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Volvo Ocean Race Game - Day 8

Do I try to cross the equator now or later?? Now that the breeze is to starting to knock and send me is a more southerly direction.

It looks extremely light immediately to the east of PNG and therefore a difficult transition to the south.

Volvo Ocean Race - Taking Control

Catch up with the fleet as they power their way down through the Pacific towards the equator at average speeds in the high teens or low twenties.

Extreme Sailing Series Act 1, Day 3, Race 7

Some great action from the Extreme Sailing Series Act 1, Day 3, Race 7.

GOR - Cessna Citation takes the gun in Punta del Este

[Source: Oliver Dewar - Global Ocean Race]

Conrad Colman and Adrian Kuttel win GOR Leg 3 with Class40 Cessna Citation

After a slow final 24 hours crossing the 120-mile wide mouth of the Rio de la Plata, Conrad Colman and Adrian Kuttel crossed the Global Ocean Race (GOR) Leg 3 finish line in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in first place with their Akilaria RC2Cessna Citation at 18:37:30 local time on Wednesday 29 February (20:37:30 GMT). The 28 year-old Kiwi, Conrad Colman, and his 41 year-old South African co-skipper, Adrian Kuttel, took 31 days 18 hours 37 minutes and 30 seconds to complete the 6,300 mile course from Wellington, New Zealand, to Uruguay.

In south-easterly breeze, Colman and Kuttel sailed the final miles off the wind, crossing the finish line between the Puerto de Punta del Este harbour break water and an inflatable buoy laid just east of Isla Gorriti. Escorted into the marina by two RIBs from the Yacht Club Punta del Este (YCPE), Cessna Citation was welcomed by a crowd of well-wishers including the Commodore of the YCPE, Horacio Garcia Pastori and the club’s Secretary, Pablo Elola, who had both been in Palma at the start of GOR Leg 1.

Mooring stern-to, Colman and Kuttel were quick to step ashore onto solid land after a month at sea. “Sign me up for the next one!” said Colman when questioned if he’d repeat Leg 3. “It was fantastic sailing, just full-on,” added Kuttel as the champagne celebrations began.

Having led the fleet into Cook Strait after the start in Wellington, Colman and Kuttel retook the lead in Leg 3 after four days of racing, overhauling Ross and Campbell Field onBuckley Systems 1,000 miles south-east of Wellington as the fleet encountered strong headwinds in the Roaring Forties. With the Kiwi father-and-son team on Buckley Systems returning to New Zealand with a serious injury to Ross Field’s back and the simultaneous decision to turn back made by Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron onCampagne de France, Cessna Citation led the fleet east, crossing the mid-Pacific bluQube Scoring Gate eight days after taking pole position with a 125-mile lead over Marco Nannini and Hugo Ramon on Financial Crisis.

For the complete update, click here.

Extreme Sailing Series - Morgan Larson is the Headline Act Again…

Yesterday new skipper Morgan Larson ended his first ever day on the Extreme Sailing Series tied in 1st place with tour favourites, Groupe Edmond de Rothschild… Today his impressive form continued as Pierre Pennec’s team clung on to the top spot by just 1 point. Five different race winners out of 8 races on day 2, keeps the competition close…Read the full article here.

Volvo Ocean Race - Camper Torn Sail & Lost Miles

You have to feel sorry for these guys, nothing is going their way in this VOR.

All GOR Class40s are safely in the Atlantic

[source: Oliver Dewar - Global Ocean Race]

Conrad Colman celebrates rounding Cape Horn - Photo Cessna Citation

Having rounded Cape Horn early evening GMT on Monday, Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire have takenPhesheya-Racing through Le Maire Strait between Tierra del Fuego and Isla de los Estados joining Cessna Citation andFinancial Crisis in the South Atlantic after 30 days in the Pacific Ocean’s high latitudes.

