Day 53, Tuesday November 17, 1998

Neal Petersen © Foto Marek Slodownik

Petersen arrived on the brink of a 35 knots gale. He crossed the finish line at 1328 GMT with an elapsed time of 51 days, 21 hours, 13 minutes and 40 seconds. The 31-year-old Cape Town native finished in sixth place but earned a fifth position after the time penalty was applied to Yazykov. The leg time was big improvement compared to his last 1994-95 entry, which he sailed on the same boat, by almost 68 days. Petersen was greeted on the pontoon by his parents, friends and students from his old high school.

No Barriers © Foto Marek Slodownik

He had a hard night on the very last day. It was blowing out of the southwest and in the middle of the night he ended up getting some halyards caught in the cross trees which made gybing impossible. He was forced to sail off towards Hout Bay where he could then go up to mast to clear the mess. Petersen then experienced a wind shift that allowed him to cross the finish line under main and staysail.

No Barriers
Petersen built the boat himself in 1991 and she was originally only 38-feet long. He had to add extra two feet onto the stern to qualify for the last race four years ago. Her interior is very simple with drop-down bunk being the only inside comfort.

In general Petersen was sailing a conservative leg keeping his boat more or less in the center of the fleet. Only a week ago he was able to pass Robin Davie, who had lost his rudder forcing him to drag various devices behind the stern to accomplish some kind of steering which was naturally slowing down his boat.

No Barriers © Foto Marek Slodownik

The next boat, Shuten-dohji II, was over 400 miles back, with Robin Davie another 70 miles back. The last two sailors, Hunter and Konioukhov, were still over thousand miles from the finish.

© Foto Richard Konkolski

Positions:

Class 1

Class 2

Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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