Clipper 2002/2003 Race - Out of Adjectives
08:03, 14 August 2003
by Colin de Mowbray

I admit it, I have now run out of adjectives to describe Jersey Clipper's run away performance. Another 12 hourly schedule and yet again massive gains over the whole fleet. Hong Kong looks like a victor as they only lost 4 miles this time. Cape Town has yo-yoed back by only dropping 8 miles. London will be sick as a parrot by losing 38 miles in 12 hours and it will be little comfort to them that race leader Bristol mirrored this and also dropped 3 places to sixth place.

Bristol had done well and by the 1500 schedule had got back into third place which represented a point clear of Jersey in the overall rankings. All was to change and by the 0300 report Skipper Binks reported 'This evenings sched was dire. Miles lost to all except London and moved from third to sixth, having lost our 12 mile advantage on Liverpool.' This represent a one point deficit in the overall lead and would mean Jersey retaking the overall lead if they were to finish in this order.

The wind has been amazingly localised which has brought these large changes of fortunes. Liverpool regained over 12 miles by riding a friendly cloud for over two hours, a point that will be reported by them as sheer brilliance and by others probably in less charitable terms.

The last 24 hours have seen London punished for being in the east. They have seen New York overtake them some 50 miles to the west of them and relegate them to the tail end Charlie. Conversely Cape Town continues to have mixed fortunes on the western flank. This morning shows them having the second highest 12 hour run of 90 miles which has put them back up to fourth. With only 13 miles separating them, Glasgow, Liverpool and Bristol I expect these positions to keep changing.

Justin Taylor and the Hong Kong crew have been out of the news because they are all on their own in second place. Second by 150 miles may not seem too much to shout about but when you note that they are 120 miles ahead of the third place group this is indeed a great achievement. At times like this one has to remember Glasgow's finish into Mauritius when after three weeks of racing they came in 3 hours 10 minutes after the winner to take seventh place; I suspect this race will be considerably more spread out.

All the boats have now crossed their outbound tracks and so those that have been on for the start have now all become true Round the World yachtsmen! Congratulations to them all.

As the fleet move north they may experience some more wind from a small depression that has formed over the Bahamas. This is not expected to develop and it is anticipated that it will track to the west over Florida. The result of this will probably be felt by the boats in the north and the west first and this may give them a helpful boost. Does this mean more gains for Jersey and just the left overs for London? If this turns out to be the case it will illustrate what a very cruel sport this can be on occasions (but it will completely fail to say why we always return for more). Whatever the affect the schedules will continue to show many position changes as the fortunes seesaw.

STOP PRESS
From Bristol Binks:
After the 0300 sched, the wind gradually died away. In 4 hours, we have made 3 miles to the waypoint. For the last two hours, the speedo has been reading 0.0. Only saving grace is a current of about 0.8 knots taking us west. I've got 9 other Binks coming to see me in New York! Will we be there?
To Binks from CdeM: Thanks for your message. Would you like me to ask Jersey to entertain them?

Communications
We use several means of communicating with the yachts. At present we are having problems with the Inmarsat C systems in London, Liverpool and New York and this will mean the Stratosmail service will not work to those boats. We are looking at the problem but it may not be possible to fix this until they reach port. Relations with urgent messages to be sent should contact the Clipper Office.

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