2007

Bernard Stamm, true expert in sailing to the limit, crosses 400 daily miles in the sea of Tasmania

24 of January of 2007. The leader of the VELUX 5 OCEANS, Swiss Bernard Stamm, continue like a rocket sailing towards the east maintaining 17 knots of speed in last the 24 hours. Its boat, the Open 60 Cheminees Poujoulat, approximately is 12 hours to cross the Line the International of the Change of Date (Dazzling 180º), leaving the Earth, New Zealand nearer, quickly to stern, according to crosses an average of 400 miles daily.

Ahead the Austral ocean extends, the most inhospitable latitudes of the Pacific, without islands, without people, outside the lines of commercial freighters and with the perspective to spend fifteen days battling in the most extreme conditions before arriving at Suramérica and passing the Cape Horn.
 
To sail to the limit of the resistance is the specialty of Stamm and the conditions so far seem good: “The conditions seem stable and for me it is very important to go next days as rapidly as possible both,” explained this morning while it sailed to 19 knots. Nevertheless, this experimentadísimo landlord knows that to sail to the limit it has its risks. “At the moment I have not had problems on board,” says, “but I have a wood piece in the letter table, so whenever work with the computer, I touch wood.”

The driven crazy rate of the leader has put other 80 miles from yesterday in the evening between the Cheminees Poujoulat and the Spirit of Yukoh, that goes second. The Japanese landlord, Kojiro Shiriashi, now follow Stamm to 470 miles. Koji at the moment is in the part more the west of the oceanic plateau Campbell, where the abysses of the oceanic ridge Emerald happen of 400 meters to the 5,000 meters of depth, which produces dangerous turbulences and conditions in which the boat could be broken.
 
In the middle of the fleet, and in the middle of the sea of Tasmania, between Tasmania and New Zealand, Graham Dalton, that goes third party, has seen as the leader put more than 1,000 miles among them. But its Open 50, To Southern Man AGD, stays in contact with the leaders. The New Zealand one is 540 miles behind the Japanese. To the northwest of Dalton is Unai Basurko, that still it must pass Tasmania. The Basoue stays in fourth position, whereas Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, 150 miles to the south of Unai, are lost tonight 39 miles against his more direct rival. 57 miles only separate both landlords. The technical problems that continue undergoing Sir Robin make their advance in the test more difficult. “All the wind rolls pillage to Me off guard, since I cannot unload the detailed part,” it commented this morning, frustrated by the problems of the pilot that demand constant monitoring, while the strong wind gusts of wind shake their Open 60.