04|01|19
Cape to St Helena 2018 Day 10
We have touchdown on the Island!!!
Banjo took the overall and multihull fleet line honours in the Cape to St Helena Race 2018, when they crossed the finish line at 11:25pm (South African time) last night. We’ll confirm this once the information is officially published by the race office, but it looks like their elapsed time will be 8d9h25m.
Congratulations to the Banjo Boys and SBYC!
Rocket took the monohull fleet line honours when they finished at a far more decent hour at 8:17:25AM this morning (South African Time). 8d18h17m25s, to be confirmed.
Well done to the Rocket ship!
In the unlikely event that no other boats finish, they will win their respective handicap fleets too. That’s obviously unlikely, but this is one of the nice things about crossing the finish line. Challenge accepted; challenge completed.
It’s far from over, but it’s starting to finish… Wow, that was quick! The hares of this race have finished. Now the nail biting begins as we wait for the tortoises, and in our improvisation of Aesop’s Fable, all the animals in between.
Next to finish should be Naledi, who have about 100 miles to go. They should get in this evening. They have a good chance of claiming the monohull handicap win, calculated on the reliable ratings provided by the Offshore Racing Congress platform.
Compromise, Rob Newman’s beautiful big catamaran, should finish thereafter. They have 215 miles to go, so should see their last sunset while racing this evening, before finishing tomorrow morning.
Thereafter, it’s between Caribbean Soul on the east and Yolo on the western side of the rhumb line, as to who will be the fifth boat to finish.
Dale Kushner on Yolo reports: “Yesterday was typical trade wind sailing. The bonus is that the trades seem good this year. Usual sea state one expects. So besides monitoring it and where required change kite when the wind strenth changes. It does get a bit rolly though.the night was similar. But with cloud cover and movement there were lots of oscillations in the wind that required regular course changes. Cleared a few flying fish off the deck this am. Deck wet with the humidity from the evening.”
Compromise report that it’s very quiet this morning, wind very light: “Hopefully this will be our second last report to yourselves.
Have a great day, and pray for wind.”
Ronin’s hand stitched repair on their spinnaker popped again at 4am this morning: “Otherwise all good and going well!”
Carpe Diem: “All is well on board. Feels like home is drawing near.” It is indeed! Just 330 miles to go, Cape Diem!
Naledi: “Good morning from Naledi. All good on board – just cannot see the island yet!”
Asante: “Yippee entered the wild West. Having battery issues, but enjoying solving the riddle. Still got good weather and wind so we should be there soon.”
17h00 update: with Rocket now finished, one can establish the “time to beat”. Based on Rocket’s elapsed time, corrected by her handicap, Naledi will need to finish before Saturday, 05 January 2019 17:13:22 (South African time) to beat Rocket on handicap. Naledi is now 50 miles from the finish and moving at 7 knots, so more than likely will achieve this target comfortably and set a new “time to beat”…
Similarly, Indaba needs to finish by Monday, 07 January 2019 16:39:39 to beat Rocket.
Cape to St Helena 2018 is a sister race to the #Cape2Rio2020, which is supporting the race with a daily race update. Like|Love|Share!
by Luke Scott
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