Third leg of Cap Istanbul race underway for Jonny Malbon… 04 - 10 - 10 at 09:37:34

The total distance of the WOW Cap Istanbul race is 1,590 miles and the 26 solo Figarists competing in the race have already covered 1,160 miles over the first two legs - the remaining three legs are short sprints in comparison.  The fleet departed Athens yesterday on the third leg to Didim (Turkey).  Less than 24 hours into the 190nm leg and the fleet have covered over two-thirds of the course and at the front are some familiar names - Francisco Lobato leading with Fabien Delahaye and Francois Gabart less than a mile behind and in hot pursuit.  The first night was fairly bumpy with some big waves as the fleet raced across the island-laden Aegean Sea with the wind from the north-west which this morning veered NNE and still fairly strong at around 17 knots. Jonny Malbon is currently ranked 23rd but only 7 miles from the leading trio who will soon be turning in a more northerly direction to pass between the islands of Leros and Kalymnos to their final destination at Didim.

Jonny Malbon recounts leg 2 of the Cap Istanbul… 30 - 09 - 10 at 16:11:31

At 07:11:15 UTC Jonny Malbon on board the Artemis Figaro crossed the finish line of the Cap Istanbul leg 2 from Ragusa (Sicily) to Athens (Greence) in a time of 3 days, 21 hours, 20 minutes and 59 seconds. The leg was won by Nicolas Lunven (Generali) followed by Francois Gabart and Fabien Delahaye who finished last night - this trio were only separated by 6 minutes after 520 miles of racing! It was the on final stretch of the race course, when disaster struck for Jonny ultimately costing him a lot of time (read full report below). The WOW Cap Istanbul race is based on cumulative time and after two legs, Jonny is ranked 25th on 8d 07h 33m 35s, 1d 02h 11m 36s behind the current overall leader Francois Gabart.

The second leg of the solo WOW Cap Istanbul race started at 1400 local time in strong downwind conditions.  The 520-mile leg went from Ragusa (Sicily) to Athens. At the first turning mark of the race Jonny was in the middle of the fleet, and settled into the middle of the 32nm north-south spread of the fleet as it advanced across the Ionian Sea towards the southern part of Greece.

Forty-eight hours into the race the fleet split with six boats keeping to the north whilst the majority of the fleet chose to take some southing to line themselves up for the turning mark at Antikythira, which the fleet would round before heading north. Jonny was able to cross ahead of this northern fleet holding 11th place for a while, until he also had to make some miles to the south and watched in vain as the southern fleet passed across his bows just 2nm ahead in breeze, whilst Jonny was practically becalmed dropping him to 17th overall by dusk on the 28th.

As the fleet rounded Antikythira they were closely bunched together with all but one boat within 20nm of the leader (Francois Gabart). Between Antikytira and Falkonera the boats had to sail a very windy run in 30 knots of wind having to gybe several times - no easy task in the dark and on your own! At Falkonera the fleet headed up from a run to a tight reach and this is where disaster struck for Jonny. After executing three gybes in difficult conditions without a problem, the final one ended up with the spinnaker pole wrapped up between the sheets causing the spinnaker to wrap many times around the forestay. Rather than heading up to follow the optimal route, Jonny was forced to continue to the east of the course until conditions moderated enough to allow him to unwrap the tangled sail. The drop in wind strength also brought with it a dramatic change in wind direction and now 13nm east of the direct course Jonny was forced to beat upwind in 24+ knots of wind to sail to the next waypoint at Flavis just south of the Athens finish line.  During this time two battens in the mainsail forced their way through the inboard end batten box which forced Jonny to drop the mainsail and remove the battens.

It was a very tired Jonny that made it to Athens finally after sunrise this morning.  Thinking that it was Friday and worrying about the recovery time before Monday’s restart, he was relieved to find out that it was, in fact, only Thursday and had an extra 24hrs to recover! Despite the challenge of the spinnaker wrap, Jonny’s only injury was caused whilst catnapping ‘on the rail’ where the wire guardwire pressed into his arm cutting off the circulation of the blood: “It’s very hard to make a manoeuvre when your main strong arm has no feeling in it!” said Jonny on the phone to the shore team.

“I talked to another competitor about my spinnaker wrap, as he got one too - he was lucky that he managed to clear it fairly quickly, as it has cost me a lot of time on this leg. We have a plan now on how to deal with it in future - prevention is the key and we might sail with a spinnaker net (prevents the sail wrapping around itself).  It’s so tough to execute the perfect gybe time after time in 34kts of wind when you are so tired. Even on a fully crewed boat lots of sailors struggle, take away that assistance and it’s tough. I’m a bit cross with myself as I managed three perfect ones and it was only the last one that got so messed up.  I am really glad I had so much sea room to solve the problem - I was actually quite worried about the situation.”

The third leg of the WOW Cap Istanbul race starts on Monday, 4th October, 190 miles to Didim, Turkey.

Jonny Malbon finishes leg 2 of Cap Istanbul… 30 - 09 - 10 at 11:18:10

At 07:11:15 UTC Jonny Malbon on board the Artemis Figaro crossed the finish line of the Cap Istanbul leg 2 from Ragusa (Sicily) to Athens (Greence) in a time of 3 days, 21 hours, 20 minutes and 59 seconds. The leg was won by Nicolas Lunven (Generali). Full update coming soon…

Sailing fast in Greek waters as the Cap Istanbul fleet race towards Athens… 29 - 09 - 10 at 16:36:59

After sailing close on the wind yesterday, the 26-boat solo Figaro fleet in the WOW Cap Istanbul race are now enjoying fast downwind/reaching conditions. The skipper of Macif 2010 François Gabart was the first sailor to turn at the Anticythére Island gate on the Ragusa-Athens leg at 6:00 this morning. Heading northwards towards their final leg 2 destination of Athens, the wind started blowing in a west-southwest direction and building to over 15 knots. The fleet opened up their spinnakers again for another challenging battle sailing at close to 10 knots. Jonny Malbon is directly in the wake of the leaders ranked in 24th place, 22.6nm behind Gabart who has 53 miles to go to the finish. But as the sailors well know it is never over until its over and the volatile winds between the islands may at any moment bring forth unpleasant surprises. Gabart needs to be very careful…only 2 miles behind him is Jeanne Grégoire (Banque Populaire), Nicolas Lunven (Generali) and Eric Péron (Macif 2009) who are playing out the final stages of this leg aggressively.  It will be another extraordinary close finish with the frontrunners expected to reach Athens tonight.

Well over halfway on leg 2 of the Cap Istanbul race - Jonny 16m behind the leader 28 - 09 - 10 at 10:11:54

The leading group of 15 boats came ever closer to each other and reduced the gap between them down to a handful of miles. Jonny Malbon on Artemis is ranked in 24th only 16nm behind the leading trio, sailing slightly faster, with 261nm to go on this 520-mile leg to Athens. When current leader Nicolas Lunven came from north with a well-planned attack, he easily broke away from his rivals and achieved the leading position. François Gabart (Skipper Macif 2010) is steadily trailing behind him.  All sailors are waiting for the strong winds that are expected for the morning hours. The fleet will have their first break after passing the Anticythére Island predictably within 24 hours. Taking into account all that has happened up til now, it is clear that leadership is not guaranteed.