Benoït Hantzberg and Renaud Dehareng from Team Belgium Ocean Racing - Curium and Ian Lipinski and Amélie Grassi on "Crédit Mutuel" are engaged in an almost unbelievable duel on stage two of the Globe40 circumnavigation. Just three nautical miles separated the two duos on the evening of 19 October, two thirds of the way into the race. They still had around 2,800 nautical miles to go to their destination of La Réunion. Both boats made rapid progress in strong winds of between 20 and 30 knots.
The Belgian-French Globe40 duel
On Friday, the Belgians had gained a small cushion of just under 30 nautical miles on the French. But by Sunday evening, that was gone again. "Caught" between an area of high pressure in the north and the 42-degree south limit imposed by the Globe40 organisers, the two teams had sought and found their course to the Cape of Good Hope in 15 knots of wind from astern with somewhat varying degrees of success.
Because Lipinski and Grassi had come a little closer to the southern border, the mixed team had managed to close the gap to the Belgians again. Until the Belgians also orientated themselves towards the south again. Both crews have mastered the Atlantic section of the second Globe40 leg so far in outstanding fashion with an average speed of 12.33 knots. The fact that they are sailing in the Southern Ocean as if it were a match race off the coast of Brittany makes this circumnavigation even more of a thriller.
At the same time, Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink struggled to catch up with the favourites, who had lost ground since the Doldrums, around 500 nautical miles astern in third place. The young German team announced its mountain festival on leg two on Sunday. Melwin Fink said: "We hope that the second half of the leg doesn't take as long as the first." Between rays of sunshine and rough seas, the duo from Hamburg looked back on 3450 nautical miles in the stern water and let it be known: "The crew of the 'Next Generation Boating Around the World' has completed half of the second leg from Mindelo to La Réunion."
Burke and Fink brace themselves for the low
The associated good news followed immediately: "From now on, the route will be shorter. The finish is getting closer every day." On Sunday morning, Melwin Fink had expressed another hope: "We hope that the second half of the route won't take as long as the first." The co-skippers were travelling fast after a long dry spell at the weekend. The top speed of 25 knots achieved also pointed to this.
Now it's definitely a case of not falling any further behind, closing the gap as much as possible and then attacking again behind the Cape of Good Hope." Lennart Burke
At an air temperature of ten degrees, Burke and Fink keep warm with thick sleeping bags and lots of tea, investing a lot of time in navigation and weather. They want to avoid a low-pressure area approaching from the north-west on their easterly course "at all costs". Lennart Burke said: "We spend a lot of time on the navigation instruments and analysing the weather in order to be as well prepared as possible."
Globe40: Excitement also in the pointed bow boats
Their Pogo 40 S4 is still in good shape. So far, according to the team, "only one vane and one deflection block have broken". As a replacement was available on board, the damaged equipment has already been replaced. The heating system has so far remained unused. According to the team, it should "only be used in an emergency, for example to dry clothes".
After two and a half weeks at sea, the top boats held up well in pursuit of the leading scow boats: the best pursuers of the top three on Sunday were again the Brazilians José Guilherme Caldas and Luiz Bolina on "Barco Brasil", around 600 nautical miles behind Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink. 60 and 110 nautical miles behind the South Americans, Thibaut Lefèvre and François Martin as well as Lisa Berger and Jade Edwards-Leaney on "Wilson Around The World" struggled to catch up with the Brazilians.
The Austrian skipper and her British co-skipper recently defended a ten-nautical-mile lead over Richard Palmer and Rupert Holmes on Jangada Racing. Melodie Schaffer and Julia Virat, who were 100 nautical miles behind the Brits, brought up the rear for the time being. Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink are expected to reach their next milestone on 22 October when they pass the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope. According to the latest routing, the German crew could reach the port of call on La Réunion on 31 October.
Strong wind challenge in the mast
However, the routings are not yet very reliable due to the unpredictable conditions in the Indian Ocean. The duo have long since recovered from a brief scare last week when the 2:1 deflection block of the Pogo, which deflects the main halyard, broke apart. "As a result, one of the sails came down a bit, although not completely, because we don't have mast slides and the sail doesn't just fall down," explained Melwin Fink.
He had climbed into the mast and only discovered there that the whole block was broken and not just one lashing. "We had to salvage the entire sail. I got the halyard down. Then we recovered the sail and I fitted a low-friction ring in place of the block. If we had known that beforehand, we could have repaired it at the top. But it was 25 knots of wind, pretty bumpy. That's why I didn't want to stay up there any longer than necessary. That's pretty dangerous. And I also got a few bruises. But the repair went pretty quickly and is also pretty reliable."
Overall, Burke and Fink have a positive assessment of the first leg of their first circumnavigation in Globe40. Melwin Fink says: "We are aware that the race is far from over, far from over. The decisions we have made can still benefit us. We took very good care of our boat and still sailed very fast, but didn't take any risks. We are very, very happy with that."
Globe40: Risk avoidance according to plan
Because the German team has "neither a huge budget nor a huge team" in the background, the plan from the outset was "not to take any big risks", says Fink. At times it was "a bit tough", that the two leading boats "pulled away like this". Nevertheless, the team wants to stay true to its plan: "We'll do our thing and stick to what we've been doing for the last two weeks," says Fink.
What has surprised the crew so far is "how long the whole thing is". Melwin Fink says: "It's a huge distance. We weren't really aware of it beforehand." On the other hand, it is "super cool to sail down here in the south". 23 to 25 knots prevailed on Sunday evening for the German team, who sailed around the 41st parallel south in three or four metre high and very long waves and also enjoyed "surfing experiences".
