(Grand Canaria, Canary Islands)- In the mix for both IRC Class 2
leadership and also IRC Overall honors is the J/133 APOLLO 7 from the
United Kingdom, skippered by her owner Nigel Passmore. As they close
down to the final part of the 2,900nm long Trans-Atlantic Race from the
Canary Islands down the tradewinds route to Grenada, the APOLLO 7 team
is working hard to milk the breeze for every advantage possible.The overall race win is difficult to predict; as the wind is likely to lighten for the leaders during their approach to the islands, but the rest of the fleet are going to begin to catch up with them. With weather models showing a consistent easterly wind after the leaders have finished, we may be looking to one of the smaller boats to lift the IRC Trophy. The APOLLO 7 is the biggest threat. And, the fleet is encountering unforeseen obstacles to their progress.
As one boat recently reported, “Day 10 out here and life is good. It's important to look around sometimes and really enjoy the great times we are having. We are in slightly lighter pressure then usual, but still moving well and we seem to be holding with the competition. It's sunny and warm and watches were flying by until we started sailing through massive amounts of seaweed. The stuff haunts us, huge patches with no way through and no way to see them at night. Everyone on board has a different idea of how often we should back down (stop the boat and go in reverse to clear the keel and rudder) and some creative ideas are developing about how to clear the rudders underway. We think we lose a little over half a mile for every back down, but sometimes the weed can reduce boats speed by 1.5-2 knots, so it's a funny opinionated game to see how often stopping is necessary. Often we will prep for a back down, only to have the weed come off seconds before then maneuver...classic. I'm writing this post after having some frustrating time at the helm, so my hatred of the weed is at an all-time high. Perhaps it's not as bad is I'm making it sound! Under 700 miles to the finish and we are pushing hard to keep our position. There are some potentially tricky spots up ahead, so stay tuned to see how it works out!”
On December 4th, APOLLO 7 reported on their blog, “Good morning on day five! Life onboard has fallen into a good routine as we head south. For the navigators it is like a game of chess on a massive board, right/wrong moves being rewarded or punished in sea miles.
The temperature is slowly rising and it was a nice dawn with a warm breeze today, just rewards after three hours of charging along at 10+ knots into total darkness.
My watch mates Dan Gohl and Mark Davies are determined to beat Brett Arrons, Steve Wassells and Jim Slaters 16.4 knots. We'll keep trying!”
Then, on December 8th the APOLLO 7 gang commented, “Well, is it really a week ago that we left the windy Lanzarote?
When I set out on this adventure it was with the dream of long surfing downwind days with blue skies and the Atlantic has delivered it! It’s amazing, we are currently surfing due west at 12 -13 knots and have a few days ago enjoyed blasts of 20 knots, and all this on a J/Cruiseliner like the J/133!
Progress should be good over the next three days with stronger winds expected and with our best 24hr run of 294 miles to beat.
This leads to the ultimate goal of box ticking the Atlantic, so it’s sail fast and safe on APOLLO 7 and deliver its astronauts to Grenada in 7/8 days time!”
Background: The RORC Transatlantic Race started November 30 from Puerto Calero Marina in the Canary Islands. The 11-boat fleet departed Puerto Calero Marina, Lanzarote bound for Camper & Nicholsons Port Louis Marina, Grenada West Indies, 2,995 nm away across the Atlantic Ocean. For more RORC Trans-Atlantic Race sailing information
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