From the Angola Cables Start Line in New York City, the fleet of Class40s battled upwind to round the virtual mark ‘Point Alpha’ off the Nantucket Shoals. Throughout the race to Portland, competitors fought gusts of up to nearly 40 knots and a steep and choppy sea state that brought physical, mental and mechanical challenges. While two boats, First Light and Espirit Scout, retired to take refuge in Newport, Rhode Island, the remaining nine Class40s have made their way around Cape Cod and into the safe harbor of Casco Bay in Portland, Maine.
After rounding Point Alpha, Eärendil leaped ahead, taking the top spot on the podium early Tuesday morning with an official finish time of 03:41:28. Eärendil was followed by Toothface and then Dragon just a few hours later. The 2nd and 3rd place boats had been in an intense match race, often within hailing distance of one another. Following Dragon was Angola Cables, Amhas, Privateer and then Oakcliff Racing. These teams celebrated a safe leg and successful finish on the dock with a bottle of Shipyard Brewing’s finest beers.
Talanta and Power of One are expected to arrive early Wednesday morning, in just enough time to recover for Thursday’s Kid’s Day. North Sails Expert Race Recap
North Sails' President, Ken Read, checked in with his perspective on Leg 2.
What appears to be clear from these two legs is that the most prepared and fastest boat with the best offshore sail inventory has won both legs. And this time by a dominant fashion. Eärendil snuck into Portland just ahead of a high-pressure area that has engulfed the rest of the fleet. Not only did she get there in one shot, one power reach all the way in, but got there in the nick of time before the breeze shut down, leaving everybody behind in the dust. Congratulations to Catherine Pourre and Pietro Luciani on another impressive and well strategized win. Huge congratulations from all of us at North Sails on a really spectacular, solid effort. Incredible boat speed and obviously phenomenally good pre-race preparation and seamanship pay off. What the Teams Said After Arriving in Portland
What appears to be clear from these two legs is that the most prepared and fastest boat with the best offshore sail inventory has won both legs. And this time by a dominant fashion. Eärendil snuck into Portland just ahead of a high-pressure area that has engulfed the rest of the fleet. Not only did she get there in one shot, one power reach all the way in, but got there in the nick of time before the breeze shut down, leaving everybody behind in the dust. Congratulations to Catherine Pourre and Pietro Luciani on another impressive and well strategized win. Huge congratulations from all of us at North Sails on a really spectacular, solid effort. Incredible boat speed and obviously phenomenally good pre-race preparation and seamanship pay off. What the Teams Said After Arriving in Portland
1st Place Eärendil
Pietro Luciani said of the first part of the leg to Nantucket, "We slammed a lot, but two or three times in a really bad way. We had strong wind and current against us on the side and the sea state was a little discombobulated. But, let me also say a word about Dragon, they did an amazing upwind job, we battled with them upwind and Dragon was first to the mark, so we did our job to stay close to them and then we knew the boat would be faster." Of the leg overall, Catherine Pourre said, "It was a very long leg, just with the wind in the wrong direction. It feels good, it feels good, and that we need to make sure we have a good crew for the inshore series.” To watch the entire interview click HERE
3rd Place Dragon
Mike Hennessy: It was definitely a violent race...We had a great run or beat. We were seeing 25-30 with occasionally gusts up to 34 which was challenging but doable. We rounded Point Alpha in first. Catherine was right behind us and she took off like a rabbit, got up on a reach and stretched out on us, but it was a good race.
Merf Owen: It seemed like a very long, short race, but it was really good fun, especially Point Alpha. Then we came around Point Alpha in 22-24 knots downwind and we were just about to change to the masthead 5 furling code, we got it up, were just about to unfurl when a front moved through and it all started to look a bit weird, then bang on the nose and we were off again. So finish upwind again, this bit was not so enjoyable. To watch the entire interview click HERE
2nd Place Toothface 2
Tristan Mouligné: "It's great to be here, it was a tough few hundred miles, like I said before, the few hundred hardest I've had in this event ever. Mike Dreese: "It was wild out there, you can see why some of the boats with mechanical issues retired, we had some mechanical issues, but nothing life threatening. But, it was really rough...I think we only legit wiped out 2 or 3 times. We saw peak winds of 39-40, so the apparent winds were hitting 45. The last time I was in winds like that was in the transatlantic and you would never want to be in winds 5 -8 mph more than that because its so brutal.To watch the entire interview click HERE
4th Place Angola Cables
José Guilherme Caldas: “It’s very, very good to be in Portland because the outside (race course) was not very simple! We saw 39 knots of wind speed. It’s not simple but it was very good and we were very well placed, we begin in first and had a very good race to the mark (point alpha). After the mark we were very, very tired and did not make our best decision”
On what was the most challenging aspect: “For me I was not prepared for this weather, so it’s very very very cold! We come from warm waters and it’s very rare we sail in waters like this!”To watch the entire interview click HERE Leg 2 Results
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