Tuesday, around 6 p.m.: The main field of the regatta is now on the way to the islands of Palagruza, in the middle of the Adriatic Sea. The wind out here isn’t too strong, nevertheless the first participants of the race have set their Spi’s and are already cruising around Palagruza and on track back towards the mainland. A look at the live tracking of the race – which can be downloaded for free – shows that there’s a hard match going on at the peak of the race, with last years winner Martin Hartl and his Celox Sailing Team on the „Southhampton“ (65) and the SÄGEWERK team on the „New York“ (60), whilst Ronnie Zeiller and his Alles Yacht team is catching up again (63).
In the last night, the first boat had to give up the race. The „Fastnet“ (55) with Alfred Hopfgartner’s Sailingmotion Team had massive technical problems with their boat and had to return to Biograd. They arrived back in the Marina savely. Another Bavaria 42 yacht, the „Auckland“ (50) also had problems with their genoa fall, but the crew managed to solve the problem (at least for the moment) and after some time sailing straight towards Italy last evening they got back on track.
The Safety Team is now following the match towards Palagruza. Fortunately, the help of the medical staff and diver on board of the „Chairos“ wasn’t needed yet.
Note: This blog entry couldn’t be posted yesterday due to network problems out there on the open sea. We apologize for that (F. L.)
