Repaired Clipper yachts leave Honolulu

by Sail-World on 11 Apr 2008
Five weeks to the day since westernaustralia2011.com lost the top half of her mast 700 miles off Japan, and after a mammoth logistical operation, westernaustralia2011.com and Durban 2010 and Beyond both left Honolulu for the final part of their journey across the Pacific Ocean. They will motor/sail to Santa Cruz in order to arrive in time for the start of Race 9 to Panama.

The other eight teams who left Honolulu earlier to race to Santa Cruz have been battling with strong headwinds overnight with most skippers reporting that they have reefed mainsails and small headsails up.

It may be windy but the wind direction means that all the teams have made great progress towards Santa Cruz with most achieving nearly 200 nautical miles in the right direction over the last 24 hours. This will change in the near future as the winds again become more easterly and the tacking angles will become important again.

Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper continues to hold a good lead at the front over New York but, further down the field, Uniquely Singapore appears to have been sailing slightly off the wind which has given them lots of speed and lots of northing but has dropped them down the leader board. Maybe skipper Mark Preedy has a secret tactic that will reveal itself over the next few days.

Clipper - Positions - DTF - DTL - at 12:00hrs 10 April 2008

1 Glasgow:Scotland with style 1282 - 0
2 New York 1286 - 4
3 Hull & Humber 1299 - 17
4 Nova Scotia 1309 - 27
5 Liverpool 08 1310 - 28
6 Qingdao 1312 - 30
7 Jamaica 1322 - 40
8 Uniquely Singapore 1336 - 54
9 Durban 2010 and Beyond 1991 - 709
10 westernaustralia2011.com 1994 - 712