09 December Bona Dia Barcelona, Buenos Dias Barcelona, Jó reggelt Barcelona! Good Morning Barcelona!  Spirit of Hungary 60′ Imoca racing boat arrived just in time for the Barcelona World Race.

It was great delivery sailing from the port of Trieste (Italy) and was a very succesful, useful test sailing of the renewed Hungarian Imoca 60′.

Thanks a lot to Conrad for sending the fresh pictures from Barcelona World Race! Have a good relax guys!

Spirit of Hungary on-board telephone interview with skipper Nandor Fa – delivery sailing to Barcelona – BWR

08 December 2014 – soon

07 December 2014

audio  translated to written version

N.F.:

„We were very fast today because a very tough 35-kts westerly wind had come. Now we just left a zone of mixed winds, which will theoratically come back later. At the moment we are sailing upwind in a very light wind. Despite, we are progressing quite well.”

I’m looking at a rather simple tracking system where I can see that you are going upwards on the other side of the Italian peninsula, just between Corsica and Italy. Do you see what weather conditions you are going to face when you make the turn after reaching Monaco? it looks really terrible.

N.F.:

„Yes, we see it. This is why we have sailed further up here, so that we won’t have to go upwind. The forecast says 40-45 knots of wind ahead. We will be able to sail it, as we are going to be running in crosswind, this is why we came up here first. Originally we wanted to cross between the two islands Corsica and Sardinia, and then come up a little bit more to have the angle for running down. But given the cirsumstances it looked  better to come up first and to round Corsica from North.”

It looks like the wind conditions are beneficial for you at the moment before the turn, but it shows a wind of 60-70 knots from Nizza, about 3 days ahead. What is your strategy for this?

N.F.:

„In this case, we don’t have anything else to do but stop somewhere. The startegy is to wait until it lies down a little bit. If we see it’s going to be above 40 kts, we go up to the coast and stop somewhere until it settles.”

How many days do you see in advance?

N.F.:

„We can see a week in advance, but we cannot be sure how correct it is. Some things are correct, some are not. We always need to be alert. If there will be 60 knots, we definitely stop, we won’t go into it.”

How is the boat working? Sometimes I saw speed above 11 knots.

N.F.:

„At times, we were constantly running 15 knots in crosswind. We were expressly fast, it was a hard work. Especially because the lock of the headboard on top of the mast has been broken. So we have to sail with a slightly reefed main sail. We need to be careful with strong winds now, as we cannot use the lock. I’ve already let the Harken know about this, they will send a new one to Barcelona.”

Aren’t you planning to stop on the way, where you could replace it?

N.F.:

„We can’t replace it like that because it’s a unique piece. But we sure will stop in case there is extreme wind.”

Marcell Goszleth just called me a few minutes before and we were talking about these things. He said there are very few ports where it’s possible to shelter with this boat, that has such a high draft. But he has the same opinion of having to stop and shelter in such strong weather conditions. It looks pretty coarse until the 11th-12th.

N.F.:

„I will be alert, and very careful about the weather. Bust once again: the reason why we came up here in the corner is to have space for the run in the upcoming zone. In such wind, even crosswind is too uch for us. We will probably use only half of the main sail, or a storm jib. In downwind, we can do very strong winds too.”

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Lates sky-file news from the boat – written by Nandor Fa

(7th Dec) 2014

Increrdible but we are hunting for wind, going by engine after Corsica. We knew we were at the egde of the low-pressure zone’s center but in reality, the condition we need is a little bit further. The clouds show it, but we need to get there.

We are 120 SM from the line of Toulon, which we should reach by night — and we can only reach it with windpower.

The guys are fantastic, doing there job without any frippery, we understand each other by only a few words. Of corse, when the wether allows we chat, but that’s quite rare.

The boat is all right so far, during the night we had examined the boat from the front till the back.

Original audio in Hungarian – magyarul:

link: https://spiritofhungary.hu/spirit-of-hungary-60-uton-barcelonaba-2014-december/