Match race finish

Bob Fisher reports on the Volvo Baltic Race within the Gant Gotlund Race

Thomas Blixt’s Sony-Ericsson crossed the finish line of the Gant Gotland Race two minutes ahead of Matt Humphries’ Elanders and set the battle lines for tomorrow’s windward/leeward races to decide the outcome of the Volvo Baltic Race series.

It had been a match race throughout the 362 miles of the Gant Gotland Runt with the advantage swaying first one way and then another, finally Blixt and "the finest crew I have ever sailed with" reached the ten miles from the Almagrundet light tower to the finish as if there was a taut string between the two boats that had started the last leg for home with just two minutes separating them, the same margin as at the finish.

The early morning sun rise shone through the Kevlar 3DL sails of Sony-Ericsson, the former un-raced Assa Abloy as she charged at 10-11 knots under a full main, reacher and staysail in the ten knot breeze with all her crew ranged along the rail. The set-up was the same on Elanders, but the stern chase had no future.

Elanders led at the start, but was passed by Sony-Ericsson half way between Almagrundet light tower, the first mark of the course and the mark off Nynashamn. "She is quicker upwind than us," admitted Humphries, "and on the way down the east side of Gotland, she pulled away from us."

Blixt said that they were able to take the shifts first and this enabled them to extend their lead, which at one time grew to as much as 3.8 miles. "We were pushing hard to make best use of our advantage to windward," he said, "we are slightly faster upwind and they have an advantage on us downwind."

Elanders had closed to 2.8 miles behind at Hoburgen and "there was nothing between the boats on the reaches," according to Humphries, but from Visby the first 60 miles of the leg to Almagrundet were Vmg running and Elanders is set up for that condition.

"They were working down inside us," said Jeff Scott, one of Sony-Ericsson’s two helmsmen. Sony-Ericsson had led by 14 minutes at Visby, but a determined effort by Humphries and his crew to utilise their speed advantage downwind began to pay. "We had to run off deeper than we would have liked, losing speed, in order to stay dead in front of them," added Scott.

The overall result was that the gap between the two boats began to close. "That was good for 60 miles," said Humphries, "but the wind headed with 35 miles to go and our advantage disappeared with the shift." The two boats emerged from the early morning murk under spinnakers as they approached Almagrundet and dropped them as they rounded the light tower, changing to their headsail reaching configuration.

Stig Westergaard, behind the wheel of Sony-Ericsson, was a study in concentration, knowing that a win would set up a battle royal in the windward/leeward races tomorrow. Ruefully, Humphries admitted the defeat by saying, "We always knew that it would be all on tomorrow and we relish that. It will be an interesting showdown, I can guarantee that."

This morning’s finish was exciting enough for Blixt. "It is the first time that I have been the first monohull home," he said, "I’ve never done that before." It took some time for the line honours winner to appreciate the gravity of his achievement.