Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
Okay, so who remembers what ENZA stands for?
The answer is quite simple really as it simply means “Eat New Zealand Apples”!
Here’s the story about ‘ENZA’s’ record breaking circumnavigation: “On 16 January 1994, the 92 foot cat ‘Enza’ crossed the Ushant start line in a bid to win the Jules. Verne Trophy. On 1 April she re-crossed the line, having taken 74 days, 22 hours , 17 minutes and 22 seconds to race round the world, handsomely beating the existing record”
This was an epic passage, remembered here by her crew. One spine-chilling moment went as follows: “If I said I enjoyed every single part of it I’ d be lying, but by and large it has to be the most exhilarating sailing ever – on the limit for 24 hours logging 500 miles, or being chased by killer whales. On that occasion Robin, Angus and myself were on deck. We were at 60 degrees south between New Zealand and Cape Horn with icebergs about. It was the middle of the day and the sun came out. We looked to port and saw a pod of killer whales coming towards us. We were doing 18- 19 knots, and they must have misjudged our speed because they came in behind us and then tried to catch up, surging in and out of the water like dolphins, but not quite making it. Things like that don’t happen in everyday life.”
Now that’s what I call an adventure!
READ IT ALL HERE: Pages from 1994 06 – SA Yachting – OCR
