My mate Ian's round the world race with Clipper Ventures…...
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The point penalty is a great idea.
If you know you can get a "free" replacement sail/pole/halyard at the next port of call, you will tend to push the boat (and the crew) too hard. The race is designed so that the all round best skipper/team win, someone who can race fast but safe…..I think that it is a great rule and encourages good behaviour, remember these crews have never really sailed before, and indeed in Ian's case, he had hardly sailed outside on British waters until 5 weeks ago....
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And what he was up to last night…..
_Ian has also taken advantage of the conditions to attempt to sort out the team's wind instruments which involved a trip up the 89-foot mast.
He said he was not able to repair them in the sea state, so they are waiting for calmer conditions to try again._
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Seul, check this out. This is Dee Cafarri talking about her solo round the worlder…...When this happened, the closest human being to her was in the International Space Station...,..
_It was here that Caffari had her worst moment. "I'd just come out of some really rough weather, lightning had hit the mast and I had to go up and replace a computer chipboard. There I was, up the mast and not making any progress.
"The wind had died but there was still a big swell. I realised I'd bitten off more than I could chew, so I made the decision to come back down. But I couldn't change from ascending to descending on the climbing gear. I was stuck there for an hour and a half before I could get back down, and in that time I was flung around like a rag doll."
In a calm moment on the Solent, I go up the mast to experience what it is like 100 feet high. The morning sun is breaking through and I have a great view of Cowes and the Red Funnel Ferry, but it is still a horrible experience.
It's even worse when I look down and see how far the drop is to the deck of the boat, but at least I can see other people below me. What it felt like being stuck up the mast for 90 minutes in the Southern Ocean on your own is something I cannot comprehend.
"My whole arm was black and blue," she recalls, when I come down again. "I was shattered and frustrated that I couldn't do the job I wanted to, and I cried as much with relief as anything else." I'd have cried too, knowing that I had to go back up the mast again to fix the problem. "It took a week to regain the full use of my arm, but that was the only time I was worried for my physical health."_
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The next leg (Cape Town to Geraldton, Australia) has just started…......
http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/follow/race-viewer/
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Only a couple of days in to the leg with a mere 4,567 miles to go (as the crow flies, which it won't) but Ian is in second place. Come on boy…......
http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/follow/race-viewer/
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And there he is with his girl (and most dedicated groupie), Sarah. Sarah and Ian are getting married when he finishes this great adventure, in the meantime Sarah seems to turn up in every port he stops at. Poor girl had to delay her trip to Rio because the Iron Heart party got in the way and she was doing the catering…....We have a plan to all be in Panama together next May.....
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nice…
