Duel to the finish |
| Wednesday, 13 July 2005 |
| In a duel to the finish Artforms and Gryphon Solo swapped the lead a dozen times. Kip Stone and Jeff Pritchard onboard Artforms have just finished in the 2005 Marblehead to Halifax Race.
Kip was joined by a new crewmember Jeff Pritchard, a Halifax local for the biannual ocean race from Marblehead to Halifax. Racing double handed in light and fluky conditions not ideally suited to open class boats the pair finished in a very creditable 5th ahead a number of the larger fully crewed boats including the fully crewed TP52 Brighstar, whilst just pipping Gryphon Solo for the Open 50 honours.
Follows is an excerpt from Kip and Jeff's log:
Sambro Light, Halifax. Jeff and I are finally abeam of Sambro Light which lies just outside of Halifax Harbour. It's taken us nearly 48 hours to get here since we left Marblehead on Sunday and after a hard push in mostly light air, we're happy to be closing in on the finish line.
We're also happy to finally have Joe Harris and Brian Harris on Gryphon Solo a mile or so behind after one of the most amazing races I've ever sailed. Until just an hour or so ago, I would say the outcome of our 360 nautical mile duel was a toss-up as the two boats have swapped leads at least a dozen times since the start, most of them yesterday as we inched our way across the Gulf of Maine, ghosting from one patch of wind to the next. At 7:00 a.m. yesterday, Artforms crossed Gryphon Solo's bow by half a boat length after a long night searching for breeze on opposite sides of the course. Yesterday evening, after endless sail changes under the blazing sun, we crossed their bow again rounding Cape Sable in an adverse tide and an eerie moonlit fog - this time, a full boat length ahead. During that time, the two boats were rarely more than a few hundred yards apart and the satisfaction of leap frogging into the lead after hours of hard work was dashed more times than I care to remember. Although light air sailing may not be as dramatic as the high mileage days we love to rack up in these Open Class boats, this is still ocean racing at its very best - dinghy tactics and dinghy intensity taken many miles offshore.
Artforms crossed the finish line in Halifax Harbour at 3:12 p.m. EDT (19:12 GMT) 12 July
The next race for Kip and Joe is the Transat Jacques Vabre on 5 November this year.
For more information on Kip Stone and Artforms visit www.ksopen50.com
For more information on Joe Harris and Gryphon Solo visit www.gryphonsolo.com
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