Is Cape Town too Far North?
09:58, 11 July 2003
by Colin de Mowbray

This race has tended to develop into a race of two fours as the Clipper yachts track their way across the southern Atlantic to Brazil. The northern group of New York, Cape Town, Bristol and London have had the edge but the southerners have now accepted this and most of them are now cutting their losses and coming further north.

Cape Town is the Champion of the north, but is it possible that they have gone too far and will now drop back? Maybe Roger Steven-Jennings is concerned about this and over the last 12 hours they have eased south to put themselves between the finish and third placed Bristol.

Rupert Parkhouse in Glasgow thought they had the edge on the others in the southern group. With lots of threatening black clouds around he had time to write how they were standing by for ages to drop their kite as the squall came through. As so often it was a false alert and he was reported that they were able to hold on, thankful that the threat had diminished. After a short gap he then wrote to say that the head of their spinnaker had blown away, one clew had become detached and the sail was ripped from top to bottom and now in two very separate parts. These are the hazards that befall a skipper immediately we ask him to write something interesting for the web. Like Jersey, Liverpool and I suspect several other boats the sewing machines have been busy and there will be a good few tales to tell in Salvador.

Justin Taylor in Hong Kong has decided that he will not fall in with the others in the southern group and it appears he has gybed and is heading directly for Salvador. I commend this spirited tactic as he rightly sees little to be gained from following the others. He, like all the skippers, only has limited weather faxes available to make his decision. He does not have the benefit of surfing the net for the weather information and even if he did I am not convinced this would be much assistance at present. The general trend is that the wind in both the north and the south of the fleet will start to drop off over the next 48 hours and I suspect they will look back at their 200 - 220 miles per day with fondness from now on.

With under 1400 miles to go an arrival on the 18 July is a possibility but I expect them to have a relatively slow run to the finish and my money is on the winning boat arriving on Saturday 19 July.

Source: Clipper 2002/2003 Round The World Race Official Site