Second home

Ger O'Rourke's Cookson 50 Chieftain home on the HSH Nordbank blue transatlantic race

Crew on the Irish yacht Chieftain crossed the finish line like they had raced across the North Atlantic - hiking from the rail. Bearded and battered, the team patted skipper and owner Ger O'Rourke on the shoulder after finishing their journey across the 'Pond' in 16 days, 14 hours, 57 minutes and four seconds. Their goal had been to make it in 14 days, but nonetheless, the 11 joyous crew jumped onto the pontoon in Cuxhaven, made fast their ship and started throwing each other into the water. "When I go, you go," said the skipper as he tried to prevent his dunking, taking three of his crew with
him for the plunge.

"It’s good to be here," beamed the 44-year old building contractor. His guess was to arrive two days earlier, but patchy winds to the north of Scotland made him lose valuable time. The first thing he wanted after taking his involuntary bath was a hot shower. His crew preferred cold beer and instantly devoured a pack of sweets, as food had become rather scarce during the last days at sea. Stocks had run down. Crewman Mark Tighe, 29 commented: "It was a good race, and we were close on the heels of the
Outsider until the Shetland Islands. We never got bored, but told each other long stories when hiking the rail. Now I’m looking forward to Hamburg's Reeperbahn." (Good lad).

Kevin Trautmann from Durban, South Africa, has crossed the Atlantic many times, but this was the first time he did it in a race. "And that’s quite a difference," said the tall man, who missed a proper beds and creature comforts, but it was the constant noise he had to get used to most. "Now I think I know what it feels like to roll down a hill in a 44-gallon barrel," he said.

The course from Newport, to the River Elbe estuary in Germany made them sail 3,600 miles across the north Atlantic leaving Great Britain to starboard.

While the 90ft maxi Rambler was catching them up from behind, Grey Goose is at present trying to defend its third place race finish line. Norddeutsche Vermögen Hamburg and Bank von Bremen are still engaged in a close fight for the better rank. And some of the fleet have yet to round the way mark north of Scotland - in unfavourable winds. Rambler shows her imposing potential rushing through the fleet. Rambler, owned by American George David only started in the second group on 23 June - a week after the bulk of the fleet. She is now fourth on the water.

Grey Goose of Tobias König, whose company König & Cie is also a partner of the race, has to speed up. The original intention of her 16 crew members had been to challenge Outsider and win line honours. Sail damage, however, forced them to lower their expectations last week. Now the Swan 82 is back on track, gunning for third place.

It will be hard work for her, as Rambler is hot on her heels. The two club yachts Norddeutsche Vermögen Hamburg and Bank von Bremen are also fighting it out on the last miles across the North Sea.

Meeno Schrader, the race meteorologist from Kiel comments: "The low named 'Winfried' will be crossing the North Sea from England on Wednesday, but with a light wind zone stretching over to Jutland. So finding the right wind will be a difficult job."

Shortly before finishing Chieftain's Ed Hill wrote:

Finally we’re approaching the finish! We have just skirted round the outside of an oil rig located close to the German coast and are now only a few hours away from the finish line, which is 45 miles away.

It was a pretty upbeat watch that got up a few hours ago for the 3-6am watch. Knowing that were going to be able to eat normal food and stand on dry land in a few hours certainly helps you out of the sleeping bag and into wet weather gear!

It’s blowing about 20 knots at the moment and I’m wedged into the navigator’s seat as the boat is on its ear, very hard pressed as we’re tight reaching with one reef in the mainsail. On the plus side, although not the most comfortable, were making good time and even some of the attempts by Stu Molloy and Martin Watts to soak me as I’m trimming the jib haven’t changed the mood up on deck.

Whilst chatting off watch, one of the crew worked out that we would have put on and taken off our wet weather gear about 170 times in this race - more than I’d normally do in a whole season! This is certainly something I am looking forward to not having to deal with - the idea of clean warm clothes and a pint of German beer has kept me going in the last couple of days after our main rival Outsider beat us 36 hours ago. They sailed a great race and deserved the win, unfortunately for us we were always that little bit behind the weather windows they had and whilst they steamed down the North Sea doing high speeds we’ve been tight reaching, unable to unlock Chieftain’s downwind speed potential.

We were dealt a low blow last night as dreams of clean cloths and seeing personal kit were dashed when we were informed by email that the container carrying all our personal kit has been delayed and will not be with us until 9 June.

This especially hurt our Kiwi, Irish and South African sailors who have been living out of their bags in the States for a few months and now have only thermals and foul weather gear to wear in Germany! I also pity the poor passengers on any aircraft leaving Hamburg who have to sit next to one of us still in the same thermals that we have been sailing in for the last 17 days! Hopefully it will be sent on when it arrives but it’s definitely not ideal and not something we really wanted to deal with when arriving in Germany.

This has been my first Trans Atlantic race and I’ve been lucky enough to be on a boat with some very good sailors who formed a very good team. Knowing that you can completely rely on any of the crew in a tight situation is essential and has helped when we’ve been in difficult conditions. Also what is very clear is how well the team from all over the world has gelled together to form a very tight unit and in my opinion sailed the boat hard to its optimum potential, whilst still being able to banter and push each other to sail better.

We’ve had mistakes punishable by buying of rounds and pretty much everyone owes each other the same amount of beer, starting with the afterguard who have to buy the first round for causing us to be over the start line early…!

So although right now I couldn’t think of anything worse than doing another offshore race, I’m sure after a few hours on land I’d definitely say yes to another long offshore event. There’s a great feeling which perhaps is similar to that of seeing the end of a marathon in sight and it makes up for sitting on deck unable to open your eyes for more than a few seconds before another wave breaks over your face. Ger O’Rourke asked one of the crew when things weren’t so comfortable why we do it and his reply says it all - ‘cause we bloody love it’! This as we careered into the back of another wave!

Looking forward to dry land and German hospitality – even if we have no clean clothes!