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Paul Knighton Blog (MSc Insurance and Risk Management, 2007)

Paul is taking a career break to compete in The Clipper Round the World yacht race and here is his sixith blog entry!

Entry 6 - Tauranga, New Zealand to Southport, Australia

I had a long conversation with the skipper on the previous leg. The theme of this conversation was how we could finally beat Gold Coast and get our first race win. We spoke about the different strategies we could employ and how hard we would have to push the boat and the crew. We both agreed that the next race would be our best opportunity. It was Gold Coast' home race, so the pressure would be on them and at only 10 days duration we knew we could push our bodies to the limit without fear of burning out too early.

The race start began with a similar strategy to the previous race. Each crew member having a fixed role on the deck, mine being bowman. As we crossed the line we were in strong winds of about 20kts and the boat felt light and well trimmed. It was as if our positive attitude and planning had somehow affected the boat, and we seemed half a knot faster than the rest of the fleet. We soon settled into a comfortable lead, a position we had not seen since race one.

As we bid farewell to the coastline of New Zealand's north island the wind began to intensify. this intensification led to one of the first of many sail changes that we would carry out this race. At times i would begin to regret suggesting that we used this leg as a test bed for later races, as on some watches we carried out four sail changes in quick succession. Our tempo had increased dramatically and our work rate seemed almost double that of the previous legs. Still, this was paying off as we were in the lead, but only by a few miles over DLL. Gold Coast who were our focus on all the previous races seemed to be feeling the pressure and had fallen back to eighth.

The race was close fought between us and DLL for the next week or so, with the lead swapping several times. But we held our own and generally had the advantage. Gold Coast meanwhile had kept a very different course and were about 150 miles to the north, in a completely different air stream and still in eighth.

as we got to within 48 hours of the finish line, we were just in second but well within sight of the lead DLL. the wind suddenly dropped and both yachts slowed. This is where Gold Coasts northerly strategy would pay off, as to the north there was significantly more wind.

We stayed close behind DLL for the next 24 hours and could see from the race scheduled we receive every six hours that Gold Coast was catching us fast, and our courses were converging. Crew members were receiving frantic emails from home warning us of Gold Coasts rapid progress an pleading with us to hurry up, but there was nothing we could do.

i was just begging my long six hour afternoon watch and i could see two other boats in close proximity and all in a line. to our left was Gold Coast and to our right was DLL. The boats were separated by only seven miles. We had converged on the same bit of water and were now in the same air flow, who came out on top now would be solely down to the crew.

We were in third position at this stage, but as were were sandwiched between the two other boats we were in a strong position to take advantage of any wind shift, and should be looking to a strong second place at least. soon enough a wind shift did come, and it gave us the lift that we needed to point directly at the finish. Gold Coast as the most port boat received it first and followed it round, we also took advantage of the lift soon after, but DLL did not. To our amazement they maintained their course. Was there a hidden strategy we did not know about? was the helm asleep? we had no clue, but either way it was now a two horse race.

The night drew closer and the sea state flattened and we were cruising along at 9 kts. Things were building for an exciting finish. The miles were being ticked off and we were still a couple of miles behind. I was on the 3AM to 7AM watch that night and that was the watch that would see us home.

We were trimming the sails constantly, so was Gold Coat as we could see their torch light on their sails. We even sat at the back of the boat and shined our torches on our fore sales to make Gold Coast thing we were trimming every minute. Sure enough their torch light intensified, these guys really wanted to win!

About an hour from the finish it was my turn to helm. I consider this my strongest position on the boat and relished the challenge of trying to catch Gold Coast. Our position had been relativity constant over the past few hours but the boat felt light and powered up, and i knew we could do it.

I tried to maintain an arrow straight course to maximise our speed and cut out any negative effect from the waves. There were squalls all around us and we could see huge cloud formations silhouetted against lightning flashes. The boast speed was increasing and we seemed to be catching them. My heart was pumping and i could feel the pressure building.
The team we trimming like never before and the sails looked perfect. After about half an hour Gold Coasts navigation lights began to flicker from white to the occasional red, meaning we were beginning to see her port aspect.
We were catching her!!

Gradually the light became permanently red and we knew we were along side.
My mouth was dry and i was watching the compass desperate to maintain my course. As the night turned slowly to dawn we could see our nemesis for the first time. we were ahead, only just but we were ahead.

Our lead stretched out to about 500m but the pressure was still on. We prayed that the wind did not drop as it was forecast to do, as that could change everything. Gold Coast moved in directly behind us. There was a lot of activity on their foredeck, but we could not make out what they were up to. Then we saw them drop their Yankee foresail and begin to hoist their spinnaker. My heart sank, given the right wind angle the spinnaker would be a faster sale. The skipper ordered us to prepare to hoist ours, but that would take at least 20 minutes. We had not used our spinnaker earlier as we did not believe we had the right wind angle, and we still didn't. The skipper was constantly asking me what angle the wind was coming from, i kept reassuring him that we did not have the angle and therefore nor did Gold Coast.

Their spinnaker filled and we could see the boat accelerate, but they could not maintain course and would not make the line at the angle they were pointing. I maintained my course, hands sweating and eyes straining to see the compass. I had never been so focused on anything before in my life. The sun was now over the horizon and Gold Coast were finally forced to drop their spinnaker and raise their Yankee again. Could this be it, could we really win? The line was an imaginary point between two marker buoys and I could now just about make them out. As we reached about 300m to go the wind did finally drop, and heart rates increased even further. 100m to go and we were still moving but only just.
I counted down the last few meters with the skipper, we crossed the line only six minutes ahead of Gold Coast on their home race. as soon as we did the wind dropped out completely, but it didn't matter we had won, what a race!

We were greeted as we always are by media boats and an escort rib to take us into the marina. As this was Gold Coasts home port, the escort rib insisted that they be the first boat in. This was a break with tradition but out of politeness to our hosts we complied and fell into line. The race director then came over the VHF and asked why we were second in the convoy.
We explained the situation and he replied, 'you won the race, you are the first in the marina'! We overtook Gold Coast and turned the corner into the most amazing backdrop to a yacht club i have ever seen. we were cheered on by our ever loyal band of family and friends that follow the race to each stop over. It was a great feeling, although i was so excused after not sleeping for nearly 48 hours that i could only manage one beer before taking my leave.

Next stop Singapore