's been a big mess". The Spanish crew also had a problem with their Code 5 sail, and even though Javier believes it can be mended, it has been a set back that they can have done without. Exhausted by a night spent fighting dead calms after long hours at the helm and good speeds yesterday, the Mutua Madrileña skipper hasn't lost his sense of humour but chose not to elaborate on how he felt about losing his 7th place to Estrella Damm - "There might be some children listening, I'd rather not repeat what we said when we found out!"

Up in front, if PRB is maintaining her lead and keeping Paprec-Virbac 2 38 miles in her wake, Hugo Boss has come yet closer to Veolia Environnement and seems to be in a position to threaten Jourdain and Nélias's third place. 31 miles behind the French crew, Thomson and Cape are making the most of their monohull's power, while enjoying every minute of their cavalcade at more than 20 knots. North east of her prey, Hugo Boss is apparently benefiting from stronger winds and has caught up on Veolia Environnement last night while moving away from Delta Dore's bow. "That boat is clearly fast", said Jérémie Beyou, "and they got some good winds before us and now have a better angle. But now we're also happy with our speed which is a relief because the Atlantic hasn't been that fast for us until now. We're in the 40s, and I have a very happy Sidney at the helm right now - the guy needs speed, so the conditions suit him fine at the moment. Looking ahead, we're going to get into some hairy stuff soon, so we're preparing for that."

The first big depression is expected to hit the fleet in approximately 72 hours, yet lighter winds tomorrow might allow for a slight compression, the leaders slowing down while their pursuers may keep going a bit longer. But after that, the great "conveyor belt" of low pressure systems looks right in place and active, the race towards this fast train is on the menu more than ever...

In quotes - Jonathan McKee, Estrella Damm
"I hadn't spent more than 20 days at sea before this race, so everyday I'm breaking a personal record"

www.Sail-Search.com: The Notice of Race for US SAILING's 2008 Rolex Miami OCR has been posted at www.rolexmiamiocr.org and online registration has begun. (Competitors must register before January 21, 2008 to receive discounted entry fees.) Scheduled for its 19th edition over January 27 to February 2, the popular US SAILING event is classified by the International Sailing Federation as a Grade One ranking event and will host world-class racing for Olympic hopefuls in four of 11 classes (Laser, Laser Radial, Star, and Yngling) and Paralympic hopefuls in all three of their classes (2.4mR, SKUD-18, and Sonar) chosen for the 2008 Games in Qingdao, China. (Because of Olympic-year conflicts with world championships held overseas, racing at the Rolex Miami OCR has been eliminated for seven of the Olympic classes.)

"We are especially excited about participation in the Yngling and Star classes since the Yngling Worlds immediately follow the Rolex Miami OCR and the Star Worlds are in Miami in April," said US SAILING's High Performance Director Gary Bodie. "So for these two classes as well as the others, it will be business as usual, with the top players from across the globe coming here to train and participate in the best regattas possible."

Bodie added that several international teams will be using the 2008 Rolex Miami OCR as qualifications for their Olympic and Paralympic teams -- another reason to expect the same tough competition that has contributed to the steady growth of this event.

Mathew BELCHER, Nick BEHRENS, AUS, second place overall in the 470 Men's Medal Race 2007 Rolex Miami. Photo credit: Rolex / Dan Nerney

The Rolex Miami OCR consists of five days of fleet racing from Monday, January 28 through Friday, February 1, and one day of top-ten medal racing (for Olympic classes only) on Saturday, February 2, replicating the new Olympic format that will debut in Qingdao.

In addition to title sponsor Rolex Watch U.S.A., the 2008 Rolex Miami OCR is also sponsored by all the partners that support the US Sailing Team: Nautica, Vanguard Sailboats, Gill, Sperry Top-Sider, Ribcraft, Harken, New England Ropes, Extrasport, Nikon, and Team McLube. Rolex is also a sponsor of the US Sailing Team.

www.Sail-Search.com: Daily Log, Northern Child, Thursday the 6th of December 2007

It's hot out here now, there's absolutely no doubt about where we are and where we're going! It is 1000 hours ship's time, the temperature at the chart table is currently 34 degrees, more in the galley and we're fryin' today on deck! In order to try and make the watch on deck bearable under the intense sun we have a bimini covering the aft cockpit and the helmsman, a much sought after location as the sun climbs higher in the sky, as the photo of Ali driving, Marc and John shows. How does the Pink Floyd song go? Wish You Were Here?

Following a rolly night in light winds we decided it was time for a gybe and it was the turn of the A watch to strut their stuff and show the B team how to do it. Waiting for daylight to start was a prudent measure as with three big sails up and lots of associated lines it is easy to get it wrong. With John's steady hand on the helm and Billy on the foredeck as bowman, see photo (!), it almost seemed as if they knew what they were doing - as one of the watch was overheard to say, 'if you had asked us to do that 10 days ago, we would have been b**s!' We are now nicely sailing along towards St Lucia on the starboard gybe in moderate rolling seas and bright sunshine, oh how we suffer out here.

Daniel alongside me in the galley has been given the task of opening a jar by Susie to great entertainment for all of us, and calls of encouragement such as 'a girl opened that last time' are really helping him! No problems, job done, mind you he now has to put away the hammer, screwdriver, electric drill....

Oh, okay, a quick message from Dave, (currently planning on selling the business/house/car/wife, oops not the last, obviously, to sail around the world, but it's still confidential): WHATEVER!

Happy Birthday Kate! As she is a lady, we won't mention her age but I thought you would appreciate the picture of her and Susie below decks this morning standing in front of Susie's Happy Birthday banner - sweet of Susie. Kate is nutty about sailing and keen to learn anything about boats, has shipped on board with us for four months until she has to go back to work in March, and is responsible on passage for all the maintenance of NC as well as helping Susie in the galley when she needs an extra pair of hands. Susie has taken a year off working for British Airways and is currently to be found taking on the challenge of seeing if she can fatten us all up for Christmas. As you might have divined from these logs Susie spoils us rotten and in hard conditions produces an amazing array of food. We are extremely lucky to have had a series of super, hard working girls join us on our voyages over the years, all of whom have made the Northern Child story and experience what it is.

Life on deck has settled down to an endless role of watchkeeping and relaxing; this year I think everyone has an iPod and sometimes it is difficult to get anyone to listen on deck, or is that just my effect on them?! If we see a sail in the distance we are jumping around with the binoculars trying to identify it; Daniel spotted a floating bottle a couple of days ago and we thought it was at least some castaways on a raft or something! What is out here? Not much. An endless succession of blue, blue rollers, surging underneath us as Northern Child rises from another trough and surges on her way to St Lucia. She should know the way, it's now her 7th ARC with me, I can hear her happily pushing away the waves under her bow, the foam and white water flowing swiftly down the hull. Hurrying onwards, always searching out the horizon ahead and leading us on towards our next adventure. Do yachts have souls? I'm not sure, but this one gets damn close to it; after 100,000 miles together we have got used to each other. First and foremost, we look after her and then when it gets tough out here she looks after us.

Our progress over the last 24 hours has been slightly slower than I would have liked, 174 miles towards Scuttlebutts, but hey, that's sailing. Why? The winds on this side of the trough haven't built up to quite the Trade Winds that we were hoping for, but that will be the same for the whole fleet. In fact I would suggest that at the moment the wind outlook is looking a little softer than normal, but hey, we're not suffering! We haven't motored a single yard of the crossing, how green are we? Carbon neutral? Hell, Shell should be paying us to go sailing!

A Bientot, Julian
Northern Child

www.Sail-Search.com: With the two leaders now "officially" in the South, the Barcelona World Race is entering a new phase with stronger winds, darker skies and the promise of rougher seas.

PRB still maintains a 34-mile lead over Paprec-Virbac 2, and both crews are now below 40 degrees South, while Veolia Environnement is at the threshold of the Roaring mythical latitude. Now that the bulk of the fleet is heading straight towards the first ice gate (1350 miles in front of PRB's bow), the pursuers are in a better position since the St Helena high moved, allowing them to "take a shortcut" to the east, gaining precious miles in the process.

It was interesting to see the contrast between the conditions experienced by Veolia Environnement and Temenos II during today's video conference. Roland Jourdain was helming bare chested at 39 degrees of south latitude, while some 330 miles behind and 5 degrees further north, Dominique Wavre and Michele Paret were all geared up, riding a cold front generating 30-knot + winds! "We're heading straight towards the first ice gate", said Dominique. Michele commented "It's good to finally get some stronger winds and to see the speed go up (...) The weather is very cloudy, and the boat is now prepared for the southern latitudes, all the safety gear has been taken out and checked." The front in which Temenos II is sailing should extend, and Hugo Boss as well as Delta Dore may well experience 30-knot winds too.

Delta Dore. Photo Credit: Oliver Bossecker

On board Delta Dore, in 5th place, Jérémie Beyou sounded very happy with the pace himself and Sidney Gavignet are able to maintain - the French crew has been very fast during the past 24 hours, consistently displaying speeds of 17 knots or more. "For once, we're in a better position than the leading boats and Delta Dore is doing great." In third place, chased by a fast and determined Hugo Boss, Veolia Environnement reported experiencing conditions "similar to those that the leaders have" (in terms of wind speed and direction, not temperature!), said an ever-cheerful Jean-Luc Nélias, sailing close to the Santa Helena high pressure system. "The weather is almost too fine", added Roland Jourdain's co-skipper. The French duet seemed on the right track to reduce the gap separating them from Paprec-Virbac 2, and the leading trio may well catch the same weather system after passing through the first ice gate...

Further back, Mutua Madrileña has been losing miles to Temenos II, and Estrella Damm is closing in on the Spanish tandem of Javier Sanso and Pachi Rivero, who must be looking hard into their rearview mirror: Guillermo Altadill and Jonathan McKee are a mere 6 miles behind and display notably higher speeds (average of 15.2 knots over the past 4 hours, against 12.5 for Mutua Madrileña over the same period). The leading boats are expected to reach the ice gate on Friday morning.

Day 25 – December 5, 16:00 GMT – Position report with distance to leader

1. PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien JOSSE – 0.0
2. PAPREC-VIRBAC 2 - Jean Pierre DICK / Damian FOXALL – 34
3. VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT - Roland JOURDAIN / Jean Luc NELIAS - 178
4. HUGO BOSS - Alex THOMSON / Andrew CAPE - 258
5. DELTA DORE - Jérémie BEYOU / Sidney GAVIGNET - 318
6. TEMENOS 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele PARET- 506
7. MUTUA MADRILENA - Javier SANSO / Pachi RIVERO - 807
8. ESTRELLA DAMM - Guillermo ALTADILL / Jonathan MCKEE - 813
9. EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS - Servane ESCOFFIER / Albert BARGUES - 1270

First time in the South... quotes from the skippers who yet have to discover the Roaring latitudes
Servane Escoffier, Educacion Sin Fronteras: "Of course being about to enter the South for the first time is at the same time worrying and exciting... Probably a bit like how one feels just before the first kiss, right? But I'm preparing it cautiously, doing everything to keep it safe."
Jean-Luc Nélias, Veolia Environnement: "No worries at all for me, I'm with Master Bilou here!"
Jérémie Beyou, Delta Dore: "I don't really have time to worry beforehand, as I'm concentrated on the race, totally focused on our strategy."

Capey on deck. Staggering to think that for the price of the winches one could buy a serious small sportboat. Photo Credit: Hugo Boss Bossecker

www.Sail-Search.com: The high pressure system that has been dominating all of the teams' tactics for the last few days and preventing any of them from making any big gains (or losses) is starting to weaken and disperse.

Martin Silk, the skipper of third-placed westernaustralia2011.com who are challenging for a win into their home port, confirmed the change during this morning's schedule: "Barometer started falling last night - excitement and anxiety with cold front approaching at 35 knots. The steady conditions have been frustrating over the last few days. Crew are all waiting for Southern Ocean to show true colours. Intensive maintenance over the past few days in preparation for the weather change. Barometer falling again..."

Qingdao has made particularly good progress in the last 12 hours and has snuck ahead of westernaustralia2011.com into second place after trying to catch them for the last few days.

Race Director Joff Bailey says, "Although the wind conditions have been steady over the last few days, it is difficult for any of the teams to make big gains. It is, however, possible to make small steady gains by constant sail trimming, good helming and concentration. This appears to be the case on Hull & Humber who have been battling with Uniquely Singapore over the last couple of days and have finally edged ahead of them. That said, the pack of boats in the middle of the fleet are still extremely close and one little mistake could easily lose you a place or two."

New York has also been steadily gaining on the yachts ahead of them. Having been nearly 600 nautical miles behind the lead boat after their medivac just days into this race, they are now just over 300 nautical miles behind the leading pack and almost within striking distance of the ninth-placed boat, Liverpool 08. There are several reasons for New York's spectacular comeback, not least the determination of the skipper and crew to get back into the fight. They have also been in slightly stronger winds being further from the high pressure system and have also been able to see the tactical mistakes being made ahead of them.

"Unfortunately," says Joff, "it will now get harder and harder for them to gain miles as there are very few tactical options available to them. However, knowing the resilience of this crew I am sure they will give the boats ahead of them a fright before the finish line in the Swan River in Fremantle."

With 17 novice crew onboard the skipper's job onboard a Clipper 68 ocean racing yacht is very demanding and requires a very high level of determination, patience and leadership. The skippers also have to be a Jack-of-all-trades and be capable of teaching the crew everything that is required to sail a racing yacht around the world. In addition to the comprehensive medical kit supplied by L.E. West the official medical kit supplier and adviser, each skipper has to be trained in how to use it. Each of the skippers is qualified to the required MCA level in medical care on board ships which includes being able to carry out procedures such as suturing wounds, injecting pain killers and administering antibiotics. In addition, at least one crew member from each boat has undertaken a medical first aid course, provided by Clipper Training, so that they can assist the skipper if required.

The fleet is due to arrive in Fremantle on approximately 16 December. Current positions and the Clipper 07-08 Race leaderboard can be viewed in
full at www.clipperroundtheworld.com

www.Sail-Search.com: Daily Log, Northern Child, Wednesday the 5th of December 2007

Rain, rain, go away, come back another day; and other rhymes like that! This year is the year of the squall, but only at night, only when people are really tired, only when there is no moon! I was obviously overjoyed to see in one of today's forecasts the likelihood of heavy squalls over all our areas for the next couple of days! Good thing is that the squalls normally rush past in an hour, all forgotten and the decks dry off pretty soon thereafter.

In between, however, the weather has been amazingly good. As we have just transited and are still on the edge of an area of light winds, the sea is still minimal with hardly any swell or waves to talk about, so progress is smooth and comfortable. Tuesday afternoon we managed to keep the big spinnaker flying in very light airs which gave us a nice little boost on our way to St Lucia. The pictures of Rupert, well his real name is Jeremy but he looks like a Rupert, and Marc are of them both trimming the spinnaker in beautiful bright sunshine.

We anticipate sailing further away from the trough today and as we do the winds will pick up from the East and should, I think, develop over the next couple of days into solid trade wind conditions. This will allow us to pick up speed again on our rhumb line towards Scuttlebutts and we are hoping for some of the fastest sailing conditions of the trip so far. As a consequence of building winds we will get building sea conditions, so we should be able to get some surfing in on the way.

Half an hour ago we passed the 1,000 mile to go to St Lucia mark! There are several big milestones to pass on this trip, 1,000 miles sailed, half way, 1,000 to go; it feels great to have arrived at the stage where at least our destination is tangible. Mind you, 1,000 miles is a long way under sail - it is almost the same distance as sailing from Falmouth to Gibraltar!

We continue to gorge ourselves across the Atlantic, and there have been discussions of the Roman way of eating! There is a nice picture here of Susie's Tiramisu desert. Lunch is spicy beef filet on a skewer with pitta bread and corn and pepper relish, followed by apple and blueberry tart, and dinner is rosemary and olive oil lamb chops with aubergine, plum tomato and potato gratin. We are suffering!

At midday UTC today we have 997 miles left to run to St Lucia, and have sailed 143 miles at an average speed of 6 knots in the last 24 hours, mainly light wind sailing. Although the trough has slowed us down, we have been successful in going south of our rhumb line and have maintained a good 6 knot average for the 48 hour period that we have been affected by the trough. We have now sailed a total of 1,720 miles from St Lucia. The forecast for wind for the next few days is good and we are up for a few quick days sailing.

A bientot, Julian
Northern Child

www.Sail-Search.com: Charles Caudrelier will be the skipper of the first Veolia Oceans® one-design which will complete the Reconnaissance Tour of the SolOceans on a Caen la mer (France) - Wellington (New Zealand) run, followed after ten days stopover in the New Zealand Capital by a Wellington - Cherbourg-Octeville run through the Cape Horn. For this occasion, Charles Caudrelier will sail under the colours of Bostik, his sponsor since 2002 with whom he won the Solitaire Le Figaro single-handed race 2004.

For this first leg leaving from Lower Normandy on the 16th of December in the early afternoon, Charles Caudrelier will be accompanied by three sailors: Liz Wardley, the Anglo-Saxon, native of Papua and of French sailors, Erwan Tabarly and Erwan Lebec. Liz Wardley has experience of the hostile oceans of the South Hemisphere, thanks to her victory in the Rolex Sydney-Hobart (1999) and a round-the-world tour as crew in the Volvo Ocean Race (2001-2002). For Charles Caudrelier, Erwan Tabarly and Erwan Lebec it will be a first in the Great South, as they have never sailed to New Zealand through the Indian Ocean before.

"Innovation is one of the key factors of Bostik development" said André Ladurelli this morning "on that account, we are proud to be the first company to embark on the SolOceans. This new challenge is at the same time a sportive challenge with sailors on equal footing around the planet and a platform for scientific studies thanks to the collection of environmental data in isolated areas of the oceans in order to contribute to the protection of the environment. Our commitment illustrates the permanent will of Bostik to build the future".

