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Global Ocean Race Leg 5 - Day 3

by Oliver Dewar
21 May 2012

Conditions ease after the worst 24 hours of the circumnavigation

Following a brutal first 48 hours at sea, the four Global Ocean Race (GOR) Class40s are into the Gulf Stream with the wind moving south after an upwind battle in enormous seas, squalls and lightning with teams reporting the worst conditions of the entire circumnavigation.

The bold move east on Sunday by Marco Nannini and Sergio Frattaruolo with Financial Crisis is continuing to pay as the Italian-Slovak duo lead the fleet by 19 miles at 15:00 GMT on Monday. In the chasing pack, Conrad Colman and Scott Cavanough on Cessna Citation in second entered the Gulf Stream and tacked onto starboard at 07:00 on Monday and are currently slipstreaming Financial Crisis with some separation appearing between Phillippa Hutton-Squire and Nick Leggatt on the South African Class40 Phesheya-Racing in third and the Dutch duo of Nico and Frans Budel on Sec. Hayai with under ten miles separating the two boats as they poll identical speed averages at just over eight knots.

On Financial Crisis, piling into the Gulf Stream while the other three Class40s remained in the corridor between the stream and the US coast was a winning tactic, but proved extremely punishing: “I can't deny that last night, during the worst, only a very, very small part of me was thinking about the race,” Marco Nannini admitted late on Sunday night. “We were simply making sure we'd get through the blow with no damage, but I'm glad I stuck to my guns and headed towards the Gulf Stream.”

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