Artforms First to Bermuda! |
| Tuesday, 07 June 2005 |
| After 2 days, 18 hours and 57 minutes, Kip Stone has reached Bermuda. Artforms was first to cross the finish line off St. George's, Bermuda, at 5:57 EDT today.
Joe Harris on board his Open 50 Gryphon Solo has also finished in second place 3 hours and 42 minutes behind at 09:39 EDT.
Follows is Kip's latest skipper log, courtesy of www.ksopen50.com, which always make good reading.
It’s a lovely afternoon here in Bermuda, sunny and warm with clouds that threaten afternoon showers but promise good weather. I’m having a hard time looking at clouds these days without trying to imagine what the wind is like around and underneath them. Often enough, that’s what winning boat races is really all about and every once in a while a cloud drifts by that absolutely makes your day.
Yesterday afternoon, I was waiting for a long expected (and overdue!) lift after 300 miles of fast running on starboard tack across the Gulf Stream and almost all the way to Bermuda. The lift was just what I needed to gybe over for a clean run to the finish. Sailing across a clear spot in the sky, I came up to the edge of a large cloud but instead of finding lift, I found myself in a header deep enough to point me to the finish - incredible! I rode the edge of that cloud for as long as I could and I’m sure I chopped an hour or more off my finishing time.
Of course, this is the first race of the season and the few smart things I managed do right only just made up for some of the horrors. I’m not quite ready to tell the story yet, but it’s hard to ignore the telltale sign that something must have gone completely awry when I pulled into Bermuda with the lifelines missing from the starboard side of the boat and one less sail on board. When you’re racing these boats, It’s always a delicate balance trying to decide how much is too much and, once again, I found out firsthand you don’t have to miscalculate by much before things start to go really wrong really fast.
Back on the positive side of the ledger, I had a nice clean start and worked my way out of Narragansett Bay looking like I knew what I was doing. Although I spent most of the last five weeks in the area, it was the time spent on and off the water with Paul Cronin of PC Sailing that largely contributed to that success. Paul is a wizard at reading wind on the water – he sees things that you and I simply don’t see and he has a keen understanding of how to take advantage of the tactical opportunities presented as the wind and water flow in and out of the bay. I picked up just enough from Paul to get it mostly right this time.
I also benefited hugely from all the work done to the boat since it launched in April. There are a lot of people to thank, but right at the top are Tim Sadler, Ryan Finn, and Jeff Pritchard, as well as Greg Feldman. These guys worked non-stop to get the boat in perfect working order and allowed me to focus on the sailing. Thank you and congratulations on raising the preparation bar to new heights!
As for my part, I mostly stuck to the basics, driving the boat as much as possible and not straying any further from the rhumb line (direct course) than I had to. Between the ever swirling eddies in the Gulf Stream and two weather systems that shaped the course, there were a number of compelling reasons to lure a navigator one way or the other. I picked the one or two I felt were right and discarded the rest as low return for the risk - a nerve-racking process that had me second-guessing myself right up to the very end.
In a sprint race like the Bermuda 1-2, I found the 10-15 minute naps to be the only real option - if you grab them at the right time and if you can grab enough of them, they’ll keep you going for a few days of hard sailing. The only thing to keep in mind is that you’re absolutely the worst judge of your own level of fatigue, especially the more fatigued you become. In this race, working backwards through the drama that ended up costing me my lifelines and a sail, there’s no question that fatigue played a starring role.
Joe Harris, on the Open 50 “Gryphon Solo,” crossed the finish line just hours behind me. Until I ended up on the favorable side of a wind line yesterday afternoon, the gap was much closer and I felt him pushing me the whole way. It was a great race between the two big boats in the fleet with plenty of the strong downwind conditions that allow these Open Class boats to gobble up the miles.
The double-handed return back to Newport starts June 16. Merf Owen, the boat’s designer, is joining me for the ride and we’ll have our work cut out for us defending our lead. Until then, it’s time to catch up on some sleep, fix the broken bits, and start working on a strategy that gets “Artforms” back to Newport quickly.
To follow Kip and Joe in the Bermuda 1-2 visit
www.bermuda1-2.org and http://iboattrack.mapsherpa.com/2005NB1
For more information on Kip Stone and Artforms visit www.ksopen50.com
For more information on Joe Harris and Wells Fargo visit www.gryphonsolo.com
|
|
Email this page to a friend  |
|
