2016 Atlantic Cup - Leg 1 finish - Tales sets new course record!

by Atlantic Cup on 4 Jun 2016 #123 – Tales II skippered by Gonzalo Botín and Pablo Santurde, crossed the finish line first at 12:53:03 p.m. ET on Tuesday, May 31, with an elapsed time of 72:48:03, to complete the 648 nautical mile first off-shore leg of the Atlantic Cup from Charleston, S.C. to Brooklyn, N.Y.! Spain’s #123 Tales II finished 1 hour 33 minutes and 30 seconds ahead of #145 Eärendil (74:21:43), followed by the all female team of #118 Oakcliff Racing (74:52:05).

Tales II moved into the lead just before exiting the jetties in Charleston and they held their first place position throughout the race, going on to set the new course record for the first leg — but not without excitement! Low wind speeds and a relatively strong outgoing tide caused the top of the fleet to condense around the Varizano Bridge this morning. After spending some time anchored to avoid getting sucked back out into the ocean by the current, the wind filled in from the north and Tales was able to finish in the lead.

It was an exciting leg and the sailors are ready to get some rest before the week of activities here in New York before they set off for Portland this Saturday June 4th at 12pm.

What the Sailors are saying about Leg One and the finish:

Gonzalo Botín, Tales II Skipper

“The first night was quite tough…but the worst part was today getting from Sandy Hook (NJ) up here. Our top speed was 25 knots over the ground, we had four knots of current, but when we saw the numbers we said wow, we have like Volvo speeds. It’s a marvelous leg, I think it takes you from, well you are very lucky in the states, because you have the full North Atlantic so you have Hatteras, then the Gulf Stream, well you have everything, it’s incredible the change, because you get the Labrador current here and it starts getting cold and foggy, you know two days ago I was in shorts and then it gets cold. It’s a very interesting place. The course is great, I think the waters in which we sailed were magnificent from navigation to weather, I think it rates very high compared to other events.”

Catherine Pourre, Eärendil Skipper

“Yes, we are happy with our second place finish, but I think we could have done better so we will try next time. We did have some problems with our autopilot where we gybed and it broke the mainsail halyard. We were under speed of 16-19 knots then this happened and then we took half an hour to an hour for Antoine to go up (the mast) to replace the line and during this time were under Solent so we were going six - nine knots. So it took about 10 miles for this operation, it was a long operation and it cost us miles. It’s a nice course. The finish is a good place, except that when we got near there was a deep fog and we thought ‘Ah my God, it’s going to be like that up to New York so we’re not going to see anything!’ But a few miles before the entrance it all cleared and it was a great view”

Libby Greenhalgh, Oakcliff Racing

“It was pretty interesting starting the race having not sailed together or set any form of A-sail or kite. It was pretty windy we saw 25-30 knots most of the time. We toughed it out on our full main and our Solent, but when we went to change it became very apparent to us we haven’t done this before and it takes us a stack load of time and very quickly we lost miles. I think that’s the biggest thing with double-handed sailing, it’s just tough and your just physically knackered. It’s amazing actually for a 40-foot yacht under that sail configuration, which once it picks up it really gets going, it doesn’t even feel like anything (top speed was 24.3 knots). I think the course is fantastic, lot of opportunity, you’ve got the Gulf Stream to play with and sometimes that kicks up all sorts of weather. And we really had everything, so there were lots of opportunities to take, it wasn’t a go out follow race.”

Current Standings

			Finish Time					Elapsed Time	Time	Leg	Leg
Team	Start Time	Date Finished	H		M		S	H:M:S	Difference	Position	Points
Tales II	12:05:00	5/31/16	12	:	53	:	3	72:48:03	0:00:00	1	18
Earendil	12:05:00	5/31/16	14	:	26	:	43	74:21:43	1:33:40	2	16
Oakcliff	12:05:00	5/31/16	14	:	57	:	5	74:52:05	2:04:02	3	14
Amhas	12:05:00	5/31/16	16	:	59	:	34	76:54:34	4:06:31	4	12
Dragon	12:05:00	5/31/16	18	:	42	:	15	78:37:15	5:49:12	5	10
Talanta	12:05:00	5/31/16	19	:	3	:	57	78:58:57	6:10:54	6	8
Pleiad	12:05:00	5/31/16		:		:				7	6
Privateer	12:05:00	5/31/16		:		:				8	4