Clipper Race facing tough conditions in the Pacific

The Clipper Race is on the Pacific leg from Qindao to San Francisco and facing the toughest conditions to date. Below is an excerpt from their regular email update.

The last 24 hours have brought another reminder that the ocean gives no
quarter to the crews taking part in the Clipper Race – this is serious
racing, through towering seas and gales, extremes of heat and cold and,
as is forecast in the next 24 to 36 hours, periods of little or no wind
at all.

Describing the conditions he and his crew have just come through,
Spirit of Australia’s skipper, Brendan Hall, says, “Last night was
black as the ace of spades and windy enough to blow the hair off a wet
dog. The waves were large and very powerful and their white, foaming
crests loomed up ominously over our stern. Several of them broke over
the transom, filling the cockpit up with white water. Our bowman, Andy
(Rose, a journalist) found smug pleasure in observing that the back of
the boat was, for once, wetter than the front.

“We’ve had very testing sailing conditions and the critical decision
for me was saying when to back off and slow down, so as not to
over-stress the sails, rig and deck gear. After one particularly
vicious 45-knot gust, we dropped all sails except one and slipped along
cautiously until the wind had eased.

“As always, we are thinking long term victory, not short term glory
and, after sustaining bad sail damage in similar conditions on Leg 2,
we have learned this lesson the hard way. I am proud to say that Spirit
of Australia and her crew survived the first of many testing gales the
North Pacific undamaged, undaunted and now back to racing 100 percent.”

“Last night we experienced the strongest winds and biggest seas we have
seen since leaving Hull on September 13 last year,” confirms Jamaica
Lightning Bolt’s skipper, Pete Stirling. “After dropping the mainsail
to make some essential repairs we ran with just the staysail through
the night until first light this morning. Before hoisting the staysail
we were making 7 knots with no sails at all then after it was hoisted
were averaging over 10 knots. In the middle of the night the on watch
recorded a speed of 19.6 knots whilst surfing down the face of a big
wave. Given how far offshore we are it is surprising how confused the
sea state is as by now we should be seeing more regular ocean rollers.
Because of this confused sea state we had a few big waves side sweep us
in the middle of the night knocking the boat on her side and filling
the cockpit with water. Undeterred the boat picked herself up every
time, as did the crew, and carried on with the chase to catch the
leading boats. Despite a sizeable gap between us and the leading three
boats there is still every chance of getting a point or two at the
scoring gate.
“

This reminded me of Brian Luster’s account of the race during the same leg. Tough, tough sailing. You can read more about Brian’s account with this post and the subsequent daily logs.