July 10 Update: Aegir Third Boat Home
NEWPORT, R.I. — Clarke Murphy and the crew of the 82-footer Aegir were the third boat to finish the Transatlantic Race 2019. Last night they crossed the finish line off the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes, Isle of Wight, England, at 2213:58 UTC for an elapsed time of 14 days, 6 hours, 53 minutes and 58 seconds. Aegir is currently projected to place fourth in IRC 2.
The Aegir crew included Mike Broughton (Dartmouth, U.K.), Ian Budgen (Hayling Island, U.K.), Tim Davis (Geelong West, Australia), Amy Dawson (Palma de Mallorca, Spain), Abby Ehler (Lymington, U.K.), Alec Fraser (Lymington, U.K.), Julien le Duff (Palma de Mallorca, Spain), Youri Loof (Paris, France), Romain Mouchel (Llucmajor, Spain), Devon Murphy (New York, N.Y.), Caitlin Murphy (New York, N.Y.), Clarke Murphy (New York, N.Y.), Liam Murphy (New York, N.Y.), Jake Newman (Belmont, Australia).
This was the fourth Transatlantic Race since 2005 for Clarke Murphy, the 56-year-old CEO of a New York-based executive recruiting firm. For him, the race was about introducing three of his children, daughters Devon and Caitlin and son Liam, to the wonder of open ocean racing. In that regard, it couldn’t have gone better.
July 9 Update: Aegir Inching its Way to Finish
NEWPORT, R.I. — To say that Aegir is advancing at a snail’s pace towards the finish line of the Transatlantic Race 2019 might be an insult to snails. After all, the world’s fastest snail has been clocked at .0085 kilometers/hour. Aegir is, of course, sailing faster than that, but race watchers would be hard pressed to realize that fact watching the boat’s snail trail on the YB Race Tracker.
At today’s 1400 position report, Clarke Murphy and the crew of the 82-footer Aegir were some 60 nautical miles from the finish line in Cowes, Isle of Wight, England. Since 0030 UTC last night, Aegir had covered just 60 nautical miles, stuck in the middle of the English Channel looking for wind.
“With high pressure dominating, overnight there was virtually zero wind on the northern side of the western English Channel,” said Aegir navigator Mike Broughton. “We took a dive southeast towards Guernsey which seemed to work pretty well and kept us in an average of 7 knots of wind. It was a busy night close to the shipping channels.”
Aegir has favorable current until slightly past 1600 UTC and then will have about seven hours of adverse current until about 2330 UTC before the current turns favorable again.
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