Bostik, a 100% subsidiary of Total, is one of the world leaders in the adhesives and sealants business. Its most famous brands are Sader, Quelyd, Araldite, Simson and Bostik. With more than 4,700 employees and 48 manufacturing sites in 45 countries, Bostik reaches an annual turnover of 1.4 billion euros.

Bostik started in 2002 with the sponsoring of sport and choose sailing as a communication and promotion tool. One of the reasons was that Bostik products are used throughout the nautical industry. For example the North 3DL sails, to be found on the Veolia Oceans® one-design, are made with the polyester adhesives Bostik Vitel®.

In 2002, Bostik decided to appoint a young and talented sailor, Charles Caudrelier who won the Solitaire du Figaro single-handed race in his third participation, in 2004, followed by numerous victories on the Single-handed Ocean Racing French Championship circuit. The young Nicolas Lunven succeeded from Charles Caudrelier at the helm of the Figaro Bénéteau one-design under the colours of Bostik and got his first title as first rookie in the Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro single-handed race 2007.

This first Veolia Oceans® chartered by Bostik for this winter circumnavigation 2007-2008 will also sail the two Summer Transat under the colours of the adhesive company of the Total Group next Summer.

The first transatlantic, from East to West, will consist of four crew members with a maximum two professional sailors on board. This configuration will allow either the sponsor of the one-design, his guests or other persons to share this unique experience with oceanic racers. The second annual transatlantic, from West to East, will be a double-handed race. The Bostik one-design will inaugurate those two courses and will also stay on in the Mediterranean sea to take part in two more traditional competitions: the Voiles de Saint-Tropez and the Rolex Middle Sean Race from Malta.

The first Veolia Oceans® will be christened in the colours of Bostik on Saturday 8 December at 3.00pm along the New Basin of the Port of Caen, on the territory of Caen la mer urban area.
The start of Bostik for the first leg of the round-the-world reconnaissance Tour of the SolOceans is set for Sunday 16 December from Caen la mer and Ouistreham (Lower-Normandy) towards Wellington (New Zealand) through Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) and Leeuwin (Australia). The second leg will link up Wellington to Cherbourg-Octeville (Lower Normandy) through Cape Horn (South America).

Charles Caudrelier introduces Bostik's crew members. From left to right: Erwan Tabarly ; Liz Wardley ; Erwan Lebec. Photo Jean-Marie Liot - SailingOne.

www.Sail-Search.com: That was the report from Durban 2010 and Beyond this morning and it echoes the feelings on board all of the yachts in the Clipper fleet which is following the high pressure system ahead of them and moving at the same speed. It means there is very little change in weather, positions or tactics across the teams.

Duggie Gillespie, skipper of New York which is steadily making gains on the rest of the fleet, commented this morning, "Same course, same angle, similar sail plan, but the music is different. Everyone looking for something different, if the boat heeled the other way this would probably come as a welcomed change."

Race Director Joff Bailey says, "Although at the moment the crews aren't getting the excitement they expected in the Southern Ocean, for the boats that can see each other the pressure is most certainly on."

In his morning report to the Race Office, Qingdao's Marcus Cholerton-Brown wrote, "All crew in very good spirits and looking forward to the half-way party. Durban 2010 and Beyond and Westernaustralia2011.com occasionally in view now, watch your backs."

Several of the teams are close enough to see each other and this gives an added incentive to keep pushing the boat faster and faster. Rob McInally from Nova Scotia can also see some of his team's competitors and says, "As the fleet closes up once again it is nice to see other yachts on the horizon. We are currently very close at almost the half way point. The final run into the finish looks like it could be very close racing."

Joff, a veteran of the Clipper Race continues, "Although from the outside it might appear as though nothing is happening on board, the crews will be doing lots of safety checks and maintenance while the weather remains kind. Steering systems will be checked, a crew member will go up the mast to check the rig and the running rigging will be inspected and repaired in anticipation of the next weather change."

The crew have to be careful what they wish for as the weather is expected to change over the next 48 hours as the next low pressure systems comes in from the west. It will bring stronger winds and some big seas for the Clipper fleet to start surfing their way even faster to Western Australia and the warm welcome awaiting them.

The first yachts are expected to arrive in Fremantle on approximately 16 December.

www.Sail-Search.com: Daily Log, Northern Child, Tuesday the 4th of December 2007

Some squalls go through quickly, some squalls don't, this one hasn't! We managed a fantastic run up until just before 0400 ship's time this morning when in the blink of an eye the wind backed round 180 degrees and backed the mainsail. Within minutes the wind was coming from all over the place and really heavy rain set in, for ages. Glad to say it was Dave's watch on again, and for the rest of his watch until 0600 the boys really fought hard to get the boat going in any direction at all. By the watch change there was really no change in our fortunes and even now at 0830 ships time we are still bobbing around going nowhere, pretty frustrating!

So what do we do when we stop in perfectly calm water? Go swimming! The photo shows just two of our crew, Rick and Kate, but in fact over a period of an hour most of the crew managed to get in. It is an unforgettable experience: the sea is nearly 6,000 metres deep, the nearest land is 1,150 miles away on the bow and we are swimming. Of course, most of the crew couldn't resist humming the music of the theme tune to Jaws, thanks guys!

Why did we stop? That'll be the trough then! Having looked at the weather a couple of days ago we were fairly convinced that there was a huge area of relatively low pressure on our route and we have therefore spent two days coming south to see if we can avoid the worst of it. Right now we have caught a new wind off our port bow, we're off again! Fantastic! We're heading right towards Scuttlebutts at 5 knots. It's not going to be that easy, I'm sure - we'll have a hard day today in light and variable winds trying to get away from the trough, but fingers crossed, we're through the worst of it.

Billy joined Northern Child because he wanted to sail the Atlantic in order to answer the question, how much sailing have you done? Well, pretty soon the answer will be loads! Billy recently built a boat in his back garden which he uses regularly to go out fishing with friends off the East Coast of England. Billy always had boats as a kid, even in the bath..... Billy has thrived on board, always keen to get things done, cracking jokes and asking questions, he has found the experience so far fantastic and simply finds the people a pleasure. It's a great picture of him, as well, don't you think?

Alistair, the quiet, contemplative crew member: it's great to have at least one on board! Having sailed dinghies as a child, he sailed in 2000 on a Tall Ship across from the Orkney's to Norway and back, wanted an adventure and heard about the ARC last year. Alistair wanted to push himself and was seeking an experience outside of the box, personally, socially and sailing wise. The ARC has lived up to his expectations and he has enjoyed the different rhythms that being on watch have brought - one minute fighting a squall and the next relaxing in a calm.

In the last 24 hours we have managed to sail a total of only 135 miles towards our destination, not too bad considering we have basically been becalmed since 0400 this morning. This means that we have sailed a total of 1,577 miles from Las Palmas and now have 1,139 miles to go to St Lucia. We are hoping that by dusk tonight we are back into a better wind flow and picking up speed again towards St Lucia - as we exit the area of the trough we should once again pick up nice steady trade wind conditions.

A bientot, Julian
Northern Child

www.Sail-Search.com: Now the majority of the Clipper fleet are in the Southern Ocean (south of 40 degrees south) the crew will be anticipating strong winds and massive waves. However, with an almost stationary high pressure system sitting just ahead of them, the majority of the teams have been enjoying moderate winds, flat seas and clear skies.

Ricky Chalmers, skipper of the current leader, Durban 2010 and Beyond, reported to the Race Office this morning, "We are following in the wake of the high pressure across the Southern Ocean, getting consistent 12 knots of wind at a 90 degree true wind angle, on flat seas. Couldn't be more perfect; comfortable and fast sailing. Not at all how I remember the place last time I was here, bashing to windward in 35 - 40 knots of true wind for three weeks with three reefs in the main, Yankee 3 and storm staysail."

Jamaica skipper, Simon Bradley, commented this morning, "I certainly didn't expect to be wearing flip flops, shorts and a t-shirt in the Southern Ocean!" He did go onto to reveal that his crew are all wearing thermals and oilskins!

These weather conditions will continue for the next few days before the fleet starts to feel the influence of the next low pressure system before the weekend. This system will bring 40-knot winds, lots of rain and the big waves that all the crews have been waiting for.

After more than 1,500 nautical miles of racing, and with 2,700 still to go, Hull & Humber and Uniquely Singapore are in sight of each other which allows the skippers to study their opposite number's tactics and also puts more pressure on the crew to sail well.

Uniquely Singapore's skipper, Mark Preedy, writes, "We have Hull & Humber a few miles on our starboard quarter. It has focused the crew again and it is interesting to see that they are taking a more southerly course than we are."

Race Director, Joff Bailey, says, "Some of the skippers don't like other boats nearby as it freaks out the crew, but Mark is obviously not one of them, judging by his further comments. He said this morning, 'Hopefully the next sched will show that we have maintained our fourth spot. We are trying to defend it and having Hull & Humber in sight helps us keep things fresh and motivated. Uniquely Singapore definitely likes to have other boats in sight. If not, the crew are like me - easily distracted!'"

The Clipper fleet is expected to arrive in Fremantle on approximately 16 December.

www.Sail-Search.com: Daily Log, Northern Child, Monday the 3rd of December 2007

Ah, weather forecasts, got to take notice of them but they are not always right. Trouble is, we have to take note as if we got it wrong we could be dumped in an area of no wind for 36 hours and remember, our goal is not to motor, at all. So we have spent the last 48 hours edging south of our original line to see whether we can skirt just around the southern border of the trough and keep in a band of light winds, rather than no winds. The trade off is that we are no longer pointing straight at our destination so although we are sailing a long way, our total sailed towards the destination is suffering. But, it is part of the master plan, and we shall stick to it!

David was volunteered as B team watch leader right at the start of us all meeting up in Las Palmas, he was a natural choice. An excellent talker, we enjoy his continual banter, but one of his best mates did send an email asking if Dave was boring us all to death! Although he hasn't sailed for the last 15 years, Dave owned a couple of race boats in Perth, Western Australia, and has competed in the Perth - Bali and Sydney - Hobart races. The ARC was a surprise 50th birthday present from his wife Heidi, and Dave says he loves every moment of it, the wind, the squalls, the rain, the food, the crew... you get the idea! A genuine enthusiast Dave is already plotting his next sailing adventure!

Jeremy is the youngest crew member on board and has asked me specifically not to mention that he loves showing off his guns (his muscles), as he is afraid his mates will take the mick! He sailed dinghies as a child and has crossed the English Channel in his teens. Jeremy came up with the idea of an adventure last Christmas and just decided to go for it. He found the first couple of days hard as he was feeling seasick but decided that it was still better being seasick on board than being in the office. He recovered completely and was a changed man, loves helming and chilling out on the foredeck with an iPod.

The A watch together with Kate, were holding an intellectual discussion on deck on the 1800 - 2200 watch last night. The game was to go through letters of the alphabet naming animals - not difficult for an infant's school, you might have thought? You would be right, but A watch got stumped at the start of the letter B and Alistair came up with the brilliant answer of Brown Fox. Now this might not sound funny to you, but it has kept us going on board for the last 12 hours! Totally unrelated but there is a fit of the giggles going on on deck, with Steve and Ric just about crying with laughter. In the sun, on a flat sea going 7.5 knots in the right direction, life on board goes on.

As Northern Child sails west across the face of the globe the sun rises and sets increasingly at odds with our watches. In order to compensate for this we have to put our watches back, so that the sun rises at a more normal time. The equation of time tells us that for every degree of longitude we travel we have to allow 4 minutes, thus for every convenient 15 degrees of longitude we alter our watches 1 hour backwards. Now, the time difference between Las Palmas and Scuttlebutts is 4 hours and we are traveling approximately 45 degrees of Longitude to the west, so what we shall do is alter our watches 3 times en route and finally another hour when we arrive in St Lucia. So far we have altered our watches twice, so ship's time is now UTC (Universal Time Coordinated) -2, or as I type this we are 1245 UTC and 1045 hours ship's time. A little known interesting fact; world standard time used to be at Greenwich and was called GMT. The government decided to save money however, so a consortium of Atomic clocks was agreed between the French and the Americans, who no longer wanted to call it GMT....

In the last 24 hours we have sailed a total of 172 miles towards St Lucia and now have 1,274 miles left to run, passing the half way mark at midnight last night. Although we aren't pointing at the destination as we are still continuing to the south to attempt to avoid the worst of the trough, we are pleased to have knocked off another 172 miles, although we have sailed considerably more than this. Dave has opened up an ETA competition and guesses range from Daniel with 1000 on Monday morning to John with 1200 on Wednesday - obviously we are all hoping that Daniel is more accurate! With over 1,200 miles still to go and the trough of light winds to get through, anyone could be right.... we shall see.

A Bientot, Julian, Northern Child

www.Sail-Search.com: As the three leading yachts enter the Southern Ocean it would appear they have managed to break away from the rest of the fleet and now Durban 2010 and Beyond, Qingdao and westernaustralia2011.com have opened up a small lead over the remaining seven boats. However, there is no room for complacency; over the next 24 to 48 hours the rest of the fleet should also drop below 40 degrees south, and the next decision to be made is just how far south to go.

Race Director, Joff Bailey, says, "The Great Circle route to Fremantle, the shortest route, is the obvious choice but now the leading yachts have opened up a small lead their best tactic will be to stay between the chasing pack and the finish and not take a gamble."

He continues, "It is very important to get that small lead in this type of ocean race as the weather systems come from the west and, although the lead boats will get the new weather later, they tend to stay in it longer and make even bigger gains. It is usually a case of the rich getting richer."

New York continue to make gains as they can see the tactical mistakes being made ahead of them. The tenacious crew and skipper, Duggie Gillespie, will be chomping at the bit to try to improve their position and build on their first place in Durban as every point counts towards the final overall position at the end of the Clipper 07-08 Race in July 2008.

Liverpool 08, who are still further north, are trying to scramble and claw their way south so they don't get left behind by the other teams. They may be able to improve their position in the next 48 hours or so if they manage to slip in behind the high pressure and take advantage of some favourable winds.

With 3000 nautical miles still to cover in this race the outcome is by no means a foregone conclusion and the leading three teams will surely make some mistakes. The trick now is for those in the chasing pack to hold their nerve and focus the whole crew on keeping the boat going at its optimum speed - without damaging anything - and by this time next week we may be looking at a very different leader board.

The fleet is due to arrive in Fremantle, Western Australia, on approximately 16 December.

www.Sail-Search.com: Daily Log, Northern Child, Sunday the 2nd of December 2007

It seems to have come around very quickly that today I am writing this log, the conclusion of the first week at sea on ARC 2007, having sailed 1,270 miles from Las Palmas. All of us on board feel that the time has passed very quickly indeed, faster than might have been expected. As we are continually working on watch, time passes quickly, and when we're not working on deck we're sleeping or relaxing. One of our main forms of relaxation on board this trip has been chatting to the others, continual laughter drifting down the hatch. Except in a squall, on deck in the rain and 30 knots of wind at 0300 in the morning! Time soon passes.

Where are we? We truly are out in the middle of the southern part of the North Atlantic Ocean. Our nearest point of land is probably still Mautitania, the port of Nouadhibou, 1,100 miles away to the east, but on our port (left) bow only 1,400 miles away is the Amazon Delta. We are 1,260 miles north of the Equator, and finally, 1,500 miles on our nose, the Caribeean. How does that sound?!

Daniel from Duisburg, Germany is our gentle giant, currently lives in Antwerp, Belgium, and luckily for us speaks fluent English. Over the last 7 years he has sailed with friends in the North Sea and the Netherlands, and is not used to wearing shorts at sea! He likes the good weather and loves the magic moments at night with all the stars and phosphorescence. I will remember him always for a great sense of humour and his laughter.

John is from the East Coast of the US and is an experienced cruising and racing sailor, having cruised with his family and friends in the Islands of the Caribbean, as well as having competed in the Newport - Bermuda and Transpac races. John has found the trip both exhilarating and exhausting and a great chance to gradually get to know the crew. That rare thing, a cultured, quiet American (!), John is great company to have on board.

Our big exercise of the day was the result of our decision to head a little more south to try and find wind for a couple of day's time. We could no longer goosewing out our two headsails and mainsail, so had to drop two genoas simultaneously to rehoist just the larger one. This involved most of the crew wrestling with 150 square meters of wet sail in 20 knots of breeze on a rolling deck doing 8 knots down the face of some quite large waves. We lost Billy at one stage as he got underneath the sails, but we did find him again later on!

During the last 24 hours the weather has changed as we run in towards the low pressure trough. Although at the moment we are running along in bright sunlight, there are also huge banks of grey cloud all around us hurrying on their way overhead to the west. Associated with the trough are squalls and thunderstorms keeping us on our toes as we constantly reef the sails and let the bad weather pass, only 20 minutes later to reverse the process and get all the sails back out again. The crew are becoming experts....

We have covered 177 miles towards Scuttlebutts in the last 24 hours, 15 miles less than the last few days runs because we are heading a little south of our straight line to St Lucia, sacrificing a bit of forward progress. We have managed to bring the boat one a half degrees of latitude further south during this period and are pretty happy with the result. More of the same sort of conditions to come in the next 24 hours.

A bientot - Julian, Northern Child

www.Sail-Search.com: The weather pattern in the South Atlantic isn’t doing the bulk of the Barcelona World Race fleet any favours, as it is distinctly advantaging the leaders in the fleet. PRB and Paprec-Virbac 2 have added over 40 miles to their lead over third placed Veolia Environnement over the last 24 hours and nearly twice that over most of the rest of the fleet as well.

The danger for the chasing pack is that the first two boat will hit the Roaring Forties with such a big lead that they roar off one or two full weather systems ahead, making it difficult for the others to stay in touch.

