Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
I have absolutely no idea as to what the record is for the Mykonos Race to Saldanha Bay as this will take some lengthy research to find the answer.
However, in 2001 Warrior took line honours in a time of 5 hours and 24 minutes.
Will that mark be chased down today, as the race to Mykonos starts at 09h00? Only time will tell, and looking at the long-range forecast there will be wind, and probably not enough to do the race in a similar time to that.
In that race the “Cape Doctor” kicked in at about 11h00 and was very quickly up to 30 knots. There were some great “war stories” told afterwards, like these two:
“Uwe Jaspersen’s Jaz 30 was an early leader planing flat out in the 17 – 20 knot boat speed range. Carrying two liferafts on the open aft deck, the boat ploughed into the back of a much larger wave doing about 20 knots. The cockpit filled up with water and with the life rafts semi-blocking the open transom the two tons of water·stayed on board. This extra weight was a bit much and the D2 gave way dropping the rig over the side.
Next was the Maarten Voogd-designed Titan 2000 sailed by Geoff Meek. One of the crew dashed on to the foredeck to seal the forehatch. Not quick enough; and she buried the bone doing close to 20 knots causing an epic broach that scored a perfect 10. The carbon spinnaker pole now resembled two jockey poles.”
READ MORE HERE: 2001 04 – SAILING Magazine – OCR
