Derek Hatfield takes third position in Leg 2 of the VELUX 5 OCEANS.(Photo ByAinhoa Sanchez/w-w-i.com)
Active House skipper finishes two days behind leg winner
VETERAN solo sailor Derek Hatfield today described the second ocean sprint of the VELUX 5
OCEANS as the toughest sailing of his life as he arrived in Wellington to clinch the final podium
position. The 58-year-old Canadian sailed his Eco 60 yacht Active House across the finish line
at 3pm local time (0200 UTC), less than 60 hours behind leg two winner and overall race leader
Brad Van Liew.
In the second of five ocean sprints that make up the VELUX 5 OCEANS, Derek, Canada’s top
solo yachtsman, sailed more than 7,500 nautical miles through the Southern Ocean from Cape
Town in South Africa in 32 days and 17 hours.
Derek Finishes Third In Sprint Two Of Velux 5 Oceans (Photo by Ainhoa Sanchez/w-w-i.com)
After a month at sea taking a beating from the relentless Southern Ocean conditions the finish
of ocean sprint two couldn’t come soon enough for Derek, who was running dangerously low on
food supplies onboard Active House. Derek arrived in Wellington with just two bottles of water
left and no more food, having eaten his last freeze-dried meal earlier in the day.
“It’s been a long, difficult and brutal leg and I’m glad to be here,” Derek said as he stepped off
Active House for the first time in over a month. “It was just relentless storms, high pressure
systems, low pressure systems… It’s good to have it over with. This is my third race around the
world and this last leg was the toughest sailing I’ve ever done.”
Derek was reunited on the dock with his children Ben, 2, and Sarah, 6, for the first time since
the VELUX 5 OCEANS started on October 17. “It’s very special to see the kids again,” Derek
said. “They are growing up all the time. I am going to spend the next few days just relaxing with
my family.”
Derek is greeted by his children Ben and Sarah (Photo by Ainhoa Sanchez/Velux 5 Oceans)
After taking third in ocean sprint one from La Rochelle to Cape Town, Derek promised to push
even harder in the second leg to Wellington – and that’s just what he did from the off, leading
the fleet out of Cape Town and into the Southern Ocean. With positions changing often at the
head of the fleet the leading pack, which included Brad Van Liew and Zbigniew ‘Gutek’
Gutkowski, fought hard for the top spot as they all battled huge winds, raging seas and freezing
temperatures.
After passing through the safety gate south east of Australia, Derek engaged in a bitter duel
with Gutek for second place. At one point Derek and Gutek were separated by just a few
nautical miles. The Pole eventually beat Derek to the finish line by 36 hours after his east coast
route gamble paid off.
“I was a lot more competitive this time,” Derek added. “Gutek and I found ourselves in the same
patch of water, it was great to have such close competition. At one point we were getting so
close I called him in the middle of a storm just to make sure his radar was on. I made one slip
up by tacking too soon about a week ago and that set the scene for the rest of the race with
Gutek just beating me by a day.”
The challenge began in October, www.velux5oceans.com
Ocean sprint two positions at 18h00 UTC:
Skipper / distance to finish (nm) / distance to leader (nm) / distance covered in last 24 hours
(nm) / average speed in last 24 hours (kts)
Brad Van Liew, Le Pingouin: finished January 16, 30 days, nine hours, 49 mins
Zbigniew Gutkowski, Operon Racing: finished January 17, 31 days 8 hours and 27 mins
Derek Hatfield, Active House: finished January 18, 32 Days 17 Hours
Chris Stanmore-Major, Spartan: 766.2/0/244.4/10.2
Active House (Photo by Ainhoa Sanchez/w-w-i.com)
Gutek Takes Second In Sprint Two (Photo by Ainhoa Sanchez/w-w-i.com)
Polish skipper gives all in gruelling Southern Ocean leg
POLISH solo sailor Zbigniew Gutkowski crossed the VELUX 5 OCEANS sprint two finish line
after exactly a month at sea to claim second place. In an adrenaline-fuelled race the 36-year-old from Gdansk, known as Gutek, arrived in Wellington, New Zealand, less than 24 hours behind leg winner Brad Van Liew.
Gutek sailed across the finish line on his 60ft Eco 60 yacht Operon Racing at 6.27am local time (5.27pm UTC) as the sun rose over the city before berthing in Queens Wharf at around 8.30pm to the cheers of watching crowds. It brought an end to a gruelling Southern Ocean leg which saw him overcome huge waves and strong winds despite major problems with his autopilot, the electronic system used to steer the boat. During ocean sprint two Gutek sailed 7,753 nautical miles at an average speed of 10.3 knots.
