Seven boats raced up the west coast of the Philipine Island of Luzon. Four stepped out into the Luzon Channel. Three returned to shelter, damaged. Two waited until conditions abated. One sailed on.
In a move that was either reckless or brilliant, Bouwe Bekking and the salty old sea dogs aboard Telefonica Blue brought their boat through a truly evil 36 hours in the South China Sea, to take a commanding lead of Leg 4.
And with the MacGyver challenge over for those battling to repair damage – all six boats still racing are now sailing again – this is the run down on the se7en involved in the horror movie:
Telefonica Blue – has held the lead since Telefonica Black pulled out to change to her storm trysail at 05:30 ZULU yesterday. Blue was the first to sail out into the Straits, in a move that Guy Salter, Media Crew aboard Ericsson 4 described as, ‘either a stroke of leg winning genius or complete stupidity (if the boat breaks!)’.
It now appears to be a move of genius, as Bouwe Bekking reported that they had ‘survived the worst part of the storm’ early this morning. They now have a commanding lead of 70 miles.
Ericsson 3 – has been in second place since Telefonica Black damaged her hull and turned back south for shelter at 10:15 ZULU yesterday morning. Media Crew, Gustav Morin sent back this dramatic email yesterday, describing their passage through seas of over eight metres in winds of 50 knots. Navigator, Aksel Magdahl, also described conditions in this audio. And you can see what it was like in this subsequent video clip from Morin, as they nursed the boat up the coast of Luzon with just a storm jib.
They held back in as much shelter as they could find until the 16:00 ZULU Position Report yesterday afternoon, at which time it seemed that Telefonica Blue was managing the conditions and progressing across the Strait – then they followed.
Ericsson 4 – has been in third place since Telefonica Black’s hull damage yesterday morning. There’s been nothing from the boat, since Guy Salter sent his email yesterday afternoon, recording their cautious passage up the coast. Ericsson 4 waited about another four hours in the shelter of Luzon before following her sistership out into the Straits. No damage reports have been received, but then, they don’t usually tell us anyway…
PUMA was the first of the four boats to restart
PUMA – broke her boom while in the lead at 02:00 ZULU yesterday morning. But she won the Macgyver challenge and was the first to restart of the four boats that sought shelter with damage, hoisting sail and heading north at 22:30 last night to take up fourth place on the race track, after 20 hours of repair work.
A disappointed and exhausted-sounding Ken Read, described the ‘devastating’ failure in this audio interview with Amanda Blackley. And Media Crew, Rick Deppe captured the action in another fantastic clip.
Delta Lloyd – they turned back from the Luzon Strait at 07:15 ZULU yesterday morning with a badly damaged mainsail, and suspended racing three hours later (meaning they can accept outside assistance, but must stop for at least 12 hours). They anchored in the same bay as Green Dragon for repairs – about 20 miles north of where PUMA fetched up. Watch Captain, Guillermo Altadill, talked through their decision to turn back and repair the sail in an interview with Amanda Blackley. And once the job was done, they resumed racing at 09:10 ZULU this morning, in sixth place.
Green Dragon – was the first to suffer damage when they broke their forestay before the storm. Things then went from bad to worse when a major structural component (a ring frame) in the bow shattered yesterday morning at around 08:30 ZULU, and they suspended racing soon afterwards.
Skipper, Ian Walker described the damage to a (very busy) Amanda Blackley. And Walker subsequently wrote of their repair plans from their anchorage in Salomague Bay. The repair seems to have gone well, and they also restarted this morning at about 08:45 ZULU, in fifth place.
Telefonica Black – suffered the most serious damage with a crack to the hull, while leading the race. After heading for shelter to assess the damage, she formally retired from Leg 4. The boat is now motoring to Subic Bay to find the necessary resources to try and get themselves to the start line for the Qingdao in-port, or the start of Leg 5.
While conditions have certainly moderated since yesterday, I’m a little suspicious of some of the wind data coming off the boats, as Guy Salter said – the wind instruments at the top of the masts take a pounding. Bouwe Bekking reported Telefonica Blue’s as broken in his most recent email – although their data makes the most sense, with a wind speed (TWS in the Data Centre) in the mid-teens, blowing from the north-east (TWD) – perhaps they have the spare up.
