GOLD COAST 160600ZAUG11 SKED

DATE 16.08.11

LAT 21 53

LONG 24 16

DTR 2910

SKIPPERS BLOG

TIME 0145.. If you think the Skippers of the Clipper Round the World Yacht

race have it easy, sipping coffee, sleeping and occasionally barking

orders you may have read the same brochure that the crew, who are currently

wooling the 4th spinnaker for the night, have read.

Nightime for a Clipper Skipper is not a time for sleep, its a time to

thrive and survive. When its dark, the armature helmsmen and women have a

hard time keeping the boat on course, particularly in light airs with a

swell on the quarter. This results in many spinnaker wraps and accidental

gybes and the occasional accidental drop!

Most yachts in the fleet are flying anti wrap nets to stop their kites

getting wrapped, I pride myself on teaching my crew how not to wrap a

kite, and in the unforeseen occasion that it does wrap, how to get the wrap

out quickly so as to minimise damage to the spinnaker, and to prevent the

mother of all wraps (as experienced by a good percentage of the fleet so

far). So far we have been reasonable lucky, with only a few little nicks

out of our medium weight caused by the “razor sharp” braided wire

stainless steel forestays and inner forestays.

Currently I type my blog, waiting to jump back up on deck and save my 10th

wrap for the night, though as we have just gybed back to the gate, the

swell is not causing as much as an issue so the chances of a wrap are

minimised. I pity the fleet further to the East who I think may have

less wind, and therefore a harder job to keep the kite full. I think I

have now reduced the timing from being asleep (normally with one eye open

like a crocodile) in my bunk to on the helm to save a wrap to under 5

seconds!

Gold Coast tactics at the moment are to stay further west than the rest of

the fleet in more wind. Whilst we are heading towards the gate, our

position “covering the fleet” gives us a good opportunity to bail from the

gate and head towards the equator at the best crossing position possible.

Where this magical crossing position is located will not be revealed

(including to me) for another few days, but I know one thing, it will be

further west than our current location, hence, our position west of the

fleet gives us the advantage.