Spirit of Hungary head to Invercargill Pit-Stop as Renault Captur re-start out of Wellington
2/23/15
Spirit of Hungary will pit-stop in to Invercargill, South Island NZ
Renault Captur left Wellington at 0500hrs UTC this morning
After at least four mast climbs between them, Nandor Fa and Conrad Colman have made the hard decision to bring Spirit of Hungary to Invercargill, South Island NZ, for a minimum downtime technical pit stop to remove and then repair or replace a damaged, jammed halyard lock car on their mast.
After at least four mast climbs between them, Nandor Fa and Conrad Colman have made the hard decision to bring Spirit of Hungary to Invercargill, South Island NZ, for a minimum downtime technical pit stop to remove and then repair or replace a damaged, jammed halyard lock car on their mast.
And as Spirit of Hungary today head for Invercargill, Renault Captur, Jorg Riechers and Sébastien Audigane, left the dock in Wellington, NZ at 0500hrs this morning, completing their technical pit stop required by their broken starboard rudder.
Spirit of Hungary are lying in seventh place in the Barcelona World Race around the world. By pit-stopping they seem set to forego an opportunity to catch or pass Renault Captur which stopped into Wellington and has just started sailing again:
"We are 'nickel' everything is good. We lost 2000 miles and two places but it has happened there is nothing we can do about that." said Renault Captur's Jorg Riechers just after they left the pontoon.
Fa and Colman were 550 miles from Invercargill at 0600hrs UTC this morning and so should be expected to arrive in about 35 hours, so Tuesday mid afternoon UTC. Spirit of Hungary has a favourable winds forecast for all but the last 50 miles in to their stop, averaging 25 kts of SWly.
The Hungarian-Kiwi duo have been battling for more than two days to fix or remove the damaged slider. Both skippers have made attempts to remove it or repair it to allow the mainsail to be hoisted and lowered properly. It is understood friends and family of New Zealander Colman will be on the dock to support them and they do not anticipate the pit-stop taking any longer than the mandatory minimum of 24 hours.
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My disappointment is immense. This race holds a special place in my history. I have competed in it and won it twice. As the defending champion, I was obviously very keen to come back and defend that victory.
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