“We don’t expect to be able to do too much about it in the short term,” said Hugo Boss skipper Alex Thomson today. “They’re going to get south first and extend away, but at some point there will be a concertina effect where we’ll get closer again.”

Thomson admitted that earlier in his career being in this kind of position would have driven him mad, but he says with more experience, he’s become more patient.

Patience was the word of the day on board Mutua Madrileña as well, as Javier Sansó and Pachi Rivero found themselves nearly becalmed for several hours early this morning. The boat is up to speed again this afternoon, but Sansó says the conditions they are sailing in favour the newer boats.

“The leading boats are better than us, especially when ‘reaching’ (with the wind from the side of the boat),” he said.

It was an emotional video conference today with the last placed boat, Educación sin Fronteras. Family members were on the chat with both sailors Servanne Escoffier and Albert Bargués, who were surprised and very happy to see and hear from their families. Although the equipment on board makes it possible to email home quite easily, it is rare for the sailors to see and speak with their families on this long race.

Staying in touch - in both senses - was the theme on Sunday.

Day 22 – December 2, 16:00 GMT – Position report with distance to leader

1. PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien JOSSE – 0.0
2. PAPREC-VIRBAC 2 - Jean Pierre DICK / Damian FOXALL – 36
3. VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT - Roland JOURDAIN / Jean Luc NELIAS - 259
4. HUGO BOSS - Alex THOMSON / Andrew CAPE - 384
5. DELTA DORE - Jérémie BEYOU / Sidney GAVIGNET - 427
6. TEMENOS 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele PARET- 506
7. MUTUA MADRILENA - Javier SANSO / Pachi RIVERO - 574
8. ESTRELLA DAMM - Guillermo ALTADILL / Jonathan MCKEE - 705
9. EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS - Servane ESCOFFIER / Albert BARGUES - 1009

In Quotes – Sidney Gavignet, Delta Dore (talking about his first trip to the southern ocean): “I was more anxious than Jérémie is today because all my confidence was based on Michel Desjoyeaux, who decided to leave the boat at the stopover before the southern ocean. It is special for sure... Jérémie is pretty well for this and seems to be more concerned about having the boat prepared for when the conditions turn worse. And he’s working hard on the navigation and routing…rather than being scared of the south. I would say we’re quite confident in ourselves and in Delta Dore.”

www.Sail-Search.com: Qingdao has taken a big chunk out of the leading pair over the last 24-hours and have leapt up the leader board into 2nd place with two big 12-hourly runs of over 100 nautical miles. The Chinese team is also the most southerly boat and the first to enter the infamous Southern Ocean by crossing the 40 degree south line last night. Even though they are only about 30 nautical miles further south than Durban this southerly position has benefited them significantly as they have held onto the wind longer than the other teams.

The wind across the fleet’s current location is forecasted to build again later today and enable all the teams to put more miles beneath them. Skipper Ricky Chalmers on Durban 2010 and Beyond is obviously hoping for more wind: “Today should get progressively better, as the winds build from the east/north east and then start to swing to the north west. By this time tomorrow we should be bashing to windward or fast reaching again.”

Liverpool 08 and Nova Scotia have both been stranded further north and will now be trying to claw their way south to get the strengthening winds. Skipper Ben Galloway onboard Liverpool 08 commented this morning about their situation: “We found ourselves in a tricky place with the high pressure and although south would seem like the obvious direction to head, it would have meant possibly another 24-hours of not moving very far if the GRIB file is correct. Therefore a team decision was made to close haul north east until the high filled in, tack and get back on the rhumb line. Hopefully with the breeze strengthening this should give us a better point of sail than the rest of the fleet. The wind has been blowing for a while now and speed is good again.”

Jamaica’s skipper, Simon Bradley, has been concentrating on honing his crew’ s basic sailing skills due to the issues with their wind instruments. He stated this morning: “At first it was a distinct disadvantage not having any working instruments on deck, now it is paying dividends. The crew on Jamaica are now using their senses, they are feeling the wind strength and direction, they are feeling the motion and the speed of the yacht, they are not relying on some electronic gizmo that may or may not be giving accurate information, they are becoming real sailors.”

New York continues the charge from behind. Despite being so far back the team's position will focus the crew and they will be able to take advantage of seeing the mistakes that the teams ahead are making.

During the recent medical evacuation off the coast of Durban New York used their engine for a short period of time. The race committee is currently collecting the required information and will make a decision if a penalty should be awarded or not. This is also the case for Hull & Humber, Nova Scotia and Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper who all used their engines during the recent MOB incident. The reason for the race committee considering the use of the engine is to ensure that the integrity of the race is maintained and that all parties comply with internationally recognised rules.

Joff Bailey, Race Director: “Ocean racing is an inherently risky sport. As race organisers we are not able to remove these risks and nor would we want to as they are an integral part of the challenge. However, we are able to reduce the risk of accidents occurring at sea which is done primarily through our Clipper Training programme.”

All crew taking part in the race must undertake the Clipper Training programme which has been developed over the last twelve years and has drawn from the combined experience of the previous five Clipper Races.

A major part of the training is devoted to emergency drills such as man overboard and the medical evacuation of crew. These are practiced over and over again in a variety of conditions both day and night to ensure that in the event of the worst happening every crew member on board the Clipper Fleet knows exactly how to react and what needs doing in order to maximise a casualty’s chances of survival.

James Allen, Head of Clipper Training: “Having had the experience of seeing one of my own crew members disappear overboard in the Southern Ocean during my time as skipper I will never forget the affect it had on both myself and my crew. It truly is the worst feeling in the world, and a grim reminder of the risks faced by everyone who goes to sea. Hannah and her crew’s response to the situation was second to none, to recover a MOB at night in the conditions they were experiencing was a fantastic feat of seamanship and a testament to the quality of training received by all Clipper Race crew. Although we never like to see incidents like this happen it is nice to know that the preparation that we provide the crew at Clipper Training is effective and I congratulate Hannah and her team on their successful recovery.”

www.Sail-Search.com: Daily Log, Northern Child, Saturday the 1st of December 2007.

Friday afternoon we had perfect sailing conditions, not overly hot, but a beautiful blue sky, lots of puffy cumulus clouds and a deep blue ocean to scamper across. This is more what Magali told the crew it would be like! Sue's haggis surprise of Thai noodles with immaculately cut out little carrot fishes courtesy of Kate, luckily involved no haggis and was absolutely amazing. With really no room left for anything else two large salad bowls of whiskey trifle arrived on deck and we finished every last morsel of it! Of course we could have said no, but did we? Did we heck!

Before we could complete our daily exercise routine of popping up and down the companionway steps once or twice it was dinner time, and it was our duty to consume enormous quantities of home made chilli and rice. This just has to stop: I bet it won't. All our meat is deep frozen and kept at around minus 30 in the freezer; this morning I needed to check that the compressors were still working properly and was slightly alarmed to see that we still had most of the freezer full and therefore lots more yummy meals for Sue to concoct... We are our own worst enemies; we keep on eating all we are given. Oh well, we can always go on a rum diet when we hit Scuttlebutts.

All the problems seem to come at night - have I said that before? The moon is rising later and smaller every night as it's waning, thus for the first half of the night it can be really, really dark. The night was split completely in two. Dave's watch took over at 2200 and within half an hour a squall came across us with driving rain and high winds. No sooner come, no sooner gone, and having got all the sails reduced in size for the squall we pretty soon had to get them all back out again. By the end of the watch at 0200 and handover to Rick and his team, the moon had just come out, the sky was completely clear apart from the odd bit of cumulous and a carpet of stars floated from horizon to horizon above our heads, breathtakingly beautiful. As I descended the companionway in search of sleep the helmsman was perfectly outlined against a moving canopy of stars above his head, wow.

Still dark on deck and around 0600 this morning Dave's watch took over again and guess what? Within no time at all the wind was up to just below 30 knots, rain was lashing down and another squall swept through! I give up with this watch, might be better to hang out with Ric's crowd!

I have included a snapshot picture of one our weather forecasting tools, showing the upcoming forecast for the 4th of December. You will see our current projected track coming in from the top right diagonally across the screen and the red triangle is our projected position for the 4th, with forecasted conditions overlaid for that day. This is showing a remarkable lack of wind arrows for the 4th, only about 5 knots, so as a consequence I have had the on deck crew gybe (turn the back of the boat through the wind) onto a new, slightly more southerly course. Our objective for the 4th would be to try and be 75 miles further south in the 10 knot wind band you can see to the south of the track. I'll let you know in a few days time whether this is working or not! The crew, however, are never allowed to forget the downwind VMG (velocity made good) towards Scuttlebutts! In other words, the quickest way to the bar!

I somehow got talking with Daniel as he exited the aft shower at high speed, sounds worse than it was, but his comment to me was 'never take a shower whilst the others are gybing the boat - It was a great shower, however!' He was obviously happily showering away on one side of the heads when we changed direction and the boat heeled the other way! As long as our watermaker is working we are able to shower once every couple of days which is a great treat out here in the heat and salt of the Atlantic Ocean. Every day we run the generator a couple of times to charge the batteries and the freezers. At the same time we power up the watermaker and produce around 35 litres of fresh water an hour.

Mark has become our celestial navigation expert, never having touched it in his life, but with a brain the size of a planet he finds it an interesting challenge.... Mark seems to be some sort of computer software genius and as well as sailing he is a keen cyclist and in summer 2008 is competing in the grand fondo campagnolo, sounds impressive, whatever it is! Tim has the honour of being our eldest crewmember and at home is a hobby farmer with horses, donkeys and rabbits. His ambition was to do the ARC when he was still young enough to enjoy it fully and advises that if anyone is thinking of doing the ARC that they should approach it with respect.

Over night we passed the 1,000 miles sailed since we have left Las Palmas mark - that's a pretty big milestone for us to have knocked off. We now have 1,623 miles to run to Scuttlebutts and have sailed 191 miles in the last 24 hours, remarkably consistent progress. The weather now? Bright sunshine, 28 degrees at the chart table, loads of wind off the port quarter - perfect!

A bientot, Julian
Northern Child

www.Sail-Search.com: Daily Log, Northern Child, Friday the 30th of November 2007

We seem to be, as our American cousins might say, kicking some serious butt! On board we feel a little cut off from the real world, but it does seem that from the reports my wife, Magali, is forwarding to us that we are doing okay. That, of course, will be the kiss of death to our forward progress over the next few days. However, every time I hear a radio schedule or get any reported positions in over the satellite phone, I am searching the lists furiously to see whether our progress has been slower than others in the Rally. Considerable relief if I think we have got away with it again!

This morning we are all a little tired because the winds and seas have generally been a little bit higher overnight than before. This increase in wind has actually made the boat a lot harder to steer as the wave pattern coming in from astern is picking us up like a little plastic toy and throwing us from side to side continually! A lot more concentration is required on the helm and as we are now starting to lose the moon which is waning, the nights are getting pretty dark and long. Of course there is always a good side to everything we do and the good side of the extra wind is more speed!

One of today's pictures is Steve, who is with us as a full sailing member of the Northern Child crew. However, he is also making a DVD for World Cruising of ARC 2007 as well as shooting some footage of the event for his own internet TV channel, Yachting TV. We are trying to act normally when he's around but even the male members of the crew on board have been seen getting the makeup out when Steve is seen heading topsides with one or other of his cameras.. Thinking of Steve, could someone other than his work colleague, within his family, take pity on him and send him an email please. Even Tiddles the ships cat has more fans than Steve, and he's starting to mutter things like, 'I never did trust the milkman' and 'we never used to get our papers delivered when I was at home.' As we don't have a ships cat anyway, you get the idea, put him out of his misery! Only a close relative will do!

Kate is on board as mate, second mate, not sure what her title would or should be. Incredibly good natured, she will help anyone do anything, including cleaning up behind us. We sure are glad that we have both Susie and Kate looking after us and bringing a civilising influence to events on board.

To prove how absolutely raving mad we are out here, I thought you might like this picture of Ric celebrating St Andrews Day in a traditional way. Susie has done a typical Scottish menu which includes delights such as Thai peanut pork noodle salad with Haggis followed by Peach and Whisky trifle, and dinner is classic chilli with Neeps and extra Haggis on the side. We'll let you know tomorrow how it all went down!

In the last 24 hours we have covered 190 miles under sail towards our destination, our best yet! The surprising thing is, it's still a long way to St Lucia... We have been out now for 5 full days, have completed 900 miles under sail from Las Palmas, and have 1814 miles still to run to Scuttlebutts! That is a long way. Not if you're hitching a lift with Richard at 500 mph courtesy of 4 large Rolls Royce turbo fans, but at the pace we're sailing it's a long way to go! Don't even ask about an ETA, somewhere around another 10 days should be about right, if we don't lose the wind, get lost, eat too much.....!

A Bientot, Julian

Northern Child

www.Sail-Search.com: Day 19: Duelling in the South Atlantic.

Although the Barcelona World Race is a 25 000 nautical marathon around the world, you might not know that from the position reports today. There are three very close ‘races within the race’ happening on the south Atlantic as the fleet sprints south towards the ‘Roaring Forties’.

At the front of the fleet, PRB and Paprec-Virbac 2 are battling for position at the head of the leaderboard, a spot PRB has occupied since the doldrums. But on the 14:00 position report, Paprec-Virbac 2 had eased in front by less than one mile, and had extended that to all of four miles on the 16:00 position sked.

It’s even closer in the fight for fourth, where Hugo Boss has been reeling in Delta Dore all day. Early in the afternoon, skipper Alex Thomson made the pass and by 16:00 was ahead by just three miles.

“This morning we got a bit of a shock that we were averaging a knot and a half quicker than Delta Dore and were faster in these conditions,” Thomson explained. “We were initially a little bit to the east of her, Delta Dore sailed up to us to see what was going on, we had the same sail configuration, they were running at 100% but we were running at 110%. Capey (co-skipper Andrew Cape) thinks it’s his magic fingers but I think it’s the boat!”

And then, 70 miles behind, Temenos II has maintained its 20-mile advantage over Mutua Madrileña over the past day. All in all, three good battles up and down the fleet.

Left on its own in third place is Veolia Environnement, just over 130 miles adrift of the leaders and nearly 130 miles ahead of the chasing Hugo Boss. Further back, Estrella Damm is fighting to catch Mutua Madrileña, while Educación sin Fronteras approaches the scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha.

The two leading boats are in a strong position, with many in the chasing pack making the observation that the leaders might just catch a weather system that shoots them down south well ahead of the pack. The coming days will show whether that fear is justified.

Day 19 – November 29, 16:00 GMT – Position report with distance to leader

1. PAPREC-VIRBAC 2 - Jean Pierre DICK / Damian FOXALL - 0.0
2. PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien JOSSE - 4.1
3. VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT - Roland JOURDAIN / Jean Luc NELIAS - 138.1
4. HUGO BOSS - Alex THOMSON / Andrew CAPE - 257.1
5. DELTA DORE - Jérémie BEYOU / Sidney GAVIGNET - 260.3
6. TEMENOS 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele PARET - 332.8
7. MUTUA MADRILENA - Javier SANSO / Pachi RIVERO - 353.3
8. ESTRELLA DAMM - Guillermo ALTADILL / Jonathan MCKEE - 497.3
9. EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS - Servane ESCOFFIER / Albert BARGUES - 758.8

In Quotes – Alex Thomson, Hugo Boss: "What gives you the motivation is just sailing straight past somebody and there is nothing they can do about it. It proves we have good boat speed in these conditions…the conditions in the race so far haven’t allowed us to prove what she can do. I had always hoped she would be fast in these conditions, we expected her to be fast in these conditions. I can tell you it is a massive, massive pleasure to be able to sail past someone like that!"

29 November 2007: Mike Golding (GBR) onboard Open 60 ECOVER 3 at the start of the ECOVER Transat BtoB race from Salvador de Bahia (Brazil) and Port-La-Foret (Finistere, Brittany), as part of his 2008/09 Vendee Globe campaign. Photo credit: onEdition

www.Sail-Search.com: The La Solitaire du Figaro solo race across France, through the Irish sea and past Spain has in the recent past always consisted of four legs. The 2008 edition of La Solitaire du Figaro will now return to the distant past and consist of three legs, the first of which will be back to Vigo, Spain.

On the 25th of July the race will set off from La Rochelle and head for Vigo in Spain. The 465 mile leg is a classic Figaro course that will see the fleet cross the Bay of Biscay, round Cape Finisterre and the Cies Isles, the final course mark before the finish in Vigo. Vigo hosts the race stop for the third time as the event returns after 18 years.

The second leg is a run north to Normandy which will depart on the 31st of July and the fleet will head for Cherbourg-Octeville This will offer 590 miles of racing punctuated with strategic passage points: Cape Finisterre again, the Raz de Sein, the Channel Isles and finally the unpredictable Raz de Blanchard. The pace will be fast on this leg and there will be some key passage points that will require careful handling. The southern Norman town, that hosted the 2006 start, will welcome and play host to the fleet.

Finally, on the 8th of August, the fleet will head off on the 825-mile marathon third leg to the port of L’Aber Wrac’h. The longest leg in the history of La Solitaire (the 762 miles on the last edition of the race were shortened due to the weather conditions) will make up two legs as for the 39th edition of the race there will be no Irish stop-over. The competitors will however be spending quite some time in these seas as for the first time, they will head round the Isle of Man, situated North East of Dublin. It will be the first time the race heads up to such Northern latitudes. What is going to be tough is knowing how to handle 6 days single handed racing, if you consider that the fleet, for the most part, averages some 6 knots; 825 miles that will push them to the limit and bring them to Brittany. The new port of L’Aber Wrac’h, inaugurated in 2007, will welcome La Solitaire du Figaro for the very first time.

