Team VERITAS catching up the fleet in BT Global Challenge

by Editor 27 Mar 2001 18:17 BST

At time of writing, LG FLATRON is currently in first position. 116 miles ahead of Logica, LG FLATRON has travelled 162 nautical miles in the last 24 hours at an average speed of 6.8 knots. Bearing in mind that we still have no email contact with LG FLATRON, please find below a daily update from the BT Global Challenge Race Press Office.

VERITAS HAS FLEET IN ITS SIGHTS

VERITAS, now only 17 miles behind Spirit of Hong Kong in eleventh place, have made up excellent ground and are beginning to recover from the dramatic events of two weeks ago when they were forced to return to mainland Australia with two injured crew (see quote below). With LG FLATRON maintaining a healthy lead over the fleet the low pressure that has descended on the yachts has caused a concertina effect. Meanwhile the crews are on iceberg watch following several sightings.

Forecast Stationary low pressure to the Southwest of the fleet and high-pressure building to the Northwest is giving a mainly westerly flow across the racecourse. Starting to the north of west the wind is expected to swing to the west then Southwest and increase a little tonight before increasing more tomorrow as the high pressure builds.

This west to Southwest airflow will bring bands of rain and showers, heavy at times, and it will feel very cold. Although the low pressure is slowly filling the gradient is tightening as the high pressure develops bringing the stronger winds tomorrow.

Yesterday, after the passage of the cold front, the wind dropped quickly and many of the yachts found themselves short of wind for a time as it became quite patchy. A succession of quick sail changes was required as the wind dropped from gale force to force three, occasionally less, before picking up and steadying last night.

Latest Race Update:

The fleet has closed up on LG FLATRON with VERITAS making the biggest gains of 29 miles as they sail themselves to within striking distance of Spirit of Hong Kong and TeamSpirIT. Now only 17 miles behind Spirit of Hong Kong, if they can continue to outperform them to the same extent as they have been doing, then they will pass them and probably TeamSpirIT well before they reach the Kerguelen Islands.

Logica caught up 15 miles on leaders LG FLATRON although LG FLATRON is now sailing slightly faster and on a better course. The last few days have seen losses and gains between these two but it has been mainly due to the weather systems bringing first an advantage to the west then rippling through the fleet. LG FLATRON, having positioned themselves directly in front of the fleet has made it difficult for other yachts to overtake them, unless a trailing boat takes a flyer into a different weather system, or they break something.

Quotes from the Fleet:

Will Carnegie, skipper, VERITAS
Sailing a little more conservatively has cost us nothing and for a team that began 170 miles from the pack to now be only 17 miles from Spirit of Hong Kong is a proof of that. Not only that but also of my team's commitment to our goal of not being last into Cape Town. Achieving that will be hard work, the last 50 miles are going to be tricky and as the yachts are so alike we will need to be cunning! My tactical team meet every six hours to discuss our strategy, basically we always intended to stay south of the Great Circle route, now we need a weather break and a bit of good luck.

In an ideal world the yachts ahead would sail into a hole, slow from the front with an ensuing concertina effect. In the back of my mind however is one major consideration. Leg 3 saw us finish eighth after finding ourselves trapped by headwinds in the south as we approached the infamous waypoint Charlie (an electronic rounding mark). This time we will not make that this mistake - I can't tell you exactly how but watch the web carefully! The other major consideration is that my team WANT to beat Spirit of Hong Kong and the signs are all there.

John Read, skipper, TeamSpirIT
This is the "world's toughest yacht race", the boats are so well matched that every minor mistake that you make pays badly. When we were in second the rest of the fleet were right behind us only miles away therefore overtook very quickly after the slightest fault. The crew are working hard and always have been, going on deck in the extreme cold and wet they are still pushing the boat hard to regain miles. This leg makes Leg 3 feel like a walk in the park. I was tired in the third week of Leg 3, we are just into Leg 5's second week and I'm shattered. The conditions are relentless and wear you down very quickly. Everything is a real effort, even going to the heads especially when the seat is -2 degrees!

