WATCH: Sharp's ship damaged in "vicious" gusts

Saturday 10 November 2018

A Jersey sailor is still in second place in a 3,550-mile race against more than 100 boats - despite being forced to make emergency repairs to his vessel after "vicious" gusts left bits of it far from ship shape.

Through rough conditions, Phil Sharp has managed to stay in the lead in the Route du Rhum race from St Malo to Guadeloupe in his Class40 Imerys Clean Energy - just under 60 miles behind French sailor Yoann Richomme and his Veedol AIC.

The first few days of the single-handed race were marked by a number of incidents for Sharp. On Monday, he found a "huge amount of water sloshing around inside the boat" after an access port in the ballast tank blew out. He then had to bail out 500 litres of water and fixed the break. He then had to climb the mast to fix the halyard (a rope used to hoist the foresails, ed.) and deal with computer issues.

Sharp then found himself facing extremely windy conditions with gusts reaching over 50kts. The conditions led a number of boat to head towards land, most to make pit-stop repairs or shelter from the conditions, but some were forced to retire.

“Conditions are windy again tonight... Part 2 of many relentless nights I think, and it looks like I’ll be flying the storm jib again. Looking forward to getting further south and drying out my clothes…! - Phil” >> Photo of this morning's conditions plus the very broken halyard pic.twitter.com/NLKHNMCe2E

— Phil Sharp Racing (@PhilSharpRacing) November 6, 2018

Speaking on Wednesday morning, the sailor said: "Last night was seriously wet, windy and cold. The waves were causing the boat to slam severely… So far the nights have proven to be very long and intense, so it is extremely nice to be rescued by the sun each morning. It is slow upwind progress for the next couple of days, and I am sleeping as much as I can around the bad weather."

Conditions didn't improve the following night, with Sharp describing "vicious squalls." "I’d be sailing along in a 20-25kt breeze and then get hit by 40kts," he explained. "One squall even touched 50kts. It has been virtually impossible to sleep as the wind is always changing so you need to be on deck to re-trim and control the boat each time a squall hits."

In spite of the dreadful conditions, Sharp reached second place, saying: "I can’t believe how quick the Lombard Lift ‘Veedol’ is, eating 10 miles out of me last night, even faster than the Mach 3 ‘Aina'."

Unfortunately the Jersey sailor was hit by a big wave overnight, so hard that the force of the water picked up one of his sails up and threw it right across the other side of the boat. "I had clipped the bag on, but it tore the attachment points clean off," Sharp explained. "Miraculously the mainsheet stopped it from being washed over the side."

Despite being  "super wet on board", with most of his clothes and all mid-layers drenched, Sharp found some comfort in the form of the surprise Spanish cakes his colleague Pablo Santurde left for him. "They were the treat of yesterday’s food bag, if I close my eyes I am in Santander," Sharp said. 

Sharp then spent most of Thursday doing repairs on the water ballasts and the rudders, which were loose. 

Video: Sharp's latest video update about his battle against the elements towards Guadeloupe.

Speaking on Friday morning, he said: “Last night was the first stable night – I slept so well and was able to recover, it’s such a relief to have left the depressions behind us.

“Soon the wind will go aft and reduce as we get into more anticyclonic conditions that will ride us south to the tropics. Currently we’re going upwind, but hopefully this changes very soon!"

Still in second place, Sharp reached the latitude of the Azores in the morning, having entered stable conditions after racing through storms since the race start five days ago. He still has over 2,500 miles to cover before the arrival.