SIGHTINGS Brad Van Liew made it two-for-two in the Velux 5 Oceans when he arrived in Wellington, New Zealand, on the morning of January 16. The 42-year-old Southern California native, who now calls Charleston, South Carolina home, sailed 7,682 miles from Cape Town in 30d, 9h, 49m at an average speed of 10.53 knots. The veteran of two previous editions of the race, when it was known as the B.O.C. Challenge and Around Alone, put his leg win in historical perspective. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” Van Liew said upon hitting the dock. “It’s really good to be here. I’ve now done five Southern Ocean legs and this one was by far the hardest. The weather we experienced was different from any other I have ever seen down there. The leg Brad Van Liew was thrilled to place first in Leg Two, and started with a delay and even more thrilled to be reunited with his family. then took longer than anyone expected — it’s been an unbelievable challenge. The hardest part was missing Christmas with my kids and the best part is, without a doubt, arriving in Wellington.” Van Liew and his Eco 60 Le Pingouin took the western route into the finish, transiting the Cook Strait. Second place Zbigniew ‘Gutek’ Gutkowski on Operon Racing took the long way around, up the eastern coast of New Zealand’s South Island, setting up a relatively dramatic finish less than a day behind Van Liew — a marked contrast to Leg One, where days, and even weeks, separated the fleet as they made their way to Cape Town. “This was a really close leg,” Van Liew said. “What was really neat from a competition point of view was that it was so close. For a small fleet it’s great to have such competitive racing. The four of us really have become fierce competitors. I’m happy to have a chunk of a lead because Gutek and the others are getting determined!” Van Liew picked up 12 points for the leg win, plus another three bonus points for having the fastest passage between a set of virtual timing gates in the Southern Ocean. He now firmly takes the overall race lead. Gutkowski retains second overall, while Canadian Derek Hatfield lies in third after a close third-place finish on Leg Two. Briton Chris Stanmore Major had yet to finish as of this writing. With the fleet winnowed down to just four boats after the retirement of tenacious Belgian Christophe Bullens — who overcame a bevy of misfortunes to even get to the start of Leg Two — Leg Three, from Wellington to Punta Del Este, Uruguay, figures to be every bit the challenge of its predecessor. As of this writing, the start date for Leg Three had yet to be announced, but you should be able to find all the pertinent info by the time you read this at www.velux5oceans.com. — rob
dcm sends it It’s 3 a.m. on day three of last September’s Melges 32 Worlds and Warpath bowman Morgan Gutenkunst is headed home to get some much-needed sleep. But he’s not leaving the Marina District after a long night of partying, he’s leaving a boatyard after spending the last nine hours working on a competing boat. Why would the Mill Valley native be working on a competitor’s boat? Because he’s one third of a new Bay Area boatshop: DCM Enterprises. continued on outside column of next sightings page Page 70 •
Latitude 38
• February, 2011
name that In the January issue of Latitude, we ran a sneaky little quiz in Sightings. The only mention of it was in this photo’s cap-
LATITUDE / LADONNA
AINHOA SANCHEZ / VELUX 5 OCEANS
double bullets for van liew
Van Liew’s ‘Le Pingouin’ flying into the Wellington, New Zealand, finish for a Leg 2 win and perfect race score so far. Not only did the 42-year-old American take the 12 points for the leg win, he also notched another three bonus points for having the fastest time through the virtual timing gate.