“Working around 3 legs as opposed to 4 for the 2008 edition of the race gives the competitors an 825-mile leg, the longest in the history of La Solitaire. Whether it be the short coastal sprint or a long offshore marathon, all will have a chance to excel over the various stages of this race”, explains Jacques Caraës

www.Sail-Search.com: Daily Log, Northern Child, Thursday the 29th of November 2007

Whilst sitting writing today's log at the chart table I rather wish I was on deck. It has been a perfect dawn with the sun breaking through ranks of stacked cumulus clouds on the horizon, typical of north east trade winds in this area. Exactly what we are looking for. In fact, they are still on the light side strength wise of what we are hoping for, but that actually gives us very pleasant sea conditions. The wind kept up all night, a little light, but enough to move us along at a respectable rate of around 7.5 to 8 knots all night.

It is difficult seeing the computer screen as I type; bright sunshine is flooding down the hatchway from on deck, swinging crazily around over the screen as the boat heaves and rolls its way across the surface of the ocean. I am seeing 26 degrees at the chart table at 0930 already, and of course the watch on deck in the direct sunlight are already experiencing considerably more; suntan cream is definitely the order of the day.

I mentioned that we are hopefully now in an area of stable north east trade winds - what are they? Following in the wake of Columbus the early Transatlantic traders discovered that if they went south west first to the Canaries they could then repeatedly cross to the West Indies with constant winds blowing from behind, the only direction they could sail with the square sails they had. Their return journeys to the old world in the east were then to the north of the same Azores High pressure system that they used to go west: thus they completed a circle around the Atlantic with winds blowing in a clockwise direction from behind. From this came the term trade winds, the same circle that Northern Child follows year after year.

It is always interesting to see how things work out on board. We take a group of people who don't know each other, who don't know the yacht, yet, and we put them into a situation of close proximity in a vessel the size of a small apartment. We then take the yacht and constantly shake it around like a sugar shaker, deprive them of sleep, feed them too much good food, stand back and look for the fallout! So far, so good, no one has fallen out with one another, everyone is thriving and enthusiasm for, well everything, is running riot. It is great to hear laughter, means I can relax as everyone is enjoying the trip, fabulous.

Thanks to Bill Fiske, Nigel Backwith, Richard Art and numerous others for reminding us that the bar in the Marina in Rodney Bay is indeed called Scuttlebutts! It isn't the best bar in the world, but after 2,700 miles of sailing it comes pretty close. We do have alcohol on board and if the weather allows we try and have a happy hour right before dinner in the evening. As everyone has to turn out at some stage during the night it really is just an excuse to chill and watch the sunset.

Progress, well, our progress reflects the wind speed for the last few days - we have had rather less wind than we would have liked in an ideal world, but on the other hand our position is approximately half a day's sailing ahead of where we were this time last year, so that is pretty cool. We are taking the riskier 'northern route' across from the Canaries to St Lucia and although the distance is shorter, we carry the risk of lighter winds over the route, so it is a gamble. Will it pay off? Ah, if only I knew the answer to that question! We have had a great first few days, so there are certainly no complaints from on board, yet!

I cannot possibly finish this log without mentioning the dolphins! The sun really is blazing down from a beautiful sky, the sea a blaze of blue and white foamed caps where an occasional wave top is breaking off and tumbling down the face of the wave, and then, dolphins! Why is it we all like dolphins so much? They seem playful, and fun and gentle all at the same time, as they skilfully dart through the waves on the bow. Amazing.

In the last 24 hours we have covered 186 miles towards St Lucia at an averaged speed of 7.9knots, short of our best 24 hour run by one mile! We are next looking to beat the 192 mile barrier, or 8 knots made good towards our destination over 24 hours. We sail further than this every day, but not in a straight line towards the waypoint, so it is the actual amount of miles that we have managed to sail directly towards the destination that I am interested in and that I report to you on these logs. With by far the best conditions we have experienced on deck so far of this trip, I can only report that we are all fit and well and eating too much of Susie's food!

A bientot,

Julian
Northern Child

www.Sail-Search.com: Day 18: Staying close at the front.

The two race leaders, PRB and Paprec-Virbac 2, are determined to stay to close to each other as the two boats descend down towards the ‘Roaring 40’s’. That’s still some days off, but skippers on both boats say they’re determined to remain close, to ensure they stay in the same weather system as the other, and reach the Roaring 40's together.

PRB skippered by Vincent Riou/Sebastien Josset at the start of the Barcelona World Race prologue at the RORC Rolex Fastnet Race off Cowes, UK.
Photo credit: onEdition/OC Events/FNOB

“We just want to make sure that whatever PRB gets, we get it too,” explained Damian Foxall on Paprec-Virbac 2 this afternoon. PRB’s Vincent Riou had the same idea earlier in the day.

But Veolia Environnement appears to be determined to make it a three-boat party as Roland Jourdain’s boat has taken over 50 miles out of the leading PRB over the last 24 hours.

Further back Delta Dore and Hugo Boss have done even better, clawing back nearly 60 miles, although they remain over 200 miles behind. Those top five boats have now all crossed through the scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha.

Next to reach that milestone will be Temenos II, which has spent the day trying to drag itself clear of Mutua Madrileña and has been rewarded with a margin of 20 miles.

Also, finally joining the bulk of the fleet in the south Atlantic trade winds is Estrella Damm. Skippers Guillermo Altadill and Jonathan McKee have battled against a series of problems on board, with the result that they haven’t been able to stay in touch with their competitors.

“This has been one of the hardest three days of my life,” read the email today from Jonathan McKee. “Granted we had been having a rather bad race, whether making some poor decisions or being unlucky or some combination of those two. But we were still in the race, something like 30-50 miles behind the group in front on Sunday morning. But somehow they kept a lot more consistent breeze than us since then...According to our weather data, we should have had decent breeze the whole time, and better than the boats further west. But obviously those predictions have been wrong and somehow our competitors have analyzed the situation better than we have. Each time we would get a good southwest wind we would say, ok here we go at last, only to have it disappear within an hour, and we return to the DOLDRUMS, Heinous place...”

Perhaps they can take heart from the latest position report, which sees Estrella Damm racing south at 14.7 knots – the third fastest boat in the fleet. Meanwhile, Educación sin Fronteras, at the back of the fleet, will be spending the night in the doldrums.

Day 18 – November 28, 16:00 GMT – Position report with distance to leader

1. PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien JOSSE - 0.0
2. PAPREC-VIRBAC 2 - Jean Pierre DICK / Damian FOXALL - 10.1
3. VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT Roland JOURDAIN / Jean Luc NELIAS - 122.0
4. DELTA DORE - Jérémie BEYOU / Sidney GAVIGNET - 204.4
5. HUGO BOSS - Alex THOMSON / Andrew CAPE - 220.1
6. TEMENOS 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele PARET - 254.4
7. MUTUA MADRILENA - Javier SANSO / Pachi RIVERO - 274.0
8. ESTRELLA DAMM - Guillermo ALTADILL / Jonathan MCKEE - 472.0
9. EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS Servane ESCOFFIER / Albert BARGUES - 667

In Quotes – email from Veolia Environment: "The traditional southerly port tack has begun. At the beginning we were ecstatic to get out of the Doldrums, to finally catch up on some of those things like siesta, chat, the good life. We finally have decided it’s good but not that easy to work on a boat that is heeling and moving around all the time, and it does get a little monotonous always on the same side. But soon we will be down in the great south – the cold, the action, the reason we have come here…The worst thing is that in a month’s time when we have our three polar layers of clothing we will be saying, ‘It was so cool when we were sailing off the Brazilian coast…’ Us sailors are never happy I can tell you!"

www.Sail-Search.com: Now the fleet is starting to spread out on a NE-SW axis across approximately 200 nautical miles of ocean, the weather systems in the area are starting to affect the teams in different ways and the tactical choices made by the skipper and navigator are starting to take effect.

The most northerly yacht, Liverpool 08, jumped into the lead overnight but this has been at the cost of sailing closer to the centre of the high pressure system with lighter winds. This has meant that in the 12 hours to the 0600 GMT schedule they had a run of just 39 nautical miles. This is in comparison to the most southerly boat, Durban 2010 and Beyond, which also improved in position overnight and has continued on a southerly track staying in fresher winds and posting a 12-hour run of 65 nautical miles.

Durban 2010 and Beyond at the start of Race 4 in Durban. Race 4 is from Durban to Fremantle. Photo credit: Russell Cleaver/onEdition

One skipper who thinks he had the right tactics but the wrong timing is Mark Preedy on Uniquely Singapore. "The decision to dive south to cover our tail may prove to be too little too late and then to be stung by the group that was left may prove a little painful. But that's the great thing about ocean racing. You have to accept it and just get on."

Race Director, Joff Bailey, says, "The break in the winds is helping all of the boats undertake some maintenance and repairs after the last three days of frantic sailing since the start of this race in Durban last Sunday."

After the scare yesterday with the man overboard incident the crew of Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper have been relaxing in the lighter airs. Skipper Hannah Jenner comments, "For once, being becalmed most of the night as actually quite nice. Now with spinnaker flying and sun out Glasgow is a happy boat again."

New York has been making good progress since their medivac. The skipper Duggie Gillespie says, "In the calmer weather we have been drying out the boat, repairing parts and doing lots of sleeping after medivac situation. We are all pleased to hear that our shipmate Tony is out of hospital and doing well. Thank you to the SA Navy, NSRI, Cape Town MRCC and Point Yacht Club for all of their help in resolving the situation. Now to the Southern Ocean!"

The Clipper racing yachts communicate, via satellite, with the Race Office on a fixed schedule four times a day to report their positions and any other interesting facts. Joff Bailey says, "The specification for the communication system for such a race obviously has to have worldwide coverage, be robust and be reliable. Although back on land we take for granted being able to pick up a mobile phone and ring anybody or email at anytime, at sea that is not the case."

As the fleet heads towards the Southern Ocean, one of the most remote areas of the planet, maintaining communications takes on even more significance.

"The satellite systems available to cover the oceans have areas of reduced coverage, which means at times it is impossible to send data, emails, video or high quality pictures by using just one system," explains Joff. "To overcome this, the Clipper Race fleet is fitted with two advanced satellite communication systems, so that when one system does not have coverage the other one does. This means that the yachts are never out of contact with the Race Office. To back up all of this there is also a third system for use in emergencies. It has reduced functionality but is highly reliable and has global coverage."

The fleet is expected to arrive in Fremantle, Western Australia, on 16 December 2007.

Mike Golding (GBR) test sailing onboard Open 60 ECOVER 3 ahead of the ECOVER Transat BtoB race from Salvador de Bahia (Brazil) and Port-La-Foret (Finistere, Brittany), as part of his 2008/09 Vend´e Globe campaign.
Photo credit: onEdition

www.Sail-Search.com: Dee Caffari onboard AVIVA will be setting off on her first solo open 60 race, the 2007 Transat Ecover-BtoB, a transatlantic sailing race between Salvador de Bahia, Brazil and Port-La-Foret, Finistere, Brittany. The 4,340-mile race signifies the next step of Caffari's rapid development into competitive Open 60 racing as she prepares to compete in the Vendee Globe 2008/09 and become the first woman to sail solo around the world in both directions. The Aviva Ocean Racing campaign is planned to culminate with her entry into the 2008/9 Vendee Globe. This race is contested by ocean racing's elite, is regarded as one of the world's most gruelling sailing races.

Caffari's campaign will include a series of IMOCA (International Monohull Open Class Association) Open 60 races throughout 2007/8 in preparation for her entry into the 2008/9 Vendee Globe. The new purpose built race boat for the 2008 Vendee Globe entry is under construction.

Dee Caffari. Photo Credit: onEdition

www.Sail-Search.com: Today began with the news that Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper had safely recovered a crew member who was swept overboard during a headsail change overnight. The skipper Hannah Jenner informed the Race Office in the early hours of the morning that a 42-year-old male crew member had been recovered safely and uninjured after being swept overboard from the bow during a headsail change. She reported the incident happened in force 5-6 winds more than 600 nautical miles off the coast of South Africa.

The crew member was following safety procedures and was wearing a life jacket with an integral harness and was clipped onto the boat with a safety line at the time of the incident. The precise circumstances in which he went overboard are being investigated at present and further details will be issued in due course.

Clipper Chairman, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, said, “Thanks to our comprehensive Clipper Training, the crew member was recovered from the water in just nine minutes in very difficult conditions. Hannah and her crew demonstrated excellent seamanship throughout the incident and I would like to congratulate them on the professional and swift manner in which they dealt with the situation.”

The crew reacted quickly to the incident and immediately pressed the Man Overboard button on the GPS system to mark on the chart the position at which he was swept into the sea. The yacht’s engine was started in order to recover the crew member and he was brought onboard after just nine minutes in the water. As soon as he was back onboard, he received immediate medical attention from the boat medic, a general surgeon when not racing with Clipper 07-08, who is a member of the crew of Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper. The crew member was treated for signs of hypothermia and for shock but no other injuries. Hannah received medical advice via Falmouth Coastguard and is continuing to monitor the crew member’s condition. All the other crew onboard are safe and well.

Also safe and well is New York crew member Tony Peters whose medical evacuation took place successfully at 18:35 GMT yesterday. The NSRI Durban Sea Rescue vessel Eikos Rescuer II took Tony to the NSRI base where a Netcare 911 ambulance was waiting to take him to hospital. Following treatment for his head injuries and a broken nose Tony is flying back to the UK this evening and hopes to rejoin New York in Fremantle.

Joff Bailey, Race Director: “With their casualty safely dropped off in Durban the New York team can now focus on trying to claw back the miles lost over the last few days. If Duggie and his team manage to get back into the pack it will be a bigger comeback than Hull & Humber in the last race.”

Despite their man overboard incident last night Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper continues to be in the lead pack and has been racing hard with Hull & Humber and Nova Scotia for the past three days. Both Hull & Humber and Nova Scotia went to assist Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper last night and rendezvoused in order to transfer medical supplies following the MOB incident. All the boats are racing hard again and their response shows that although the teams are fiercely competitive they will stop and help each other if required and follow one of the age old traditions of mariners. Their positions at the moment indicate that they are choosing to sail the great circle route and not take advantage of the stronger prevailing winds that are often found further south. Liverpool 08 is also remaining more northerly and had moved into the lead at the 18:00 schedule, an indication that the MOB situation had affected the 12-hourly runs of Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper and the assisting boats.

Meanwhile Durban 2010 and Beyond, Qingdao, Uniquely Singapore and westernaustralia2011.com all appear to be trying to get into the ‘roaring forties’ as quickly as possible. The skipper of Durban 2010 and Beyond, Ricky Chalmers, indicated surprise this morning when he realised that the front-runners were not joining them on their southerly course. “I cannot believe the lead pack are not pushing further south,” said Ricky.

Joff Bailey, Race Director. “The boats are all very close at the moment. However, things should start to split up over this weekend as the teams get influenced by the high pressure system in the area. By next Monday we will know whether going north or south has paid off.”

www.Sail-Search.com: Daily Log, Northern Child, Wednesday the 28th of November 2007

Sometimes the forecasted winds don't quite materialise - when that happens, it can be quite frustrating. How frustrating depends normally on what time of day, or night it is, and therefore how tired you are! You get the idea, our forecasted trade winds of a perfect 15 - 20 knots with no sign of deterioration have ...... deteriorated! From 2200 hours we have been chucked around like a plastic duck in a bath bobbing around under the taps, extremely uncomfortable and combined with frustratingly slow progress. Having written that, it's not quite true as over the last 24 hours we have made good 165 miles towards the bar. 165 miles in 24 hours at an average of 6.8 knots, well, that's not too bad after all. It's a long way to swim is the way I look at it.

That reminds me, who can help us out with the name of the bar in Rodney Bay Marina? It is either Peg Legs or Scuttlebutts, or it was one and changed to the other, or something like that. Anyway, that's the question for today, what is the name of the bar in Rodney Bay Marina? Answers please to our normal email address, julian[at]northernchild.com I know that some of our past ARC crewmembers have spent quite a while frequenting this establishment, whether or not they can remember the name is a different matter!

0200 this morning and it was time to gybe the boat and head off in a new direction. As a consequence of the wind shifting around behind us we were forced to change all our sails over to the other side of the boat, an operation that at the best of times takes quite a while and with David's watch on deck having just been woken up, took us the best part of an hour; satisfaction in buckets as we rested on deck with the moon poking out between the clouds at the conclusion of a job well done.

As always whilst sailing, as well as the middle of the night being busy, dawn always seems a busy time of day, and today was no exception. Having suffered a slow night's progress we decided to hoist our big American kite. It's a kite, a spinnaker, a spi same name same object, whatever you want to call it, but it is one of the big colourful cheerful sails that you often see in photos. Again, quite a massive operation to get the sail up and once up gave a great boost to our speed. No sooner was it up however, than a squall raced across the top of us and as it was our first time with a spi, it was also prudent to get it down again! It is a huge, powerful sail, and we dropped it perfectly, recovering the sail into the middle of the boat like seasoned professionals.

No sooner than it was down, and the wind has backed, dropped and it is throwing it down with rain! Ah, now that is definitely not in the brochure. Nothing lasts long down here, so we can be reasonably confident that it will soon pass over and normal service will resume. Amongst the frantic work going on on deck, Susie is in the galley, furiously beating eggs and looking very impressive generally; we don't let her out much, it's better that way, we get to eat great food! The importance attached to food on passage is enormous and it really becomes the social high point of the day. Dinner last night of Greek salad and moussaka, lunch today of Croque monsieur and salad, afternoon tea with cake and dinner tonight of Thai red prawn curry and prawn crackers. Everything is freshly baked by a very willing chef and don't think anyone on board is going to lose weight on the trip! Spoilt, oh yes we are, and happy with it.

