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Conference unifix::sailing

Title:	SAILING
Notice:	Please read Note 2.* before participating in this conference
Moderator:	UNIFIX::BERENS

Created:	Wed Jul 01 1992
Last Modified:	Mon Jun 02 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	2299
Total number of notes:	20724

235.0. "Auckland & The Whitbread Race" by NZOV01::WONG () Fri Feb 14 1986 09:55

        Since the first two Whitbread entrants (Atlantic Privateer
        from the US and NZI Enterprise from New Zealand) arrived in
        Auckland around the beginning of January, the place has tried
        to live up to it's reputation for being 'The City of Sails'.
        About 40,000 people turned up between 1am and 3am to welcome
        the first 2 yachts into Auckland and every one of the other
        finishers that arrived during daylight hours, has been
        surrounded by a flotilla of local boats as they've made their
        way up to the finish line.  The harbour area where the boats
        have been moored has been overrun with a continual stream of
        intrigued visitors. 
        
        None of the boats appear to have had the major problems such
        as those that were evident when they arrived in Capetown,
        however they have all been slipped and thoroughly checked over
        in preparation for the next leg.  The whole yachting support
        industry (boat builders, sailmakers, riggers etc) has had a
        field day with the volume of work that these boats have
        supplied. (Lion New Zealand blew out 3 x $10,000 kevlar
        spinnakers in the last 200 miles to the finish line). 
        
        Simon Le Bon, of Duran Duran fame, has been the subject of
        close attention from his fans here.  Before his wife arrived
        in Auckland, rumours of affairs were rife as he was seen
        regularly with one of the models that did an advertising
        session with him for his sponsors.  Simon will be sailing on
        his boat Drum England for the remaining two legs of the race.
        
        While the boats have stopped over in Auckland a number of
        short 'round the buoys' races have been arranged for the
        maxis.  One of these was part of the Auckland Anniversary
        Regatta which is supposed to the largest one day event of it's
        type in the world with races for all types of sail powered
        vessels from windsurfers and racing dinghys through to trailer
        sailers and keelers.  When you're racing in the middle of a
        harbour in a Phase 2 racing dinghy (I think this is equiv. to
        a Force 5 - 2 person Laser-like(?) - that was mentioned in
        some other note), the sight of a maxi in it's own race heading
        towards you at a great rate of knots can be either quite
        exhilarating or damn scary depending on how close you finally
        manage to pass each other.  The Whitbread yachts obviously
        cleaned up the open division. 
        
        The other promotional race that was held involved the 6 maxis
        again in a separate match race.  Again the fleet was
        surrounded by a flotilla of spectator craft during the race
        and there were two incidents that, embarassingly enough,
        involved NZI Enterprise. First off, they rounded one of the
        marks and then promptly ran aground (in it's home port too),
        then later on that same yacht was involved in a collision with
        a trimaran that had decided to anchor in the middle of the
        harbour channel to get a firsthand view of the action -
        trouble was that happened to be a part of the course, so the
        trimaran got that view alright, with a real closeup look at
        NZI's bow. 

        This morning (15-Feb-86) the Whitbread yachts depart on the
        3rd leg of their Round the World Journey.  An area 3 miles
        long by 1 mile wide around the line has been declared
        off-limits to all craft except the entrants and official boats
        as some 6-700 spectator boats are expected out on the harbour.
        Aircraft have a minimum ceiling of 600ft imposed on them to
        prevent helicopter downdraughts affecting the yachts. 100,000
        people are anticipated to takeup vantage points around the
        shoreline of the harbour to watch the start. We in New
        Zealand will be getting about 4 hours live TV coverage
        of the start so I hope that some clips manage to filter
        out to the rest of the world.  The last Whitbread Race
        start from Auckland in 1981 was a really spectacular sight
        to watch.

