Angela Brandsma finished in the Philippines

“I have now officially sailed around the world,” jubilates Clipper Race skipper Angela Brandsma (Sneek) the day after finishing sixth with her team Power of Seattle Sports in Subic Bay, Philippines. “Indeed, in the 2019-20 edition I started as First Mate in Subic Bay in the Philippines, but for the race manager this does not count,” laughs the Frisian.

Doldrums

“We went into the doldrums third and came out first. Where we started and where I thought the wind would be was exactly where I turned off the engine. That’s really a tactical game. If you request the engine, you are not allowed to turn it on until three hours later. So you have to really think, calculate and look at the forecast to do that option of those 40 hours in the right window. We did that super well.”

Countercurrent

Power of Seattle Sports was in the lead for about two days, after which they ran into a windbreak with a strong current. “That was as expected. Everyone gets into that, so then it doesn’t matter so much. We all went with the current. Only at one point I got into a section with countercurrent. That was kind of a curl in that current, which was not predicted. As a result, we went backwards and everyone around us just drifted on. We came out of that in tenth place, so we went from one to ten. That was very sour, especially for the crew. Then we opted for a route further north. This stage revolved around the trade winds. Whoever gets in there first basically wins. The boats ahead of us all went more north-west, while the shortest route to the trade wind was north.”

Sail changes

The gap increased to two hundred to two hundred and fifty miles, but Brandsma kept his cool. “I thought we will make up for that in the trade winds, but we only benefited from that for half a day. A cyclone was building up to the west of us, near the Philippines, and it sucked the entire trade wind dry. That happens once every 10 to 12 years. Then we fought really hard and did a lot of sail changes. We got closer and closer and soon caught up with three boats. Eventually we were sixth at 165 miles behind number five. We reduced that to fifty miles.”

Oceansprint

During this race to the Philippines, teams had the chance to win extra points with the Ocean Sprint. Brandsma: “That covers a distance of almost four hundred miles between two longitudes. You mark the time when you go in and the time when you go out.” The three fastest boats get three, two and one point(s) respectively. “The five boats ahead of us were then able to bang out nice and wide winds with spinnaker. We sailed about half wind there with a maximum of 53 knots. We fought really hard and sailed a bit overpowered. It was super heavy with waves of eight metres. We did have second place at one and a half hours behind number one sailing with spinnaker.

Windbreak

“In the Luzon Strait around the Philippines, we did some good things, which made us very close to number five. Meanwhile, the gap with the three boats behind us was two hundred miles. So we just sailed well. Just before the finish we got into one of those mega wind swells, which we couldn’t get around either, and we finished sixth.”

Proud

With what feeling do you look back on this stage? “To go from place one to ten is quite a sour apple. To then fight back like that just makes me very proud of the team. In the ranking, we are now one point behind number five. In the previous edition, the boat that was last before won in the end. Now, how hard you pushed, how tired your crew is and the condition of your sails will also play a role. For example, our spinnakers and windseeker are still in top condition. There are lots of stages coming up where the spinnaker becomes crucial. It is a marathon, not a sprint. So you have to be smart with your equipment.”

Source: boating market.
Photo: Clipper Race

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