Sea, Sail & Surf news
Transat 6.50 • Leg 2
Drama again on the start for Andraž Mihelin
A 25 cm hole on the junction of the hull and the deck on Adria Mobil 510
dimanche 7 octobre 2007 –
This wasn’t the first accident for Mihelin. Three weeks ago at the start of leg one in La Rochelle, Andraž collided with a press boat but could continue the race even though he damaged his daggerboard. This time he wasn’t so lucky. Andraž was on portside tack while David Le Carrou refused to give way and the two boats crashed leaving a 25 cm hole on the junction of the hull and the deck on Andraž’s Adria Mobil 510. He was towed back to the marina a few moments after that, where repairs began immediately – and Andraž was determined he will not allow anything to come in the way of his performance at this years Transat. Team meteorologist Jure Jerman was at the sight of the crash : "after a few very shocking moments Andraž gave us the directions – he wanted to be towed back. A few hours of laminating later Andraž was eager to start again with the epoksi still not completely dry."
The accident from start of leg one was discussed by the race comittee and Andraž’s redress was 30 minutes. Adrian Hardy on Brossard who was 5th got 2 hours of penalty so Andraž was actualy 5th before the start of leg two. It is probable that Andraž will get this time lost yesterday in Funchal back, but again it is impossible to say how much this will actually cost him – this several hours of delay might mean him sailing in a different weather system than the race leaders, which was the scenario of the first leg.
The first night passed without any obvious complications, Mihelin has passed some of the competitors and is now 84th, 25 miles behind the leading group. For team Adria Mobil this is great news but even better is the news of Kristian Hajnšek onboard Adria Mobil 509 who is currently 4th ! He is a mere 2 miles behind race leader Burckhart. It is to soon to start celebrating though – the second leg is 3100 miles long (from Funchal, Madeira to Salvadro de Bahia, Brasil) the competitors have the doldrums ahead of them and this is probably where the race will be decided. The entire fleet (with the exepction of Alex Pella who noticed an important crack on his mast and lost a lot of time repairing the damage) is in a 30 miles radium, the leading ten within a ten miles radium.
Press info Ana Lukanc / www.4ocean.si
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