Fuente info GOR
South African duo finish GOR Leg 1 in their homeport of Cape Town
At 13:45:10 GMT on Sunday 6 November, the South African, double-handed Class40 team of Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire crossed the Global Ocean Race (GOR) Leg 1 finish line in Cape Town on Phesheya-Racing taking fifth place in the Class40 fleet after 42 days 45 minutes and 10 seconds of racing.
Stalled frustratingly by light airs on Sunday morning within sight of Cape Town’s Table Top Mountain, Leggatt and Hutton-Squire had to wait until shortly after midday for some breeze to arrive: “Seeing the mountain this morning through the fog was really something,” said 28 year-old Phillippa Hutton-Squire as they dropped the mainsail and motored through Granger Bay and into the V&A Waterfront Marina having crossed the finish line. The race through the Mediterranean and Atlantic has been a very demanding voyage for the two highly-experienced sailors. “We’ve had lots of good times and lots of bad times and we’re very happy to be home,” she adds.
Nick Leggatt aged 44 and Phillippa Hutton-Squire have been preparing for the nine-month GOR circumnavigation for over two years, fine tuning their four year-old Akilaria Class40 and hunting for sponsorship with the aim of being the first double-handed South African team to complete a round-the-world race. With 10,000 miles already logged sailing together, the duo were primed for a fast leg to Cape Town. “We feel pretty frustrated,” admits Leggatt. “We lost out really badly early on when there really weren’t any Trade Winds after the Canary Islands.” Phesheya-Racing fell into a wind vacuum close inshore off the coast of Morocco shortly after leaving the Mediterranean and this was a fundamental part of their race. “We made what initially looked like a small mistake, falling into a massive patch of no wind and we were stuck there for four days,” he continues. “By the time we got out of it, the lead boats were four hundred miles away.”
This early setback clearly effected morale on board: “The Canary Islands were looking very good for a stopping point at that stage!” laughs Hutton-Squire. With a significant deficit developing between Phesheya-Racing and the front of the GOR fleet, the South Africans had to plan immaculately. “We went as far west as we could through the Doldrums and tried to make up as much ground as possible,” she continues.
