Ireland’s Conor Fogerty of Howth Yacht Club has just 40 miles to sail to Newport, Rhode Island, and a hyper-successful Transatlantic finish for his Jeanneau Sunfast 36 Bam! in the OSTAR 2017, which started from Plymouth in Devon on Monday 29th May writes W M Nixon
Bam! and her lone skipper have out-performed every comparable boat in a blistering performance which saw them putting so many miles between themselves and the rest of the fleet that they were clear to the west of the worst of the mid-Atlantic freak storm which wreaked havoc on many in the race nine days ago.
Fogerty is currently breezing along at 7.5 knots south of the island of Martha’s Vineyard, and all being well, will comfortably have a daylight finish today. Up ahead, the line honours winner, Italian Andrea Mura’s Open 60 Venta di Sardegna, has been in port just four days despite being nearly twice Bam’s size and with about three times the speed potential.
The likely second across the line, the two-handed Open 40 Rote 66 (Uwe Rottgering & Asia Pajkowsk) has still to finish, she’s 9.5 miles from the end, now making 7 knots, an improvement on her speed of ten minutes ago.
Some idea of just how well Bam! has done can be gauged from the fact that fourth place is held by her sister-ship Mister Lucky, sailed by Mike Hipgrove. Mister Lucky is likely to be fourth to finish. But she’s now all of 500 miles astern of Bam!
