The scoring gate at Cape Horn is now just over 1100 nautical miles ahead of the fleet and with 3.5 points on offer here for the first boat, it is an anxious time onboard the fleet of Volvo 70s. A new weather system is approaching from behind and it is moving only a little quicker than the leaders. This is an ideal situation for the boats behind, Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald) and ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) to make gains.
ABN AMRO TWO is currently making 24 knots of boat speed and her 24 hour run is the healthiest of the fleet at 467 nautical miles. Brasil 1 (Torben Grael), positioned as the most northerly boat in the fleet, 114 nautical miles from ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) the most southerly of the fleet, is making 23 knots. At this rate, Cape Horn will loom in approximately two day’s time.
Brasil 1 has pulled away from Ericsson Racing Team and is now 50 miles ahead, but movistar (Bouwe Bekking) has suffered some losses. “How the mood can swing within 24 hours,” wrote Bouwe Bekking today, adding, “Not feeling at all like writing something, as we have lost ground. For the first time in the race, I have a little knot in my stomach, just have to stay relaxed and believe in the boat and the crew.”
All six boats racing in leg four of the Volvo Ocean Race have satisfied the first ice waypoint, and are in full flight towards the western end of the second ice way point, 188 nautical miles to the east of the fleet. Then they can dive south again and take the Great Circle route to Cape Horn. This course will take them back to around 55 degrees south.
Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) whose strategy to cross the ice waypoint for so long looked like a winning one, has a deficit of over 150 nautical miles to make up, but the Brazilian team has clocked the highest 24 hour run in the fleet, averaging 19.6 knots during the past 24 hour period, 2.5 knots faster than any other boat in the fleet.
There is huge disappointment onboard the second Dutch boat today as they trail the fleet by 224 nautical miles in a position they are unaccustomed to. But the young guns, who have had such good results until this point, will come back fighting. Their speed is up and they are now the fastest boat in the fleet.
“Any feelings of frustration over our position have been replaced with a fire in my belly and an overwhelming desire to kick some ass. From here on in we are going to fight our way back into the race, wave by wave, gust by gust until the negative numbers on the scheds turn positive,” wrote navigator Simon Fisher last night.
Meanwhile, the first three boats are well in touch with each other and only 26 nautical miles separating them. Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald) is further back, 80 nm from ABN AMRO ONE, but averaging nearly a knot faster in speed than second placed Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard).
Movistar, in a solid third place is also sailing quicker than the Pirates and is only five miles behind them.
The six boats racing in leg four of the Volvo Ocean Race have all passed through the second ice way point and are now headed south towards the icy wastes of Antarctica on the ‘penguin route’ as Bouwe Bekking (movistar) calls it.
A fine battle between the leading three boats is developing as they charge towards Cape Horn. Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) has moved into first position and has squeezed a lead of just two miles ahead ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), while movistar in third place is only 14 miles behind the Pirates.
Mike Sanderson reported early this morning, “There is 2222 nautical miles to go to the infamous Cape Horn and this is one of the scariest times in the race, because if anything was to go wrong, we are around 4000 km from any major land, and that of course is well out of rescue range. We are all fully aware that if anything was to happen to someone’s boat, and they required rescuing, then the only assistance for a long time would have to come from a fellow competitor.”
For now, the sailing will be fast and tactical as the fleet roars around a massive high pressure, being chased by a huge low. Speeds are still high, although Ericsson Racing Team, the furthest boat to the west has averaged 2 knots slower over the last six hours. ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) and Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) are the two most easterly yachts, the Pirates lead the middle group of movistar and ABN AMRO ONE, with Ericsson out to the west.
The Volvo Ocean Race fleet is careering south at breakneck speeds, and leg leader, Mike Sanderson with ABN AMRO ONE, the furthest boat south, is in a dilemma: “How hard to push? What are the other guys doing? Is going as fast as movistar (Bouwe Bekking) was in the last sked (position report) good enough to hang on? Wait a minute, we don’t have to beat them in this leg, nor the other teams either, we just have to keep this thing in one piece… but there are 3.5 bonus points waiting at Cape Horn for the leader.. those points would make our lives a little easier.. but what if we push too hard and break?
