#ClipperRace - Greenings’ stand-in skipper Andy Woodruf and crew were reportedly doing well after some rest in Cape Town hours after they ran aground on the western side of the Cape Peninsula last night (Tuesday 31 October).
No injuries were reported on board when the boat hit a rocky shoal around 11.40pm local time (9.40pm Irish time) last night, not long after the fleet departed Cape Town on the third leg of the Clipper Race.
However, as a precaution, rescue boats were called to evacuate the crew to shore at Hout Bay.
Unicef, as the closest race vessel to the incident, was initially asked to stand by to assist but was later released to continue racing.
It’s the second major incident to hit the Greenings team after skipper David Hartsthorn suffered a serious hand injury in late August during Race 1 from Liverpool to Uruguay.
The crash will also bring back memories of Team Vestas Wind’s disastrous grounding in the Indian Ocean in the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race. That team’s new incarnation as Vestas 11th Hour Racing is faring much better in the latest edition, last week winning the first leg from Alicante to Lisbon.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Clipper fleet continues their race across the southern Indian Ocean from Cape Town to Perth in Australia.
First across the start line yesterday was Dare To Lead, which had to use all of skipper Dale Smyth’s local knowledge of the waters around Cape Town to move into second place as Sanya Serenity Coast was first to round the first mark in Table Bay.
Dare To Lead has since slipped into third behind PSP Logistics, which had been nipping at their heels all of this morning (Wednesday 1 November).
Sanya Serenity Coast is currently leading the way in The Dell Latitude Rugged Race 3, with a 35 nautical mile advantage on their closest rivals.
Visit Seattle, Garmin, GREAT Britain, HotelPlanner.com, Joker Card players Qingdao and Liverpool 2018 make up the rest of the chasing pack, in order, with only four nautical miles separating the front from the back.
Behind them NASDAQ is some 30nm adrift, while Unicef’s crew have some catching up to do after last night’s rescue detour as they currently lie some 96nm behind the leaders.
