Around the World of Sailing

14 November 2001

Event News: Volvo Ocean Race
Available on line at:
http://www.torresen.com/atwos/2001/no/1114/ms.htm

There are many sailboat races that involve sailing upwind
in lots of wind. You're uncomfortable and sometimes sea
sick. To date there has been a lot of this in the Volvo Ocean
race. There was more at the start of Leg 2.

Tyco,News Corp,illbruck Djuice and Amer Sports One carving through the fog one hour after the start of leg 2
© Daniel Forster Electronic Image

There are few races that involve dashing downwind across the
Southern Ocean. This phase of the Volvo has just kicked
in.

Tyco sails upwind after the start
Credit: ©Rick Tomlinson

The metaphor for this sailing is the fire hose. Assa
Abloy's Mark Rudiger, "it's a race to see who can hold up to
the freezing fire hose"- Djuice "tons of cold water on deck"
Tyco "Clothing for the guys on deck now includes full-face
crash helmets, deep-sea divers gloves and just about
everything they can find in their sparse kit bags."

Assa Abloy Bow Team

Early this morning SW winds kicked in rising to 25 knots.
They morning before had seen near calm. With the wind the
boat speeds ticked up the 60-foot monohulls seeing speeds
over 20 knots. Djuice has the current max max speed -
29.1 knots.

The past 6 hours have seen Amer Sports, one thought too fast
in these conditions due to extra beam, average 13.6 knots
best in fleet. Slowest was Illbruck which trails due to a
drama that involved taking on water (see link below).
Illbruck's Richard Clarke, "as I do not want to spend
another night on leak watch. This involved crawling into the
forward most bow compartment dress in your wet gear and
armed with a flashlight. Your job...make sure we don't sink
again."

For now Tyco (2nd fastest in last 6 hours) leads over Assa
Abloy (4th) and SEB (6th). Then come Amer One (1st), Djuice
(5th), Illbruck (8th), Amer Two (3rd) and News Corp (7th)

Links:
Illbruck drama
http://www.illbruck-challenge.com/en/news/cgi-bin/showdetail.cgi?id=00324&b=board
Pilotfish Data
http://www.volvooceanrace.com/result/pilotfish/
Report from leader Tyco
http://www.teamtyco.com/teamtyco/FullStory.jsp?story=580

Theme: Clothing for Sailing
Available on line at:
http://www.torresen.com/atwos/2001/no/1114/ms.htm

The current day sailor's suit is much like the traditional
dress up suit, it's a three piece affair. The first piece
is known as the base layer.

Typically it is some type of thermal underwear. It combines
to keep you warm and to wick away sweaty moisture. In this
respect it is superior to cotton which will absorb the
moisture.

Base layers come in one or two piece configurations. A one
piece thermal layer has sleeves and a zip up front. The two
piece sets have a long sleeve shirt and pants with an
elastic waist.

Fabrics are typically are synthetics made by companies such
as Polartec.

The general theme with this system is that there are three
layers beginning with the base. All three layers need to be
compatible or you will not receive full benefit from your
sailing clothing.

Next we move onto layer # 2, the mid layer.

Event News: Jacques Vabre
Available on line at:
http://www.torresen.com/atwos/2001/no/1114/ms.htm

Farthest along of this doublehanded races three fleets are
the Open 60 trimarans. The first 6 three hullers have
crossed the Equator. Foncia-Kingfisher is 1st by 28 miles
over Groupama with Belgacom 3rd.

The tri's now face 450 miles of upwind sailing to Ascension
Island. Most will have to take a painful easterly tack away
from the mark as Belgacom currently is. Her skipper Jean-Luc
Nélias describes the sailing, "What's more, you're exposed
to more than 30 knots of apparent wind when you're out on
the helm, so between the speed of the wind and that of the
boat, it's so tiring, it takes every drop of your
concentration."

At the head of the Open 60 mono hulls is Sill. They are at
9°north latitude with double digit speeds, not having yet
been affected by the Doldrums. 2nd is Voila Fr. 104 miles
back and then Casto-Darty-But 124 miles off. Casto had a
rough experience in the shadow of the Cape Verde islands,
and reported "we had to head at several points back to the
north to try to escape its grasp."

1st in the Open 50 mono hulls is One Dream One Mission, 20
miles up on Saving. One Dream is farther south with Saving
farther east. From One Dream Paul Larsen reports, "As the
sun came up we got a position report which showed we had
done alright and stacked the 'box' in our favour reducing
the east-west and increasing the north south. It's not much
but it could have been far worse."

In all three fleet myriad options and decisions remain.
Well over 1,000 miles remains for all competitors expect
more tiring, frustrating and for the winners ultimately
successful sailing.

Links:
Full Competitors List
http://www.jacques-vabre.com/pages_uk/accueil_uk.htm
Foncia Kingfisher/ Castro-Darty-BUT Info
http://www.kingfisher-challenges.com/uk/
Rankings
http://193.104.87.4/default_Multi.htm
http://193.104.87.4/default_Mono60.htm
http://193.104.87.4/default_Mono50.htm