“I’m really happy to be on dry land, alive and in one piece,” Gutek said as he stepped off
Operon Racing. “The boat is also in one piece too which is great considering I have spent more than three weeks with major problems with my autopilot. There is a big difference between the Southern Ocean and the Atlantic. The Southern Ocean is no joke. There are monstrous waves and huge gusts – 50 knots is normal. If you make one mistake you could lose your mast or even your life. For the first time in my life I was scared, and I took a real battering in this leg.”
Ocean sprint two has seen some of the closest racing in the VELUX 5 OCEANS so far with
positions changing frequently as the fleet battled through the huge winds and mountainous seas that characterise the bleak Southern Ocean leg. Gutek held the lead for a number of days over Christmas before being overtaken by Brad. A bold tactical decision to sail up the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island saw Gutek make up hundreds of miles on his race rivals.
Among the crowds waiting to welcome Gutek to Wellington was his wife Eliza and their 11-yearold daughter Zusanna. Gutek added: “I haven’t seen my daughter since I left La Rochelle back in October and just in two months she has changed so much. Seeing Zusanna and my wife again is an absolute pleasure.”
For second place Gutek is awarded ten points which are added to the points he won for taking second in the first ocean sprint from La Rochelle, France, to Cape Town.
Ocean sprint two positions at 18h00 UTC:
Skipper / distance to finish (nm) / distance to leader (nm) / distance covered in last 24 hours
(nm) / average speed in last 24 hours (kts)
Brad Van Liew, Le Pingouin: finished January 16, 30 days, nine hours, 49 mins
Zbigniew Gutkowski, Operon Racing: finished January 17, 31 days 8 hours and 27 mins
Derek Hatfield, Active House: 199.3/ 0 / 208.4 / 8.
POLISH solo sailor Zbigniew Gutkowski takes second place in ocean sprint two of the VELUX 5 OCEANS (Photo by Ainhoa Sanchez/w-w-i.com
Active House in the Southen Ocean (Photo by Derek Hatfield / w-w-i.com )
Canadian’s on-the-water battle with Gutek set to go to the wire
VETERAN solo sailor Derek Hatfield has vowed to fight tooth and nail to beat rival ocean racer Zbigniew ‘Gutek’ Gutkowski into Wellington in the second sprint of the VELUX 5 OCEANS. The pair have been locked in a bitter Southern Ocean duel for more than three weeks, constantly trading second and third positions and at one point were less than five nautical miles apart.
After taking third place in the first sprint of the VELUX 5 OCEANS from La Rochelle to Cape Town, Active House skipper Derek vowed to push even harder in the second sprint through the Southern Ocean from Cape Town to Wellington in New Zealand. And that is just what the 58-year-old has been doing, chasing race leader Brad Van Liew hard while locking horns with Gutek in the battle for second place. With less than a week left at sea, Derek said his fight with his Polish rival could go down to the wire.
“It will be interesting to see who gets to Wellington first – the race is about to get even more exciting,” said Derek, who was at the last position report in third place, 28.7 nautical miles behind Gutek. “We seem to be matching each other boat-wise and we’re in the same stretch of water so the weather conditions are similar. I am very competitive and I will fight tooth and nail to beat Gutek because we are so close. That said, one of the great things about the VELUX 5 OCEANS is that you can be fierce competitors on the water and the best of friends off the water.
“Of course, I am still keeping an eye on Brad too. He’s about a day and a half ahead of us right now, and although I would never wish any bad luck on anyone, one little breakage and he could be slowed right up. Yacht races are never over until you are across the finish line.”
Following the aftermath of the big storm that swept through the fleet last week the VELUX 5 OCEANS skippers have been enjoying more favourable conditions for several days. Their next challenge comes in the form of a high pressure system that is lying in wait for them as they sail south of the Australian island of Tasmania.
Derek added: “It will be interesting to see first of all how everyone handles this high pressure system and then which way they are going to round New Zealand to get into Wellington. Brad will be looking over his shoulder to see which way we are lining up to go and we’re looking forward to see which way he’s going to go. It can be a real deciding factor.”
