Moloney next to finish in Transat

by Offshore Challenges on 14 Jun 2004 Ecover skipper, Mike Golding, crossed the finish line at 0418 GMT this morning to claim his first major solo offshore race win in his career.

Golding completed the course in 12 days, 15 hours, 18 minutes and 8 seconds and took two days and 43 minutes off the transatlantic race record set in 1992 by Yves Parlier.

Swiss skipper, Dominique Wavre, on Temenos arrived 3 hours and 3 minutes after Golding, crossing the finish line at the entrance to Boston Harbour at 0722 GMT to finish in a time of 12 days, 18 hours, 22 minutes and 3 seconds.

Kiwi skipper, Mike Sanderson, in his first debut solo transocean race on Pindar AlphaGraphics finished at 0954 GMT, 5 hours and 36 minutes after Ecover in a time of 12 days, 20 hours, 54 minutes and 33 seconds. Sanderson's battle for the lead was severely hampered after his starboard daggerboard 'shattered' in a 45-knot storm last Monday night (7.6.04) and although he managed to hold Temenos at bay, Wavre crept into second place on Friday night (11.6.04).

Meanwhile, in the IMOCA 60ft monohull class still racing, two separate battles are underway as the boats approach Boston.

In fourth and fifth place, Skandia (Nick Moloney) and Hellomoto (Conrad Humphreys) are just over 100 miles apart after thirteen days racing.

Both skippers have had an exhausting couple of days and Moloney - now 50 miles east of Cape Cod - has spent a restless night dodging dense fields of fishing pots and nets.

This morning the tired, thirty-six year old skipper described how radar reflectors attached to many of the fishing traps gave such a strong, compact signal that he feared Skandia was heading straight into a fishing fleet.

Asked if he was concerned about holding fourth, Moloney responded: ‘I've got Cape Cod in front of me. Once I get there, there are no real passing lanes and the options diminish for the guys behind me.’

Behind Moloney, Conrad Humphreys (Hellomoto) reported sailing in 9 knots of NNW breeze this morning is impatiently waiting for some more breeze to arrive, as are the two French skippers - Marc Thiercelin (Pro-Form) and Herve Laurent (UUDS) - fanned-out around 40 miles astern of Humphreys. Thiercelin and Laurent have continued to trade sixth and seventh place over the past few days, with barely more than a handful of miles separating the pair, although Thiercelin now holds the advantage with a 24-mile lead.
The leaders of both 50ft classes have developed impressive leads over their opponents. Leading multihull skipper, Eric Bruneel, has taken Trilogic far to the south of Boston, but with 218 miles to the finish he is maintaining a 227-mile distance over second place Great American II (Rich Wilson). Heading the 50ft monohull class, Kip Stone on ArtForms passed just to the north of Sable Islands this morning with a 239 mile lead over Jacques Bouchacourt (Okami) in the north and is now 208 miles ahead of Joe Harris and Wells Fargo-American Pioneer in second place to the south.
There are still five boats in the shallow, ancient Grand Banks fishing area - Mike Birch is no longer racing and now heads westwards towards Quebec on trimaran, Nootka, without autopilots, forced to hand steer for extended periods through the banks, and - just to his north - Jacques Bouchacourt is bringing 50ft monohull, Okami, southwest from the tip of Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula. Earlier today, ninth and tenth placed Open 60 monohulls, Austria One (Norbert Sedlacek) and Atlantica-Charentes Maritimes (Karen Leibovici) left the banks in their wakes, but Anne Liardet is still struggling across the shallow, submarine plateau with a broken boom on Quiksilver Edition with Etienne Hochedé on 50ft multihull, PIR2, just to her south. Meanwhile, fourth placed 50ft monohull, Branec III, and Roger Langevin are in Flemish Pass between the Grand Banks and Flemish Cap.
Yesterday, Rich Wilson on 50ft trimaran, Great American II, expressed relief at leaving the Grand Banks, describing the area as ‘...a tough, nasty, ruthless place, not fit for humans...’ It is, though, unavoidable and the boats in this region will continue to experience thick fog and damp, cold conditions produced by the combined effects of icy waters in the southerly flowing Labrador Current and the warmer air and water of the northerly Gulf Stream as they meet at the Grand Banks.
Good news for Swiss skipper Bernard Stamm this morning, when at approximately 09:00 GMT, Stamm and the crew of salvage tug, Alex Gordon, located the upturned hull of Open 60, Cheminees Poujoulat-Armor Lux. The team will now attempt to cut away the mast before righting the boat and towing her to St John's, Newfoundland. Plans are being made to ship the boat to France on a cargo vessel.
At 10:45 GMT this morning, The Hatherleigh spotted Jean-Pierre Dick and his dismasted Open 60, Virbac. Two of Virbac's shore crew were transferred by RIB to the yacht and Dick is now onboard the converted trawler. Dick is reported to be in very good physical shape considering what the skipper has endured since his dismasting nearly 10 days ago (Thursday 4.6.04) and is enjoying the hospitality of The Hatherleigh! The trawler commenced towing at 14:00 GMT and is making 8 knots