Movistar (Bouwe Bekking) is revelling in the true southern ocean conditions. They covered 140.8 miles in one six hour period, averaging 25.5 knots. “Just ripping the miles, this is what we love to do,” wrote an elated Bekking in the early hours of this morning.
Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald) managed a Chinese gybe and remarkably recovered the boat without breaking any gear. In the 2001-02 event, SEB lost her mast in the same situation. No one was hurt on Ericsson and the team sorted out the boat and brought her back up to speed in two hours, but it cost them many miles and they are now behind Brasil 1 and losing to the leading three boats.
“It’s been the hardest 24 hours of the race for all of us, and the brutal facts are that, with 2000 miles to Cape Horn, this sort of drama is far from over,” wrote Steve Hayles, Ericsson’s navigator.
ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) has continuing problems with their mainsail, which ripped two days ago. Yesterday, after a brief period of sunshine and lighter breeze, the crew attempted to repair the metre-long hole in the mainsail, but less than 24 hours after successfully making the repair, holes are opening up elsewhere and they are now sailing with two reefs in until the weather improves enough to attempt another repair. “The outlook doesn’t look good for the sail,” wrote navigator Simon Fisher. “Right now, it may as well be made of newspaper – at least we would have something to read,” he concluded.
There is chaos below on Brasil 1. Norwegian watch leader, Knut Frostad, says that a call to the health and food authorities might be a good idea. “Can someone please remind me, in four years from now, that I don’t really need to do this any more. I do really like a big, warm, nice bed and dry clothes, and I do love nice food…. it’s true, I do! Why are you laughing and thinking ‘idiot, you said this four years ago.’”
The most southerly yacht in the fleet is leader, ABN AMRO ONE, with the second Dutch boat, ABN AMRO TWO 145 nautical miles to the north. Movistar is nearest to ABN AMRO ONE, with Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) to windward of her and Ericsson Racing Team is behind these two. Brasil 1 sails a similar course to ABN AMRO TWO, but is in fourth place.
In perfect conditions, with blue skies and a 12 knot breeze, the Volvo Ocean Race fleet left Wellington, New Zealand after a short pit stop and headed back into the Southern Ocean on leg four, at 6,700 nautical miles, the longest leg of the race.
As the start cannon sounded it was Paul Cayard and his Pirates onboard the Black Pearl who led the fleet off the start line. Leg three winner, movistar (Bouwe Bekking), started two hours later after opting to take a two-hour penalty for using outside assistance to fix the ‘bomb doors’ on the hull of the boat in preparation for the southern ocean.
By 1600 GMT on start day, February 19, fierce battles were waging everywhere. “In my book, you’d have to go some way to beat situations in the ocean like this, wrote Ericsson Racing Team’s navigator, Steve Hayles. Movistar had made up her two hour penalty and was holding joint lead with ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) and Ericsson (Neal McDonald) was in sight of Pirates. Other than the changing weather conditions, nothing but icebergs and water stood between the boats and the fearsome Cape Horn, also a scoring gate on this leg.
On day two, February 20, at 1000 GMT, it was the familiar sight of the two Dutch boats, ABN AMRO ONE and ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse), at the head of the leaderboard and a battle royal was centred around Ericsson Racing Team and Pirates of the Caribbean.
For this final Southern Ocean leg, two gates were set into the course in order to keep the crews from sailing too far south and straying into iceberg territory. The teams had to pass above the latitude of 48 degrees south at some point between the longitudes of each gate, the first set at 148’000 west and 143’000 west and the second set between 130’000 west and 125’000 west.
The race office had been working with C-Core, a remote sensing firm in Canada, to analyse radar scans of the southern Pacific Ocean in the hope of identifying areas with possible icebergs and it was this analysis that led to the placement of the ice gates in this leg.
As the fleet dived south in an attempt to avoid the worst of the remnants of a tropical storm, which was positioned between the fleet and the first ice gate, they were still very closely bunched, with a north south divide of only 78 nautical miles, but it was approaching ‘crunch time’. The fleet would have to commit to which side of the high pressure system, the remnants of a tropical storm, to go.
