July 18 Update: Last Team Standing – Charisma Is the Final Boat Home
COWES, England – The Transatlantic Race 2019 will go down as one of the slowest on record, but for none was it more drawn out than for Constantin Claviez and his crew on Charisma. The German skipper and his trusty 1980 vintage Swan 441, which he has campaigned for the past 20 years, arrived in Cowes this afternoon after a slow day spent crossing Lyme and Christchurch bays in light winds before bucking a powerful ebb tide exiting the western Solent.
Charisma finally crossed the Royal Yacht Squadron finish line off Cowes at 16:47:00 UTC. Her elapsed time of 23 days, 1 hour and 37 minutes was some 5d:15h:39m after the previous arrival, Mark Stevens’ Hinckley 50 Kiva last Friday. Charisma’s time this year was some 4d:6h:31m slower than it took her in the Transatlantic Race 2015.
As has been the case for everyone in this year’s Transatlantic Race, Charisma’s crossing was one of light conditions. But her crossing was made worse when the crew just missed a band of southerly winds, the transatlantic express train that the group immediately ahead of her was able to ride until it ground to halt negotiating the high pressure bubble off southern Ireland.
Read more: July 18 Update: Last Team Standing – Charisma Is the Final Boat Home
July 12 Update: Hiro Maru, Lucy Georgina Pull Off Comeback Wins
COWES, England – A flurry of finishes in the past 36 hours have seen the three class champions, as well as the overall winner, crowned in the Transatlantic Race 2019.
In IRC 2, Peter Bacon’s XP-44 Lucy Georgina scored a come-from-behind victory over Giles Redpath’s Lombard 46 Pata Negra to win the class by 47 minutes on IRC corrected time. The two boats finished under the cover of darkness last night, separated by a little more than eight minutes on elapsed time in what is one of the closest ever finishes in the history of the Transatlantic Race.
At one point last weekend, Lucy Georgina was more than 100 nautical miles astern of Pata Negra, but the leader fell becalmed off the coast of Ireland while the hunter rode strong southwesterly winds up from behind.
By the time the two crews reached Land’s End on the southwest corner of England, Lucy Georgina was within two nautical miles, and a match race ensued over the next 180 miles to the finish. They swapped positions on numerous occasions, always taking an opportunity to cover when it was there, but Lucy Georgina proved nimbler in the light winds experienced up the English Channel.
Read more: July 12 Update: Hiro Maru, Lucy Georgina Pull Off Comeback Wins
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