| After racing 648 nautical miles, the fleet of four Class 40s competing in The Atlantic Cup presented by 11th Hour Racing finished in light winds on Wednesday morning. The leading three teams traded positions in the run up to New York where ultimately first through third were separated by a mere 22 minutes.
#106-Gryphon Solo 2, skippered by Joe Harris and Patrick O’Connor, crossed the finish line first at 05:20:10 ET on Wednesday, May 14, with an elapsed time of 89:15:10 to complete the 642 nautical mile first off-shore leg of the Atlantic Cup from Charleston, S.C. to New York City. The race, the most sustainable sailing event in the United States, saw USA’s 106-Gryphon Solo 2 finish 15 minutes 5 seconds ahead of #54 Dragon (89:30:05), followed by the team of #39 Pleiad Racing (89:37:20).
The race began at 12:05 p.m. on Saturday, May 10th from the Charleston Maritime Center. The teams left Charleston harbor with double-reefed mains in 20-25 knots of breeze on a fast passage to Cape Hatteras. The first night brought squalls across the course and #116-JeffreyMacFarlane.com damaged their primary spinnaker, which proved to be costly for the remainder of the race. After Cape Hatteras the fleet encountered 24 hours of light fluky wind as a frontal passage passed over the area towards the east. The front three boats of #54-Dragon, #39-Pleiad and #106 Gryphon Solo 2 were in sight of each other for the first two days of the race with lead changes occurring on multiple occasions.
Last night, coming into NY Harbor, Gryphon Solo 2 was defending a .1 nautical mile (nm) lead and was 300 yards away from the finish line in a very fickle breeze. The breeze shut off allowing Pleiad to catch up and both teams battled to reach the finish in a windless, current against them situation for over three hours. Dragon, who was 9nm behind closed the gap and also fought the fickle, current situation. All three teams had multiple approaches to the finish line before they were able to actually finish. Gryphon Solo 2 ultimately was able to sail past the line and allow the current to take them back down to duck across the finish.
For all of the results and to view the race tracker replay please visit HERE
Other Race News:
#25 – Flatline skippered by Kyle Hubley and Frederic de Mesel, scored as DNS (did not start) and be given 0 points for the first leg. The first leg represents one third of the scoring for the overall Atlantic Cup, so Flatline is still in contention once they join the fleet here in NYC. |
