War of Attrition

The day started badly with the arrival of an email at 0700 from Anne Caseneuve advising of her retirement from the race. We subsequently learnt this was due to a broken rudder and she is making her way back towards France.

We noted last night on the tracker that Lexia (Jonathan Snodgrass) was sailing back towards Plymouth. He has now arrived safely back in Plymouth and has confirmed his retirement.

Out on the water we have heard of more difficulties and damage during the day. Paul Brant (Ninjod) sent an audio message to www.blogstar.com to the effect that he was returning eastwards as he has no foul weather gear left. His only pair were torn to shreds in the stormy weather.

We then heard via Rob Cumming's family that Egotripp is heading for Falmouth with complete power failure and no engine.

The last piece of bad news was from Pip Hildesley who reported a broken lower shroud and that she is heading for Cork. This is a real shame for Pip as she was doing so well and was well up with the front runners before receiving this damage.

We would emphasise that none of the last three mentioned yachts have retired and it is within the race rules for them to return to any port, effect repairs and then rejoin the race. Any yacht which does this however will suffer a 24 hour penalty.

Other Damage Reported
In a lengthy report Peter Bourke who is attempting to race back to his home port of Newport Rhode Island on Roubicon says he has some pretty
significant equipment issues. These are mainly to do with the failure of his generator and problems with his main engine which could provide back up for the failure of his generator. Peter has a modern yacht which is power hungry and he is now having to conserve power. Peter effectively stopped for a few hours to rest and evaluate his options; but concluded that he should continue racing.

On a lighter note Katie Miller reported that she had dropped the book she was reading into the bilge water and she now won't know what happened in the rest of the book. Other skippers report lighter winds, some blue sky and pleasanter conditions.

The Leaderboard
At last we have we have 4 hourly information on our tracker page which in tabulated form shows how each yacht is doing. The only problem is that with Dick Koopman's yacht Jager our tabulated information shows him to be in eighth place whilst the Race Tracker chart shows him to be leading. I am assured that our tabulated information is correct. I have been waiting for Dick to report his noon position so that I can confirm which one is correct but unfortunately we have not as yet received this information from him.

So for the moment we will have to wait and see how the race unfolds. With the retirement of the two trimarans the race is now wide open and could be won by any one of some ten yachts.

Marten Holden
1600 28th May

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