My mate Ian's round the world race with Clipper Ventures…...
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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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Spoke to Ian last night on the Sat phone. How cool was that, he's surfing truly mountainous waves in the worlds most remote ocean with the roaring 40's up his chuff, and I'm having a glass of wine in the back garden…..
Crazy world we live in indeed! When does he expect to land in the US/ NY?
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Last night n the dark and in the middle of the Southern Ocean, Ian had a problem (I do not know what yet), which necessitated him having to go up the mast, whatever the problem was, it was so bad that he had to take another member of crew up with him.
At some point the 2 of them collided (now just try to imagine this, 70 foot up the mast in the dark with the boat swaying like crazy). Ian thinks he may have cracked his ribs but is pretty sure his nose is not broken.
I hope to have more news soon….
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Jesus! Hope he is alright. Sending good thoughts into the middle of the Atlantic.
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So, just found out what happened. Speeding downwind with the spinnaker up, a gust of wind corkscrewed the boat and the spinnaker wrapped round the mast. So Ian and another guy had to get hauled up the mast to unwrap it. At some point the other guy (who is bigger than Ian) flew round the mast on the end of the rope and smashed Ian into the mast. Result, very damaged Ian.
To make matters worse, they then had to cut the spinnaker adrift. So, the boat no longer has a spinnaker…....
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OK, so in his own words….
“After the heavy weather passed we started getting the boat up to speed and by last night we were flying along under the medium kite. In the early hours of this morning we decided to drop the kite as the wind was building.
“Unfortunately as with all things the problem started with one small problem in that the guy jammed, next thing we knew we had an almighty kite wrap. This required a trip up the mast to try to clear, which is exciting at the best of times. Mark went up and managed to free the halyards but unfortunately lost his grip when a big wave hit, swinging him all the way round the rig,” explains the Chinese entry’s skipper.
“After this we had to change halyards to lower him safely but unfortunately his control line (to stop him swinging) broke, causing him to swing from side to side violently. One swing he came my way and managed to wipe me out giving me a nice nose bleed all over the deck! Seven hours later and we managed to recover most of the kite and began racing again, but unfortunately we lost a lot of time drifting around with no sails up which has cost us dearly.”
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Update from Sarah, Ian's betrothed:
Had a great chat with Ian this morning, longer than we should have probably! He slept for ten hours solid and is feeling much better. The ribs are not too bad if he keeps moving and Jimbo the medic keeps offering him drugs every two hours. He has a fat lip and a cut on his nose but being a human cushion was never going to end well. He is on good form and sat and thought about went wrong and made plans for it not to happen again. All the crew are fine and are busy sorting out the boat. The medium weight kite still has bits up the mast and they will have to wait until oz to find out if its repairable
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I was chatting to one of the Clipper Race Team today. Not having the mid weight spinnaker is a massive handicap in medium to strong winds. Ian is entering some light winds now and will therefore be able to use his lightweight spinnaker. If Ian and the team cant repair the mid weight when they get to Geraldton, he will have to get a new one wich will cost him 4 penalty points…
