Edinburgh, Thursday, 9am. Bright sunshine. The large racing yachts "Scho-Ka-Kola" and "Norddeutsche Vermögen Hamburg" are moored one behind the other in front of the royal yacht "Britannia" on the quay wall in Granton Harbour. Gusts of over 30 knots create waves with whitecaps even in the safety of the harbour.
The RP 57 "Scho-Ka-Kola" reached Edinburgh today with a lead of almost three minutes over the "Norddeutsche Vermögen Hamburg", an Andrews 56. After a freezing cold night, the grey racing yacht with the red lettering crossed the finish line at around 2.30 am.
Out on the North Sea, eight more yachts are battling their way towards Edinburgh, while the crews of the winning boats celebrate their arrival together. They have reason enough, because after a slow start came two tough days with a wet cross in ever-increasing winds and short, bumpy waves.
"After the start, it was a really light wind race. In between, we even drifted back, when the 'Norddeutsche Vermögen' overtook us. On the first night, we sailed to the Dogger Bank Code 0. On the Dogger Bank, we were able to overtake the 'Norddeutsche Vermögen' again," says Dr Uwe Lebens, owner and skipper of the "Scho-Ka-Kola". "Our tuff luff (profile forestay, editor's note) blew up in our faces. Fortunately, our J5 (small jib, ed.) has stay riders. But every time we changed sails, the 'North German fortune' came closer to us. We had to tie the larger sails to the forestay with Dyneema."
On both yachts, the strong wind conditions led to cancellations due to seasickness. "With us, 30 per cent of the crew were seasick," reports Lebens, "Fortunately, they only spat once and then they were fine again. No-one was completely out of action."
Over 50 per cent of the remaining participating yachts have now given up. One of the main reasons was the cold, combined with the strong wind and humidity, which quickly drained the sailors. "I've had enough now too. We had a really unpleasant wave, to put it mildly. Towards the end we had 30 to 35 knots of wind and waves of up to four metres. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the rest of the yachts." Lebens shivers at the thought of last night. "It was already pretty fresh in the warm front, but last night it was really freezing cold. But somehow it was a great night with the starry sky."
In the North Sea, a storm depression with winds of over 40 knots and eight metre waves is approaching the sea area off Edinburgh. However, it is expected that most of the yachts will reach land cover before the heaviest gusts set in. For the three yachts "Pogo 2", "Shaka" and "Magic", however, it will be a close call. The Swan 441 "Charisma" has set off far to the north towards the Norwegian coast and the strongest winds will not reach her.
