A tough first 24 hours in the trades

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand has had a tough 24 hours after blowing out the tack rope in their reaching headsail in boisterous trade wind conditions.

After finally picking up the elusive north east trade winds overnight and enjoying boat speeds surging above 20 knots the crew of CAMPER were forced to drop the J2 sail for several painful hours to carry out hasty repairs causing a costly drop in boat speed.

CAMPER has however managed to hold onto second place behind Groupama, but a combination of the sail damage and the easterly boats in the fleet enjoying more favourable conditions has seen the deficit stretch out to 81 nautical miles.

The easterly boats of Groupama, Puma and Abu Dhabi are benefiting from better wind strength and angle that is likely to translate into further advantage over the next 24 hours until conditions even out across the fleet.

CAMPER skipper Chris Nicholson says that it’s a matter of hanging tough until the boats hit the Equator and the South Pacific Convergence Zone.

“The boats to the east have a pretty clear advantage in this drag race with their better reaching angles, so it’s a case of staying in touch with them until we hit the Equator and the convergence zone.

“At this rate we’ll be at the Equator in three days. Then it starts to open up and there are plenty of opportunities in the South Pacific and heading to New Zealand.

“There’s a lot of sailing to be done yet in this race and we see plenty of options developing as we head further south.

“I think everybody is just delighted to be pointing in the direction we want to go and reeling off some decent miles towards Auckland after ten days of slogging away to the east.”

CAMPER in the latest position report at 1500h 29 February NZT is averaging 20.2 knots in a 21.3 knot northerly.