“All’s well” aboard the Derry “LondonDerry” Doire yacht on day six of Race 3 in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, skipper Sean McCarter has reported.
The Derry entry has completed a third of the 3,500 mile South Atlantic crossing from Rio in Brazil to Cape Town in South Africa.
Indeed, Sean revealed things were going so well he has “changed things” for some “added excitement.”
He said: “We decided to try an idea we’d been thinking about for weeks. A ‘Silver bullet” sail configuration if you like.
“After making some small alterations to the sail, we prepared to hoist. Bear in mind, we’ve had a week off in Rio, then basically used the same sail plan for the past five days, i.e. pretty rusty!
“Anyway, up goes half of the secret weapon, into the water goes the other half! After some heated encouragement, ‘Silver Bullet’ reaches full hoist, dripping salt water over a somewhat bewildered crew.
“It quickly becomes apparent that ‘Silver Bullet’ is more of a ‘Silver Pig,’ so we quickly decide to drop. So quickly that we repeat the hoist process in reverse, again dumping half of the sail into the water. Once recovered, a completely bewildered skipper and crew swear never to speak of this episode again.”
Meanwhile, Old Pulteney and Henri Lloyd are competing against each other side by side for the lead as the yachts fly their spinnakers for the first time since before Rio.
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