The stormy night is behind them. Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink are doing well on their first circumnavigation with the prologue crew three days after the start in Lorient and were in third place at midday on Sunday.
"We have super nice conditions right now. It's really fun, especially after the front, after the tough weather tonight. We're sailing in the sunshine, under a clear blue sky. We've got a pretty good downwind at the moment, sailing 130, 135 degrees TWA. The boat is also lying on its side nicely," Lennart Burke reported in the morning.
Globe40: breathlessly on course for Cádiz
However, the "fair weather sailing" does not allow the Next Generation Boating - Around the World team to lapse into a cosy Sunday or even holiday rest off the Portuguese coast. "There's still plenty of action, we have to trim a lot. The wind is constantly shifting," says Lennart Burke, who, together with co-skipper Melwin Fink, is delighted to have reclaimed third place from Aina Bauza Roig and Axelle Pillain "on Engie".
"We're pleased that we can keep up so well and are really fighting with the others. Ian Lipinski up front? Yes, the guy is simply a weapon. He just pulled away right from the start. Now he's lost a bit. I think it's because he wasn't able to take the spin after the front as well as we did. It's going to be hard to catch him," says Lennart Burke, explaining the current scenario at midday on 7 September.
The Globe40 top favourites Ian Lipinski and Antoine Carpentier are still in the lead with "Crédit Mutuel". However, their fast-sailing lead did not increase significantly recently. Jonas Gerckens and Renaud Dehareng from Team Belgium Ocean Racing - Curium followed in second place, just under 16 nautical miles behind. Over the past few hours, the German crew has been able to further reduce the gap to the leaders to 17 nautical miles. Click here to go directly to the Globe40 tracker.
Cap pour Elles for the Transat, Coup pour Elles at Globe40?
Another three nautical miles behind Lennart Burke, Melwin Fink and their prologue team were Aina Bauza Roig and Axelle Pillain on "Engie - Dessine-moi la High Tech". The Spaniard and the Frenchwoman, who worked for Boris Herrmann's Malizia team for a long time but is now going her own way, are putting pressure on the male top three and had already moved up to third place themselves in the meantime.
Aina Bauza Roig and Axelle Pillain are the winners of the Cap pour Elles competition and are being promoted on the Transat Café L'Or course. The furious female duo are currently using the invitation from the organisers to take part in the Globe40 prologue to train for the Transat challenge in autumn. Unlike the other eight prologue crews, they will not continue the Globe40 from Cádiz, but will push ahead with their training for the transatlantic challenge in the autumn.
I found it super impressive how the two of them kept the boat under control at such high speeds." Lennart Burke
"The girls are really strong," says Lennart Burke, paying tribute to the two Class 40 sailors. He admits: "We wouldn't have expected them to be so strong in such rough conditions. We already had a lot of wind the night before last and were reaching with up to 20 knots of boat speed under a large gennaker. We were fighting side by side with them the whole time."
Globe40 goal: chase Lipinski, overtake the others
In the meantime, Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink have moved back up to third place. Burke says: "We don't think we'll be able to catch Lipinski, but we want to keep working our way up to him. And we want to fight hard to keep the Belgians and the girls at bay until the finish and finish second. That's still possible if we maintain our speed now, if the wind shifts to the north afterwards and we jibe towards the southern corner of Portugal so that we have an advantageous position there."
It won't be easy. Lennart Burke explains: "The catch will be that - if the wind shifts to the right, i.e. north - the boats to our right will naturally have a slight advantage when we turn. But if we fight our way round a bit more, we'll manage that. That's definitely the key moment we're waiting for."
Fast weather and sail changes in Globe40
So far, Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink are satisfied with their performance in the Globe40. After a lot of work with the local shipyard and intensive preparation for their first circumnavigation, Burke explains: "We definitely had to get back into regatta sailing first. Including the many quick sail changes, thinking on our feet and reacting quickly to changes in the weather. The last few days have been very tough with lots of weather and sail changes, gybes and very rough waves. The conditions were very special and challenging, which really took it out of us at the start," says Burke.
We're learning quickly, got back into regatta life quickly and are now really well established." Lennart Burke
Lennart Burke described the mood on board the German Class40 on Sunday morning after the first three nights at sea as "super", saying: "We're up for sailing around the world." The start has almost been mastered. The first boats from the prologue are expected to arrive in the Andalusian stage harbour of Cádiz on Monday evening or Tuesday night. "We're looking forward to arriving, sangria and paella!" said Burke with a laugh on the course to the Andalusian harbour city.