“It is either a long trip up and over the top, or a rather nasty upwind beat around the bottom,” explained Simon Fisher, navigator of ABN AMRO TWO. “Until now, we have been biding our time, but the sand in the hour glass is running low and we will have to hedge our bets and see if the others follow.”
Early on day 3, February 21, ABN AMRO ONE made a big decision and took an expensive 43-mile loss, gybing south to position themselves as the furthest boat to the south, putting ABN AMRO TWO briefly into first position. But the second Dutch boat continued to stay in the north. It was too late for them to take the southerly route and they watched their lead dwindle to almost nothing, realizing they were too far north.
“This brings on a range of emotions, from panic to anger, as you wish you could turn back the clock and make that sail change a little bit earlier and go with the fleet,” navigator Simon Fisher noted. Surprisingly, Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) made the same decision and they also had their moment in the sun in the lead.
In the south, the battle still raged in the rest of the fleet. Ericsson moved up to second place, Pirates of the Caribbean was in third, but only two miles behind Ericsson and level pegging with ABNAMRO ONE. Movistar was in sixth place but still well in touch with the fleet, pinned between Ericsson to the north and Pirates of the Caribbean to the south.
Sightings of wildlife were reported by every team with talk of a giant quid being wrapped around the rudder of ABN AMRO ONE, regular albatross fly pasts and whales basking nonchalantly within 10 metres of Ericsson. No ice had been seen, but the temperature was dropping rapidly.
Ocean poker was the name of the game on day four, February 22, as the fleet began its approach to the fist ice gate and it was looking more likely that the gamble taken by ABN AMRO TWO and Brasil 1 would pay off. They were now the nearest to the gate, but ahead, in the area of the gate, the winds were light and fluky. “So who is right and who is wrong?” asked Knut Frostad, watch leader on Brasil 1. “It’s just like playing poker. What cards do you guys hold? Or no cards at all and just showing up a brave face, trying to make everyone believe something?”
Although the rest of the fleet, now 100 miles to the south, had better breeze, they risked having to sail into headwinds to reach the gate and this would slow them considerably.
Onboard, Ericsson Racing Team spent 36 hours repairing a crucial sail and the Brazilians were beginning to feel the cold. “Carabelli was seen on deck last night wearing both a balaclava and a fleece hat on top. I can’t wait to see him when we get closer to zero. Five hats?” asked Norwegian toughie, Knut Frostad. Movistar had their generator in pieces twice, but it was not a serious problem.
By 2200 GMT that night, the position report made dismal reading for ABN AMRO TWO and Brasil 1 in the north. They both posted big losses to the boats in the south when the wind dropped as they sailed nearer to the centre of the high pressure, while the rest of the fleet was still steaming along at 15 knots. The situation had become a navigator’s nightmare as they scratched their heads and spent hours pouring over weather models on their onboard computers, trying to find out the best way to approach the ice gate ahead.
On day five, February 23, the southern ocean simply was not delivering the high speed sleigh rides which everyone associates with this desolate part of the world. Instead, the Volvo Ocean Race fleet was floundering in no wind, but there was a hint of bad weather to come. “One of the reasons for hurrying to the ice gate, apart from the result, is the fact there is a chance that it will blow 50 knots there within 12 hours of us getting there, so the race is on, against the competitors and Mother Nature,” wrote Mike Sanderson from ABN AMRO ONE.
Onboard Ericsson Racing Team, navigator Steve Hayles almost forgot his 33rd birthday. “I’m not really a ‘Christmas and birthdays’ type of bloke and there is no time to celebrate out here, but it got me thinking about this race and my involvement in it,” he wrote.
“I can remember back to a very similar situation 12 years ago, sat in the nav station of a Volvo 60 heading for Cape Horn. There are lots of good things to be doing on your 21st birthday, rather than being bounced around in the ocean, thousands of miles away from the nearest land, but the truth is that it would not have mattered how cold it got, or how broken our boat was, you could not have stopped me from being here on that birthday or any other. It’s hard to describe the addiction you have for something that, for a large percentage of the time, you don’t really get much enjoyment from,” he reflected.
