Estrella Damm fights for podium - Istanbul Europa Race

by Daniel Ferrando on 18 Sep 2009 Estrella Damm continues their fight for a podium position in the Istanbul Europa Race.

The boat skippered by Guillermo Altadill and Pachi Rivero is already heading north up the Portuguese coast and despite a small damage on the mast, is keeping a firm hold of their position ahead of DCNS and an eye on the rest of the fleet as they battle in upwind conditions.

At the 10 o’clock position report this morning, Estrella Damm was in fifth place, 118.5 miles from Foncia, provisional leaders of the fleet, and had made up a mile and a half since the 06.00 am report. The Spanish boat had rounded Cape San Vicente, on the far south-east of the Spanish peninsula, and Rivero and Altadill’s team were sailing upwind with a boat speed of 8.4 knots. The current conditions; a north-westerly wind of about 15 knots, suit the team and the boat performance is good.

Estrella Damm is maintaining their 152 mile advantage ahead of DCNS, and actually stretched out another 30 miles in the last 24 hours. Whilst the team can continue this progress in the final leg from Barcelona to Brest, they would fulfil their objective for an overall podium position in the Istanbul Europa Race.

Altadill and Rivero’s team is currently 53 miles from their nearest rival Groupe Bel, with whom they are tied even on points at the top of the leader board along with Foncia. The first of the three boats to cross the finish line at the French port of Brest will claim the title as overall winners of the round Europe race.

It is not proving to be an easy leg for Estrella Damm, but the team has continued to fight hard and is not losing sight of any opportunity to reach their rivals. The first may well be an area of calm around Finisterre, and such is the nature of offshore sailing that with still 700 miles to sail to Brest, in the waters of the Atlantic, absolutely anything can still happen.

www.estrelladammsailingteam.es