"me to you"
Today the twelve identical, 72-foot-long steel yachts of the Global Challenge start the seventh and last stage of their round-the-world regatta against the prevailing winds. All ships should have arrived in their home port by Saturday noon at the latest.
The 204 amateur sailors and their twelve professional skippers have left 30,000 nautical miles in the wake in the last ten months when they land in Portsmouth this weekend. Ten months in which the active had to fight with heavy storms, huge waves, but also lulls. The sailors experienced everything from great moments of happiness to the dramatic removal of injured crew members.
Yesterday all teams thoroughly checked their yachts one last time and, especially for the short final sprint stage, got everything off board that is not absolutely necessary to save weight. In the overall ranking, the yacht "BG Spirit" leads with 75 before the last stage Points that have already won two of the six stages sailed so far. The "BP Explorer" is five points behind with Holger Bindel from Thuringia on board. Two second places and otherwise continuously leading positions give the team probably the only one apart from “BG Spirit” with a real chance of overall victory. However, “BP Explorer” would have to finish the short leg to Portsmouth six places before the “BG Spirit”. Rather unlikely (see also below: previous overall ranking).
The “Spirit of Sark” is currently in third place with another German, Jürgen Dieris, on board (67 points). The third German participant and first German ever to complete the entire Global Challenge, Birgit Obermüller from Bremerhaven, and her “Me to You” team took seventh place.
Birgit Obermüller also reports from aboard the “Me to You” and her arrival after the sixth stage in LRochelle. In a few weeks, the YACHT will also report on the amateur regatt in one of its editions.
The overall ranking after the sixth stage:
Current position |
yacht |
Leg 1 points |
Leg 2 points |
Leg 3 points |
Leg 4 points |
Put 5 points |
Leg 6 points |
Leg 7 points |
Total points |
Current position |
yacht |
Leg 1 points |
Leg 2 points |
Leg 3 points |
Leg 4 points |
Put 5 points |
Leg 6 points |
Leg 7 points |
Total points |
|
BG SPIRIT |
11 | 13 | 15 | 7 | 15 | 14 | 75 | ||
| BP Explorer | 11 | 14 | 11 | 14 | 8 | 12 | 70 | ||
| Spirit of Sark | 15 | 9 | 15 | 10 | 9 | 67 | |||
| Barclays Adventurer | 15 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 14 | 10 | 62 | ||
| SAIC LJolla | 8 | 14 | 11 | 12 | 5 | 59 | |||
| Team Stelmar | 5 | 8 | 13 | 8 | 15 |
56 |
|||
| Me to You | 9 | 13 | 8 | 7 | 11 | 54 | |||
| Samsung | 13 | 12 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 51 | ||
| VAIO | 14 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 6 | 50 | ||
|
10 |
Imagine It. Done. | 3 | 4 | 12 | 9 | 13 | 48 | ||
|
11 |
Pindar | 6 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 8 | 43 | ||
|
12 |
Team Save the Children | 10 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 |
36 |
Birgit Obermüller aboard the "Me to You" exclusively for YACHT-online:
We made it. After 2 weeks of thriller, struggle and hard work from the first to the last minute, we crossed the finish line on Monday morning as 5th.
Actually our second best result, but no one cheered! We were all so frustrated that “BP Explorer” managed to get in front of the last barrel in front of us and snatch 4th place away from us “at the last minute”.
We wanted to use our last chance to have a place on the podium in this stage and gave everything, worked harder than before and were in second and third place for a long time in the second week. All efforts and efforts finally seemed to be paying off. But unfortunately 2 small mistakes (a too slow change to the lightweight spinnaker and a middleweight pi wrapped around the forestay) cost us the good placements and we slipped to 5, but fought our way back to 4th place, which we held until the last hour. We even pulled up the Race Kite (middleweight pi) in 16-20 kn, much to the confusion of "BP Explorer". But our last trump card, which, contrary to expectations, held up against all gusts, could no longer push us past BP.
The spinnaker trimming in the last 5 days was the purest thriller, because in order to stay in the competition we had to fly every spinnaker to the limit (wind speed limit) and often beyond, according to the principle of “all or nothing”. But after the experiences from the previous stage with 7 times shot of Spis and the 4-week Naehmarathon we knew all too well the risk we were taking, and every collapse (collapsing kite) flashed through us like an electric shock. Likewise, the flanker almost tore our arms and hands out at 20-26 kn. Half-hour trim intervals were sometimes the highest we could endure. After every watch I fell into my bunk, completely exhausted, but with totally overloaded nerves. But apart from a few minor repairs and reinforcements, the spis (and the crew!) Held up.
The last night was then no longer to be surpassed in drama with continuously increasing wind and hard gusts, with thunderstorms that flashed through the night sky around us and with 5 yachts in sight, so close were the distances, so small the gain or loss of miles. In the last 2 days I slept a total of only 6 hours, and on the last night from Sunday to Monday I couldn't sleep at all for the excitement, exertion and thrill. To top it all, we shot the flanker, but luckily the wind stayed so high that we flew with the headsail disengaged.
Anyway, we pushed the frustration aside and celebrated as much as we could into the morning hours, because after 9 months and "round the world" we are all back home in Europe safe and sound !!! If that is not a reason to celebrate!?!?!!!
Next week Wednesday is the start of the last stage to Portsmouth, where it all began. I'm really looking forward to the finish on July 16th. Can't wait to have my own life again. At the same time, I will miss sailing, being out at sea, my team and all my friends very, very much when I am back in Bremerhaven at the computer and write my doctoral thesis - so far from here for now. Many greetings, Birgit from "Me to You"