The Chileans Extend Their Lead To The Ice Gate Waypoint

(Photo Courtesy of Michel Kleinjans / Roaring Forty /Portimao Global Ocean Race)

The past 24 hours have been critical for the Portimão Global Ocean Race fleet as the eastern end of the 45°S ice gate approaches and the strategic options for the 1,500 mile dive south-east to Cape Horn at 56°S begin to open up the game. In the 0620 GMT position poll today (12/03), the double-handed division are spread over 83 miles with the Chilean team of Felipe Cubillos and José Muñoz on Desafio Cabo de Hornos increasing their lead over Boris Herrmann and Felix Oehme on Beluga Racer in second place to 36 miles with the British duo of Jeremy Salvesen and David Thomson battling equipment issues on Team Mowgli 47 miles behind the blue German Class 40. Meanwhile, 59 miles behind Salvesen and Thomson, solo sailor Michel Kleinjans on Roaring Forty continues to deliver consummate single-handing racing, judging the conditions and his boat perfectly.

Since yesterday morning, Desafio Cabo de Hornos have increased their lead over the German team on Beluga Racer by 23 miles. In many round the world races, this size of gain would be commonplace, but in the tightly-packed and evenly-matched Portimão Global Ocean Race, this 24 hour deficit is increasingly rare. Felipe Cubillos explained the cause late last night: “With the ice gate’s eastern end 150 miles south–east of us, the tactics were vital,” he says. “All our weather information indicated that the westerly breeze was going to shift to the south, so being to windward of the Germans when the shift came was a basic strategy,” Cubillos explains. However, weather models gave conflicting times for the shift and – at the crucial moment – the masthead instruments on Desafio Cabo de Hornos failed: “Unbelievable,” says the Chilean skipper, “and although we could use the second, backup instrument wand, the calibration is not that accurate.”

As stress levels rose, Cubillos chained himself to the nav station: “I admit that I spent two hours glued to the computer screen to judge the right moment to gybe.” Eventually, shortly after 1900 GMT yesterday, the Chileans made their manoeuvre. “There wasn’t much breeze at the time and we also experienced a really confused, sloppy swell left over from the storms over the past few days,” reports Cubillos. “In these conditions the autopilot really can’t cope and we’ve been handsteering constantly.” Currently in 17-20 knot south-westerly breeze, Cubillos and Muñoz are averaging just under 12 knots – two knots faster than the German team – in the sprint to the ice gate waypoint.

For solo sailor, Michel Kleinjans, the strong conditions have been beneficial: “The wind is between 20-25 knots and I’m using the Code 5 with one reef in the main to take some of the load off the autopilot,” reports the Belgian single-hander. After 19 days racing in Leg 3, his Open 40, Roaring Forty, is trailing the double-handed leader by 143 miles. “I hope the wind doesn’t decrease too much as I really want to avoid losing touch with the other boats,” he admitted yesterday. Without a co-skipper for company, Kleinjans is running his own race at his own rhythm: “It’s pretty grey out here with drizzle and squalls, which make for restless nights,” he explains. However, he has discovered an interesting paradox. “It’s strange, the harder it blows, the better I sleep,” says Kleinjans. “This shouldn’t really be the case, but when the breeze is over 30 knots I have to reduce sail, so there is less to go wrong and I don’t lose any speed.” However, with 3,800 miles to the finish line in Ilhabela, Brazil, there are some pressing problems on board for the solo sailor: “The main issue I have is the dwindling supplies of tea and coffee,” he admits. “So, turning the corner at Cape Horn and heading for home can’t come soon enough….”