GAES Centros Auditivos In Spain (Photo courtesy of Dee Caffari)
Having spent the last 3 months in Spain, Dee and her team are looking forward to bringing her Open 60, GAES Centros Auditivos, back to the UK. The next few days will see the team welcome guests and sponsors aboard for some sailing followed by preparations for the delivery trip back home to Gosport.
On completing the Vuelta a Espana on 1st July, Dee looked back on the race saying:
“If you ignore the mountainous regions, our circuit of Spain has been completed. Just before dawn we ghosted across the finish line off Barcelona, one month to the day since we departed. The Veulta Espana a Vela has been interesting, exciting, frustrating and fun. Overall we would return. It has been good to line up against the well practised and experienced French teams as well as the equally talented and newer Spanish teams.
We have had a great opportunity to comprehensively test the modifications we have made to the boat, GAES Centros Auditivos. After three months in the shed it has been a relief to be back on the water, however, a full night’s sleep is definitely high on the priority list. With short stages and short stopovers all the teams and their shore crews have struggled with finding a rhythm although it has been interesting to see how this has produced greater interaction and assistance between teams and their shore crews – with Franglais and Spanglish definitely being the language on the dock. The prize giving tonight will be a chance to celebrate Marc Guillemot and Safran’s victory, however, for our next event sixth is not a place I am hoping to finish!
Overall rankings in the Vuelta a Espana
Vuelta a España a Vela, final rankings, after 6 legs
Place, Boat, Skippers, Nationality, Total pts (Leg 1, Leg 2, Finisterre, Leg 3, Gibraltar, Leg 4, Leg 5, Palamós, Leg 6)
1. Safran, Marc Guillemot, FRA, 11,5 (1+2+0,5+1+0,5+2+1+1,5+2)
2. PRB, Vincent Riou, FRA, 18,5 (2+1+1+2+1,5+6+2+2+1)
3. Estrella Damm, P.Ribes/ A.Pella, ESP, 32 (5+5+2+4+1+4+5+1+5)
4. W Hotels-Nova Bocana, P.Rivero/ A.Piris, ESP, 32 (4+4+1,5+3+3+8+3+2,5+3)
5. Movistar, I.Martínez/ X.Fernández, ESP, 35,5 (3+3+2,5+6+2,5+10+4+0,5+4)
6. GAES Centros Auditivos, D.Caffari/ A.Corbella, GBR/ESP, 49 (6+6+3+5+2+12+6+3+6)
7. Central Lechera Asturiana, J.Merediz/ F.Palacio, ESP, 59,5 (7+7+3,5+7+3,5+14+7+3,5+7)
8. Pakea Bizkaia, J.Mumbrú/ C.Sanmarti, ESP, 68 (8+8+4+8+4+16+8+4+8)
GAES (Photo courtesy of Vuelt a Espan Avela )
Having claimed 6th position on the second leg of the Vuelta Espana, the crew of GAES Centros Auditivos had a short rest overnight and set off on the next 220 mile sprint from Gijon to Sanxenxo at 1100hrs BST today. The brief recovery time in Gijon has given skipper Dee Caffari time to reflect on Leg 2 with a view to making improvements in the remaining legs of this race.
Looking back at the start of Leg 2, Dee Caffari analysed:
“There was limited water available to sail in outside of the main channel in Santander and the start was scheduled to be at 1500hrs, downwind and down tide. With limited space available and 8 IMOCA 60’s leaving together, the skippers all agreed that spinnakers would be foolish.”
“Just as we were preparing to hoist our mainsail a terrible clunking noise was heard from the engine. It was a noise I recognised from the delivery – a broken sheer pin. We found ourselves ferry gliding to the beach with a mainsail hoisted to the third reef and caught in the top mast runners. I turned the boat to keep us in the channel and we headed out downwind, fast in the flowing tide. A safe and simple Genoa was chosen and we watched the rest of the fleet take off under Gennaker.”
“GAES Centros Auditivos loved the set up of 1 reef, Solent headsail and ballast. We soon gained miles on the others and closed the gap with W Hotels and Estrella Damm. After seeing Safran and Movistar tack and having to duck to avoid Movistar we got over excited and tacked as well. This was not a good strategy for us and we made a mistake when moving the sails around on deck to the windward side. We caught the tiller and before we knew it we had crash tacked, ultimately losing us about 4 miles.”
“After that we had to work hard again to make up the distance between us and the others, so were pleased to enter a tacking duel again with Estrella Damm close to the finish in Gijon”
Looking ahead to Leg 3, Dee Caffari said:
“This race is going to have different climatic conditions to the other two stages and our goal is to get a higher top speed that allows us to be within the lead group.” Anna Corbella added: “This stage will be more enjoyable as we will be sailing downwind at speed. We will also pass Cape Finisterre which will mean we will see some changes in conditions.”
The competition is currently led by Vincent Riou on PRB, followed by Frenchman Marc Guillemot on Safran and the Spanish Movistar skippered by Iker Martinez and Xabier Fernandez in third place.
PRB (Photo courtesy of Vuelt a Espan Avela )
For more information go to www.vueltaespanavela.com , www.deecaffari.com and www.annacorbella.com
In five years as her title sponsor, Aviva supported Dee Caffari to three world records including becoming the first woman to sail solo, non stop, around the world in both directions. As Founding Partner of the campaign, Aviva is pleased to extend this support to Anna and GAES for the Barcelona World Race
GAES (Photo by Maria Muina )
After a brief stopover in Santander – Dee, Anna and the crew of GAES Centros Auditivos are poised to begin the second leg of the Vuelta a Espana.
At 1400hrs BST today, GAES Centros Auditivos and the rest of IMOCA Open 60 boats will leave Santander for Gijon to complete the second stage of the Tour of Spain. Dee Caffari and Anna Corbella expect the next race to provide similar weather conditions to those of the Hondarribia-Santander leg, saying:
“Our main objective is to improve teamwork onboard, gain better boat performance and ultimately we hope to go a little faster than in the first stage.”
