Atlantic Cup - GryphonSolo2 crosses Leg 1 finish

by Joe Harris on 16 May 2012 Atlantic Cup 2012, presented by 11th Hour Racing, first leg of the three stage race has concluded. Joe Harris onboard GryphonSolo2 provides a progress update on the fourth and final day of racing in leg one.

When we last left off we were hootin and hollerin doing 18 knots in the gulf steam on Sunday. That day we reeled off easily 270 miles for an average of over 11 knots in 24 hours. We finally had to pry ourselves away from the conveyor belt to head northwest to NYC, but it was not easy. Monday was a good day with moderate southwesterly's making for smooth downwind sailing, although not near as fast. As we approached NY, we received a position report that we were in second place, only 1.8 miles back from Campagne de France). However, the next report three hours later said Mare was in the lead, followed by Bodacious Dream and CdF with GS2 in fourth, so it was not clear to me what happened. Anyway we just focused on going fast and entered NY harbor at sunset and navigated through the 12 miles from Amrose light to the finish line off the Statue of Liberty. While it was good to not have drama, we missed the type of mano-a-mano gybing duel that Mare and CdF had up the Hudson River. We finished around 3:00 am outside North Cove Marina and were followed in by good friend and renowned marine photographer Billy Black, whose dedication to shorthanded sailing is legendary. Billy was there at 3:00 am as he always is, to welcome us in and get some great shots. Thank you, Billy. So, in retrospect and summary, we are relatively pleased with our fourth place showing in a very competitive fleet with a lot of good boats and skippers.

We wish we had started more aggressively and will try to do so in leg two...; to get out of the blocks quicker. The boat looked only ok upwind and not so good in the super light stuff, but she is like a great skier on a Utah powder day carving turns and planing off at high speed going downwind with a big kite up. Really quite cool and addicting.

Next up - Saturday departure for leg two from NYC to Newport, which is home base for GS2. We hope to kick some serious French butt. And will be totally going for it in the 265 mile sprint up Long Island's South shore, past Block Island and into Narragansett Bay.

Stay tuned and thanks for all the wonderful emails of support and urging to sail faster!! We appreciate it!

Cheers
Joe

Offshore Leg 1: Charleston-New York City Provisional Results

																Elapsed
		Starting Time:								Finish Time						Time	Time	Leg	Leg
Team		H		M		S		D		H		M		S		H:M:S	Difference	Position	Points
115 – Mare*		18	:	25	:	0		3	:	1	:	20	:	13		78:55:13	0:00:00	1	2
101 – Campagne de France		18	:	25	:	0		3	:	1	:	41	:	38		79:16:38	0:21:25	2	4
118 – Bodacious Dream		18	:	25	:	0		3	:	2	:	16	:	56		79:51:56	0:56:43	3	6
106 – Gryphon Solo 2		18	:	25	:	0		3	:	3	:	13	:	5		80:48:05	1:52:52	4	8
105 – Eole Generation GDF SUEZ		18	:	25	:	0		3	:	4	:	15	:	45		81:50:45	2:55:32	5	10
20 – Sevenstar Yacht Transport		18	:	25	:	0		3	:	4	:	19	:	56		81:54:56	2:59:43	6	12
54 – Dragon		18	:	25	:	0		3	:	4	:	42	:	55		82:17:55	3:22:42	7	14
17 – Transport Coherence		18	:	25	:	0		3	:	5	:	11	:	10		82:46:10	3:50:57	8	16
116 – Icarus		18	:	25	:	0		3	:	5	:	15	:	28		82:50:28	3:55:15	9	18
30 – Initiatives		18	:	25	:	0		3	:	5	:	18	:	52		82:53:52	3:58:39	10	20
109 – Talan Bureau Veritas*		18	:	25	:	0		3	:	6	:	44	:	20		84:19:20	5:24:07	11	20
85 – Groupe Picoty		18	:	25	:	0		3	:	6	:	55	:	26		84:30:26	5:35:13	12	20
113 – Partouche		18	:	25	:	0		3	:	7	:	28	:	32		85:03:32	6:08:19	13	20
73 Toothface		18	:	25	:	0		3	:	12	:	03	:	23		89:38:23	10:43:10	14	20
90 40 Degrees**		18	:	25	:	0		-	:	-	:	-	:	-		DNF		DNF	22

*Protest pending between Talan-Bureau Veritas and Mare. In accordance with the Sailing Instructions, the protest will be heard in Newport, R.I. following the conclusion of Leg 2.
**40 Degrees retired after suffering a broken Atlantic Cup Gryphonsolo2 website