Northern Child is now happily settled down again, pointing in the right direction at the right speed with lots of activity going on - no one has the time to get bored on board... sometimes we are tired and sometimes a little bit frightened, but bored? Never. Happy? Always. With 2,190 miles to go, we have sailed 526 miles from Las Palmas and we're loving it.

A Bientot,

Julian.
Northern Child

www.Sail-Search.com: Daily Log, Northern Child, Tuesday the 27th of November 2007.

Another day in the life of Northern Child, rocking and rolling our way merrily towards St Lucia at an average speed of 8 knots (nautical miles per hour) or 10 statute miles per hour. This might not sound much; in fact it is probably the average speed of a journey across London! But out here on the Atlantic Ocean it will do, there's a long way to go.

I wrote yesterday of blue skies and seas; today you might be relieved to hear that this morning we have almost total cloud cover! However, it's still warm, around 25 degrees and we are mostly in shorts and a t-shirt, so all is still pretty good. The wind and seas gently moderated during the night and despite a continually shifting wind we have made good progress towards .... the bar! In order to offer a bit more of an inducement to keep sailing as fast as we can, we have narrowed down our objective from St Lucia to the bar in the Marina and it's working!

The crew is now getting more used to the daily routine of life on board: writing this at the chart table I have just had both Alistair and Daniel go past saying that they had an excellent sleep, Daniel admitting that he slept better than on land. Crew members are taking the opportunity of good weather to shower and do some laundry, the first chance since Las Palmas on Sunday. We have a watermaker on board that every day produces fresh water for us, meaning not only can we cook and clean using freshwater, we can also shower, a real luxury as the weather gets hotter.

The main activity of the last 24 hours has been changing headsails. With the lighter winds has come the opportunity at dawn this morning to increase our sail area and David's watch worked hard for half an hour to get our biggest headsail up alongside our number 3. We are now running downwind with a full mainsail, and two headsails out the front, one on the pole to starboard and the second out to port. A huge amount of sail area is now gently wafting us on towards our destination in fine order at 8 knots.

Susie our extremely valuable chef, is currently jumping around the saloon waving her hand blender over her head and whooping with joy. Having stowed everything away over the last week before leaving Las Palmas, she had mislaid the mixer and is obviously happily reunited again with it! Lunch in an hour is cherry tomato and goats cheese tart with freshly baked muesli loaf and nutella crepes for desert, whilst dinner is moussaka and Greek salad: we aren't suffering!

The boat has been organised into two 'watches' of five people each, standing watches alternatively between the hours of 0600 - 1200, 1200 - 1800, 1800 - 2200, 2200 - 0200 and 0200 - 0600. With Ric, we have Billie (Mark), Daniel, Alistair and John. With David we have Tim, Steve, Mark and Jeremy. Alongside Susie we have the boats mate, Kate who is a jack of all trades and can usually be found discipling the crew over some minor misdemeanour like the washing up!

I leave you with the news that Northern Child has covered 187 miles made good towards St Lucia in the last 24 hours. We have 2355 miles left to run, the sun is shining, temperature now up to 27 degrees at the chart table and we are bounding along under beautiful clear blue skies again!

A bientot, Julian - Northern Child

www.Sail-Search.com: New York is still heading towards Durban this morning as it prepares to carry out the medical evacuation of 47-year-old crew member Tony Peters. The paramedic from Hanworth, Berkshire in the UK sustained a head injury when a large wave swept him across the cockpit yesterday on the second day of Race 4 from Durban to Fremantle. Tony, who hit his head on the main sheet traveller, remained conscious throughout the incident and is in a stable and comfortable condition onboard.

New York Skipper Duggie Gillespie reported the incident to Falmouth Coastguard, who advised him that due to the nature of the injury the crew member should be transferred to shore as soon as possible to receive medical attention.

The South African Navy strike craft Isaac Dyoba that led the formation ahead of the race start in Durban on Sunday has been tasked by the South African Coastguard to evacuate Tony from New York. Onboard the Navy strike craft are two paramedics from the emergency medical organisation Netcare 911 who are standing by to provide Tony with medical attention.

At 08:00 GMT this morning New York reported visual contact with the vessel and Isaac Dyoba is presently astern of New York and is tracking the yacht as they decide the best course of action. Upon arrival in Durban Tony will be taken to a local hospital for treatment and he will be accompanied by a member of the Clipper Race Team.

Joff Bailey, Race Director: “The Clipper Race Office has been monitoring the situation overnight and co-ordinating with the South African Navy every hour to ensure everybody has the most up to date information. With 30 knots of wind the sea conditions are rough and it may not be feasible to transfer Tony until later today.”

Tony’s condition has improved overnight and as soon as the transfer is complete Duggie and his crew will continue in the 4,220-mile race to Fremantle.

The other nine boats have been making rapid progress overnight with high 12-hourly runs being reported across the fleet. Nova Scotia and Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper are match racing within sight of each other as they push for the lead.

In the city of Durban yesterday there was a massive squall with winds recorded at 100 knots near the harbour entrance, hail stones and amazing lightning. Overnight this squall has caught up with the fleet and the reports this morning reflect the latest changes in the weather. Hannah Jenner, skipper of Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper was very relaxed about it: “There are times when being a skipper and having important things to do at the nav desk really is fun. For example right now I am sat down below whilst the ‘on watch’ crew are in the pouring rain with forked lightening touching down really rather close!”

Lightning and rain was also the topic of this morning’s report from Qingdao. Skipper Marcus Cholerton-Brown gave some good advice: “All fun and games this morning. A big thunderstorm came through and treated us to a great lightning display. I had to enforce the "no licking the mast" rule!”

Uniquely Singapore has had a good run overnight and the team has managed to open up a gap with the boats behind them and move further south than the leading pair. Uniquely Singapore’s skipper Mark Preedy was also pre-occupied with the heavens this morning: “We’ve had a little bit of lightning around the boat and I even saw some hit the water nearby. At this point I decided to turn off all the kit off to preserve if in case we were struck. It’s clutching at straws a bit but I’m working on the assumption that I used to turn the TV off at home and I never got hit.”

Race Director, Joff Bailey: “With the change in wind direction from NE to SW it will be interesting to see how Liverpool 08 performs over the next couple of days as they appear to be holding to a more northerly course. One thing that is certain is all nine boats will soon be
looking over their shoulders to see if New York can match the achievement of Hull & Humber who claimed line honours in Race 3 following a medivac on day 3 of the race from Salvador to Durban.”

www.Sail-Search.com: Daily Log, Northern Child, Monday the 26th of November 2007 26.54N 17.59W

As I type this we are some 100 miles out to the west of Gran Canaria, heading nicely on a rhumb, or direct, line towards St Lucia. We are sailing at around 8 knots towards the west in bright sunshine and confused seas, feeling good having just eaten a yummy chicken pesto salad for lunch.

We had decided in Las Palmas that we would exit the marina early so that we could head offshore to practice with our storm sails and generally learn how to sail the boat. As we left the quiet shelter of our berth, Ric from Edinburgh played the bagpipes on the foredeck to rounds of applause from other participants on the dock, and no small amount of emotion from the Northern Child crew. Many of us have been working up for this passage for a long time, and now here we are, realising that dream. Lines off, St Lucia next stop, over 2 weeks and 2,700 miles away across the other side of the Atlantic.

The seas outside the breakwater were running quite high as we headed out of the main port of Las Palmas and started sailing, a good indication of what was to come. Rejoining the rest of the fleet just after midday we watched the start of the racing division and then manoeuvred ourselves into a good position on the start line for the start of ARC 2007. With the huge bang of a maroon from the starting boat at 1300 hours exactly, we were off! Under darkening clouds we hurried south away from the line with a great view of most of the rest of the fleet to the north, behind us!

During the afternoon we worked our way south down the east coast of Gran Canaria heading for Maspolomas and the southern tip of the Island before dark. As evening came on the skies cleared out and the moon rose full on our stern, illuminating the scene beautifully. The ocean was starting to get less crowded and by dawn we could only see 3 other yachts on the horizon.

We are now powering along the straight line towards St Lucia and all is well on board. It takes several days to settle into the watch routine of life aboard ship at sea, but we are all slowly getting there. It has been a rewarding 24 hours sail so far, with two patches of calms and several small squalls to keep us on our toes. We have sailed a total distance of 177 nautical miles since the start, although the first 30 or so miles were around the east end of Gran Canaria.

As I write this log over the next few days I will introduce you to the crew, the boat and keep you fully informed about life onboard. You can see where we are 24 hours a day by clicking on the link on our website homepage www.northernchild.com, to the Yellow Brick tracker that we carry. This device is a small GPS tracker which has its positions displayed every hour on google earth, and I think you will all see by the end of this voyage what an amazing piece of kit it is. Northern Child becomes addictive!

That's it for today.

A bientot, Julian – Northern Child skipper

www.Sail-Search.com: Leg 3 of the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race got underway earlier today in Durban with Hull & Humber first across the start line at 13.00 local time (11.00 GMT). Skipper Danny Watson and his team were closely followed by Qingdao, just metres behind them, and Nova Scotia. At the other end of the start line off Durban's Golden Mile, Jamaica had the edge over Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper and westernaustralia2011.com. Uniquely Singapore, Liverpool 08, Durban 2010 and Beyond followed, with New York crossing four and a half minutes behind Hull & Humber.

As he and his crew made final preparations for this gruelling leg across the infamous Southern Ocean, in this 4,220-mile race to Fremantle, Western Australia, Hull & Humber's skipper Danny Watson said, "We're going to strive for podium position again - that's one of our key objectives. Obviously we're going down to an area with strong winds and that's something that Hull & Humber and the crew seem to enjoy, so we're looking forward to a fast, safe crossing and spending Christmas in Western Australia."

Leaving Durban Marina this morning after a traditional Zulu farewell ceremony, the fleet sailed in formation past Wilson's Wharf where they were serenaded by the Lady in White in an echo of the days during World War II when Perla Seidle Gibson sang to every troop ship leaving the port of Durban. They were lead out of the harbour by a strike craft from the South African Navy, Isaac Dyhoba and accompanied by a flotilla of small boats. Following another formation sail past Durban's iconic beachfront the yachts spread out to allow the crews to prepare themselves for the battle to be first across the line.

Scotland football manager, Alex McLeish, was out on the water to support Hannah Jenner and the crew of Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper, the currently leading overall. On Saturday McLeish also visited the Glasgow team onboard to congratulate them on their hat-trick of podium finishes in the three races of the series so far. He spent half an hour with Hannah and the crew, looking over the 68-foot yacht along with Gordon Smith and George Peat of the Scottish Football Association who are in Durban for today's Preliminary Draw of the FIFA 2010 World Cup.

The Clipper fleet has enjoyed a little over a week in Durban Marina, where they have been made very welcome by Point Yacht Club and neighbouring Royal Natal Yacht Club and enjoyed many of the sights and spectacles Africa's sporting and events capital has to offer.

Durban City Manager, Dr Michael Sutcliffe said, "It's been stunning to have the Clipper fleet here. It's added extra colour and excitement to the city. Certainly for the yachting community this is a great event. It's sad to see them go but we hope they've had fun and we look forward next time round to welcome back the Clipper team."

During the stopover the Wilberforce Petition, a document drawing attention to the issue of modern day slavery, was signed by the His Worship the Mayor of Durban, Councillor Obed Mlaba, and the British High Commissioner in South Africa, the Right Honourable Paul Boateng. The petition is being taken around the world by a team of young people who are sailing on Hull & Humber on different legs as a tag team supported by local community partnership, ONE HULL. In Durban Paul Langham, who competed on Leg 2, handed over the document to Holly Newton who will take it to Western Australia. A trade delegation from the Hull and Humber region also held a number of meetings in order to develop trade links with South Africa.

This leg of Clipper 07-08 is set to be the most gruelling yet, as the crews battle with towering waves and strong winds. It is also likely to be one of the most thrilling, where the matched fleet of 68-foot ocean racing yachts reach speeds of up to 30 knots as they surf down the Southern Ocean rollers.

Durban Skipper Ricky Chalmers said: "I'm really excited about the Southern Ocean, it's going to be a sleigh ride, good fun and a good fast ride across to Australia and we're all really looking forward to Fremantle. It's been a bit surreal, a bit strange coming home, I'd never sailed in before, but it's been really great to be here and we've had a fabulous welcome from the city. It's great to see so many people here to send us off as well."

After a week of strong winds in Durban, the yachts had to cope with light airs today, with westernaustralia2011.com making the best of the conditions, moving from sixth at the start line to third around the first mark and holding that position behind the leading pair of Hull & Humber and Qingdao around the third mark.

www.Sail-Search.com: The first Landmark 43, a Mark Mills design, manufactured by Premier Composites in Dubai was launched on Wednesday the 21st of November 2007.

South African businessman, Phil Gutsche managed to secure delivery of this, the very first Landmark 43 which was originally intended for delivery to Claus Landmark.

Gutsche is also the owner of the Simonis design pocket maxi, Warrior. Warrior has campaigned in many Cape to Rio, Mauritius to Durban, local ABYC and RCYC premier regattas as well as competing in Antigua Week.

Boat Captain, Michael van Wyk who had the privilege of taking the Landmark 43 for it's very first outing had the following to say;

On Wednesday 21 November 2007 Phil Gutsche's new Landmark 43, Windseeker, was launched in Dubai. The launch of this Mark Mills designed boat out of the boatyard of Premier Composite Technologies had been delayed for several months so this was a big day for all concerned.

With the completion scheduled for two weeks she will be shipped to South Africa and most definitely will be an entry for ABYC Week.

Michael van Wyk at the helm of Windseeker, a Landmark 43.

The CE Categorised A Ocean, Landmark 43 boasts an upwind Sail area of 109.5 square metres, a downwind sail area of 271.5 square metres and a displacement weight of 7 650 kilograms. Mark Mills designed the boat to benefit from IRC's treatment of overhangs with emphasis aft in order to ensure a good balance between performance and positive racing attributes. With a projected IRC Rating of 1.166 she should be quite competitive.

The polars show a usable range from 32 to 180 degrees and indicate that the best boat speeds will be in the 135 to 150 degree range.

Contact Details: Landmark 43
Mark Mills
Premier Composite Technologies
ABYC

More Images: 1 | 2 | 3

www.Sail-Search.com: Is the west the best? That’s a question the Barcelona World Race fleet is asking itself today as the fleet splits across an east-west divide. Furthest to the west is Veolia Environnement where skippers Roland Jourdain and Jean-Luc Nélias have pulled back an incredible 90 miles on the race leaders Paprec-Virbac 2 over the past 24 hours. From sitting in seventh place yesterday, the French duo is up to third now and sailing around the outside of the fleet is a distinct possibility.

"Today it's easy to say we are confident in our choice, but yesterday it was a difficult decision to make,” said Jourdain on the video conference this afternoon when he was keen to point out that all the cards have yet to be played. “But we know if we want to win we have to attack and take some risks sometimes.”

Most of the rest of the fleet has sailed in close to the African coast, where the risk and reward balance is a bit less extreme in comparison to the rest of the boats. Whilst some of the fastest speeds of the day have come from boats in that area, there have also been plenty of position reports showing 30-minute average speeds of under four knots.

Indeed, skipper Vincent Riou on PRB, the second-placed boat, said the route close to coast was one that was almost forced upon them at the time: “This is where the weather conditions have brought us after we arrived at the Canary Islands. It’s better now but these are not the normal conditions for this area.”

Normal conditions would be northerly trade winds that the leading boats are hoping to hook into over the next 24 hours or so. These will shoot them down to the next obstacle – the doldrums – which they’ll have to cross before reaching the third scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha off the coast of Brazil – still nearly one week away.

This evening will mark a milestone for Educación sin Fronteras as skipper Albert Bargués and Servanne Escoffier are due to pass the scoring gate at the Canary Islands, joining the rest of the fleet on the third stage of the race.

Day 11 – November 21, 16:00 GMT – Position report with distance to leader

1. PAPREC-VIRBAC 2 - Jean Pierre DICK / Damian FOXALL - 0.0
2. PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien JOSSE - 27.7
3. VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT- Roland JOURDAIN / Jean Luc NELIAS - 44.4
4. DELTA DORE - Jérémie BEYOU / Sidney GAVIGNET - 83.5
5. HUGO BOSS - Alex THOMSON / Andrew CAPE - 96.6
6. TEMENOS 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele PARET - 101.2
7. ESTRELLA DAMM - Guillermo ALTADILL / Jonathan MCKEE - 113.8
8. MUTUA MADRILENA - Javier SANSO / Pachi RIVERO - 125.9
9. EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS - Servane ESCOFFIER / Albert BARGUES - 384.4

In Quotes – Dominique Wavre, Temenos II: “We both do everything. There’s not really any strict organisation of jobs. Right now Michele is steering and we change around for everything – there are no specific individual roles…we’re both really ‘all-round’ skippers.”

www.Sail-Search.com: Tthe Veolia Oceans one-design under sail in the middle of the Channel.

The first Veolia Oceans® one-design for the SolOceans is being tested at the moment in Cherbourg-Octeville (Lower Normandy - France) and Caen (Lower Normandy - France) by a team lead by Erwan Tabarly. Yvan Griboval, the initiator of the one-design and designer of the SolOceans summarises those first tests in light wind, medium wind and breeze, in which he actively participated.

"The results are above my wishes. The designers Jean-Marie Finot, Pascal Conq and their team have made the perfect oceanic one-design for the SolOceans program and its additional oceanic races. In one word, it's an easy yacht, not demanding for the sailor but who will allow him (or her) to go far safely and at a high speed. Very high even! Her power is impressive while still being easy to steer, without digging in the breeze on the run, without beating the steep wave on the wind. At the helm, it's a real treat and you just need to read the pleasure on Erwan Tabarly or Liz Wardley's face - who are also taking part in the sail tests - to realize how seducing this Veolia Oceans® is".

