Monday 13 May 2013

Atlantic Cup : News from Conrad Colman (NZL) on Lecoq Cuisine


Lecoq Cuisine with Conrad Colman as co-skipper on board. Image copyright Lecoq Cuisine

by Conrad Colman

Great night sailing, but a bit of a rough morning. It was spectacular to be careening through the darkness under spinnaker with surfs over 20 kts, lit by the flash bulbs of the gulfstream thunderheads. We always had the mast head light of at least one other boat to keep the pressure on us lest we decide to chicken out in the face of the rising seas.

Eric and I shared the helm through the strongest of it but when the front struck we were under prepared with too much sail up. Struggling to get sails down in 40kts sustained is never a good look and unfortunately we suffered some damage which took a little while to clean up. Now passing Hatteras, however, we are still in the game and enjoying the challenge.

Conrad Colman
Atlantic Cup