Fastnetstart!!

2005fastnet_start, originally uploaded by lzp.

Ieri mattina é partito il Fastnet, subito in testa i grandi e veloci, di seguito un resoconto da bordo del maxi Skandia.

courtesy of www.sailinganarchy.com

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Hi there;

Well we are now about 50 miles from Lizard Point in 9 knots of breeze doing 14 knots across the ground with the huge code zero flying.

We passed Telefonica, the new Volvo 70 about 2 hours ago, and I think that Maximus has about 6 miles on us, up in front.

Things have calmed down now, but the last 36 hours have been pretty traumatic. During our pre-race rig check, on Saturday morning we discovered a small issue with the rigging. We could have gone as it was, but decided that it would be best to be 100% sure and get it sorted. This meant 24 hours hard slog for the guys, and also meant that we started this great race 4 minutes behind time. To add insult to injury, when hoisting the code zero, our head swivel failed, the furled zero fell ripping our spinnaker in half.

What a shocker.

Anyway, going nicely now and looking forward to getting some good luck soon.

Cheers,
Grant