"Dale Kushner’s meticulous preparation for the 2011 Cape to Rio yacht race has started to pay dividends after two days of racing out in the South Atlantic.
His 42ft Xtra-Link is now the overall leader on handicap, while the maxi Prodigy, which is already way out in front in the race for line honours, is now second overall, followed in third spot by Cape Storm, skippered by Sean Cummings.
Yachtport SA, skippered by Dave Herman, is lying fourth, while early leader Perie Banou II, co-skippered by Australians Jon and Andre Sanders, has slipped back to fifth place.
“The first day was amazing,” said Jon Sanders. “We had a great start and sailed much better in very light winds. Perhaps the big crews on the other boats are an advantage to us.”
The big loser on overall handicap after yesterday afternoon’s race update was City of Cape Town, skippered by Gerry Heggie, which is now lying sixth. But the smaller 42ft Lavranos yacht has still managed to move into second place for line honours, ahead of the 63ft maxi Grand Filou II co-skippered by Jurgen Eming and Richard Fearon. Heggie’s chances of an overall win have been dragged down by a demanding IRC rating for the yacht, which is owned by Cape Town yachtsman JJ Provoyeur.
Kushner was in an upbeat mood after reporting to race control from Xtra-Link, which is equipped with some of the most sophisticated communications gadgetry of all the 17 yachts taking part in the race: “Sunday had us fetching in winds between 14-20 knots, with a lumpy confused sea. In the early hours of Tuesday morning the winds started going aft with us hoisting the spinnaker.
“The sailing conditions early Monday were still difficult because of a lumpy sea, but as the morning progressed the wind freshened and the sea improved. Right now we are sailing at 8.6knots and the temperature is a comfortable 26deg C.
By yesterday’s race report, Prodigy had completed 485 nautical miles (nm), City of Cape Town 436nm, Grand Filou 408nm and Xtra-Link 367nm as the fleet headed in a north-westerly direction to Rio and the completion of the 3,320nm race"
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