“Talking Sailing” From My Archives. Light & Very Frustrating

by Richard Crockett

What a day of contrasts as light winds generally plagued the fleet and, I am sure, caused much frustration and gnashing of teeth as the sails slatted lazily and progress was VERY slow.

Well, slow for some as in the south ‘Translated 9′ found some wind and breezed along clocking up 149nm, while the slowest yacht, ‘Nyamazela’ covered just 21 paltry miles.

For Adrian Kuttel and ‘Atalanta’, the most northern yacht of those in the south, he could only muster 80nm. With no one to share his frustrations with as he is singlehanded, it must have been a tough day. Fortunately he looks as if he might have some additional breeze today.

The conditions have again changed the IRC handicap leader board with ‘Translated 9′ topping the board followed by ‘Nemesis’ and ‘Ray of Light’. The latter two were the southern-most and northern-most in the fleet.

At the front, in terms of line honours, ‘Norhi’ and ‘Aventureio 4′ are the two front-runners, both being catamarans.

In days of yore there was massive media interest in the race as shown in the following newspaper cuttings.

1973. Italian Skipper Has Come Back for More. READ IT HERE:  1973 01 10 – S&A – 000064

1973. Rio Racers Itching to Be Off. READ IT HERE:  1973 01 10 – S&A – 000069

1976. All Set for Rio Classic (newspaper front page). READ IT HERE:  1976 01 10 – 1976 Rio – S&A – 002029 – stitched –

1976. Bon Voyage. (4-page newspaper race supplement). READ IT HERE:  1976 01 10 – 1976 Rio – S&A – Weekend Argus Supplement – COMBINED FINAL – OCR

1982. Rampant Ii Leads Fleet in Ideal Conditions. READ IT HERE:  1982 01 10 – Uruguay – S&A – 000753 – OCR

1985. Celebrating Their Last Days in Harbour. READ IT HERE:  1985 01 10 – S&A – 000059

1993. They’re Off! Race is on to Reach Rio. READ IT HERE:  1993 01 10 – S&A – 382_Redacted

1996. SA Yachts Shadow High-tech Leaders Fancourt, Nicorette. READ IT HERE:  1996 01 10 S&A – 108_Redacted

2000. Worst Possible Birthday for Leading Contender. READ IT HERE:  2000 01 10 – S&A – 757_Redacted

2011. Debut. READ IT HERE:  2011 01 10 – S&A – 002986 – OCR