These are heady days for high-speed sailing fanatics. In addition to Ellen closing in a new solo global record, and Orange II on course to destroy the outright record (see below), we’ve got the rest of the world’s maxi multihulls racing non-stop around the world from (and back to) Qatar. The Oryx Quest got underway Saturday, and it’s pitting Olivier De Kersuason’s mega-tri Geronimo against her feline cousins, Cheyenne and Doha 2006 (former Club Med). Tony Bullimore is also in the mix on an endlessly updated older boat, Daedalus (former-Enza), but he won’t be in the frame long (sorry, Tony, your boat belongs in a museum).
This race is interesting for three reasons: 1) it’s a sailboat race; 2) it’s the first non-stop race around the globe that starts and finishes in the Middle East, so for the first time we’re going to learn about the Indian Ocean and the Monsoon; and 3) it’s the first time that Geronimo has lined up head-to head with Cheyenne and one of the Ollier first-generation cats. So maybe we’ll get some insights into the relative merits of a maxi-tri versus a maxi-cat.
For the moment, Geronimo appears to be out front, and the boats are in the Gulf Of Oman (see, I told you we were going to learn about some new places). Latest daily report is here. And here’s Zelig-like multihull sailor Paul Larsen (of SailRocket fame), who’s sailing with Brian Thompson’s Doha 2006, on the early cat vs. tri duel:
“As expected of the upwind,12-14 knot start, the big tri was gaining some height on the rest of the fleet. Although we led across the line we were a lot closer when we tacked across onto starboard. Geronimo slipped across in front by a boat length or two, and then proceeded to tack right on top of us which may have worked if they had of got their canting rig sorted out at the same time. They were left going upwind with the rig hanging off to leeward and hence no sheet tension on the headsail and we quickly slipped by leaving them no option but to tack back. Around the first mark we changed to a reaching sail and quickly began to pull out some more as night settled in. Geronimo wasn’t backing off and kept coming at us. Her masthead strobe light was a clear indicator and was watched intently as conditions began to build. Reefs were dropped in and headsails constantly changed as we surfed down hill heading for the exit. With Geronimo three miles directly behind we hit something with the port rudder which caused concern and the decision was made to drop the headsails, turn the boat head to wind and reverse it for a bit to help the offending object to float free of the rudder. During this manouever Geronimo went by only a couple of hundred meters away doing 25+ knots no doubt watching with interest. The object turned out to be a shark of some sort whose number had come up. We were quickly back up to speed and off after Geronimo who was now well ahead. With winds peaking at 40 knots it didn’t take long to reach the Straits of Hormutz where… we promptly parked up.”
The Oryx website has some very cool performance pages that are worth checking out. Let’s see, we’ve got a 24-hour speed graph (Cheyenne is coming on); instrument displays (De Kersauson, true to his old-school, super-secretive nature, seems to have ripped the wires out of his); and a map display (that has links to global, leader, fleet and leg charts). Not bad. This is going to be fun (well, any race that features Olivier De Kersauson is bound to be fun)…
“That bast*rd De Kersauson can black out his nav data all he wants. I can tell you exactly where he is right now, and I hope he’s enjoying the view…”
The Earthist Chronicles 