After a superb stopover in Sydney, the Class40s of the 2nd edition of the GLOBE40 set sail again on Thursday, January 1st at 3:00 PM local time (4:00 AM UTC) for the 4th leg, which will take them, after a transpacific crossing, to Valparaiso, Chile. The restart was smooth in light to moderate weather. The competitors initially hugged the Australian coast for the first 24 hours, reaching the Baas Strait, remaining close together except for WILSON, which had opted for a more offshore route. They then changed course on Friday, January 2nd, towards the southern part of New Zealand’s South Island, thus marking their strategic choice to pass south of this landmass before the big leap into the Pacific. It should be noted that this tip of New Zealand is already south of 47° latitude. Sailing downwind in a northerly flow, the fleet is spread out latitudinally, with the two leaders, BELGIUM OCEAN RACING – CURIUM and CREDIT MUTUEL, very close together and furthest south, while the classic Class40s are spread out from north to south over 20 miles, with JANGADA RACING leading the way after a strong start. The leaders have covered 750 nautical miles on the surface since Thursday at an average speed of nearly 11 knots, but only 470 nautical miles on the direct route, based on the courses actually taken.
Unfortunately, the turn taken on Friday evening was made without the Réunion-based competitor FREE DOM, who, around 7:40 PM UTC that day, collided with a UFO (Unidentified Floating Object). The impact damaged one of the two rudders and caused a leak. Thibault Lefevere and Nicolas Guibal reacted quickly and controlled the leak, but as continuing the race proved impossible under these conditions, they decided to return to Sydney. Solidarity emerged with the teams remaining ashore, and solutions were quickly put in place to transport spare parts to Australia, with the aim of resuming the race as soon as possible. The FREE DOM team, disappointed and shocked by this incident, which they handled without requesting outside assistance, was preparing for another exciting duel, notably with their closest competitor, BARCO BRASIL, but they will have to wait for the next leg. Offshore racing remains a technical sport with often cruel episodes, given the human and athletic investment in the projects. After 15,000 miles sailed from Lorient and only one incident to date, this type of event is unfortunately difficult to avoid. We wish the excellent crew from Réunion a speedy recovery and hope they can quickly put this moment behind them.
The fleet heading towards the Roaring Forties knows that the first expected low-pressure systems will soon arrive. Temperatures will drop, the wind will strengthen, and the sea will become rougher as they pass New Zealand before very likely reaching the southern limit of the course set for this leg, namely 50 degrees latitude, for an extended period. The duration of this challenge is difficult to predict, but the organising team, having just returned to France, can only assume that the 10,000 km (5,400 miles) covered from Singapore or Shanghai in an average of 12 hours of flight time is still less than the 6,400 miles of direct sailing for this leg! On board CREDIT MUTUEL, the double-handed crew (Antoine/Alan) is certainly aware of these last moments and wants to make the most of them. As of 01:00 UTC today, a mere 0.4 miles separated BELGIUM OCEAN RACING – CURIUM, in the lead, from CREDIT MUTUEL: does that ring a bell?
“Hi all, All good on board from the Tasmanian basin. It’s been a good day, blasting along under geneka sailing fast, the sea calmed for us today and reduced the slamming. The boat has been really pleasurable to sail today. Now we are under spi in lighter winds but still sliding along nicely. It looks like we have another 20 hours or so of this before it starts to get windy as we will pass south of NZ..it could be quite fruity! The temperature is dropping now, this evening the layers are starting to come on, it’s only going to get colder, for the time being, we still have the wind from the north; when it turns west and southwest, it will be very cold. The night is nice with the full moon, although this evening is a little more cloudy than last night, still we make the most of being able to see the sails and the sea. We are feeling well rested and fuelled up with food as we stay ready for the challenging conditions that lie ahead. Good night from us, A & A.”
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