Owen Clarke 60's duel for Transat win |
| Tuesday, 08 June 2004 |
| With just under a third of the distance to go in this year’s Transat Race the two Owen Clarke designed 60's Ecover and Pindar are currently holding first and second place in the 60 monohull fleet.
At present they are sailing through the foggy expanse of the Grand Banks where further dangers lie in wait for them in the form of ice and fishing boats. Mike Sanderson on Pindar in particular is playing Russian roulette with neither radar nor his active echo working. It’s not over until its over and even though these two boats that have been rarely more than ten miles apart for the last three days Dominique Wavre lies a constant 50 to 60 miles astern ready to punish any mistake or accident that befalls the dynamic duo.
Speaking by sat phone to designer Merfyn Owen on Monday night, Mike Sanderson described how he was less than half a mile from Ecover and could plainly see activity on the other boat. Both sailors have apparently been giving each other no quarter and that has resulted in each pushing the other to greater efforts. On the last pole of Monday afternoon Pindar had covered over 420 miles in 24 hours and earlier in the day both boats had averaged in separate thirty minute periods over 19 knots. This included bursts of speed up to twenty-seven knots under autopilot requiring steady nerves and a degree of faith in the boat and its preparation.
Meanwhile in the 50' fleet the Owen Clarke designed Artforms has lost the lead to more northerly placed Wells Fargo for the first time in eight days. Over a thirty-six hour period Joe Harris steadily eliminated a lead of 50 miles to gain an advantage of twenty miles over fellow Bostonian Kip Stone by cleverly sailing over the top of him in stronger breeze. In addition to falling into a band of lower winds, unspecified problems had the mainsail of Artforms on the deck several times during the day. These problems now fixed Kip seems to have found the breeze again and over the last few poles has cut the deficit back to 16 miles. Artforms is just over sixty miles south of her competitor, with the separation between the two closer than it has been for a long time and with over a thousand miles to go, barring accidents it should be a thrilling final week in the fifty class.
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