“I used to marvel at guys like Sir Peter Blake, who did this race six times in his amazing career and here I am, on my fourth race, with enough years remaining to complete eight of these races before my 50th birthday. So, will I be sat here on my 49th birthday, heading for Cape Horn at about 50 knots in some amazing new boat? The truth is, I probably won’t be able to keep up with the pace of development, but despite what I am going to write in about a week’s time (I will declare, as I normally do, that I am never coming back again), given half a chance, I know I will be here.
“This is an amazing event, at the pinnacle of a fantastic sport and if I could be granted one wish today, it would be to secure the future of this race for many years to come, so that thousands of youngsters can aspire to be out here and a very lucky few will experience it first hand. “
By 2200 on day 5, Brasil 1 finally picked up the fresh north westerly winds and romped towards the ice gate at a positive 12 knots.
Brasil 1 passed the ice gate today, day 6, and, at 1600 GMT, was scorching towards the second gate before preparing to head south again towards the scoring gate at Cape Horn.
The rest of the fleet was crashing upwind towards the ice gate as fast as the headwinds would allow, in the hope of reaching the gate and being able to crack off downwind before the gales that were forecast in the vicinity materialized.
Steve Hayles signed off his birthday report by saying, poignantly, “Right now it would be a false claim, but I know that we are just two or three days from justifiably being able to claim to be living ‘life at the extreme’.”
GRAND HAVEN, Mich. -- A 47-year old woman was rescued by Coast Guard Station Grand Haven and the local police department around 9:45 a.m. in Lake Michigan about a half mile south of Station Grand Haven.
The Coast Guard and the police pulled her from the ice with a lifering, and they transported her to the hospital.
A good samaritan witnessed the victim fall through the ice and dialed 911.
The Coast Guard urges eveyone venturing on the ice to exercise extreme caution as ice conditions change rapidly due to weather.
Although the order in the Volvo Ocean Race fleet remains unchanged tonight and movistar (Bouwe Bekking) still leads, Brasil 1 (Torben Grael), the most northerly boat, found the wind they needed at approximately 1830 GMT and is romping away at nearly 12 knots. She is above the latitude of the ice gate, but still is still heading north in search of good breeze. The eastern end of the gate is 148 nautical miles due east of her. ABN AMRO TWO is also positioned to the north, but has yet to reach the new wind.
The rest of the fleet, which chose the southerly option, is facing an upwind slog of 150 nautical miles to reach latitude 48 degrees, and, according to Bouwe Bekking, hating every minute of it. “These are the days when you want to hang your sea boots up forever,” he says, “but I can imagine the others hate life more, as movistar has done alright in the last 24 hours.
The next 12 hours or so will be critical and a clearer picture will emerge as to who really is the winner in this strategic game of ocean chess.
With your vehicle, the rule of thumb is to have your motor oil changed every 3000 miles to ensure top performance. This same philosophy works with your sail inventory. Right now is the perfect time to bring your sail inventory to the sail loft to have your sail's oil changed!
An off season "Check and Repair" is a perfect way to ensure a headache free fit out and sailing season with your current sails. Qualified sail technicians will painstakingly "check" over your sails, report their findings, and "repair" any damage that may need attention. This "stitch in time" often times will save nine.
Right now is also the right time to have your sails professionally washed. We recommend having your sails and canvas washed every 2 years at our specialized sail washing facility to help protect white gleam, clean stitching, and remove mildew.
In the meantime, we have assembled a list of suggestions for proper sail care to help keep your sails performing longer.
1. Always protect your sails from unnecessary exposure to sunlight and heat.
2. Avoid prolonged luffing and flogging (motor with your sails down, unless the sails can be filled.
3. Protect from chafe. Make sure spreader patches are located properly.
4. Use specialized sails in their designed wind range. If you have a question on wind range, please consult your Quantum loft.
5. Never back a genoa against a spreader.
6. Avoid over tensioning the halyard (too much tension creates a gutter along the leading edge of the sail.) Remember to ease the halyard when the apparent wind velocity drops.
