2006

As it was anticipated, the exit of the VELUX 5 OCEANS has provided a true spectacle that has won in intensity as the participants began to express his “purasangres”. And it is that, in the middle of hardest conditions with winds of up to 45 knots, the landlords they have had to be used thorough in the first night of competition, as tells Alex us Thomson, that it has undergone numerous problems in his Hugo Boss.

23 of October of 2006. Approximately to the 13:00 hours of Sunday the patrons aligned themselves yesterday in the exit of the Velux 5 Oceans in Bilbao, few could anticipate a starting of the Maximum alone as spectacular Challenge as the one that have provided Open 60 of the six competitors in scene. Without occurring no type of truce among them, Alex Thomson, Bernard Stamm, Mike Holding company, Unai Basurko, Koji Shiraishi and Sir Robin Knox Johsnton left to by all in the middle of conditions of wind of 12 knots of intensity that seemed to foretell a placid starting of competition.
 
Nevertheless, as soon as the patrons had left laughs it of Bilbao to enter themselves in the open sea, and when Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss), Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat) and Mike Golding (Ecover) fought by the leadership of the test, winds between 20 and 25 knots burst in into scene foretelling what hoped to the landlords during all night.
 
This way, while Open 60 began to add miles in their route by the Cantabrian way of waypoint of Cabo Finisterre (to 300 miles of the exit), the conditions became hardened and the surge as much as the wind, that already surpassed the 30 knots, began to on approval put to landlords and boats in which it promised to be one hard night.
 

Alex Thomson
And thus it has been, judging by the words of a Alex Thomson that, in a realized telephone interview only one hour ago, confessed to be “really exhausted” after one night of dogs in which, far from being able to sleep a single minute, it has had to struggle with numerous problems in his boat. “I have spent one night horrible”, confessed the British landlord, “since I have undergone numerous problems, like the breakage of winche”. In addition, it assured the English landlord, the youngest man in to have gained a return to the world after doing it with only 24 years, “I had to hope to that she spent the night and was made by day to clear something of the keel that was restraining to me”. All an odyssey that has delayed to a Alex Thomson remarkably that, however, was arranged to continue fighting: “The first night has been disastrous, but these things happen and is necessary to continue fighting to the maximum”.
 
In the tactical section, so important in one regata of these characteristics, Thomson has been forced to follow a course nearer earth than the chosen one by its two main rivals, Mike Golding (Ecover) and Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat). Something that in principle did not enter the plans of the English landlord, that explained his forced change of strategy: “The truth is that it thought to sail more towards out to sea, but with all the problems that I have had during the night I have seen forced to approach me the coast. At the moment I am closely together of Koji (Kojiro Shiraishi, landlord of the Spirit of Yukoh), that even got to advance to me”.
 
A landlord, the Japanese, that, however, would be relegated later the fourth position, although to a meager distance of Thomson. On the other hand, the Cheminées Poujoulat of Swiss Bernard Stamm and the Ecover de Mike Golding, less decimated by the problems after the first night of competition, stay to the front of the test, with an advantage of 9 miles in head in favor of the Helvetic landlord. Unai Basurko, to 45 miles of Stamm, and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, to 54, fights not to withdraw more with respect to the units that lead the competition.

Unai Basurko
Unai Basurko and its “Pakea” have also spent one night “very hard” and Basque skipper was “tired very” first thing in the morning, in front of the End of Estaca of Bars, in the Galician coast. Basurko has heaved the weather with three curls in its greater candle and without no candle in prow. The wind has blown with force during all night and the waves have exceeded the 6 meters. In these circumstances as soon as it has been able to sleep, because “it has been very kind to everything what happened”.
 
During the morning the climatologic conditions have registered a slight improvement. With wind of 9 knots “Pakea” it has been able to sail with a single curl in the greater candle, and it has even been able to hoist small Genoa. Despite the part for the next hours it aims at that the weather will reach force 10 near the Cabo Finisterre.

Unai Basurko has talked with its family towards the eight in the morning by telephone. It said to feel “very tired by all the activity of the exit of regata and the tension of the last days”, but “hard of moral”. It had lost of view already to the three boats in the three head and had chosen “not to try to follow” first skippers because it preferred “to save forces” to confront the following weather. Its strategy will be “to move away of the coast against Finisterre, and to drop itself later”, because “the waves will rise much near the coast”.
 
The Maximum Challenge alone has provided a vibrant exit to the regatistas, that have had in the first night of competition a clear sample than they are going to be the next months in the Velux 5 Oceans.