Hatfield’s crew on “Spirit of Adventure” is
paying for the opportunity to learn how to sail the grand prix racer. Many of
them are experienced sailors but the chance to crew on vessel of this size and
type is rare in the Maritimes. “Spirit of Adventure” is the largest vessel in
the race this year. The vessel is
the former Amer Sports One from the 2001 Volvo Ocean Race.
Challenging “Spirit
of Adventure” for line honours is Sirius, an Akilaria 40 from the Saint-Pierre Yacht Club skippered by Stephane Bry.Past race chair Mike Evans and his “Sea Smoke”
is overall leader in the PHRF class.
Evans is racing double-handed with Andrew Sergeant. “Sea Smoke” is a Bavaria 38.
There
are boats from Virginia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and
Saint-Pierre competing this year.
While the largest is the Volvo 60, the smallest is a 21-ft. Nacira 6.50
from the Saint-Pierre Yacht Club that owned by Rodolphe Victorri. That’s a class of high performance
racing yachts built for the Mini-Transat race among others.
There was a spread of about 70 nm between the
leader and the back of the fleet early Wednesday morning. The race weather forecaster is
predicting favourable southwest winds of 20 to 25 kt for the next day or so
although there could be some fog.
The racers are carrying Yellowbricks and you
can track their progress at: http://yb.tl/halifax2014
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