Rolex Transatlantic Challenge 2005 Update

Transatlantic Match Races

Over the last 24 hours, the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge's two leaders, Robert Miller's Mari-Cha IV and Charles Brown and Bill Buckley's Maximus, have finally moved in front of the virtual position of the 1905 transatlantic race winner Atlantic. Slowly, they have turned north, having had a difficult night of big winds and lumpy seas.

"This race so far seems to have been all about no wind or too much," reported Mari-Cha IV's racing helmsman Mike Sanderson last night. "Over the past eight hours, we have got back to the stage of having to slow the boat down to try and make sure that we don't break anything major that will stop us racing the boat. It is easy to forget, at times, that there are still 2,300 miles or so to go in this transatlantic race. We are happy to give up some of our lead to Maximus just so that we can be sure to be there when the reaching and running conditions start in a few days time." At the time, the 140-foot schooner was sailing in 37 knots in "survival conditions."

Meanwhile, Maximus has split from her larger rival and is now 25 miles to Mari-Cha IV's northwest. But in terms of distance to finish (DTF), Maximus has taken the lead, 15 miles ahead at noon today.

The British match race for the on-the-water lead in Performance Cruising class 1 also continues, with just two miles DTF separating Mike Slade's Leopard from Peter Harrison's Sojana. Leopard, too, has split on the course with Sojana and is 48 miles to the northwest.

In a third match race between what are now the two largest boats in the fleet (following Stad Amsterdam's retirement), the 170-foot ketch Drumbeat is now 57 miles ahead of her sloop-rigged near-sistership Tiara. "Earlier this morning we had 40 knots of wind, and we have just broke the head of the staysail," recounted Tiara's captain Pascal Pellat-Finet. "It is nothing dramatic, but we have had to slow down quite a bit. We will wait for nicer weather to pull out a bigger sail."

Alexis Lombard, on Tiara, described their race so far. "The strategy for the last three days was to go south back to 38 degrees north to avoid the worst of the storm. We had little wind Sunday and Monday, and since then the wind and the sea have been getting stronger and stronger, and we still have the southeast wind. We were going very well for 24 hours at an average of 13-14 knots, so everything was quite fine - a lot of rain, a lot of wind and then the staysail broke. Everything, otherwise, is perfect on the boat. We are having fun. We are having rough conditions, but this is the Atlantic and we were looking for that."

Steve Frank, owner of the Swan 112 Anemos, said they had generally been suffering from a lack of wind but had a glorious sail yesterday in 35 knots. "From 1100 until 2000 it was bright sunshine, fetching, which is what we wanted to do. The steering and sailing was magnificent. It was absolutely her seaway. I haven't had that much sunshine and that much breeze in 40 years. It was well worth it."

But in the process, they got too far north, and when they gybed back, they ran out of wind. "Since then, they've kind of turned off the fan," continued Frank, who is sailing his first transatlantic race.

While the conditions have been extremely trying for the first four days of the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge, this should change in 24 hours time, said Ken Campbell of Commanders Weather, which is advising 16 of the boats competing. ""This is the last day of the storm system that we were concerned about pre-start and that we have been sailing with for a couple of days now, which has produced totally screwy conditions. There are two lows. The western low is about 100-150 miles SSW of Nantucket. The eastern low is located in the western third of the fleet, 200 miles southeast of Nantucket, and they are rotating counterclockwise. The low that is in the middle of the fleet is going to head towards Nantucket today, and they will all congregate this evening 50-100 miles southeast of Nantucket, and they'll start to move northeast like weather systems are supposed to move."

At present, the leaders and northerly boats are in easterlies, while those to the south and east are transitioning from easterlies to southerlies as they get out of the clutches of the depression. The depression is set to move across the Atlantic, and from the weekend on, all the boats in the fleet should enjoy a prolonged period of favourable westerly or southerly winds.

Elsewhere in the fleet, Clarke Murphy's Swan 70 Stay Calm continues to lead Performance Cruising class 2, while Carlo Falcone's Mariella has moved ahead among the Classics.

100 years ago on day four of his transatlantic race on board the schooner Atlantic, Frederick Hoyt wrote:

"The breeze kept dropping during the afternoon and by sundown we were not doing more than three or four knots. A heavy southwesterly swell on the quarter did not help matters either for it rolled us about so that with the light breeze all the booms had to be gotten onboard to save the sails and gear. The squaresail and raffee were the only sails which did any work.

"Much to the disgust of everyone the breeze continued to drop and all the evening the ship hardly had steerage way. It was a beautiful night for lovers and steamers but as a racing proposition it might have been improved upon."

Listen to satellite telephone interviews from the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge at www.regattanews.com

The Rolex Transatlantic Challenge is sponsored by Rolex and also by Moran Towing Corp., Sandy Hook Pilots, P&O Ports North America, and MedLink. The race is supported by the City of New York and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Showboats International is the event's official marine publication; program sponsors include Rolex, North Fork Bank and Holland Jachtbouw. Jobson Sailing, Inc. is making a documentary of the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge to be aired on the Outdoor Life Network on Wednesday, September 28 at 1:00 am ET and again on September 28 at 10:00 pm ET and on Channel 13 (PBS) in New York at a date and time to be announced.

More Information:

• www.transatlanticchallenge.org