Leaders sail round Horn

Press, 14 January 1982, Page 24

Leaders sail round Horn

PA Wellington With its crew in high spirits,'*". Ceramco rounded Cape Horn last evening and is on its way up the coast of Argentina on the third leg of the Whitbread Round the World Yacht race. “It's sure nice to be round the,corner," said its skipper Peter Blake by radio-tele-phone. Ceramcb's big rival, Flyer, led the fleet round the Horn earlier last evening (N.Z. time). The two yachts were racing "neck and neck” in what Blake described as pleasantly warm weather. Outward Bound was 800 miles astern, with its skipper Digby Taylor excited with his boat’s progress in the last week and confident that Outward Bound was closing in on the leaders on handicap. Flyer and Ceramco are four’ days ahead of the schedule kept by Great Britain II (racing this time as United Friendly) when she led the Whitbread fleet around Cape Horne in the 1977/78 Round-The-World race.

Blake reported: “It looks like we’ll be going around during the hours of darkness — but weather permitting we’ll go within a couple of miles of the Horn so that everyone can get a look at it." Ceramco had closed in on Flyer again on Tuesday night, the two boats sailing in 35 to *0 knot north-wester-lies and riding a low pressure system towards the turn up the coast of Argentina to Mar del Plata. “We’ve been at sea for 17*2 days and have covered 4800 miles from Auckland. ” Blake said. "Our recent runs have been nothing dramatic — 200 miles, 259 miles, 254 miles, and 291 to noon today. But we’re still gobbling up the miles, averaging about 274," he said. "It's quite odd, the battle we're having with Flyer. She’s getting away when we should be pulling her in sometimes, and we’re pulling her in when we’d expect her to get away. And we're crisscrossing each other’s course as we play the fronts on line for the Horn."