Ocean sprint two positions at 00h00 UTC:
Skipper / distance to finish (nm) / distance to leader (nm) / distance covered in last 24 hours (nm) / average speed in last 24 hours (kts)
Brad Van Liew, Le Pingouin: 1300.7/ 0 / 223.1 / 9.3
Zbigniew Gutkowski, Operon Racing: 1609.8/ 309.1 / 283.5/ 11.8
Derek Hatfield, Active House: 1638.6/ 337.8/ 240.3/ 10
Chris Stanmore-Major, Spartan: 2228.4/ 927.6/ 240.5 / 10
Gutek experiences some big seas in the Southern Ocean on his yacht, Operon Racing. (Photo by Velux 5 Oceans/ Zbigniew Gutkowski)
Brad Van Liew celebrates New Years in the Southern Ocean (Photo courtesy of Team Lazarus)
A New Years posting from the Velux 5 Oceans Skippers
An excerpt from Leader Brad Van Liew’s blogspot:
”2011! Wow, are you kidding?? That makes me really middle aged. I thought that would never happen, but bring it on! I have the distinct pleasure of ringing in the New Year in the middle of nowhere with no champagne, no woman to kiss at midnight, no ball dropping and nobody to sing that “old acquaintance be forgot” song that must be sung in unison annually. Instead, I will be pondering the meaning of life in what is forecast to be a moderate Southern Ocean sailing experience with all my Southern Ocean friends.
What will I do for New Year’s 2011?
First, Le Pingouin (LP) and I will have a chat as she has a lot to say about being middle aged. Boats live in dog years.? It is about seven years to one human year so she actually just broke through 60 years old. She also has more circumnavigations under her voluminous brazier than I do. She has done this race twice before and the Vendee globe twice as well, so this is her 5th solo circumnavigation race while it is my 3rd. It is quite amazing to think that she had more than 150,000 miles in global racing mileage before we even started this adventure. The ole girl is still one of the fastest monohulls ever conceived. Combined LP and I have spent more than a year of our lives hanging out down here in the most remote place on Earth. I still feel hardly welcome and am a strong advocate for the “tread lightly and garner safe passage” theory to get through this inhospitable but beautiful place.
View from Le Pingouin in the Southern Ocean (Photo courtesy of Team Lazarus)
Following my chat with LP, I will speak with the animals that constantly escort me along my route. The birds here are fantastic. They seem so fragile as they fly in circles around the boat and flitter about in the wake of LP as we charge along. Regardless of the weather they are always there and seem genuinely interested in why I would be asking for permission to transit their private place on Earth. The flock of birds I constantly encounter represent as many different sizes and shapes as the fleet of aircraft man has built, and they look their part. The Albatross look like B52 bombers with huge glider shaped wings and robust torsos as they fly forever while seemingly never flapping their wings. On the other end of the spectrum are the petrels which are like little compact fighter jets that zip around and jet through the waves, flapping their wings to give them super speed like they are using an afterburner.
Finally on this special transition to 2011, I will speak to the things that I hopefully won’t see. This includes the whales (of which I have only seen one since leaving Cape Town) and the icebergs which harbor so much of our world’s ecosystem in their frigid existence.
The primary message that I will try to convey to this watery world as we enter 2011 is an apology. I’d like to be an “eyes wide open” witness to the impact our human existence has on this place. Maybe I am a lone ambassador of sorts? As I write this I am sailing in 9 degree Celsius water in a place that should have far cooler water temperature. I am sailing deliberately further north than ever before because the Antarctic convergence (ice zone) is hundreds of miles further north than when I first sailed the Southern Ocean in 1998. The birds are far less in numbers than I have ever experienced, and the whales… well, we all know that story. My message will be a hollow New Year’s apology because I need to be honest with my friends down here. There is really nothing being done that will change the tide of globalization and human growth. We can hope that the pioneers of sustainability and green energy will be rewarded for tangible results. We can hope that rather than a typical New Year’s resolution that is a lot of promise and little movement, that maybe the human population of our fragile home will put some action behind the rhetoric.
I don’t pretend to know how much we affect this place through our actions and I am a firm believer that cyclic global temperatures are a natural weather occurrence, so I don’t wish to be tied up in the politics of it all. I just speak of plane facts that we know we can change. The whales are gone because we kill them for food and resources we no longer need. The bird population is off because we kill them with bad fishing practices and by throwing trash in the water that they eat. This planet is 70% covered in water. The life and delicate balance that water provides is the brine from which all known life came. Can you imagine if that balance is upset? Water can take the life away just as easily, and in a much shorter time, than it was given. The oceans provide every ounce of water we drink. If the ice caps were to melt (which they are) the vast majority of the world’s cities will become submerged. The sun and water are the two things that make every weather anomaly occur.
For crying out loud, the human body is something like 80% water isn’t it? We better start taking care of our oceans or they aren’t going to be here to take care of us.
This will be the somber but special New Year’s message I will share with my friends in the Southern Ocean. It will be a very “glass is half full” conclusion, basically stating that mankind is good and wants to continue to exist, and that we will do as a race what we have to do to survive.
Happy New Year’s and may you all take a few minutes to enjoy the beauty of the natural world in 2011.
Cheers,
Brad
Derek Hatfield gives an update on his southern ocean holiday.
