Angela Brandsma sea triumphs in Seattle

The most dreaded and longest leg of the Clipper Round the World Race can be credited to Angela Brandsma.

The finishing city of Seattle is home to the ship Power of Seattle Sports. With her crew, the Frisian seized the dream victory in stage six/stage nine, better known as ‘The Mighty Pacific’, of the Musto-supported Clipper Round the World Race. They covered the 5,300 nautical miles from Tongyeong, South Korea, to Seattle, USA, in 26 days, 12 minutes and 56 seconds.

Home port

“Yeah, really super cool,” Brandsma responds enthusiastically on the phone. “I can hardly believe it myself. It’s such a big stage across the North Pacific Ocean, known as the toughest. Then to win like that and then also in our home port. On top of that, we played the joker. It just can’t be beat.” By deploying the joker, the team doubles its points from this stage and thus makes a jump in the standings. Power of Seattle Sports now moves up from seventh to third in the overall standings.

Countercurrent and islands

Asked about the course of the past four weeks at sea, Brandsma offers a retrospective. “We started in Tongyeong. Then we had to pass between Japan and another island. There we had a strong countercurrent and had to navigate. So it started immediately with a huge tactical game, which we actually came out of very well. We were in the top three. Then we went north around Japan. From day one, I always had the plan to go as north as possible. It is colder, but I wanted to get as close as possible to the ice limit set by Clipper. I followed that plan continuously.”

“Around the ice limit, we had a tough time. We had to navigate a lot and there was constantly an island in the way. I actually wanted to go further north, but we were still the northernmost boat the whole time and that worked out well. I think we were leading for about three thousand miles. It was very exciting with Gosh, though. Then we only had a mile lead and then ten. In the end, we extended that lead to thirty-five miles.”

Between hope and fear

Despite the lead, it remained exciting until the end. “You secretly start hoping anyway, but you also stay sharp. The crew also stayed reserved the whole time. The distance between the top four boats was not great to be relaxed. You just never know what will happen. There was a huge wind chop around the finish line. We wouldn’t get that if we were fast enough. Then we worked really hard, did a lot of sail changes and so we were able to stay ahead of the wind chop. Moreover, at the finish it was flowing strongly. Only after the finish line did we let go. In the end, we finished 4.5 hours ahead of number two.”

This stage across the North Pacific is known for its tough sailing conditions. For Brandsma, one big squall halfway through the race in particular stays with her: “That was accompanied by hail and sixty knots of wind. The hail in particular was a challenge, because those were stones of about three centimetres. Those hurt tremendously. The wind in that squall turned around, so we also turned with the wind twice. In these conditions, my Musto Dry Suit helped me a lot.”

Coming home to Seattle

The finish was offshore, after which Brandsma and her team still had 20 hours to motor back. “So we had nice time to take the winches apart and clean them. When we got into Seattle, of course, it was great. We arrived fortunately at six o’clock with daylight. The welcome was absolutely super. It was really coming home with my parents on the pier.”

The first two days after arrival were all about getting the boat ready to race again. “We took everything out and cleaned it. Today we are working on repairs. Especially the sails have suffered quite a lot. There is a lot of work in that. We still haven’t sailed any spinnakers broken, so I’m proud of that. I believe we are the only boat in that right now. We will need those sails for the next leg to Panama, as we will be sailing downwind a lot. From tomorrow, I hope to relax a bit.”

Sources: Watersports TV and Clubracer

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