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Sec. Hayai and Phesheya-Racing finish GOR Leg 4 in Charleston

by Oliver Dewar
2 May 2012

The Dutch duo of Erik van Vuuren and Yvonne Beusker finish Global Ocean Race leg 4

On Wednesday 2 May, the two, mixed-doubles teams in the double-handed, Global Ocean Race (GOR) crossed the Leg 4 finish line off Charleston, South Carolina. First across the line at 19:06:30 GMT (15:06:30 local) was Class40 Sec. Hayai with the Dutch duo of Erik van Vuuren and Yvonne Beusker, followed just over three hours later by the South African team of Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire with Class40 Phesheya-Racing at 22:39:20 GMT (18:39:20 local).

Although the Dutch team crossed the line before the South Africans after 6,000 miles of racing from Punta del Este in Uruguay, a 24-hour penalty applied by the GOR Race Committee for a pit stop in Brazil by Sec. Hayai results Phesheya-Racing taking third place for Leg 4.

For Van Vuuren and Beusker on Sec. Hayai, the 30 days of racing from Uruguay to the USA has been full of surprises. The Dutch Class40 left Punta del Este with Nico Budel and Erik van Vuuren as crew, but urgent business matters at home in Holland forced the team to pull in to Fortaleza on the Brazilian coast after 16 days of racing and Budel quickly returned to the Netherlands. However, determined to complete Leg 4, Van Vuuren's girlfriend and business partner, Yvonne Beusker, quickly mobilised, flew to Brazil and joined the boat having satisfied the GOR Race Committee that her extensive sailing CV qualified for inclusion in the race.

After the crew change in Fortaleza, Sec. Hayai re-started racing with a 200-mile distance deficit on the fleet and a 24-hour time penalty, but Van Vuuren and Beusker hit the ground running: “It was an incredible leg,” said Van Vuuren as the dockside champagne celebrations started in the GOR's base in the Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina.

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