All Or Nothing

Rolling Stones title describes the change of conditions in Cartagena well.

A very confused, lumpy, bumpy seaway kicked up by a 25 knot breeze proofs a serious test for men, boat and sail.

ETNZ proof again to be the masters of the game with two firsts, but have their scary moments too…

Audi Q8 follows them closely, quite a demonstration of skill. Diving the morning after they find the bottom 20cm of their rudderblade missing. Most likely ripped of when part of a blown out spinnaker caught on it.

Not much damage in the TP52 fleet really, quite a few sails, 2 stanchions, one spinnaker pole, some bruises and some ego maybe…

Big winds, big waves, up to 26 knots of boat speed…what they said:

Riccardo Simoneschi (ITA), skipper Audi Q8 (ITA):
“We have a boat which is a bit slow when we have 10 knots wind so today it was more about manoeuvring and steering the boat, and we’ve done a good job, especially downwind, there the Melges 24 which I usually sail helps because it’s very similar. We reached 26,5 knots of boat speed, but we’ve had a lot of fun, unfortunatelly we’ve lost a gennaker in the water…the day was really tough.”

Vasco Vascotto (ITA), helm Artemis (SWE):
“I think this is a day we’ll remember for a very long time, we’ve asked ourselves after every wave, what will be next, will we be dead or alive? This was the question it’s been more of a Round the World race it’s been really good fun, great”

Kevin Shoebridge (NZL), deck-hand ETNZ (NZ)
“It’s been a great day, really enjoyable and we got away without damaging anything. It worked out really well for us.  It was fast, top boat speed is difficult to tell, there was too much water spraying all around, but I saw 23 knots on the boat speed a few times, there was a really nasty confused sea so it was actually very tough. Going upwind on the boat it was the sort of conditions where you can easily break your boat. It was like being in a washing machine. The boys came here to do well in this regatta, and that was a nice day for sure. It was really enjoyable, it was about not breaking anything, about keeping your wheels underneath you and just doing all the jobs correctly cause one little mistake it costs you a hundred meters. We haven’t even talked about the standings yet…”

Serguei Chevtsov (RUS), skipper Valars III (Russia):
“In the first windward leg of the first race we did very well and we rounded the mark, in the first three boats. So, once again we realize, that we sail much better in strong breeze. With a wind speed of more than 18 knots we did a better job than in light winds. We proved we can compete with a Circuit leaders and be at the front of the fleet. But, yeah, we have to admit that we don’t have enough technique in strong winds.”