The sail tests and final adjustments will continue for the next three weeks. The start of the first leg of the Reconnaissance Tour of the SolOceans is set for mid-December from Caen (Lower Normandy - France) towards Wellington (New-Zealand) round the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) and Leeuwin (Australia). The second leg will link Wellington to Cherbourg-Octeville (Lower Normandy - France) round the Cape of Horn (South America).

Erwan Tabarly at the helm of the Veolia Oceans®, making more than 20 knots of speed on average in 30 knots true wind, under full mainsail and gennaker. The photo was taken during the sail tests on November 19th in the middle of the Channel. Photo Credit: Jean-Marie Liot - SailingOne.

www.Sail-Search.com: Paprec-Virbac 2 roared through the second scoring gate in the Canary Islands at 07:01 GMT this morning, leading the Barcelona World Race fleet for the second time past a course milestone. PRB was some three and half hours later, and both had opened up a reasonable (50+ miles) gap with the bulk of the fleet chasing them.

“Its great,” emailed Paprec-Virbac skipper Jean Pierre Dick this morning. “The best place to be I'd say! We are quite hungry for a win so to come through ahead is fabulous. The relationship with Damian is really good, and it’s encouraging to have a bit of success at the beginning like this, but we know there are still a lot of miles to go and our competition is not far behind…it is not going to be easy to keep our name at the top of the list. We are going to have to fight for it."

Behind the top pair, an intense battle has been waged over the past two days between Veolia Environnement and Delta Dore, more akin to a match race than an around the world ocean marathon. The pair has matched each other tack for tack and approach the Canaries gate at a dead heat. Both teams are anxious to get clear of the islands, sensing an opportunity ahead.

“After the Canaries, the head of the fleet should slow down a bit and we could have a chance to catch up,” explained Roland Jourdain on Veolia Environnement after looking at the forecast.

Further back, the frustration continues for teams like Hugo Boss, Temenos II and Estrella Damm, who sent a photo illustrating exactly how calm the conditions can be. Out furthest west of this pack is Hugo Boss, who was sailing fast, but had that advantage effectively neutralised by the additional miles on its track.

In the middle of this mix is the crew on Mutua Madrileña, who have done quite well with their easterly routing. Despite a forecast several days ago that would see them penalised heavily for their choice, the Spanish crew has remained in the hunt, with their shortcut paying dividends approaching the gate.

Finally, Educación sin Fronteras has had the most difficult 24 hours, dropping over 60 miles to the leaders. Skipper Albert Bargués is forecasting it will be another two days before they reach the Canary Islands.

Day 9 – November 19, 16:00 GMT – Position report with distance to leader

1. PAPREC-VIRBAC 2 - Jean Pierre DICK / Damian FOXALL - 0.0
2. PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien JOSSE - 36.5
3. VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT - Roland JOURDAIN / Jean Luc NELIAS - 93.1
4. DELTA DORE - Jérémie BEYOU / Sidney GAVIGNET - 93.4
5. HUGO BOSS - Alex THOMSON / Andrew CAPE - 130.8
6. ESTRELLA DAMM - Guillermo ALTADILL / Jonathan MCKEE - 139.3
7. TEMENOS 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele PARET - 158.1
8. MUTUA MADRILENA - Javier SANSO / Pachi RIVERO - 158.9
9. EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS - Servane ESCOFFIER / Albert BARGUES - 435.6

Day 9: Light air trimming, Jonathan McKee, Estrella Damm

In Quotes – Guillermo Altadill, Estrella Damm: “Today I was looking for the tool box in the middle of the chaos of bags stacked on the starboard side and moving the bags I find a few cans of beer as well as some bags of good Spanish jamon...they were there just waiting for a hungry guy like me! I take both, the beer and jamon, on deck and I stuff myself in on the windward deck rail, comfortably seated on top of the pile of sails and I start my little party...17 knots of wind, 22 degrees temperature...sun, beer and jamon iberico, and maybe later a siesta. Today is my day off...and thinking about it now, I've just realised, I forget why I was looking for the tool in the first place!”

www.Sail-Search.com: One week into the Barcelona World Race, the leader, Paprec-Virbac 2 is projecting an ETA of noon GMT on Monday to pass through the second scoring gate at the Canary Islands.

“I think it will be close to noon tomorrow,” said co-skipper Damian Foxall on the phone conference Sunday afternoon. “But it’s really quite difficult. If someone had told me before the race that we’d be leading at this point, I’d have signed on for that right away. But it’s very uncertain coming up to this gate and a lot could still happen. It’s tending to lighten up and our main concern is how to deal with it. The islands can throw a long wind shadow so a 10-degree shift can make a big difference. We’ll be really pleased if we can get through this next gate in the lead.”

The middle of the leaderboard was given a good shake-up overnight as Veolia Environnement, Delta Dore and Hugo Boss all used a westerly position to sail around Estrella Damm and Temenos II.

“Conditions are much better now compared to last night,” admitted Dominique Wavre, the skipper of Temenos II. “We were quite stuck in very light and unstable wind, so it was a lot of work, using all of the sails.”

Similarly, Mutua Madrileña, who had tried a coastal strategy along Morocco, dropped back dramatically overnight after running out of wind. At the back of the fleet, Educación sin Fronteras also ran into a light patch and dropped further behind the leaders.

The passage past the Canary Islands holds a lot of potential for gains and losses. As Damian Foxall explained, the geography of the islands means it is quite easy to get stuck in the lee of an island, no matter how clever your plan is approaching the island.

All of the skippers are anxious to put the Canaries behind them and pick up the trade winds, which bring conditions more like what these Open 60 class boats were designed to excel in.

Day 8 – Position report with distance to leader

1. PAPREC-VIRBAC 2 - Jean Pierre DICK / Damian FOXALL - 0.0
2. PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien JOSSE - 15.8
3. VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT - Roland JOURDAIN / Jean Luc NELIAS - 79.9
4. DELTA DORE - Jérémie BEYOU / Sidney GAVIGNET - 82.2
5. HUGO BOSS - Alex THOMSON / Andrew CAPE - 116.7
6. ESTRELLA DAMM - Guillermo ALTADILL / Jonathan MCKEE - 141.0
7. TEMENOS 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele PARET - 145.4
8. MUTUA MADRILENA - Javier SANSO / Pachi RIVERO - 160.8
9. EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS Servane ESCOFFIER / Albert BARGUES - 369.1

Andrew Cape changing sails on Hugo Boss. Hugo Boss is being sailed by Alex Thomson (GBR) & Andrew Cape (AUS)

In Quotes – Vincent Riou, PRB: “We didn’t want to take more risks in this beginning of the race because we know that this is an around the world race and being there for the duration is more important. We knew that we might lose some miles like this, but the other way you can lose much more. Our position now, as expected, allows us to head on in good condition.”

Glittering sunlight shafting diagonally through his open hatch, her captain gradually becomes conscious another day has dawned. Powerless to resist the pull, he rises, and standing on his bunk, pokes his head out of the hatch surveying the early morning scene. That gorgeous dewy look is everywhere - running rivulets off the sky, dripping from the palms, slithering down the glass of the hatch and collecting momentarily in prismatic globs on the sun greyed teak decking. Airborne frangipani fragrance wafts all around and our captain espy’s the ‘dance master’ from the other evening gliding along the beach – funny how certain smells can trigger earlier related visions! Eyes blinking, she is gone, the beach now empty of human life, all that remains are the very same coconut husks
strewn about, unmoved, as they were yesterday. The still air produces hardly a sound this early. The flat glassy sheet of lagoon water is undisturbed apart from an occasional plop of small fish leaving behind their ever widening circles as they flop back in.

Scalding coffee from the cafetiere injects some life into their veins and kick starts the day. Our little ship, drawing her nourishment from the water she is in and the wind, wonders why her crew have to sit down at regular intervals, ingesting vulgar quantities of all kinds of food? It must be important to them as they spend an inordinate amount of time engaging in this pastime. At least when they are thus occupied they are not poking and prodding at her! Over breakfast and sheltering under the awning, her captains gaze is once again drawn to the sandy strip he explored the afternoon before – embedded in his brain since he first looked this morning it nags at him now - something has changed in the disorderly pattern of the driftwood strewn along the beach. He missed something yesterday? Has it arrived overnight? Is he imagining a distorted form in the shimmering curtains rising from the sand? Whatever, there is a rounded dark lump where there wasn’t yesterday. He cannot leave this place without investigating – so into the tender and a quiet pull to shore. He slipped away with hardly a sound but our little ship feels his anticipatory excitement.
‘Off on a wild goose chase again!’ she supposes - but, what if it is what he thinks it could be? It just might be, after all these years of looking. Maybe his fortune is in today and he is about to strike lucky. Stooping to lift it from its bed in the sand he is almost overcome with the possibilities. Hefting it in his hands he estimates the weight at around twelve kilograms – wow! At twelve US dollars per gram, that is a small fortune! No matter it cannot be traded in the US, there are plenty of places where it can be sold on the open market. Cradling it in his arms he shuffles back to the Avon, placing it reverently in the bottom, and rows back with considerably greater energy than going in. Careful not to lose his balance on his wobbly platform, he gently rolls it into the cockpit.

Announcing to the rest of her crew the arrival of this great treasure, he dives into the locker containing the sewing kit and pulls out a monstrous sail needle. These needles have a large spaded tip, sharp as, to penetrate leather, and with an overall appearance of malicious intent. Heated to a red glow over the stove, her captain inserts the searing tip into his new found object of worship. Apart from radiating a few lazy wisps of white smoke, nothing happens. No pool of dark viscous fluid with musky fragrance? Reheat
the needle and insert again in a different position – same result, nothing. Several more attempts produce no further change, and the remainder of her crew by this time are super sceptical and articulating many banal offerings! Her captain finally gives in and accepts that ‘his’ lump is not a piece of ambergris – fools gold! No matter, it created some interest for a time. Its momentary attraction over and having no further use, the ‘blob’ is consigned back to whence it came. Lobbing it overboard, it is last seen disappearing at the end of its parabolic curve with a dull lagoon gulp. Sinking slowly, a few small fish
follow it to rest on the floor of the lagoon, raising a dusty cloud of sand, then ignore it. Never did find out what it was!

The lightly gusting breeze breathes into her sails, whitely ballooning and majestic, driving her back across the lagoon at a respectable five knots. Sibling crew now making the top pulpit rail her home in these situations is constantly indicating to the helmsman with her arms to steer to port or starboard to avoid a coral head. Most of them pass by harmlessly and well under our little ships’ keel. Sailing into the afternoon sun our little ship chides them to be extra vigilant so they can see under the stabbing reflections off the lagoon surface. There are no boatyards around these parts to haul her out if she gets a damaged foot. One such of these is marked on the chart with an accurate GPS position and she is steering a wide berth around it. Suddenly, she is aware of a large mountain dead ahead. Alarmed she rattles her forestay to attract sibling crews’ attention. Sweeping left to right and back, sibling crews eagle vision pierces the curtain of white light, picks up the looming dark outline dead ahead, and gesticulates wildly with left arm to turn sharply to port. Immediately understanding the danger, Anglo crew throws the helm over and all eyes are riveted over her starboard side, staring wide eyed and with baited breath as the snapping brown fangs slide past within millimetres of her hull. The tallest point is no more than half a metre under the surface and could wreak some serious damage if its teeth were able to grind into her side. Clear and present danger passed, her crew look at each other with relief clearly etched on their faces. With nervy grins they congratulate one another on yet again avoiding disaster.
‘Good seamanship all round’, purrs her captain, with the thought that the slightest error by the helmsman in reading the bow spotters’ signals would have resulted in them putting our little ship ‘hard to’ on the coral head – not a position any of them would wish for! The GPS co-ordinates are rechecked and found to be a little out - this is corrected and a log entry made to advise the chart publishers of the error.

Later that evening, sibling crew confesses to having been distracted and looking at the wharf and village of Tiputa Passe on approaching the coral head – something snapped in the back of her mind and brought her attention back to her job in the same instant she saw the approaching hazard.
‘Of course, you bumpkin! It was me rattling my forestay at you’. Our little ship chips in. Sibling crew is not sure, but she feels a nibble in that same part of her brain again.
‘Hmmmm, I wonder?’ she muses.’ Can’t possibly be - boats don’t have their own personalities – or do they?’

Extract from the ebook ‘Voyage of the Little Ship ‘Tere Moana’ by Vincent Bossley

Vincent Bossley is a sailor and publisher living on the Northern Beaches in Sydney. He has his own website on www.sailboat2adventure.com for cruising sailors, sailors preparing for their lifetime sailing adventure, armchair sailors, virtual sailors and anyone who has ever dreamed of sailing off into the oceans of this beautiful planet of ours. He offers a package of extremely useful dollar saving tips that could save the voyager many hundreds of dollars and more, plus a FREE one hundred and thirty five page ebook download of his sailing adventures in many of the exotic paradises around the globe. You can visit him anytime on www.sailboat2adventure.com

www.Sail-Search.com: Shoreacres, Texas, USA - For the third straight time, Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.) has won US SAILING's Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship.
Racing took place November 14-17 in Shoreacres, Texas. At the gala Rolex Awards ceremony held this evening at the Houston Yacht Club, Barkow and her crew of Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.), Amanda Callahan (Canton, Mass.) and Annie Lush (Poole, England) were awarded with US SAILING's Bengt Julin Trophy and a Rolex Oyster Perpetual Stainless Steel & Gold Datejust, presented by Colette Bennett, National Sports Marketing Manager of Rolex Watch U.S.A.

"Yesterday was really the day that made the difference," said Barkow, an Olympic hopeful and 2005 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year. "We feel really good."

Prize Giving ceremony at the Houston Yacht club From left: Colette Bennett, Rolex Watch USA, Sally Barkow, Annie Lush, Amanda Callahan and Debbie Capozzi. 2007 Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship. Photo Credit: ROLEX/Dan Nerney

Going into today's final two races, Barkow led the 39-boat fleet with 14 total points. "Today we went out and knew what we had to do. It was tricky and light and mind boggling, instead of having to race the boat hard like yesterday. We had to make sure we were in the top eight. Then if we were beating Derby Anderson, we wouldn't have to sail the last race."

Barkow finished fifth in the first race and elected not to sail the final race. "That was sort of the goal, but no real pressure," she said. "If we could do it, we would do it. Truthfully it's about getting the boat pulled out early. It was so close for second, so we thought we'd let them duke it out."

In both the 2005 and 2003 Rolex IWKC, Capozzi and Lush were with Barkow, along with her third Yngling teammate Carrie Howe (Grosse Pointe, Mich.), who could not attend this regatta. "The first time Annie sailed with us was the Rolex in 2003," said Barkow. "Debbie is a good friend; I've known her for a long time. She's always been there, working hard, there's no question with her that she wants to win the race and give all she has. To have those kinds of people working for you, to sail as a team, I think that's what makes us strong as a team.

"The only reason my name is up there (on the scores) is because of those guys," said Barkow. "This team has been together for so long that they really carry me and that needs to be recognized.

In second place overall was Cory Sertl (Rochester, N.Y.), a two-time Rolex IWKC champion and Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year. Going into today, she was in third place and had to put enough places between her boat and Derby Anderson (Annapolis, Md.) and Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.). At the end of today's racing, she achieved her goal by scoring a 2-4, while Tunnicliffe finished with 7-2 and Anderson with 11-16.

"We're very relieved to finish in top three," said Tunnicliffe, who will represent the U.S. at the 2008 Olympic Games in the singlehanded Laser Radial dinghy. "That was my personal goal. We definitely wanted top five and maybe top three. We had our ups and downs; the first day was a really rough day. We were glad we could climb back from it and really focus."

Although only 25, Tunnicliffe has accomplished a lot in her sailing career including competing in this regatta, her second time as skipper. "I use these events for tactical sailing," she said of sailing with a team. "The Laser is very physical, and if you're mad you hike harder and catch somebody with your strength. With these boats everyone goes a similar speed, so you have to be able to outsmart somebody and set your boat position up right. That's why I enjoy these events because it's a different type of sailing than Laser sailing."

On making the transition from singlehanded sailing to being part of a team, Tunnicliffe said, "I think it's about the trust. You have to trust yourself in the Laser and trust you crewmembers in the boat. If you don't have the trust, you can't work together as one. We did well toward the end of the event, working together as one."

Today's racing was challenging for her, even though Tunnicliffe finished the first race in second. "We had the points in mind of what was happening on the course," she said. "We weren't really focusing on Derby (Anderson) or Sally at all. We figured we were out of it, for second overall. We were focusing on the South Africans. We had a really good start and got below them, and pinched them off. The other boat we were looking for, Nicole (Breault), was to leeward of us and we burned over her, so we had a solid start and then we could play the shifts from there.

"It got really light in the last race, the lightest we've sailed," she said. "All the other races, we just depend on our strength to do well, so we had to really finesse and get the sails set-up right. Because it was so light you couldn't sail to the other side, you had to sail your own plan." Tunnicliffe and her team - Liz Bower (Rochester, N.Y.), Ali Sharp and Molly Vandermoer (both Annapolis) - are relatively new. Sharp raced on the team in 2005, but Bower and Vandermoer are both recent additions. "We picked up Molly in early fall and she's a great addition to the crew, exactly what we needed," she said.

Anderson was in second overall going into today's races, but finished fourth overall for the regatta with crew Jacqueline Scmitz (Annapolis, Md.), Katherine Wade and Lucy Kupersmith (both Washington, D.C.). Her best finish to date, before 2007, was 10th in the 2005 Rolex IWKC.

