Atlantic Cup: Angola Cables leads fleet out of NY Harbor as teams head north for Portland

2018 Atlantic Cup © Billy Black / Atlantic Cup

Leg two of the Atlantic Cup departed just off the Manhattan Sailing Club's clubhouse in a 8 knot northeasterly for the 360 nautical mile race to Portland, Maine. 95-Talanta was first across the Angola Cables start line, but had trouble hoisting their kite which allowed 111 - Power of One and 127 - Amhas and 107 - Angola Cables to make quick gains on the fleet. After gybing out of NY Harbor, it was Angola Cables who exited first, followed closely by Amhas and Toothface.

Teams will face a building breeze this evening with wind speeds of 12-18 knots from the east gusting 20-24. The fleet will be racing upwind in a nasty sea state with short, choppy waves until they reach the Nantucket shoals and the only mark of the course. Once teams reach Point Alpha conditions will improve and current routing is anticipating a late Monday arrival.

2018 Atlantic Cup - photo © Billy Black / Atlantic Cup

Overall in the standings French/Italian entry, #145-Eärendil is currently in first place with 22 points, followed by Amhas and Talanta. Both offshore legs of the Atlantic Cup are worth double points. The Atlantic Cup is scored on a high points system leaving 22 points up for grabs in this leg.

Hugh Piggin, Atlantic Cup Race Director

"Pretty exciting start on the Angola Cables Start Line, the weather was spectacular. Most of the fleet took a conservative start in downwind, outgoing current. I think their minds are on the upwind slog to Point Alpha [Nantucket Shoals] and were looking for a clean start to the race. Being at Liberty Landing Marina this week was terrific, we really don't know what the outcome will be in this leg so we're excited to watch what unfolds as we head to Portland."

2018 Atlantic Cup - photo © Billy Black / Atlantic Cup

Rob Windsor, #127 - Amhas - Currently in 2nd Place

"This leg is going to be a little different, but tactically its similar, we are going to try to get out of here as fast as we can and try to get out in front safe. The past leg had the Gulf Stream, there isn't going to be that..there are going to be waves, this time the only way around is upwind, all the way out to mark alpha. The breeze is going to get increasingly stronger as we get to mark alpha, which means the waves are going to get increasingly big. So there will be a lot of bashing upwind by this time tomorrow and we will have a couple more miles to get around and we are going to try to get around it as fast as we can so we can angle reach all the way up to Portland.

I've sailed in and out of New York harbor a lot and I grew up on Long Island, which we are going to sail right past and I live in Portland now. I've done the trip from Portland to Charleston almost 50 times now, and everything changes all the time, so we hope we can compete and do well and we will see what happens in the end."

Paul Peggs #101 - Power of One - Currently in 7th Place

I'm ready to go, it's not going to be always enjoyable, but I don't mind upwind sailing, it's not too bad. Big breeze is ok, you just have to put up with it at the end of the day. A pity for us, we've never navigated around here so all of the shoals and stuff like that might be a bit tricky to get through and not knowing where the currents are, along Long Island might be harder for us, but I'm sure we will be fine at the end of the day.

The team to chase down for us is Angola Cables, they are good friends and good rivals too, so they are the people we are trying to beat!"

Resuts after Leg 1

*Result pending protest to be heard in Portland, Maine.