7. Flake or roll sails (do not stuff) whenever possible for storage.
8. Store sails dry. Nobody likes mildew.
9. Periodically rinse with fresh water. Annual professional washing is recommended.
10. Avoid harsh detergents, solvents, and strong chemicals.
11. Be sure that roller-furling sails are well secured when leaving the boat. Cleat the furling line, take an extra turn on the sheets around the sail, and secure both sheets.
Cheers, and See you sailing soon.
Joe
This month let’s look at the issue of headsail furling systems. In the beginning a furler was a solution to the handling of the headsail. I suppose dragging out a genoa and hanking it onto the headstay is no longer part of sailing, but merely an inconvenience. Like anything else there is bound to be an evolution. Let’s start with the term furler. The furling system allows us to use and store the headsail all in a moments effort. Though the first furling models did solve the sail handling issue they also limited the headsail selection. (Remember that headsails come in various sizes to be used in various wind conditions.) Having a 150% headsail loaded on the furling system might cause quite a battle in 25 knots of wind especially if the sail area cannot be effectively reduced.
As furling systems became more sophisticated so did their capabilities. Even the term “furling system” has upgraded to “headsail handling system”. The reason for the terminology change is that modern products are able to effectively reef the headsail. With the installation of a tapered polypropylene luff rope sewn into the luff of your genoa we can reduce the sail area and flatten the midsection of the sail. This also adds performance to your boat, especially when it comes to the boat’s ability to point. Technology certainly has done us a favor.
The spectrum of these systems begins at the dinghy level making day sailing a snap. Even small one-design boats are using furling drums on their jibs making mark roundings much more efficient.
The mid-size boat represents a large percentage of recreational sailing yachts. For this sailor Harken has developed the MKIII that is relatively maintenance-free with its torlon bearings and hardkote-anodizing for strength and durability. The fit and finish or this product makes this system arguably the best sail-handling product for the dollar. Hood Yacht Systems also has a large share of this market. For those of you with an older Hood line-drive system, Hood has introduced a drum upgrade kit to replace their 800 and 900 line drive systems without the need to replace the systems foils. This upgrade converts the current system into a furler that is capable of holding a reef. The older line drive was only capable of furling and unfurling the headsail.
Larger yachts are particularly in need of sail-handling systems due to the mere size and weight of their sails. The latest product for them is jib reefing driven by hydraulics. If this isn’t enough technological advancement for your taste, let’s add carbon to the drums and headsail foils. The carbon is engineered to look stunning, add strength, and save weight.
Whatever the boat, you can be assured there is a variety of headsail handling systems available to suit your needs and budget. In next month’s products article we’ll look into mainsail handling and a few standout solutions for taming the main.
Last month we examined the role of the broker when assisting in the sale of your sailboat.
What kind of help can a broker offer to the sailboat buyer?
Whether a first time boat buyer, or a buyer with changing interests, you may have difficulty pinning down your specific needs. With knowledge and experience, the Torresen Marine Sailboat Brokerage Department is qualified to assist you in determining what will meet your requirements and the best time to buy. Listed below are some ways we offer our support while negotiating the purchase of a vessel.
1. Focus: Several factors may effect your selection. Will you use the boat for racing or pleasure, where will you use the boat, how many people will be involved, and what kind of boats are popular in your area? Consider the style of the boat. Should it be traditional or contemporary? Suit the boat to your own personal style and taste. Price of the boat should not be the whole factor. Quite often the more expensive boat will resell quicker, with less depreciation.
2. Pre-Purchase Boat Research: If you are looking at a particular boat, we can help you decide if this is the right boat for you at this time. We will provide the boat’s current survey if available, history and condition. We can also give insight to the motivation of the seller, prior to your spending time with research or inspection of the boat. A Torresen Marine broker can give accurate market value for boats of this style and can also research what selling prices have been on similar models. We can also let you know if there are other boats of this type available.
3. Concluding the Deal: When you place an offer on a boat, the Torresen Marine broker can improve your chances of acceptance in several ways. We will help prepare an offer with a realistic price, with terms that the seller and buyer can agree on. Torresen Marine will hold a good faith deposit, demonstrating to the seller that this is an earnest offer. We use our position as a middleman to keep the negotiations between buyer and seller moving to a successful conclusion.