However, the final 1,300 miles from Cape Horn to the Global Ocean Race (GOR) Leg 3 finish line in Punta del Este, Uruguay, are proving to be as challenging as the 5,000 miles in the Pacific for the trio of Class40s that continued racing from Wellington, New Zealand. At the head of the fleet, Conrad Colman and Adrian Kuttel have experienced stop-start sailing with Cessna Citation as they close in on the coast of Argentina for the final 180 miles to the finish line on the northern shore of Rio de la Plata, while further south in second place, Marco Nannini and Hugo Ramon on Financial Crisis have been hammered by headwinds north-west of the Falkland Islands but, finally the breeze has gone right.

On the South African Class40, Phesheya-Racing, rounding Cape Horn on Monday evening was a momentous occasion for Phillippa Hutton-Squire. While Nick Leggatt has now logged six passages around the cape, it was a debut rounding for Hutton-Squire: “We never thought we would make it when we were becalmed the last few days, but we pushed hard in the last 24 hours between the hail storms, snow and icy winds,” says the first South African female sailor to skipper a racing yacht around Cape Horn. 

Leggatt and Hutton-Squire sighted Horn Island’s western peak from 27 miles to the south: “From here the excitement and happiness set in on board!” reports Hutton-Squire. As the sun began to set at 56S, Phesheya-Racing arrived three miles off the cape. “It’s a very jagged coastline with sheer cliffs and no trees,” she notes. “The birds had increased in numbers and the dolphins had come out to ride our bow.” However, the magic moment was interrupted as the satellite phone began to ring, the VHF suddenly crackled into life and the AIS warning light started to flash busily after a month with barely any shipping activity.

For the complete update, click here.

Volvo Ocean Race - Day 9 Leg 4

Team Telefonica's Joca Signorini celebrates a new arrival to his family, a baby girl!

Extreme Sailing Series - Danish Team Complete Act 1 Line-Up Starting Tomorrow

[source: Extreme Sailing Series]

Fighting talk on the dockside, find out what the sailors expectations are ahead of the first day of racing for 2012

A new team in the form of Team Trifork from Denmark can finally be unveiled today as the 8th team in the starting blocks for the first Act of the Extreme Sailing Series™ 2012 in Muscat, Oman. The team will be co-skippered by Jes Gram-Hansen on helm and Rasmus Kostner, tactician, who both come from a World Match Racing Tour and America’s Cup background, alongside the youngest member of the team, 26-year-old Jonas Hviid-Nielsen on bow combined with the Extreme 40 race experience of Pete Cummings (skipper of the winning Extreme 40 team in 2009) and Simon Hiscocks from the UK. It has been a long journey for the Danish team that began a year ago as Jes Gram-Hansen explained:“Rasmus and myself went into different sailing programmes like RC44 and Farr 40 after the 32nd America’s Cup in Valencia but all the time our dream was to create our own team. We analysed what kind of circuit would be the one to go with, and with the changes to the America’s Cup and the Extreme Sailing Series being more and more the series to be in, we decided to try and build a team for the Extreme Sailing Series. So we invested all our money into buying a boat a year ago and then we spent most of the year in Denmark taking out business people from companies to show them what we love and what we think would be a good way to be involved in the project. We have long-support from Trifork (a software company) which we have in been a good relationship over the years along with our clothing partner, Simon Spurr, to help get us here to the start line in Muscat.”

Rasmus Kostner, Team Trifork co-skipper and tactician

The team’s expectations are as you would expect for the ‘newbies’ to the tour: “We have a lot of respect for the guys who have been on the tour and some of them have sailed multihulls for a long time,” continued Jens. “We’re here to learn and I’m sure we will make some mistakes but we’ve got two great English guys with us, Simon Hiscocks and Pete Cummings, so, hopefully, they will keep us out of trouble! Hopefully, we’ll improve over the season with a longer term goal of overall victory in a couple of years time.”

After various stints of team training up the Omani coast at Massanah, the racing starts for real tomorrow, Tuesday, 28th February, in Muscat. The live race coverage will start at 1130 GMT on Wednesday (29th Feb), streaming on Thursday (1st March) and Friday (2nd March).

Read quotes from the sailing teams here.