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3:56 AM Mon 20 Apr 2009 GMT
 | | 'Team Mowgli and Desafio Cabo de Hornos gybe together during the Caipirinha Cup - Photo Cathy Kleinjans'
Portimao Global Ocean Race |
On Saturday 18th April, the Portim?o Global Ocean Race stopover island of Ilhabela hosted the annual Caipirinha Cup: a local regatta for assorted racing and cruising yachts that was adapted to include the Portim?o double-handed and single-handed boats.
Diomysio Sulzbieck, the S?o P?ulo-based Chief Race Officer for the event, explains the background: 'This is the fifth edition of the Caipirinha Cup. Normally it is held in December as the last race of the year and everybody drinks Caipirinha, has a big party and this signals the end of racing for the season.' Caipirinha is the national cocktail of Brazil made from cacha?a sugarcane spirit mixed with crushed sugar and lime (5cl cacha?a, ? a lime cut into four pieces, 2 tblsp Muscovado sugar, served on the rocks). 'But in the past year, the guy who owned the cacha?a company, Sagatiba, that supplies the alcohol died and we all thought it was better to hold it in April,' continues Sulzbieck. 'Whenever it is held, it is a very happy and joyful race and all the boats turn up for the fun.'
Three of the four Portim?o Global Ocean Race yachts joined the regatta with Boris Herrmann and Felix Oehme opting to miss the racing on Beluga Racer as the German duo continue to wait for a replacement propeller to arrive following the surprise discovery that their original folding prop had dropped off at some stage during Leg 3. For the remaining teams, the regatta was a chance to race fully crewed with friends, family and local VIPs on board. Belgian solo sailor, Michel Kleinjans, raced with his wife and young daughter and his crew included Andr? Homem de Mello - the only Brazilian yachtsman to sail round the world non-stop and single-handed. The Chilean team and Leg 3 victors, Felipe Cubillos and Jos? Mu?oz on Desafio Cabo de Hornos, invited the Mayor of Ilhabela, Antonio Colucci, and Ilhabela's Director of Sailing Sports, Edmar Alves, while Jeremy Salvesen and David Thomson included Roberto Holzhacker, a popular Brazilian Mini Transat 650 sailor who is keen to break into Class 40 sailing, in their team.
With a 15-17 knots of breeze from the north funnelling down the channel between Ilhabela and the mainland and a 2.5 knot current flowing in the same direction, Sulzbieck decided on a downwind start off the small town of Vila - the location of the Yacht Club de Ilhabela and the Portim?o fleet base. At 1300 local, the Portim?o Global Ocean Race boat started five minutes before the 17 yachts in the main Caipirinha Cup fleet with Michel Kleinjans and his crew hoisting their spinnaker early, forced to scrub speed and reach along the start line 20 metres ahead of Cubillos and Mu?oz on Desafio Cabo de Hornos. As Roaring Forty shot across the start line very close to the offshore limit of the line, the Chilean team stalled as the sock on their spinnaker jammed momentarily mid-hoist, allowing Salvesen, Thomson & Co on Team Mowgli in third to cross the line at full pace and close in on Desafio Cabo de Hornos.
With the leeward mark approximately one mile downwind from the start line positioned close inshore off Itaguass? Beach - known locally as 'Deck Beach' after Duchi Schmidt's popular Deck restaurant set just back from the waterfront - Kleinjans took the inshore line while Desafio Cabo de Hornos and Team Mowgli race further offshore, side by side. 'We were fighting for space a bit and they were playing a bit of a cunning game as we couldn't gybe until they did,' commented Salvesen later. Eventually, Cubillos and Mu?oz gybe onto port to head inshore to the leeward mark, forcing the two boats into a tight spinnaker reach while Roaring Forty rounded first and began a beat across the channel towards the mainland shore on starboard tack.
Sailing north of the mainland commercial docks at S?o Sebasti?o, Desafio Cabo de Hornos were first to tack onto port sailing deeper than Team Mowgli and putting distance on the British Class 40 while closing in on the lead held by Kleinjans and Roaring Forty. Heading across the channel, Roaring Forty held port tack longest sailing close inshore towards Viana Beach with Kleinjans watching the depth sounder and flipping back onto starboard when the readout registered ten metres. Although Desafio Cabo de Hornos had sailed under Kleinjans and tacked earlier than Roaring Forty, crossing in front of the Belgian Open 40, a fortunate shift pushed Kleinjans ahead as the two leading boats beat offshore to the windward mark off Punta das Canas on the northern tip of Ilhabela.