4. After the Sale: The Torresen Marine broker can lead you in the right direction for many things you may not have originally considered such as: insurance, docking, mooring, storage and possibly sailing lessons. We can provide an orientation sail to help familiarize you with your new boat. Our experience on local waters can help you plan local or distant trips. We also have many sailing contacts and can put you in touch with different sailing clubs, for races or rendezvous’.
“The pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change, the realist adjusts the sails.” William Arthur Ward
March is a month of transition. It “comes in like a lion” and eventually “leaves like a lamb”. From pessimistic gray days we can feel the optimism of spring’s inception and anticipate that final break in the weather. This anticipation makes March the perfect month to ready your mind and vessel for the pending launch season. The following article will attempt to address those pre-launch preparation needs.
Boats are complicated beasts, as they incorporate many systems similar to those found in our homes and autos. You have kitchen and bath system maintenance siding with engine and structural upkeep. The roster of systems is endless. This also means that the upkeep is endless. Preparing a list of your systems and their pending maintenance, potential and real, will make for an easier launch season.
With your projects mapped into systems, it is time to place these systems into one of two categories, work done out of the water, and that whilst in water. Those jobs necessary prior to launch are most likely related to the under side and the remote realms of your vessel, i.e. hull prep, and any prop and engine work. These pre-launch jobs are often the largest of your spring workload in terms of time, cost and labor. Common knowledge dictates that you are also at the mercy of Mother Nature, who is unpredictable at best. Therefor a list, with calendar, is a great way to project your workload, costs and count down to launch.
Below is a suggestion list for pre-launch endeavors:
Inspect and attend to propeller, shaft, and the shaft zinc.
Inspect fixed and swing keels for damage, leaks and mechanism failures
Attend to your engine’s stuffing box
Seal and inspect all transducers and seawater intakes
Prepare and bottom paint hull
Check engine lines, zincs, & filters and commission for use at launch
Inspect rigging for safety issues
With the pre-launch workload mapped out you will want to configure your shopping list. The last thing you want to do is get to the boat shorthanded. What Torresen Marine tends to sell the most of each spring is listed below to assist you:
Bottom Paint (figure one can every 10 linear feet of boat)
Paint Trays, Brushes, Strainers
Filters, Oil and Fuel
Oil, per Quart
Oil Absorbent Pads
Stuffing Box Packing and Zincs
Fuel, Water and Exhaust Hose, Cut to Length
Rigging Tape
Silicone & Caulking Sealant and Epoxies
With the pre-launch work tackled you may concentrate on your immediate and future “in the water needs”. Every sailor’s needs & goals are different; therefor mapping and organizing these like your pre-launch work is equally beneficial.
With all this preparation and work in store the Torresen Marine staff would like to remind you of our Annual Spring Thaw, March 11th. The items listed above, along with our entire stock, will be offered at discounted prices. It’s a great opportunity to get your supplies, while saving some time and money.
The last two days have been a nightmare for the navigators in the Volvo Ocean Race as they scratch their heads and spend hours looking at weather models on their onboard computers, trying to find the best way to approach the ice gate ahead.
Steve Hayles, navigator for Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald), has had a pretty harrowing few days. He has some very clear plans in his mind, but because each team has a restricted number of sails onboard it is not always possible to sail the boat to the optimum place on the race course with the sails they have. “We have to try and double guess what other competitors are going to do, what the weather is going to do and what sails we have to get us closest to where Steve wants us to be,” explained skipper Neal McDonald today. “All in all, the last day or so has been very harrowing for him, and I think over the next days it will be hard work, really hard work, for all the boats.”
Andrew Cape, navigator on movistar (Bouwe Bekking) is pragmatic and says he’s not gambling at all. “We are 160 miles away from Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) and one of us is going to be right and one of us is going to be wrong. We are doing the best we can, but it will go one way or another. I am very happy with where we are.”
