Day 37, Sunday November 1, 1998

Josh Hall on Gartmore Investment Management was the next boat expected to arrive. Josh had 168 miles to go with Soldini 273 miles behind him. The next and last boat in Class I was over 3,000 miles behind Hall. Konioukhov's son Oscar reported that his father had managed to tighten all but two of the bolts, stopping the movement of the keel and reducing the water flow. Oscar Konioukhov wrote, "The boat has three rows of bolts with nine in each row. Everything is okay except two bolts, which are under the mast support. Fedor was able to tighten all the bolts except those two. His keel is not moving." Fedor was the last competitor to reach the Southern Hemisphere.

© Foto Richard Konkolski

In Class II, J.P. Mouligne was one of the fortunate competitors. He continued to lead despite his problems with the mainsail. JP widened his lead on Balance Bar to 146 miles with only 987 miles to the finish.

Second place Balance Bar was knocked on her side with the sails backwinded and the water ballast on the wrong side of the boat. Brad was able to right the boat after freeing the sheets and transferring the ballast. Later he wrote: "Everything is shipshape again now and I am on my way, having the wind off my starboard for the first time in weeks."

In third place, Mike Garside was closing the gap with only 86 miles astern of the Balance Bar. During his next accident he remembered Chay Blyth drumming into the crew volunteers for the BT Global Challenge, as well as Robin Davie's words to him as one of the three golden rules of single-handed sailing. "Always expect the unexpected!" His battery switch and electric wires were burned during charging. At least he could smell the melting plastic and was able to stop the generator.

Magellan Alpha

The fourth-place Robin Davie was averaging almost five knots despite a broken rudder aboard his boat. His trouble created opportunity for George Stricker and his Rapscallion to close Davie's lead on him to 118 miles. Yazykov was able to pass Saito. Only Neal Petersen was taking an easy approach to the race. He wrote: "The wind vane is steering, we are doing seven knots, my course is desirable, so why sit up there and get wet. There will be plenty of time to get wet."

Positions:

Class 1

Class 2

Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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