Day nine in the race to New York and Phil is back to fight for 1st. After his accidental penalty lost him 62nm on Sunday, pulling him back to 3rd in the ranking, Phil has once again proved his endurance and skills. Overnight an elated Phil stepped up to 2nd place and remains wrestling to regain 1st position on a special day, his birthday.
“Last night I took advantage of a couple of fronts, which meant I lost sleep to continually tuning the boat. To jump up to 2nd place was the best present I could have asked for this morning.” Commented Sharp.
At 14:00 today Phil was spending his birthday under a dark rain cloud making the most of the nav station whilst a local phenomena passed by.
“Currently I am sitting with a big grey cloud overhead, it’s raining and the wind has pretty much stopped… I must be in a slightly different weather system to the others near me, it’s incredibly patchy and variable. I’m hoping it will pass very soon!” Commented Sharp.
Life on board has been a little tricky over the last few days with technical failures which prevented him access to weather files for over 24 hours, and a mysterious and rather worrying loud clunking noise reverberating off the rudders, both of which are now resolved.
As Phil continues the familiar battle against Mini-day competitor Isabelle Joschke on Generali, the fleet will be faced with complex and trying conditions, where changeable local weather can quite easily impede performance.
“The weather looks like it’s going to continue to be variable and tough until New York. With over 1,300nm to go – anything could happen.” Commented Sharp.
Yesterday Armel Tripon on Class 40 Black Pepper announced his retirement from The Transat bakerly, after he sustained damage in the week’s earlier storms, leaving eight Class 40’s now en route to the Big Apple. Meanwhile, Francois Gabart on Macif has won the Ultimes Class in 8 days, 8 hours, 54 minutes and 39 seconds, narrowly missing out on a new race record by 25 minutes.
