Word: stormvogel
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...international races, finishing first in Class A six times and first in the fleet twice. Two weeks ago, as 26 boats from eight nations swept out to sea for the start of the Buenos Aires-Rio race, Ondine's chances looked slim indeed. The favorite was Stormvogel, a 73-ft. ketch owned by Dutch Timberman Cornelius Bruynzeel. The heaviest yacht in the race (43 tons), she was the defending champion; in 1962, she won the race in the record time of 191 hrs. 37 min. What's more, she had beaten Ondine all twelve times the two boats...
Riding the favorable pampeiro out toward Punta del Este, Stormvogel quickly sailed into the lead. Within a day, all her competitors were hull down on the horizon. Ondine had disappeared entirely. "We kept getting position reports on the other ships by radio-all the ships but Ondine, that is," said Stormvogel's Helmsman John Miles. "We thought obviously that she must be so far astern we just couldn't pick...
Forward & Backward. Aboard Stormvogel, everything was serene. Radio reports had her well in the lead with only 300 miles to Rio; another 48 hours should see her across the finish line. Then Stormvogel hit a calm. "There were no winds at all during the day," said Helmsman Miles, "and at night the northeaster blew up to 25 or 30 knots. Then there was that current, coming right at us. Two of my fixes actually showed we were going backward...
...last, after nine days at sea, Stormvogel's crew could see the lights of Rio and searchlights playing across the finish line. "At 8 p.m.," said Miles, "we were just four miles off the line. Suddenly we saw the searchlights on the line flash white as they struck sails. We thought it was just a boat coming out to watch the finish. But it wasn't." It was Ondine riding across from the east...
...just right for the light, fluffy breezes that turned the 635-mile ocean race into an uneventful weekend cruise. Short-tacking furiously for the last 20 miles, Burgoo crossed the finish line in 109th position-almost 20 hrs. behind the scratch boat, Cornelius Bruynzeel's 73-ft. Stormvogel-still won by 30 min. on corrected time...
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