Heineken Cape to Rio Yacht Race - Latest news from Rio

by Jeanne van Rooyen (Race HQ) on 9 Feb 2011 Heineken Cape to Rio Yacht Race - Spirit of Izivunguvungu has been given a six-hour penalty for receiving assistance from another yacht during the race.

The yacht was facing possible disqualification after skipper Kader Williams asked for help after the boat ran out of drinking water. Dale Kushner’s Xtra-Link, which was only about twenty nautical miles from the distressed boat, agreed to divert from her course to assist Williams and his crew, who received one hundred forty liters of water. Williams and the development crew of Izivunguvungu are set to sail back to South Africa on Monday.

Xtra-Link, which finished in third place on handicap, was awarded time consideration of six hours for its act of sportsmanship out at sea, but it was not enough to unseat second-placed Ciao Bella, skippered by Mike Robinson. All the yachts that left Cape Town on January fifteenth, with the exception of the Indian navy boat Mhadei, have now arrived in Rio and there has been little change in the handicap placings.

Perie Benou II, skippered by veteran Australian yachtsman Jon Sanders, arrived in Rio on Tuesday afternoon to secure fifth place on handicap behind line honors winner Prodigy. Navy boat Yachtport SA finished sixth, Izivunguvungu seventh, Cape Storm eighth, Grand Filou ninth and Envirodiesel Me to Me tenth.

'It was a quieter crossing than thirty-five years ago when I sailed in the Cape to Rio in the same design boat but smaller. That time we sailed a long course and came in at the same time,' said Sanders, seventy-one, who has completed eight circumnavigations.

'If we had avoided all the technology that is now available for wind direction like we had done before we could have been in the top three on handicap, but we would never have beaten the winner’s City of Cape Town. Their skipper, Gerry Hegie, was very professional about the way he tackled this Heineken Cape to Rio Yacht Race