Race Positions:

As at 1400 GMT (distance to leader in brackets)

LG FLATRON
Logica (117)
Save the Children (123)
BP Explorer (130)
Quadstone (133)
Isle of Man (135)
Norwich Union (161)
Compaq NonStop (190)
Olympic Group (195)
TeamSpirIT (203)
Spirit of Hong Kong (207)
VERITAS (224)

TEAM VERITAS CATCHING UP AND DREAMING OF CABBAGES

Team VERITAS News and Highlights

Team VERITAS, who had two crew members airlifted to hospital almost a fortnight ago after they were seriously injured by a freak wave slamming into the yacht, has almost caught up with the rest of the BT Global Challenge fleet. Less than 36 hours after leaving Sydney for the 6,200 mile trip across the Southern Ocean to Cape Town, Team VERITAS were forced to divert to Port Eden, which cost them 200 miles by the time they rejoined the fleet. Since then, they have caught up and are only 47 miles behind the nearest boat, Spirit of Hong Kong.

Skipper Will Carnegie sums up the previous fortnight:

"As we enter week three of this tough leg I take stock of how we are doing and our future plans. Robert is now safely back in the UK and focusing on re joining Team VERITAS in Cape Town. Charlie awaits his final operation and should fly back to the UK in three weeks time. Sadly he will not be re joining in Cape Town but his goal is to fly down to see us of before we leave. Thanks to our MOBIQ telephone we have been able to ring him from the yacht. I began yesterday's conversation by asking where the spare blue sail ties were! Efficient to the end, he reported them as being stowed in the port forward cabin, third box down. Sure enough, they were there!"

Will continued with thoughts common to all VERITAS crew members:

"CABBAGES! That's right, cabbages! In all this grey bleakness I am assured by the Antarctic Pilot book that the unique Kerguelan cabbage exists - is plentiful and edible. Right now I could eat a wheelbarrow full of them as we have been without fresh food for over two weeks. Sadly to get my hands on one would involve stopping at the barren Kerguelan Islands, which are some 1426 miles ahead of us. We expect to pass some 100 miles North of them in around eight days. It will be a significant moment as for us it means we are well over the halfway mark and will begin the climb up through the latitudes to the almost fantasy like Cape Town."

Crew volunteer Ian Luddington explained the tactics they employed to make back lost distance:

"Since leaving Sydney we've covered a little over 2500 nautical miles, so just another 3500 to go. Although we're still at the back of the fleet since the accident, we have deliberately taken a more southerly routing than most of the boats in the hope of finding ever-stronger winds to drive us on faster. It means it will be harder on us as a crew as the conditions will be harsher, but it will give us a fighting chance of making up some of the lost miles. With no dome on the back should be less windage to slow us down as well.

We've had a whole mixed bag of weather since putting back to sea from Port Eden last Tuesday. The first couple of days were reminiscent of leg 4, downwind sunny sailing with lots of spinnaker work, dolphins and a 'happy hour' on deck at the lunchtime watch changeover. Saturday night was fantastic sailing with a poled out yankee headsail surfing us downwind at 12 knots or so (we couldn't use our flanker spinnaker since we've blown it already this leg and it's still being repaired).

Will added:

"Team VERITAS is totally committed to our goal of not being last into Capetown. Achieving that will be hard work - the last 50 miles will be tricky and as the yachts are so alike we will need to be cunning!

My tactical team meet every six hours to discuss our strategy. Basically we always intended to stay South of the Great Circle route and now we need a weather break and a bit of good luck.

One of the toughest battles at present is against the cold. With wind chill lowering temperatures to below minus ten, life on deck is extremely hard. Dressing for battle is a time consuming and awkward job. Underwear, two base layers, two pairs of socks, waistcoat, middle layer, dry suit, balaclava and gloves need to be donned in under twenty minutes on a heaving slippery deck - not easy! Once on deck it's about staying awake and rotating, an hour is the absolute maximum one can spend up there before taking a twenty minute warm up break below."

More Information: