Beluga Racer on a charge

Six days into the Portimão Global Ocean Race and the German team of Boris Herrmann and Felix Oehme aboard Beluga Racer are stamping their mark on the event. After a conservative start and some clever tactical sailing through the Canary Islands, Herrmann and Oehme have turned on the afterburners and opened a hundred mile margin on their closest rivals, Felipe Cubillos and José Muñoz aboard Desafio Cabo de Hornos. With their biggest spinnaker set and near perfect downwind sailing conditions, Beluga Racer has been averaging close to 15 knots for the last 12 hours. To keep such an impressive average for a 40 foot boat, you know that they have been surfing over 20 knots at times. Skipper Boris Herrmann is clearly finding the sailing to his liking and has been waxing poetically in his blog.

“There is nothing but an endless ocean ahead. Off to port the sea glistens in the sunshine with puffy trade wind clouds overhead,” he wrote. “This endless vastness, this dependence on limited supplies and modern technology, the constant pressure of wanting to sail faster. That’s what each day is about for Felix and me.”

Beluga Racer is the southernmost boat in the fleet and like the dinghy sailors they are Boris and Felix are sailing a tactically smart leg constantly gybing to keep themselves between their rivals astern and their chosen waypoint ahead. This way they will not allow someone to find more wind pressure elsewhere on the racecourse. It’s a proven tactic on a short inshore course played out on a large offshore leg of an around the world race. Same principals apply.

All the leading boats have gybed out into the Atlantic away from the coast and barring any stray fishing boats they should be able to enjoy the rest of their weekend. Their sights will be firmly set on the next tactical obstacle of the coures; the Cape Verde Islands.

by Brian Hancock