Day 15, Saturday February 20, 1999

NaklonKompas.jpg (26183 bytes)
© Photo Richard Konkolski

Marc Thiercelin continued to close Cape Horn, less than 500 miles to the west. He notified headquarters that he would make a short stop at Staten Island to make repairs to his gooseneck.

BBCrayValleyTrimmed.jpg (23895 bytes) Cray Valley © Photo Billy Black

Farther back J.P. Mouligne was leading Class II with 168 miles gap over second-placed Mike Garside. They were sailing in the strongest wind generated by an intense low of 968 millibars following them more to their south.

Wind of Change Russia © Photo Billy Black  BBWindOfChangeBow.jpg (20204 bytes)

Viktor Yazykov remained in fourth. He was one of two skippers who were able to send email. Yazykov wrote: "It is early morning. All night long we have a light wind out here. But day before the weather was really wild. The boat has being knock down for many times. New windex installed in Auckland two weeks ago washed away from the masthead. And one solar panel washed away from the deck. Lazy jack broke, boom dropped on deck, luckily no damages. The boat speed reached 25 knots few times but we have lost lots of mileage. Got to up north, because even with few square meters for sail area we could sail only almost dead down wind. The air pressure drops down again. Hope it would not be as bad as yesterday."

FolGoldingFace.jpg (14599 bytes) Mike Garside

Mike Garside reported damage: "…I was horrified to see that the starboard running backstays - not the ones currently in action securing the mast - had broken free during the night. Incredibly, the top one had managed to flip itself over the end of the boom. The three lines were trapped, two on one side of the boom and one on the other. This was serious. Until I could unhook them I would be unable to tack the boat at all."

"[The repair] took me five hours and I was frozen and aching from head to foot from a fall [taken while crawling out on the boom to gather the stay]... But I was so exhausted I could not drive the boat through the night as though I meant it. By dawn we had rounded the [mandatory Leg 3] waypoint. Now, 36 hours into the storm I am back in the race but have lost a huge amount of ground in the process."

ZaZadiSpray.jpg (15221 bytes)
© Photo Richard Konkolski

Positions:

Class 1

Place

Skipper

Boat

Latitude

Longitude

Dist. to go

Speed

Dist. to first

Time

1

Thiercelin

Somewhere

57 44S

077 43W

1489

11.1

0

2140

2

Soldini

Fila

56 05S

088 41W

1840

16.2

351.2

2140

3

Autissier

PRB

Rescued

by

Soldini

0

0

0

4

Hall

Gartmore

Retiring

to

Chatham Is.

0

0

0

Class 2

Place

Skipper

Boat

Latitude

Longitude

Dist. to go

Speed

Dist. to first

Time

1

Mouligne

Cray Valley

54 10S

105 35W

2429

9

0

2144

2

Garside

Magellan Alpha

54 42S

111 02W

2598

10.8

168.1

2144

3

Van Liew

Balance Bar

53 55S

113 21W

2690

10.7

260.7

2144

4

Yazykov

Wind of Change

50 58S

118 05W

2923

10.2

493.7

2144

5

Saito

Shuten-dohji II

51 07S

147 56W

3906

5.8

1476.2

2144

6

Petersen

No Bariers

47 30S

152 22W

4162

6.8

1732.2

2144

7

Hunter

Paladin II

47 02S

156 01W

4301

6

1871.9

2144

Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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