North Sails Expert Race Recap
North Sails’ President, Ken Read, checked in with his perspective on Leg 2.
Leg two has been a terrific test for these crews. As predicted, quite the opposite journey from the first 600 miles, in which we saw fast boat speeds, high winds, and some tough lumps for a few retirees. The first takeaway from this 360-mile leg is that the pre-race weather forecast was spot on and it pays to do your research to find the best weather model. We saw some long and grueling upwind work turning into a nice power reach into Portland from the waypoint mark. If you had a good weather source before the race, you knew exactly what was coming.
Another important takeaway we saw was that it may be a wake up call for pre- race preparation. Sometimes when things break it is simple bad luck and other times it is likely something you may have been able to anticipate. Whether you’re doing a 300-mile race or a 30,000-mile race, you have to be prepared for what Mother Nature is going to throw at you. And boy she did not hold back this time. We saw tough up wind conditions that unfortunately took out some of the boats and sent some to the back of the pack. In any race, it’s no fun when you have a breakdown, and it is especially hard when there are just two crew aboard. Not only is it no fun, it can get very dangerous. So I applaud all who took it on, period.
 What appears to be clear from these two legs is that the most prepared and fastest boat with the best offshore sail inventory has won both legs. And this time by a dominant fashion. Eärendil snuck into Portland just ahead of a high-pressure area that has engulfed the rest of the fleet. Not only did she get there in one shot, one power reach all the way in, but got there in the nick of time before the breeze shut down, leaving everybody behind in the dust. Congratulations to Catherine Pourre and Pietro Luciani on another impressive and well strategized win. Huge congratulations from all of us at North Sails on a really spectacular, solid effort. Incredible boat speed and obviously phenomenally good pre-race preparation and seamanship pay off. |
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1st Place
Eärendil
Pietro Luciani said of the first part of the leg to Nantucket, “We slammed a lot, but two or three times in a really bad way. We had strong wind and current against us on the side and the sea state was a little discombobulated. But, let me also say a word about Dragon, they did an amazing upwind job, we battled with them upwind and Dragon was first to the mark, so we did our job to stay close to them and then we knew the boat would be faster.”
Of the leg overall, Catherine Pourre said, “It was a very long leg, just with the wind in the wrong direction. [On being in Portland] It feels good, it feels good, and that we need to make sure we have a good crew for the inshore series.”
To watch the entire interview click HERE
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3rd Place
Dragon
Mike Hennessy: It was definitely a violent race…We had a great run or beat. We were seeing 25-30 with occasionally gusts up to 34 which was challenging but doable. We rounded Point Alpha in first. Catherine was right behind us and she took off like a rabbit, got up on a reach and stretched out on us, but it was a good race.
Merf Owen: It seemed like a very long, short race, but it was really good fun, especially Point Alpha. Then we came around Point Alpha in 22-24 knots downwind and we were just about to change to the masthead 5 furling code, we got it up, were just about to unfurl when a front moved through and it all started to look a bit weird, then bang on the nose and we were off again. So finish upwind again, this bit was not so enjoyable.
To watch the entire interview click HERE
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2nd Place Toothface 2
Tristan Mouligné: “It’s great to be here, it was a tough few hundred miles, like I said before, the few hundred hardest I’ve had in this event ever.
Mike Dreese: “It was wild out there, you can see why some of the boats with mechanical issues retired, we had some mechanical issues, but nothing life threatening. But, it was really rough…I think we only legit wiped out 2 or 3 times. We saw peak winds of 39-40, so the apparent winds were hitting 45. The last time I was in winds like that was in the transatlantic and you would never want to be in winds 5 -8 mph more than that because its so brutal.
To watch the entire interview click HERE |
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4th Place
Angola Cables
José Guilherme Caldas: “It’s very, very good to be in Portland because the outside (race course) was not very simple! We saw 39 knots of wind speed. It’s not simple but it was very good and we were very well placed, we begin in first and had a very good race to the mark (point alpha). After the mark we were very, very tired and did not make our best decision”
On what was the most challenging aspect: “For me I was not prepared for this weather, so it’s very very very cold! We come from warm waters and it’s very rare we sail in waters like this!”
To watch the entire interview click HERE |
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