Day 50, Saturday November 14, 1998

George Stricker © Foto Billy Black

Stricker arrived at Cape Town right after midnight, at 00:57 a.m. local time. Due to last minute wind shift, Stricker was forced to sail close to Robben Island before he could make a last tack for the finish line. He finished in fourth place and became the first unsponsored contestant to complete Leg 1. The 63-year skipper crossed the finish line after a passage of 49 days, 06 hours, 42 minutes and 51 seconds.

Rapscallion III  © Foto Billy Black
When the rudder on South Carolina fell off, Stricker took full advantage of the situation by quickly closing the gap and then passing Davie. He was able to sail into Cape Town with a comfortable 300 miles lead over his nearest competitor, injured Russian sailor, Viktor Yazykov.

Injured Viktor Yazykov was still 350 miles from Cape Town. He reported twice about the condition of his arm. It was getting better, but he could not use it to handle even spoon or pencil. He was expected to arrive in Cape Town some time on Monday, November 16. Even with his injury, he managed to average the best speed in the fleet for the past 24 hours, covering 239 miles.

He was able to write: "Boiled water and heated my poor arm, making massage, shaking it. I have forgotten about the elbow trying to save the arm and the bleeding ended somehow. Deadly tired fell asleep. Awaked in a morning. What a hell around and strong smell of blood. The sun gave life to the battery. Check the email -- ten messages from the race office -- Viktor how are you? Answer immediately. Yes, I did. But what now should I do with the only one arm in work? Did you guys ever tried to move inside the boat at rough seas with the only one arm? And it was rough seas and proper wind and the boat moving through the waves averaging ten knots."

© Foto Richard Konkolski
Robin Davie reported his trouble as well: "The last 24 hours have been most disappointing with so few miles sailed towards Capetown when we have had a gale of wind. The problem has been the wind dead astern of the course I would like to take, and with no rudder my basic courses on either gybe have been north east and south east and in fact more northerly or southerly, so that the miles east were much less than the miles sailed."

"The night was squally, 30 to 35 knots - heavy rain at times, and frequent gybes, so that by dawn the inner jib was looking in a sorry state of repair and had to come down and be replaced by the smaller storm inner jib and it sure seemed and felt like a Friday the 13th to me."

© Foto Richard Konkolski

Positions:

Class 1

Class 2

Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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