Cape Town - Race organisers experienced a couple of anxious moments on Wednesday as one of the yachts in the MTN Cape to Rio 2000 yacht race issued a distress call.
The 41-foot La Bamba, skippered by Andrew Tozer, sent a radio message to the communication vessel that the yacht was taking on water.
His 20-year old daughter Simone, as well as his brother Ian and his daughter Stephanie accompany Tozer. Les Thompson completes the crew.
The yacht African Satellite Second Wind was asked to divert from course to assist, but it was discovered that the water was leaking through an open hatch.
According to Chris Lemmer on the communication vessel it was real panic stations for a while, especially since there were two young women on board.
"The weather is very peculiar. I've done many trans-Atlantic
crossings with yacht deliveries and I've never seen anything like this. The weather is really unpredictable and we've not experienced the traditional southeast tradewinds yet," said Lemmer.
At 2:30pm the MTN Cape to Rio 2000 race control was informed that La Bamba had officially retired from the race and would continue to Port Nolloth.
The development crew on MTN The Better Connection, skippered by Anthony Steward, also reported a tough night after they lost their spinnaker sheet and the spinnaker wrapped itself around the mast.
In the pandemonium that followed, the 41-foot Schumaker did a death roll (capsized sideways) and lost its number one genoa sail.
Co-skipper Sieraj Jacobs, Eric Ntetane and Golden Mgediza, spent more than an hour up the mast to unwrap the spinnaker.
During a satellite link-up with the media office, Steward said that he was "very grateful" that the three crew members only sustained minor bumps and bruises.
"They've been shaken up a little bit and this will obviously
influence our progress as we can only use our number two genoa."
Peter During, regional manager of sponsors MTN, said that they had a few anxious hours after hearing the news. "Our team is a very experienced one and I'm sure that they'll overcome this setback. They have the competitive spirit and necessary skills to cope with any emergency, but we really hope they will have fair winds and some plain sailing for the next few days.
"The crew was selected according to various criteria of which endurance was one and I believe they have faced their first challenge with tremendous fortitude."
The maxi's are still on course for a record crossing. Robert McNeil's Zephyrus IV covered 342 miles at an average speed of fourteen knots and has taken over the lead in the race for line honours as well as the top position in the IMS class.
Sagamore, skippered by Jim Dolan, recorded a distance of 305 knots at an average boat speed of twelve knots. Greenwich Warrior, skippered by Springbok yachtsman Rick Nankin, is maintaining her excellent form and is still third on handicap.
Portugal-Brazil 500 seems to have recovered from her eventful start and has logged 334 miles at an average of over thirteen knots. "We finally managed to put up our spinnaker and she took off like an angry Lusitania horse. We've averaged over 15 knots for about seven hours and are gliding through the fleet quite quickly on our hunting expedition for the other big guys," Ingvall wrote in a faxed communication signed as "Captain Chaos and his merry men". - Sapa