Rounding the windward mark in first place, Kleinjans had a 30 second lead over the Chilean team with Team Mowgli in third. With the two lead boats matching gybes on the two mile run to the finish line off Vila, it was hard to call the overall leader until just 20 metres off the line with Roaring Forty and Desafio Cabo de Hornos locked together and forced into a last minute gybe. While Roaring Forty snuffed their spinnaker, Desafio Cabo de Hornos gybed and as the Chileans turned their boat around the sail, Kleinjans' light weight Open 40 gained ground until the huge kite on Desafio Cabo de Hornos filled, sending Cubillos, Mu?oz and their crew across the line in a final bound just metres ahead of Roaring Forty. After one and a quarter hours of sailing in stunning conditions, Desafio Cabo de Hornos took first place, Roaring Forty second with Team Mowgli in third just minutes behind the leaders.
Immediately after racing, the Portim?o teams and the local crews gathered beneath a thatched roof in the Portim?o Global Ocean Race village on the waterfront in central Vila for the Capirinha Cup prize giving and the official Portim?o race Leg 3 prize giving. As the Brazilian and Chilean flags were hoisted on the race village flagstaff, Felipe Cubillos described the race. 'We had a very close finish,' explains the Chilean skipper. 'We also thought the best way to finish the race in front of the Germans was to invite them to race with us,' joked Cubillos. 'Half the race was steered by Boris, half by the Chileans: it was good team work and just another part of the Portim?o Global Ocean Race. We love it, really.'
For Michel Kleinjans, beating the Chilean team to the windward mark was the highlight of the race. 'The best part of the course was the last few metres of the final upwind leg,' recalled the Belgian solo sailor as the local band and huge quantities of Caipirinha raised the volume in the race village. 'Desafio Cabo de Hornos had crept in front of us and I think we got a shift and we got to the mark first.' His wife, Marleen, and daughter, Cathy, were ecstatic about the event. 'We have been sailing with Michel on the boat before, but today was really special,' confirmed Marleen. 'It was perfect to go racing with such a good crew.' For Jeremy Salvesen, the race was a great success. 'It was really brilliant and enjoyable,' he said during the prize giving party. 'We had a nice crowd of people on the boat. It was just really good to be out on the boat again,' continued the British skipper. 'We haven't used it since we've been here and it was good to go for a little test. It was a gentleman's game, I don't think anyone was really pushing that hard.'
The Caipirinha Cup was the first opportunity for local yachtsmen to try out Class 40s and an Open 40 and introduce an international fleet into the local regatta. 'It was a great day sailing,' commented Edmar Alves. 'Perfect wind and it was fantastic to have the international Portim?o yachts as part of the Caipirinha Cup.' A highly experienced sailor with ambitions to enter the next edition of the Portim?o Race, Alves had a priceless Class 40 baptism. 'Sailing on Desafio Cabo de Hornos was great and the speed and handling was really impressive.' For Andr? Homem de Mello, sailing with Michel Kleinjans on Open 40 Roaring Forty has sharpened his commitment to enter the next Portim?o Race, but the local sailor was highly surprised that island's mayor chose to race on Desafio Cabo de Hornos. 'The mayor had a great time,' commented de Mello. 'He's a fanatical football fan and his favourite national soccer team was playing today. He's never missed a game in his life before, but he really doesn't care about it and wanted to go sailing!'
As the Caipirinha Cup party moved into overdrive as the sunset behind the mountains on mainland Brazil, Chief Race Officer, Diomysio Sulzbieck, summed up the local feeling. 'It has been a great day and all the boats, the Portim?o fleet and the local boats all sailed without incident in superb conditions. I have never seen these sort of double-handed and single-handed boats,' admits Sulzbieck, a talented yachtsman with 63 years of sailing experience. 'They're fantastic boats, but I really don't understand how these crews can sail them all the way around the world. I know I couldn't!'
www.portimaoglobaloceanrace.com/
by Oliver Dewar
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