Onboard ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Joss), the constant companion of Brasil 1 in the north, the nervous times continue as the team has headed into the ridge of high pressure in a bid to cross it early and reach the new breeze on the other side. “While we are battling it out in five knots of breeze, the majority of the fleet is steaming along at 15 knots and the scheds (position reports) make for very dismal reading.”
Dismal reading indeed tonight for these two as the 2200 GMT position report shows a loss of 21 miles for ABN AMRO TWO and worse for Brasil 1 as they post a loss 44 miles in the last six hours. In the south, movistar in third place and Ericsson Racing Team in fourth place both gained four miles on leading boat, ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), while second placed Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) gained two miles.
The Southern Ocean is simply not delivering the high speed sleigh rides which everyone associates with this desolate part of the world. Instead, the Volvo Ocean Race fleet is floundering in a no wind zone, with just a hint that there is bad weather to come.
Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) and ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) are positioning themselves to break out over the top of the ridge, while the other group of four will sail beneath it. The two boats in the north are barely making 8 knots, while the boats to the south are averaging 11.
The southerly boats are hoping for the wind to go into the east which will enable them to tack and then still cross the two boats in the north. Movistar (Bouwe Bekking) now in first position, was the first to make the break, tacking at 0940 GMT this morning. Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) is just a mile behind movistar, but has yet to change course. Ericsson Racing Team is the slowest of this group and furthest to the north.
ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), the most southerly of the fleet, 260 miles due south of the ice gate, said today, “One of the reasons that it is worthy hurrying to the gate, apart from the result, is the fact there is a chance that it will blow 50 knots there within 12 hours of us getting there… so the race is on, against the competitors and Mother Nature.”
Each spring certain tasks need to be done to comission your boat. Painting the bottom is a common one. This article covers applying Interlux's VC 17 anti fouling paint.
VC 17 is always available at special prices in our ships store and online at shop.torresen.com
Applying VC 17 Bottom Paint
VC-17 is one of the easiest antifouling paints to apply, and to maintain. But like any other antifouling system, there are some things that have to be done both at the initial application and as part of an annual maintenance program. There are three basic application situations that will be encountered. I'll take them one at a time.
First is the new application. This means applying VC-17 to a new boat or a boat that has recently had a different antifouling system on it that has been removed. Essentially a clean fiberglass hull. If it's a new hull, it must be dewaxed completely to remove any residual mold release wax. This should be done with the Interlux 202 Solvent Wash. We recommend using a two-rag system. One to put the solvent on the hull, another to wipe it clean. Change both rags frequently and remember not to dip the application rag back into the solvent container, thereby contaminating it.
When you're done with the entire hull, take a hose or container of water and wet down portions of the hull. If the water beads up, there's still wax on the hull and the process must be repeated. Failure to remove the wax can prevent the paint adhering to the hull. Also please note, this must be done before sanding the hull so as not to imbed the wax in the gelcoat during the sanding process.
When you are sure you've removed all the wax from the hull, the next step is to sand the entire surface to be painted with VC-17. This is a must. You must abrade the hull to provide a profile for the paint to stick to. Failure to do so can result in the paint detaching from the hull. The hull should be sanded with 180-grit sandpaper, 220 at the finest.
After sanding wipe the hull down with 202 Solvent Wash again to remove sanding residue. Some boat manufacturers aren't in favor of sanding hulls because they feel this may increase the likelihood of osmotic blistering. I know of no evidence to support this, but it is the manufacturers warranty. In this case there has been some success reported using a coarse Scotch Brite Pad to scrub the hull. This can be done with the 202 Solvent wash. You must be sure to leave a visible scratch in the gelcoat. I'd have to say that I feel this would provide minimal adhesion at best and I can't recommend the system even though I know it's done.
After cleaning and abrading the surface, you're ready to apply the paint. Pick a day that isn't raining, and is above 50 degrees F. You'll notice that under the hat on the VC-17 can there is a bag of copper. This must be mixed into the paint. Please be careful doing this as the copper is very fine and will fly around. (Perhaps a good time for a paper sanding mask) This is what provides the antifouling. You'll notice the can is short filled to allow you to add the copper and stir it in without spilling. This does NOT mean that the can should be filled with a solvent. This is not the case. Only in rare cases should any antifouling paint be thinned and in the case of VC-17, almost never.