The top international team was led by skipper Dominique Provoyeur (Capetown, RSA). With her Team Devonvale of Penny Alison, Kim Rew and Lara Dugas, she finished fifth overall. "It's a fantastic event, I love coming here," said Provoyeur, who is an Olympic hopeful in the Yngling class.

Sixth place overall was Nicole Breault (Old Lyme, Conn.), who had taken a sabbatical in recent years from racing at this level. She and her crew Casey Williams (Kentfield, Calif.), Anne Jaeschke (Alameda, Calif.) and Mahalyn Lu (San Francisco, Calif.) put in one of the more impressive performances of the week with only two non-top-10 race results.

Jo Ann Fisher (Annapolis, Md.) finished in seventh overall. "We're really excited," said Fisher. "It was a really tough week with lots of challenging conditions, so we're happy to hang onto seventh." Her 'Black Socks' team was the only one to sail with five crew: Lynda Hiller, Lesley Cook, Phebe King and Margaret McChesney (all Annapolis). "We're happy," said Fisher. "We look at all the races we sailed well and learn. And all the ones we didn't sail well, we learn. It gets you excited and gets you thinking about improving. We all have kids and jobs, so hopefully to learn and improve from our mistakes is our goal."

Sarah Bury (Toronto, Canada) and her Sunrise team -- Martha Henderson, Katie Abbott and Jennifer Provan - finished in eighth place, while the Liten Up! team, skippered by Terry Schertz (Lakewood, Colo.) with crew Pam McCain, Susan Swisher and Donna Law, finished in ninth.

Top local team was led by 17-year-old Chelsea Bethancourt and her team RIFT, that included Mom Dana, Patricia Escorihuela and Sandra Baldridge, who competed in the very first Rolex IWKC in 1985.

Some teams near the bottom of the scoreboard were far from disappointed. For Jennifer Grant (Destin, Fla.), today's move from 38th to 35th in the overall standings was satisfying, especially with a "regatta best" 12th-place finish to add to her score line. "We consider this a practice race for the next time!," said Grant, whose foursome practiced on a J/22 for only six weeks prior to the event. "Since there were no J/22s near where we normally sail," said Grant, "we located one in Mobile, Alabama, 100 miles away, and drove back and forth to practice as much as we could." Considering her circumstances, Grant claimed that being 35th in this world of women sailors "can sound pretty impressive."

For the last-place skipper, June Shaw, an accomplished big-boat sailor from Houston Yacht Club, the Rolex IWKC competition was humbling. "I thought I was a good sailor until this," she laughed, explaining that she'd hoped the J/22, which was new to her, would be a "little big boat" experience rather than the "big dinghy" learning curve it became. "But we had a wonderful time. I really put our team together because I wanted to support the club. I've heard from some of the other women that this has been one of the best Rolex Women's ever. That's because we Texans like to show our hospitality and the people here at the club have been working endlessly on this for the last year."

One of Shaw's crew members, Bea Grimmitt (Bristol, R.I.), has competed now in three Rolex IWKCs, her last one being 1989. "The thing that has changed about the competition is there are a lot more big names and the fleet is tighter; I mean look at the Olympic medal hopefuls here and then all these other women that are still doing really well against them. The thing that has remained consistent, however, is that the girls really help each other. We didn't know how to tune a J/22 but Dominique Provoyeur's team gave us the help we needed."

With the Rolex IWKC founded 23 years ago to encourage women to step up to the male-dominated world of keelboat racing, the regatta has moved from New England to the Mid-Atlantic and now to the Southwest to host over 500 teams, 2400 women and 23 countries. Until its next edition in 2009, its reach will be ever expanding through ongoing clinics around the globe and the Next Step to Rolex junior program, further fulfilling the mission of inspiring women to set new goals.

Dominique Provoyeur, Koelenhof, Stellenbosch RSA; Penny Alison, Cape Town, Western Cape RSA; Kim Rew, Cape Town, Western Cape RSA; Lara Dugas, Cape Town, Western Cape RSA; Club: Royal Cape Yacht Club. 2007 Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship. Photo Credit: ROLEX/Dan Nerney

The following report is from Dominique Provoyeur onboard Devonvale, sailing for Royal Cape Yacht Club, Western Cape, South Africa:

With 3 good results yesterday (3rd, 2nd and 4th) at US Sailing’s Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship at the Houston Yacht Club we have a good lead on the 7th placed team and are not far off 4th overall.

The wind was a bit lighter and trickier than yesterday but as it turned out we have more breeze than expected. The first race started in about 8 - 10 knots from the SE and built to about 12 - 14 knots for race 2 and 3.

The first race was lead at the top mark by our Canadian Yngling Friends, but as more boats rounded the top mark it was clear that it was a gybe set, which allowed us to gain a few boats and Sally to take the lead, we had a super last beat and ended up piping the Canadians on the line to take 3rd.

Race two we had a start near the pin, which was won by Sally Barkow and Team. We rounded the top mark in second place and managed to stay there for the race, just covering the fleet below us.

For the last start of the day, we where more in the middle of the line and where fighting for every place. By the last run we were in 3rd position, with 4th right on our heals. The top 4 boats had a good lead on the pack. We were getting bad air from Sally and Anna Tunnicliffe, so we tacked out leaving Derby Anderson on her own going up the right. She managed to get better pressure and pulled into 2nd leaving us to fight with Anna, who kept her lead too.

Hello for the last time from the ROLEX Woman's Int Keelboat Championships!

Two races were held today, despite the forecast of 2 - 4 knots! When the rain cleared, the breeze filled in nicely to about 5 - 8knots. We knew we had a chance to catch up to 4th overall, but we also wanted to make sure we didn't loose our 6th position. We kept a close eye on Tunnicliffe and Breault, who were in 4th and 5th respectively.

We stayed close to Breault for the whole race, not really worrying to much about the rest of the fleet. We made a break on the last beat and headed left while she stayed on the right, there was more breeze on the left, which was great for us.

After this race we were in 5th position overall, so our goal was just to keep an eye out for Breault again, and sail conservatively to hold our overall result.

Full Results

www.Sail-Search.com: Nine of the Clipper fleet are now berthed in Durban Marina having completed Leg 2 in the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race. Overnight crowds welcomed westernaustralia2011.com who arrived just ahead of the home favourite, Durban 2010 and Beyond at the end of the gruelling race across the south Atlantic.

Durban-born skipper, Ricky Chalmers, whose parents and brother were in the marina to greet him, said, "I have never sailed into Durban before. It's such a thrill and it's fantastic to be here."

Up the mast of Durban Clipper. Photo credit: Ricky Chalmers.

In the last stages of the race Durban 2010 and Beyond suffered a ripped mainsail but managed to keep pace with their southern hemisphere rivals until the last few miles.

Uniquely Singapore arrived just half an hour behind them and Jamaica tied up alongside as dawn broke over the South African city. There was no let up in the rain though. Ironically the light airs that had dogged the tail end of the fleet, slowing their progress into port, disappeared and strong winds made pulling alongside a tricky operation for the skippers at the helm of the 68-foot yachts.

After a traditional Zulu welcome the crews were treated to bacon and eggs and beers in the Royal Natal Yacht Club, which is hosting the fleet along with Point Yacht Club. Many have been reunited with friends and families who have travelled to Durban to meet them and all have been able to catch up with their friends on Hull & Humber, New York, Liverpool 08 and Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper who arrived through the early hours of Friday morning.

The crews have been spending their first day ashore, going through immigration formalities, catching up on some much needed sleep and beginning the important task of preparing the yachts for the next ocean passage and the infamously punishing conditions of the Southern Ocean. There has been little respite in the rain, which means soaked foul weather gear has had no chance to dry out so far.

Nova Scotia is still racing and is expected to cross the finish line at approximately 19.00 local time (17.00 GMT) this evening (Saturday 17).

Leg 3 of the Clipper 07-08 Race from Durban to Fremantle, Western Australia, starts on Sunday 25 November.

www.Sail-Search.com: Shoreacres, Texas, USA - Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.) and her Team 7 crew took the gun in all three races today to solidify her total score of an impressive 14 points at US SAILING's Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship. She and her crew - Debbie Capozzi, Annie Lush and Amanda Callahan - are a full 15 points ahead of second-placed Derby Anderson (Annapolis, Md.). Despite the shifty and tricky conditions on Galveston Bay, the top six boats maintained their leads established yesterday. With two races planned by Houston Yacht Club's race committee for the 39-boat fleet tomorrow, it is looking like Barkow may add another champion's title to her already impressive resume.

Sally Barkow, Nashotah, WI USA; Debbie Capozzi, Bayport, NY USA; Amanda Callahan, Canton, MA Club: PLYC 2007 Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship. Photo Credit: ROLEX/Dan Nerney

Close in third place is Cory Sertl (Rochester, N.Y.), who earned a second and a pair of eights in today's races for a total 36 points. Further back are three skippers separated by a handful of points: Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.), Nicole Breault (Old Lyme, Conn.) and Dominique Provoyeur (Cape Town, RSA).

For Provoyeur, sailing as Team Devonvale with Penny Alison, Kim Rew and Lara Dugas, today's racing - scoring a 3-2-4 - was redemption for yesterday's disappointing performance. "Yesterday's racing didn't go as well as we planned," she said. "I had the worst start of my life," said Provoyeur. "We were a minute late for the gun. It was really embarrassing. In the second race, we blew the tack off the jib and lost 10 places. Luckily the jibs in South Africa come with a cunningham eye so we used that as a sail tack."

Getting the right combination of factors helped the team maintain its overall spot. "In today's first race, it was a little bit tricky for us, a little switchy," said Provoyeur. "We managed to position ourselves in the fleet and play the shifts particularly well. We hung in there in the last race and tried to stay in touch with the fleet. We had good boat speed and got a jump on the fleet early on. We just covered, actually on the second beats of both races we stayed in touch with the boats in front of us."

The Devonvale team brought sails from South Africa to use as their charter boat fee. "We get to use them, and then they stay on the boat when we leave," she said. "So it works for us too. The owners are happy they get to try a new suit of sails form South Africa. Often they use Quantum sails and not North, so they get a variety and get to try them."

Going into tomorrow, the Olympic hopeful has a plan. "In the first race, we'll sail as we have been and get our best results," she said. "After the first race, we'll see how it goes. We'll do a quick tally of the points and if we can cover someone in the fleet we will."

Although she makes it look easy staying at the top of the fleet, Provoyeur has spent the past two years seriously training for an Olympic berth in the Yngling and sees this regatta as a perfect compliment. "It is more racing really," she said. "Two crew are part of Yngling crew, and Sally (Barkow) is here and Sarah (Bury). The competition is still high here and it's really good racing for us. It's a fantastic event; I love coming here. The wind we've had has been fantastic and the hospitality is amazing. It gets better and better every time."

"I'm just looking forward to tomorrow," said Provoyeur. "I think Sally has taken it away and well done to her."

For Sarah Bury (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), another Olympic hopeful, today saw a move up from 11th to 10th overall. "I'm pleased how it went overall," she said. "It obviously started off well, coming fourth. We had good start and got in good pressure, and ended up at the windward mark first. We made a few bad choices and ended up fourth."

In the second race Bury, racing with Martha Henderson, Katie Abbott and Jennifer Provan, wasn't as fortunate, finishing 24th, which becomes her throwout, or discard, race. "We got a little impatient off the start," she said. "We saw an opportunity to tack and we tacked, and then fell back into a lot of traffic. Once we started ducking boats and tacking, the next thing you know we're on the right side of the course. Then, the left side comes in a bit and the whole fleet rounded in front of us. We tried to gain some boats back and really didn't."

The last race somewhat split the difference of the two previous. "We didn't have a great start," said Bury. "We learned from previous race, although we took a bad lane, but stuck it out a bit and got ourselves a decent race. Nothing stellar; kept it in there. The pressure was up and down and not sailing the J/22s a lot we're definitely more comfortable in the light pressure. We're still figuring out how trim and keep the boat going, especially in the waves."

Does Bury draw from her Yngling experience? "It is tough competition here, just like at our Yngling events," she said. "You can be up there and you make one little mistake and not only two or three boats pass you, but you have five or more nipping at your heels."

Rounding out the top 10 places are Jo Ann Fisher (Annapolis, Md.) in seventh; Chelsea Bethancourt (Shoreacres, Texas) in eighth and maintaining her top local boat position; and Kathy Parks (Annapolis, Md.) in ninth place.

Tonight the competitors have a free night, socially, and many will most likely enjoy the Kemah Boardwalk, a famous Texas landmark featuring amusements, shopping and restaurants. Under a tent on the lawn of the Houston Yacht Club, daily first awards were handed out by PRO Jim Tichenor along with the Kaenon Award, awarded to the team with the lowest score of the day. Racing concludes tomorrow.

Full Results

www.Sail-Search.com: The following report from the Rolex Womens International Keelboat Championships is courtesy of South African Team Isigunugu:

We awoke to some high winds on Day 2 of the regatta in Texas with some devastation around the club. Gusts up to about 45 knots ended up blowing over the regatta marquee, luckily no damage to boats.

We went out in about 25 knots, and were expecting a good day for the Cape Towners! The day ended with a 12, 15 and 5th. It should have been a huge amount better, as out boat speed was good. We miss judged the first start and where embarrassingly late for the start. On the second race, second beat our jib tack blew out and with Lara on the foredeck trying to tie a piece of rope through the Cunningham hole we lost a fair amount of distance on the fleet. As this is a borrowed boat, we don't have any of our usual spares on board.

With the jib secured with a piece of rope to the Cunningham hole, we managed to get the leech up in round about the right place. We had a reasonable start but headed out left while a big shift came in from the right. We played catch up quiet nicely during the race, with Penny getting us well positioned with the fleet and taking advantage where ever we could.

Last night we were guests at the NASA Space Station, with plenty of food, games and prizes. Good times where had!

Today the wind is predicted to be light, so we look forward to getting ourselves back into the top 5 overall.

Royal Cape Yacht Club team (RSA) during the Opening Ceremony at The Houston Yacht Club Devonvale Bow: 29 Sail: 1510 Class: J/22 Skipper/Crew: Dominique Provoyeur, Koelenhof, Stellenbosch RSA; Penny Alison, Cape Town, Western Cape RSA; Kim Rew, Cape Town, Western Cape RSA; Lara Dugas, Cape Town, Western Cape RSA. 2007 Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship. Photo Credit: ROLEX/Dan Nerney

Full Results

www.Sail-Search.com: Shoreacres, Texas, USA - Three.two.one.blast off! That familiar sound from nearby NASA Johnson Space Center is also the scoreline of Olympic hopeful Sally Barkow's (Nashotah, Wis.) race results today at US SAILING's Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship. With a total score of 11 points, Barkow and her team - Debbie Capozzi, Annie Lush and Amanda Callahan - lead the 39-boat fleet racing out of the Houston Yacht Club in Shoreacres, Texas.

Sally Barkow, Nashotah, WI USA; Debbie Capozzi, Bayport, NY USA; Carrie Howe, Grosse Pointe, MI USA; Annie Lush, Poole, Dorset GBR; Club: PLYC 2007 sailing in the Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship. Photo Credit: ROLEX/Dan Nerney

"We were a little bit jet lagged yesterday and we had to get used to the boat," said Barkow of her quick jump into the International J/22 keelboat after match racing in slightly larger boats at last week's Vitória Brasil Women's Cup, which she won. "We kind of had to force ourselves to wake up and get moving. We are taking it one day at a time. It was a good day today."

Yesterday's leader Cory Sertl (Rochester, N.Y.) slipped into third-place overall, a mere eight points behind after discarding a seventh place result from day one. The regatta's sailing instructions allow competitors to throwout their worst result once six races are completed in the series.

Moving up into second place is Annapolis' Derby Anderson. "To have won a race and be in with all the good guys feels really good," said Anderson of her solid 2-4-6 results today. "I finished 10th last time (in 2005) and people were asking me how we were going to do this time. I didn't even know how we were going to get into the top 10. Katherine (Wade) has never sailed this type of regatta; she's only done college sailing. It's a great learning curve we've had."

Of the challenging 15-20 knot winds that were shifty and gusty at times, Anderson said that their crew weight was a factor. "We are light, 40 lbs light," said Anderson, regarding the combined crew weight limit. "I've sailed in breeze before in these, and the main was always ragging. We finally figured out how to tune the boat and trim the sails because nothing was ragging all day. It's because of Greg Fisher's clinic, the Road to Rolex Clinic. Overall, we are really happy together, never having done a regatta together before."
For local sailor Julie Goetschius, satisfaction at the end of the day comes from performance, but also inspires her and her team of Emma Browning, Lisa Simpkins and Phyllis Grounds.

"This is a great regatta for women," she said. "I think that this is an opportunity for a number of women to show themselves that they can do so much. The Olympians already know what they can do. Those who don't sail on a regular basis come out and they learn they can do some things they didn't think they could ever do."

Of the focus needed to excel in today's challenging conditions - a marked change from yesterday's hot temperatures and moderate wind - Goetschius said, "It was a lot more exciting for those who can drive through the chop. The starts were pretty exciting. We had two real good starts and one poor one; the good ones were race 1 and 3 when we came off the (starting) line with speed. Driving in the chop gives you more confidence, having done this before. If you have that experience, then you can do well."

The top local boat continues to be RIFT, in seventh place and skippered by Chelsea Bethancourt (Shoreacres), the youngest skipper at the regatta.

Tonight the competitors will be treated to an exclusive visit to NASA's Johnson Space Center, where the daily first awards and the Kaenon Award, awarded to the team with the lowest score of the day. Racing continues through Saturday and is hosted at the Houston Yacht Club.

Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship

www.Sail-Search.com: The excitement of the final few hundred miles is still building and the fleet is pairing up for some boat on boat match racing. The leading pair, New York and Hull & Humber, briefly swapped position last night and have been sharing the top spot ever since, polling jointly with 111 nautical miles to go at 0600 GMT. By 1200 GMT New York had taken the lead again, putting a mile between them and their closest rival. Both skippers report some great racing, but on an already difficult coastal race this brings added pressure. The light winds overnight made any mistake a costly one.

The chasing pack has also paired up, Liverpool 08 now just one nautical mile to the finish ahead of Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper, and Qingdao and Durban 2010 and Beyond separated by the same margin. Describing the mood on board, Liverpool 08 skipper, Ben Galloway, says, "The turn of events over the last day has brought a smile to the faces of the Liverpool 08 crew; still in third place, Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper close behind but Durban 2010 and Beyond no longer in sight - a happy start to, let's hope, a happy day!"

The changes to this formation happened last night when the wind dropped and Durban 2010 and Beyond was forced to anchor for five hours. They were in 86 metres of water and, as all the local sailors will no doubt tell Ricky upon his arrival, Durban 2010 and Beyond was too far offshore and unable to use the light winds to make progress against the effects of the Agulhas current. Qingdao managed to keep moving that little bit longer but in the end also anchored for a few hours.

The final two boats have managed to stay in the wind longer and as a result have narrowed the distance to the rest of the fleet, created when their southern tactics failed to produce the advantage they were expecting. Jamaica skipper Simon Bradley reports, "It has been a busy time for all as we make our way along the South African coastline, not much wind but we're still making good progress and we will not give up on chasing the yachts in front of us."

The main topic of conversation in Durban Marina at Point Yacht Club and Royal Natal Yacht Club who are jointly hosting the Clipper fleet is: when will they arrive? This is never an easy one to answer and is especially tricky on this coastline. Despite numerous predictions of a favourable wind shift and a Thursday arrival, the lighter winds have prevailed and the fleet's 12-hour runs remain short.

The latest predictions show the first boats will not arrive before early evening today (Thursday 15), but it is more likely to be an overnight finish. The weather forecasts show the wind filling in from the south west over the course of the day, so the back of the fleet will feel the benefit first, which means this race is by no means over yet!

www.Sail-Search.com: The Rolex Women's International Keelboat Championships are being sailed out of Houston Yacht Club from the 12th to the 17th of December.

Inaugurated in 1985 at the instigation of US SAILING's Women’s Championship Committee, the Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship quickly became the premier women’s sailing event in the U.S. and worldwide. Held biennially, the event provides women keelboat and offshore sailors high quality racing and an opportunity to compete with top national and international women sailors. As part of the US SAILING Adult National Championships program, the winning team will receive US SAILING’s Bengt Julin Trophy.

All crews are sailing J22's.

South Africa is represented at the Championships by members of South African Olympic Yngling Team, Team Isigunugu, sailing on Devonvale.

This report from Dominique Provoyeur onboard Devonvale:

Our regatta started off well with 2 out of 3 good results (6th, 21st and 2nd), which puts us in 7th position overall.
The wind was between 8 and 15knots straight from the land, which meant very unstable, shifty breeze and flat water.

We got off to a good start on the first race, and rounded the top mark in the top 10 and stayed there for most of race to finish 6th.
The second race was looking good too but most of the top boats weere over the line, but instead of calling a general recall the committee boats called back about 20 boats. The unfortunate part was that they only called our bow number on the 3rd reading (over the radio), so we were already a good 120 meters from the start line. After we thought we were in the clear.....
We caught up really nicely on the second beat to about 13th, but didn't cover the fleet on the last beat and ended with the 21. A bit disappointing, but again another lesson.....

The last race of the day, wind was a bit lighter and more patchy. We started OK, but got some good shifts up the first beat and rounded the first mark in 5th. We played the downwind well and caught up to 4th and close on the heals of Sally Barkow (who just won the woman's match racing Champs). On the last 200m of the beat we had a tight duel with Sally, and ended up beating her and one other to cross the line in 2nd! Tense moments....!

The regatta has been really brilliant so far, we are treated very well by the regatta organisers and the hospitality has been fantastic. We are heading off to a Texan BBQ now and last night we were treated to a real Tex Mex!

Full Results

www.Sail-Search.com: The Barcelona World Race fleet is at last drawing closer to the infamous Gibraltar straits. PRB continues to lead the pack, - but only just. At the 16.00 GMT position report Paprec Virbac 2 was hot on their tails only three miles behind.

The nine IMOCA Open 60's will have to exercise due caution as the Gibraltar straits is a well-known traffic lane that large container ships and tankers move through on their path between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

Making life and strategy interesting is the fact that position reports on all nine boats are updated every 2 hours during the day only, allowing all teams to see their rivals positions, but for a period of 12 hours at night the reports are not updated. Making for a couple of anxious sailors at the time of the first daily update.

Jérémie Beyou with a birthday message for his child, Achille on Day 4 of the Barcelona World Race

Dominique Wavre (SUI) multi tasking - eating and sailing. Michèle Paret (FRA) and Dominique Wavre are sailing Temenos II, which was in fourth place on Day 3.

www.Sail-Search.com: The racing has got even closer overnight with headwinds slowing down the leaders and bringing up the chasing pack. New York has managed to hang on to first place but only just with Hull & Humber still nipping at their heels and only one mile separating them to the finish. Hull & Humber reported this morning: “Sailing within a quarter of a mile of New York on a fabulous morning under a couple of miles off the coastline. Ten more knots of breeze and it would be perfect!”

If New York can hang on it would be a tremendous victory for the US entry, having had two ninth places so far. Lizzie Nicholas, Race Secretary, acknowledged New York’s great performance in the race from Salvador to Durban: “New York has performed consistently well in this race, making some good tactical decisions and proving that they have what it takes to be competitive in the overall race. If they do relinquish the lead with only 200 miles to go of a 2,400 nautical mile race, they will of course be very disappointed. But a podium finish for them, in any position, will give a huge confidence boost to the crew, it will move them up the leader board and signal to the rest of the fleet that they will need to keep a close eye on them.”

The following pack has also bunched up overnight. Liverpool 08 Skipper, Ben Galloway, described the view that greeted him with daylight this morning: “A bit of a shock to the system this morning! We knew we hadn’t performed as well as we could have done through the night, but it was a very strange sight come sunrise. South Africa to the left of us, beautiful; South Africans (Durban 2010 and Beyond) to the right of us, not quite so pretty; Jocks in front of us, so It was with trepidation that we glanced behind to see if the box was complete, thankfully it wasn’t!” However, with Qingdao only 11 nautical miles behind them Liverpool 08 will know that they cannot be complacent in that direction either. Ricky Chalmers, skipper of Durban 2010 and Beyond, is also feeling the pressure of racing in such close quarters: “Liverpool 08 are catching us...and Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper are getting away from us - trim guys, TRIM!”

The conditions across the fleet are quite varied at the moment with the lead boats feeling the effects of a north easterly head wind when they need to go north east. With unfavourable wind and the potential negative influence of the current, it will feel like an uphill struggle for the boats. Those boats rounding Port Elizabeth have had a faster angle on the wind enabling them to catch up with the boats ahead. The whole fleet will benefit later today with the local forecast for Durban predicting a shift in the wind to south westerlies which will speed the yachts towards their destination.

Lizzie Nicholas, who arrived in Durban yesterday in preparation for the boats’ arrival, said: “There is much speculation amongst the Durbanites about when the first boats will arrive. The early hours of Thursday has been a favourite prediction but the longer the wind stays in the north east, the more the ETA is pushed out. But they will be getting a very warm welcome at whatever time they arrive!” The race village and host yacht clubs, Point Yacht Club and Royal Natal Yacht Club, are a hub of activity as final preparations are being made for the fleet’s arrival. The race team builds in number today as more of the shore support arrives.

Meanwhile, the South African entertainment and hospitality has started early and the fleet continues to be amazed by the wildlife and beautiful coastline. Both Jamaica and westernautralia2011.com describe visits by pods of whales overnight and some rather close encounters: “Lots of wildlife including whales and plenty of big ships. The whales take avoiding action, the big ships stand on and we avoid!”

www.Sail-Search.com: Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper stormed into third place overnight having managed to find a counter current along the South African coastline. Although the Race Viewer does not show the 12-hour run this morning, information received in the Race Office suggests the Scottish boat managed 106 nautical miles in the past 12 hours, catapulting them into third place as Liverpool 08 have been hit by the effects of the Agulhas current on their off-shore route.

Yesterday in the daily update Race Director Joff Bailey alluded to the existence of the counter current as detailed in the Pilot books each of the yachts carries from official race supplier, United Kingdom Hydrographic Office. This morning he asked Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper's skipper whether she and her crew had found it.

"We certainly did!" replied Hannah. "In the space of 24 hours we have gone from surfing big seas in a world of our own, no sight of anything else for days, to gliding over gentle swell surrounded by shipping and following an awesome coastline. There's almost too much to look at!"

westernaustralia2011.com's skipper, Martin Silk, reported four knots of current against them this morning.

"If you look at the Race Viewer in satellite mode you can clearly see the dark edge of the depth contour. The fleet needs to stay between the coast and that line if they have any chance of staying out of the stronger current," says Joff.

Staying this close to the shore means the crews will be getting a good view of the scenery. Leading the charge up the coastline, New York skipper Duggie Gillespie reports this morning, "Sand dunes to our left with Hull & Humber just aft port side - they appear to be keen."

Shortly afterwards Marcus Cholerton-Brown on Qingdao said, "What an incredible morning, Africa has so much life. Here we are, tootling along nicely with the kite up, getting our first close up view of Africa as the sun comes up on Cape Francis. All the mountains are lit up, a whale is breeching to our starboard side and a flock of birds are diving (gannets?) for fish on our port side, having been rounded up by a pod of dolphins that are now playing on our bow. And as I am writing this we have just narrowly missed running down a small shark."

Ricky Chalmers, the skipper of Durban 2010 and Beyond is pushing his crew to try to gain a better place into his home port. "I am pretty much dead on my feet at the moment, trying desperately to find a way around the leaders in the fleet, keeping on top of our breakages and keeping the boat moving fast. Not sure when last I slept - it can't be healthy. The crew must be getting very tired of being told to come back on course."

As predicted yesterday the fleet is starting to bunch up as the leaders slow down. Nova Scotia, now just 390 nautical miles behind the leaders, posted a good 12-hour run which they should also manage to repeat for the next schedule at 1800 GMT.

The first boats are expected to cross the finish line in Durban during the day on Thursday 15 November however the weather could extend his a little. The whole fleet should be moored up in Durban Yacht Marina by the end of the weekend.

www.Sail-Search.com: Hull & Humber and New York continue their battle at the front of the fleet.

Race Director, Joff Bailey, says, "Watching this fight develop over the next few days and on towards the finish will have us all on the edge of our seats. The skippers and crews will all be pushing hard to get that top spot and, with the challenges of the 'Wild Coast', I suspect that there will be some very, very tired crew when they finally arrive in Durban."

Hull & Humber have to beat New York by at least four hours to overcome the time penalty imposed after using their motor during their medivac early in this race. In mileage this equates to approximately 30 to 40 miles depending on the conditions, so they will have an uphill struggle.

Joff continues, "As for the weather, the whole fleet should continue to make good progress for the next 12 hours before the front runners start to enter some light, variable winds and head winds. This will mean the whole fleet will bunch together over the next 48 hours, possibly allowing those in the middle of the pack to gain a place and Nova Scotia and Jamaica to reduce their deficit."

As the fleet approaches land for the first time in three weeks they are starting to see other shipping. This can come as something of a shock after seeing nothing else for 21 days. The crew of Liverpool 08 had such an experience last night, according to skipper Ben Galloway. "Getting quite exciting now with land getting much closer and other foreign boats around us," he reports. "Something to look at is the positive but all of a sudden having to react quickly was a shock to the crew. Had a chat with what we thought was a French fisherman last night but he turned out to be South African. At least we know the VHF works again."

Durban 2010 and Beyond left their reaction a bit too long as Ricky Chalmers, the skipper, explains, "'What lights do you see?' 'Two red port lights.' A quick VHF call confirmed that the supertanker we first thought was crossing our bow was not under command. 'Everyone on deck, we need to gybe around the back of the BFB.'"

The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office is an official supplier for the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race and supplies all the navigation products, both digital and paper. They are recognised as the world leader in this field and with the land getting closer the skippers will be confident that they can rely on the charts and, more importantly for this coast, the Pilot books that explain the various hazards and currents that may be encountered.

As a former Clipper skipper and now Race Director, Joff has studied them in detail and knows what the skippers should be looking out for. "In the pilot book for this area there is a small paragraph that talks about a north-going counter-current that, rather than slowing the boat down like the Agulhas current, would actually help them. I wonder how closely they have read these books?"

Analysis of the current data suggests the first yachts are likely to arrive in Durban late on Thursday 15 November.

www.Sail-Search.com: The Barcelona World Race is underway, with a clean start on Sunday afternoon, under bright, sunny skies on a warm autumn day. In fact, conditions couldn’t have been better for the start, with the wind building to a Southerly of near 10 knots, just ahead of the 12:00 (GMT) start time.

Barcelona World Race Fleet at the Start. Photo Credit: Jean-Marie Liot/DPPI/Barcelona World Race

An enormous spectator fleet of over 650 boats was on hand to celebrate the fleet of nine boats starting the Barcelona World Race, with many tens of thousands more crowded along the shoreline to pay tribute to the 18 skippers as they embark on their three-month race around the planet.

At exactly 13:00 local time, famed offshore sailor Dame Ellen MacArthur and the Mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, fired off the starting gun, setting the fleet on its way. The southwesterly breeze made for a downwind start, and with gennakers and spinnakers set, the fleet looked spectacular.

Crossing the starting line first was Educación sin Fronteras, with local sailor Albert Bargués and his co-skipper Servanne Escoffier, at 26, the youngest sailor in the race. Nearly immediately following the start, PRB roared off into the spectator fleet, flying along at 12 to 14 knots under spinnaker through the crowded waters. No collisions were reported, although several close calls certainly would have left hearts pounding.

By the first mark PRB had grabbed an early lead over Hugo Boss and Paprec-Virbac 2. And Delta Dore and Estrella Damm were very close behind.

On the return pass through the starting line, just 48-minutes later, it was PRB extending to lead by 6:38 over Delta Dore. But Estrella Damm, Mutua Madrileña, Veolia Environnement, and Paprec-Virbac 2 were all close behind. Then, Temenos II and Hugo Boss, which had lost significant ground with a troubled tack. Educación sin Fronteras rounded out the fleet, some six minutes behind Boss.

Starting line gate (ranking on the return through starting line with local time):

1. PRB 13:48:06
2. Delta Dore 13:54:44
3. Estrella Damm 13:56:00
4. Mutua Madrileña 13:56:08
5. Veolia Environnement 13:57:09
6. Paprec-Virbac 2 13:57:56
7. Temenos II 13:59:49
8. Hugo Boss 14:00:24
9. Educación sin Fronteras 14:06:27

And on towards Gibraltar
The fleet had two more marks to leave to starboard before one final waypoint remained just off the port of Sitges, which is to be left to port. After passing that ‘Estrella Damm buoy’ the Barcelona World Race competitors will be free to find their best route to Gibraltar.

At 17:03 local time, PRB raced past the last turning mark off Sitges, with Delta Dore passing the mark five minutes in arrears and Veolia Environnement next to pass. Estrella Damm and Hugo Boss, are also givng chase. The forecast is for a light wind day on Monday, so putting miles under the keel now is critical.

www.Sail-Search.com: Hull & Humber has managed to close in further on the lead boat, New York, and at the 06:00 GMT schedule this morning there was just 9 nautical miles separating the two. With New York just holding off the team from the north east of England it looks set to be a close and hard fought battle for first place up the east coast of South Africa to Durban

Overnight it has been the turn of the tail-enders to put some good miles under the keel whilst the leaders wallow around without much wind. As the next weather system catches up with the fleet it is those boats furthest west that gain the advantage first.

Nova Scotia has been having some fun with the stronger winds as skipper Rob McInally reported: “A fantastic day of sailing. Winds have been in the high forties with a surfing swell. Everyone is having big fun.”

Kate Wyse, crew member onboard Nova Scotia, commented soon after a massive surf hurtled the boat forward at nearly 20 knots." This is what I thought I was going to be really scared of and I love it.”

Across the fleet the wind has been steadily picking up. Qingdao, probably hit hardest by the lighter winds yesterday due to their northerly position have lost 3rd place and are at risk of dropping two more places if the wind does not pick up for them. Skipper Marcus Cholerton-Brown, obviously disappointed at dropping more places but certainly not down, commented this morning. “The boat is moving again after our worst 24-hour run of the race. Finally the wind filled in around 20:00 hours and even a little wind was well received. We’re all very happy to be moving again and it should be really good fun for the race to the end now that the fleet has compressed. Bring it on!”

One team that has benefited from Qingdao’s misfortune is Liverpool 08. Ben Galloway the skipper commented yesterday about his tactics which appear to have paid off today. At this morning's schedule reporting time he gave the following update: “24-hours on since the last report and we have moved up one place in the positioning, overtaking Qingdao on Distance To Finish on the midnight schedule. The weather has been slightly different than forecast with us getting 45 knots of wind during the early hours. The happy smiling faces of the foredeck crew enduring multiple drenchings whilst changing the Yankee 2 to the Yankee 3 were a joy to behold! At 06:00 hours a slight drop to Force 7 still gives us 10 knots of boat speed, and with 80 miles between us and the leaders and over 800 miles to go, long may it continue.”

Joff Bailey, Race Director: “Most of the fleet have reported high top speeds over the last 12-hours with up to 20 knots not being uncommon whilst surfing down a wave. This will be very good practice for the crew as the next leg takes them into the infamous Southern Ocean where they could easily hit speeds up to 30 knots as the waves inc