The Globe40 final serves up the expected battle for overall victory. Almost within sight of each other, the French and Belgians wrestle for supremacy in the North Atlantic. The extended Azores high forces them and their pursuers far to the west. Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink have conquered third place. Lisa Berger's "Wilson" team is fighting.
On the day after Easter, the front-runners still had just under 2400 nautical miles to cover to reach the Globe40 finish line. It was not going to be an easy one. After the start of the final leg, a wide variety of weather conditions and challenges had to be parried. Most recently the "Sargassoqualen" with a strong presence of algae, which repeatedly slowed down the boats. In the meantime, however, the leading duos have stepped on the accelerator again.
Globe40 final: Belgians and French lurk each other
The fact that in the duel between the French and Belgians, who started the Globe40 final level on points on Monday morning, the Belgians were once again ahead by six nautical miles. From 3 to 7 April, "Crédit Mutuel" had been in the lead, before that the Belgians, who are now back on top. A preliminary decision in the final and decisive duel between Jonas Gerckens and Benoît Hantzperg from Team Belgium Ocean Racing and Ian Lipinski with Antoine Carpentier on "Crédit Mutuel" could be made in the western circumnavigation of the Azores High, which will present the rivals with one or two doldrums.
Hot on the heels of the top crews are Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink. The German duo is on the sixth and final stage on her comeback after dropping out on stage 3 has moved up to third place in the round the world race, but still has around 190 nautical miles to make up on the two leading boats. The youngest team in the fleet last held a lead of around 17 nautical miles over the fastest pointed bow boat "Barco Brasil" at midday on 7 April. Travelling towards the 30th parallel north, the fastest boats accelerated again in the north-east trade wind.
It's wild here at the moment. Lots of wind, lots of waves." Melwin Fink
On the Tuesday after Easter, Melwin Fink reported from the sea that his team was getting down to business. This was also the experience of the other two scow-bug boats on the fleet front. The Belgian Jonas Gerckens showed here with a cliphow his team is experiencing the current Atlantic conditions. "When the boat is gliding along under a blue sky, you sometimes don't even realise the raw intensity of the mission. And you also don't realise that it's a 24/7 job," commented Gerckens on the fast-paced journey.
Azores high extended to the west extends the course
"It was really banging tonight. We had gusts of up to 35 knots. They're now down to 20, 25 knots. With quite a big wave. But the boat is bouncing well through the waves. We're always travelling between 12 and 14 knots. It's going quite well," commented Melwin Fink on the current brisker progress. The crew's hopes are high that the Sargasso plague "is now over". Melwin Fink said: "It really slowed us down sometimes because we had to keep clearing the boat of it. But the others have that too. It's just annoying."
The Next Generation Boating Around the World team has already thought about how to approach the Azores High. "It will definitely be exciting, because it's relatively far to the west right now. So we'll be sailing round it relatively far to the west," said Fink, giving an outlook on the coming days. "We can't really predict yet whether they'll stop in front of us or whether we'll stop right there, because the weather models also differ."
Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink's current goal is to "make good miles to the north" and "keep an eye on the whole thing" in the final chapter of the Globe40. According to Fink, the two boats ahead of them are "just heading back into slightly lighter winds". They would have to wait and see how the situation develops.
Two comeback chances for Burke and Fink
When asked about the comeback chances for Team Germany, about the chances of being able to attack the two leading boats once again, Melwin Fink saw two opportunities for the remaining course section: "On the one hand around the Azores High, as already highlighted. Secondly, perhaps also in the Bay of Biscay. It looks like there could be light winds there too. So, we'll be going in with quite a lot of wind. Then there should be a lull. Let's see... The information is still very vague."
The team and boat are in good shape, "just a little stressed because we've been sailing on the same bow for nine days," explained 24-year-old Fink. He added: "We would also like to move around a bit again, but it will be a while before that can happen again." On land, an application for compensation from the Next Generation Boating Around the World team has now been approved by the jury.
The request was directed against the downgrading of the team in the classification. After dropping out on leg three from La Réunion to Sydney, the German Class 40 sailors were initially ranked in midfield according to their points, but then dropped back a little on the other uncompleted legs. Suddenly, however, the race organisers had placed the German team in eighth and last place, referring to Appendix 4 AC Globe40. The essence of the relevant appendix: A boat that has been scored as DNC or DNS in one or more legs is placed behind the boats that have completed all legs.
Globe40 jury grants GER request for redress
Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink filed an application for redress against this and, at the same time, against Annex 4 AC Globe40, which was later amended but not sufficiently communicated. The jury granted this on 4 April. The boats are to continue to be ranked in the order of the points earned and not according to the requirements of the appendix or on the basis of uncontested legs.
This means that Team Next Generation Boating is in sixth place after the penultimate stage, even though they finished four days after the jury's decision in the official intermediate class final. were still marked in red in last place. Melwin Fink said of the successful application for compensation: "This is just as we had imagined. We are happy about that. It gives us a better feeling. It also puts our performance in a better context for the comeback."
Meanwhile, the battle between the pointed bowboats for third place on the podium in the overall standings and the "Pointer" crown remains exciting. Here, "Barco Brasil" remained in the lead in the current leg, while "Free Dom" and "Jangada Racing" were also able to make up ground. Lisa Berger and Jade Edwards-Leaney have dropped back to seventh position on "Wilson" for the time being. However, they were only a few nautical miles behind the two boats in front of them, while early on Tuesday afternoon they were in seventh place. in the Atlantic rise were the most westerly of the pointed bow boats. Click here for the Globe40 tracker.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
