Velux 5 Oceans skipper Van Liew under pressure

by Velux 5 Oceans on 16 Apr 2011 Velux 5 Oceans skipper Brad Van Liew is under pressure to protect his lead in the race to his hometown as ocean sprint four enters its final stage.

For the past 19 days the 43-year-old American has dominated the 5,700-nautical mile leg from Punta del Este in Uruguay, maintaining his reputation as the man to beat.

But with under 1,000 nautical miles left to sail to the finish line in his home port of Charleston on the east coast of the USA, and after pulling out all his tricks to shake off his race rivals, Brad has only been able to watch as Derek Hatfield and Chris Stanmore-Major continue to eat away at his lead.

A veteran of two Velux 5 Oceans races and a winner of class two of the 2002/3 event, Brad is the most experienced of the fleet competing in The Ultimate Solo Challenge and has so far won each of the three sprints. Brad rates his reading of the weather as his best skill at sea, but nothing can compensate for when the weather does something different to what’s forecast.

After passing the northwest tip of South America, Brad chose to disregard the bonus points on offer for winning the sprint four timed run instead opting to take a more westerly course to set himself up for a quick passage past the Caribbean islands and up to Charleston. However his return on investment hasn’t been all he’d hoped, with Derek and Chris making bigger gains on their more easterly courses. The pressure to keep up his winning streak and sail into his hometown victorious has never been greater.

'I’m just trying to do all I can to keep this damn boat moving,' the Le Pingouin skipper said today. 'I was doing alright on Wednesday – it was the first time I thought I might be in the same weather system as Derek and Chris. They have just been killing me over the last few days. I had a couple of good position reports and then I got hit with some squalls and thunderstorms on Wednesday night and then lost everything I had made and then some.

It was pretty light yesterday and I’m just trying to stay in touch with these guys. It’s shocking to see what Chris is doing right now, I don’t know what’s going on. It seems the weather is coming in from the east, and it really worries me. I put a lot of effort into owning the left side of the course and usually it would have paid off by now. This time it just hasn’t.'

In an attempt to extract every last bit of boat speed out of Le Pingouin, Brad has been pushing himself to the limit both physically and mentally.

'I have had no sleep for the last couple of nights, there have been loads of sail changes and I’ve been hit with 180 degree wind shifts,' he added. 'It’s extremely tiring. Then when the wind is a little bit more reliable I am trying to get every last bit out of the boat. I continue to tell myself I don’t deserve to win unless I work harder than everyone else so I am working as hard as I can.

'Right now it does look like I have less miles to sail to Charleston and we are going to have to tack our way up there in the next couple of days so in the long run hopefully it will pay off to be over the west. The whole game hasn’t been played yet but yeah it’s frustrating. Chris and Derek are obviously pushing very hard and that’s boat racing, nothing is guaranteed.'

Positions at 1200 UTC

Skipper / distance to finish (nm) / distance to leader (nm) / distance covered in last 24 hours (nm) / average speed in last 24 hours (kts)
Brad Van Liew, Le Pingouin: 885.5 / 0 / 256.2 / 10.7
Derek Hatfield, Active House: 1035.7 / 150.2 / 264.8 / 11
Chris Stanmore-Major, Spartan: 1145.2 / 259.7 / 251.8 / 10.5
Zbigniew Gutkowski, Operon Racing: 3205 / 2319.5 / 0 / 0

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