Having claimed 6th position on the second leg of the Vuelta Espana, the crew of GAES Centros Auditivos had a short rest overnight and set off on the next 220 mile sprint from Gijon to Sanxenxo at 1100hrs BST today. The brief recovery time in Gijon has given skipper Dee Caffari time to reflect on Leg 2 with a view to making improvements in the remaining legs of this race.
Looking back at the start of Leg 2, Dee Caffari analysed:
“There was limited water available to sail in outside of the main channel in Santander and the start was scheduled to be at 1500hrs, downwind and down tide. With limited space available and 8 IMOCA 60’s leaving together, the skippers all agreed that spinnakers would be foolish.”
“Just as we were preparing to hoist our mainsail a terrible clunking noise was heard from the engine. It was a noise I recognised from the delivery – a broken sheer pin. We found ourselves ferry gliding to the beach with a mainsail hoisted to the third reef and caught in the top mast runners. I turned the boat to keep us in the channel and we headed out downwind, fast in the flowing tide. A safe and simple Genoa was chosen and we watched the rest of the fleet take off under Gennaker.”
“GAES Centros Auditivos loved the set up of 1 reef, Solent headsail and ballast. We soon gained miles on the others and closed the gap with W Hotels and Estrella Damm. After seeing Safran and Movistar tack and having to duck to avoid Movistar we got over excited and tacked as well. This was not a good strategy for us and we made a mistake when moving the sails around on deck to the windward side. We caught the tiller and before we knew it we had crash tacked, ultimately losing us about 4 miles.”
“After that we had to work hard again to make up the distance between us and the others, so were pleased to enter a tacking duel again with Estrella Damm close to the finish in Gijon”
Looking ahead to Leg 3, Dee Caffari said:
“This race is going to have different climatic conditions to the other two stages and our goal is to get a higher top speed that allows us to be within the lead group.” Anna Corbella added: “This stage will be more enjoyable as we will be sailing downwind at speed. We will also pass Cape Finisterre which will mean we will see some changes in conditions.”
The competition is currently led by Vincent Riou on PRB, followed by Frenchman Marc Guillemot on Safran and the Spanish Movistar skippered by Iker Martinez and Xabier Fernandez in third place.
For more information go to www.vueltaespanavela.com , www.deecaffari.com and www.annacorbella.com
In five years as her title sponsor, Aviva supported Dee Caffari to three world records including becoming the first woman to sail solo, non stop, around the world in both directions. As Founding Partner of the campaign, Aviva is pleased to extend this support to Anna and GAES for the Barcelona World Race