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
235.1		MORGAN::SIEGMANN		`Fri Feb 14 1986 14:17`	5
	Thanks, Owen. And for the A-Cup as well. Keep 'em comin' Ed
235.2		NZOV01::WONG		`Fri Feb 14 1986 17:52`	13
	Glued to the TV set 10:45am 15-Feb-86 NZ Time START TIME 3rd Leg 11:00 The television estimate of the crowd is 250,000 onshore and about 1500 spectator craft on the water. The wind is 14-15 knots from the Northeast so its a reach to the first mark about 6 miles north from the start line then off to starboard to head across the Pacific. Weather is overcast. View of the yachts and spectator boats from the cameras on North Head and the helicopters is really neat. /Owen
235.3		NZOV01::WONG		`Fri Feb 14 1986 18:12`	22
	Spectator craft estimate has grown to 5000(!!). 50 fixed wing craft and 22 helicopters in the airspace 500-2500 feet above the startline. Order across the line is:- L'esprit de Equipe Lion New Zealand Philips Innovator Cote D'or After 5 mins:- Lion NZ Drum England Cote D'or UBS Switzerland Water is churned white by the motor boats that closed in after the gun went.
235.4		NZOV01::WONG		`Sat Feb 15 1986 02:21`	26
	Quite incredible the mix of windsurfers, dinghies, cats, trailer sailers, fizz boats and keelers that have followed the fleet up the coast to the first mark. 40 mins, rounding the 1st mark Cote D'or UBS Switzerland 6 lengths behind Cote D'or Lion NZ 3 Atlantic Privateer Drum England NZI Enterprise Lion NZ was the first boat to change onto a port tack and try something different to get away from the other Whitbread yachts. Light northerly winds are forecast for the next 2 days. Good luck to all the boats for the rest of their journey. /Owen (Entered later Saturday evening coz the link to SUMMIT went down)
235.5		NZOV01::WONG		`Mon Feb 17 1986 15:46`	34
	Summary of newspaper report about 7am Monday 17-Feb-86 The Whitbread maxis were spread over 15 miles from north-east to south-west as they cleared the eastern coast of the North Island today in perfect sailing conditions. UBS Switzerland was five miles closer to Cape Horn than NZI Enterprise and Cote D'or, with a five mile gap back to Drum England and Lion New Zealand. Atlantic Privateer was three miles astern of Drum and Lion as the fleet leaders reached off into the Pacific under spinnakers, staysails and full mains in a 15 knot NNE breeze. They had covered 500 miles in the first 44 hours since leaving Auckland on Saturday, averaging better than 11 knots the beat out from auckland's East Coast Bays to Channel Island. At this stage there is no sign of anybody emulating Ceramco New Zealand in the 1981 race and diving quickly south. Alot of whales have been encountered and Lion New Zealand gave them a wide berth after starting the generator and main engine failed to scare them off (Lion lost most of it's rudder during an encounter with a whale just before arriving in Auckland on the second leg). The only problem so far is with Drum England that has a failing battery recharger. The charger has been kept running at 50% capacity but Drum may have to call into the Chatham Islands to pick up a replacement. There have been reports of icebergs further south but so far the boats have not left the gentle arc of their Great Circle course towards Cape Horn.
235.6		NZOV01::WONG		`Thu Feb 27 1986 05:40`	50
	Extracted from Auckland Star newspaper 27-Feb-1986 UBS Switzerland was stretching her lead on the Whitbread Round-the-world fleet as she closed to within 1469 miles of Cape Horn today. The fractional Farr maxi was 53 miles ahead of her closest rival, Cote D'or, which had moved ahead of Atlantic Privateer to take over second spot. Atlantic Privateer was another seven miles back, the farthest south in the fleet and still digging down into the Southern Ocean. The masthead-rig Farr design today was down to 59.15 degrees south and showing no signs of levelling out for a straighter line approach to Cape Horn. Drum England was fourth, 23 miles astern of Atlantic Privateer on a middle course similar to that of UBS. Lion New Zealand was 145 miles behind UBS, still the farthest north in the fleet with skipper Peter Blake following a track of approximately latitude 55 south. Today there was 268 miles between Lion to the north and Atlantic Privateer to the south as the maxis fixed their sights on Drake Passage, the turbulent stretch of water between Cape Horn and Graham Land where the Antartic reaches out towards the Atlantic Ocean. All the maxis have sighted massive icebergs drifiting across their intended paths. Blake late yesterday reported 25-30 knot winds with Lion surfing at better than 20 knots. Lion was doing similar miles to Cote D'or, Alantic Privateer and Drum but none of them could match UBS Switzerland which is making what could be the decisive break in the battle for line honours to the third stop, Punte del Este in Uruguay. Astern of the maxis there were problems developing amongst the smaller boats, which have been sailing in consistently stronger winds than experienced by the bigger boats since leaving Auckland on February 15. The handicap leader, L'Esprite d'Equipe, reported a damaged mast, hull cracking and lifting deck problems. L'Esprite was continuing towards Cape Horn gingerly. she was still listed as the handicap leader but that was expected to change shortly. The overall handicap leader after two legs of the race, Philips Innovator was 223 miles behind UBS and following a similar track to the Swiss flyer. Enterprise New Zealand has withdrawn from the whole race after breaking her mask in three places, Tuesday a week ago. Enterprise had returned to the Chatham Islands under jury rig and motor power and had hoped to replace it's mast and then continue in the race, however, transportation difficulties and a lack of rigging facilites on the islands have put paid to her chances.
235.7	Arrival at Punte del Este, Uruguay	NZOV01::WONG	Today began in New Zealand (NZO)	`Sat Mar 15 1986 05:36`	25
	UBS Switzerland took the third leg line honours by arriving in Punte del Este at 00:11 (NZ Time) on Wednesday, 12 March. She averaged 10.8 knots for the 6255 mile journey with an elapsed time of 24 days 14h, 11m, 20s with a best 24hr run of 370 miles averaging 15.4 knots. Second home was Simon Le Bon's Drum England in 24 days 23h 30m 35s with Atlantic Privateer third by another 1h 20m. Cote D'Or was ack another 1h 20m followed by Lion New Zealand 32h 42m behind UBS. Next were Philips Innovator, Fazer Filand and L'Esprit d'Equipe. Overall line placings are UBS, Lion then Drum. On handicap the leader is L'Esprit D'Equipe by 4h 56m over Philips Innovator. Enterprise New Zealand has withdrawn from the race after suffering a broken mast partway through the third leg and returned to Auckland. The final leg back to Portsmouth, England begins on April 9.