“The Southern Ocean is full of extremes and the last twenty four hours proves it in spades. For the past day, all three of us at the front have been heading SE on strong winds with gusts to 30 kts. Boat speeds have been in the high teens and it has been a neck and neck drag race. About two hours ago I experienced one of the most dramatic transitions in my sailing career. The cloud cover was very low and it was raining; within
2 minutes the wind went from 28 kts to 10 kts and changed directions by 45 degrees. Leaving Active House wallowing in the huge waves undercanvassed. The wind has backed now by a permantent 45 degrees and within an hour the sun had come out. Such exteame weather changes are both humbling and awe inspiring.
Here’s to another year past that hopefully was a good one for each of you. And for 2011, I hope that all of your goals and aspirations come true. Happy New Year to you and your families and friends from Active House and the Spirit of Canada team.
Take Care. Be safe.
Derek
Chris Stanmore-Major reflects on his holiday.
I was throwing a reef in this morning and I suddenly realised that I was doing it right. I was moving efficiently; things were happening in their proper order and the whole procedure seemed quite tranquil and, dare I say it, professional compared to the frenetic machinations that have normally occurred when I have stepped up to reef in worsening weather previously. This morning despite 30kts coming on really quite quickly I felt on top of the situation and sure of what I was doing. Even when a reef line became tangled on its self and I had to crawl out to the end of the boom to free it. No problem I thought – I know where I’m going, how to get there and what I have to do once there to remedy the situation. It was exciting but wonderfully uneventful. It was a curious thing to stand there at the mast once it was all done – with the reef in, the boat back on course and all the little problems dealt with swiftly and reflect on the contrast between this and my first reefing experiences in the North Atlantic in October.
I remember I was nervous as hell and felt out of my depth in those early days, ventured forward to the mast each time I had to reef. The boat invariably was headed far too far up wind and she would be bucking and crashing through the waves like a submarine. With the main still not out far enough she would be sailing on her ear with the lee decks underwater and precious little it seemed for me to hold onto save the winch handle and the sail. The wind would be howling and the sail totally uninterested in what I wanted it to do. The noise of that huge spectra sail flogging its self silly, the angle of the decks and the knowledge that it was just me in charge of this asylum was enough to make me want to curl up and die. In response I would bellow at myself as I used to do to crew in heavy weather, issuing instructions (to myself), providing a supporting narrative (for myself) and pushing myself to keep going whatever went wrong (and a lot used to go wrong). I guess in the midst of shouting I was distracted enough not to notice how scared I was. This is not a new technique, I know – I have seen it in use on many boats over the years. This was just my turn and as there was no one to insult but myself, it worked.
I’m not sure exactly when all my dues were paid and I suddenly became a competent Open 60 mast man- probably over Christmas sometime where there was a lot of reef in, reef out action and in the bitter cold I had to stay focused on the task lest it take ages – leaving me cold and wet again. I have adapted things at the mast now to make things easier for myself – I have put marks on everything to provide references and developed a procedure in my head I must follow religiously but as this has happened I have also adapted continually to the job adjusting my technique in response to the cues given by the boat and making light of the attendant trouble. Not enough halyard tension? Tonight Chris you’re going away with a broken mast track! Not enough reefline on? My friend you win a chafed reefline! And little by little through perseverance to the task of learning how to reef, not just reefing but standing back and learning how to reef I have come to a point where I can tick a box in my mind and say,’ yes I can do that’ and move on to something else.
Is it funny for me to be halfway across the Southern Ocean in a solo Open 60 race and admit I have only just mastered something as basic as good reefing practice on the very boat I am trusting my life to? Maybe but bear in mind I am talking about learning ‘best practice’ here not just jogging along problem solving everything as I go. The only way to really be at home here and fast is for everything to become second nature and slick, not cobbled together and guessed at which is what gets
impossible dreams off the ground but doesn’t win races.
I think we all have these gaps in our knowledge that we step around each day thinking, ‘I must brush up on that one day’. Words we skip in reading as after however many years we still don’t really know what it means, parts of our work that remain mysterious and unknown and in leaving these stones unturned we do ourselves a disservice as I think we can never reach our full potential if we do not continue to adapt ourselves to life’s challenges by constant learning and review. I hope to forever remain a student constantly looking to improve my understanding both of sailing and the wider world as the joy of finally, by George! Getting it- whatever ‘it’ may be is a pleasure that just doesn’t age.
What is next? Well, next learning task will be good gybing – you would believe how cringe worthy that can be when it all goes wrong in 30kts – ah the fun I’ve had, boat on its side and going backwards. Also this evening I have a new question to ponder- why do I know so much about ‘My Fair Lady’?