The paint is best applied with a roller or by spray, IF the yard you're in allows spraying. Please check with the yard manager about this. If you can and do choose to spray, contact your Interlux representative for details. If you're going to roll, any solvent resistant foam or short nap roller cover will work.
The recommended system is to start from the bottom of the hull or keel, and roll upwards. Do not over roll or attempt to "smooth" the paint out. It's self-leveling and will do that itself. Just make one pass up to the waterline tape then start over at the bottom. Keep the roller well filled with paint, but not to the point that it runs off onto the ground, or your arm.
A word of caution, This paint dries very quickly. Do not pour the entire can into the tray. It will evaporate. Pour in just enough to fill the roller, then add more to the tray when you need to refill the roller. Work your way around the boat working back to the place you started. During an initial application, ALWAYS apply two coats. The second coat can be applied after the first coat has dried, about a half an hour under most conditions. Remove the tape and the boat can be launched about a
half-hour after painting.
Second application type - you already have VC-17 on the boat. Reapplication is one of the joys of this product. Assuming the boat was pressure washed and stored relatively clean, all that is required is to wipe the hull down with a damp rag to remove any dust or particles that may be on the hull. Inspect the bottom to insure there are no abrasions or flaking spots. If there are, these can and should be touched up lightly with 180 grit on a sanding pad. Just feather in the affected area, wipe to remove any dust and repaint. There is no need to sand the entire hull, in fact, it's not recommended. If you do, there is a danger of sanding through, which would require applying two coats again. Applying the paint is the same as above described procedure and once again, the boat can be launched in about one half-hour. That's all there is to it!
The third instance. Applying VC-17 over an epoxy barrier coat. It is not true, by the way, that VC-17 can only be applied over VC Tar. While it certainly can be, it goes on over Interprotect Epoxy barrier coats just as well. In this case apply the barrier coat according to the instructions. After applying the last coat of tar or epoxy, follow the instruction for applying the first coat of antifouling without sanding (called "hot" or "wet on wet" coating) in the case of VC Tar or Interprotect 2000E/2001E. In the case of Interprotect 3000/3001, you must let the epoxy harden and sand with 180 just as though it were a new hull. Please be sure you're reading the correct times for applying antifouling paints (not another coat of epoxy, they're different). The second coat of VC-17 can be applied when the first has dried, again, about a half an hour. Words of caution here, If you have just applied a barrier coat, please do not launch the boat in a half-hour. Please allow the epoxy to cure for as long as possible before launching. (A week perhaps.) This is especially important in the case of VC Tar as this product takes a long time to cure and lifting the boat too soon can cause the straps to distort the tar at lifting points. Maintenance after this is just the same as described above. And that's all there is to it. While it doesn't achieve the boating Nirvana we all look for, the bottom that never has to be worked on, it does come about as close as chemistry will allow us in this day and age. For any questions, Contact Torresen Marine or visit us online at shop.torresen.com
Mike Sanderson and the crew of ABN AMRO ONE are back at the front of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet after a daring tactical move that saw the crew swap first place for last in a dash to find better conditions further south. Thankfully for Sanderson the maneuver proved to be one of the best tactical decisions of the race so far and put ABN AMRO ONE back into the lead within 30 hours of loosing it.
The decision to gybe to the south came on Monday night when concerns over a ridge of low pressure system to the north finally persuaded navigator Stan Honey, 50, of Palo Alto, Calif. and Mike Sanderson to bite the bullet and cut across the fleet to the south. Fortunately the crew were well positioned for the next phase of weather in the south and were able to make up the ground they’d lost by clocking up the fastest speed of the leg to date – 20.1 knots and a massive 482 nautical miles. By the last sched the crew had their noses back in front.
“We did the right thing, which is sometimes very hard to do”, said Sanderson. “We bit the bullet, got behind on a couple of skeds but now we’re back in the lead.”
Commenting on the extremely tough decision to change direction Navigator, Stan Honey, said, “These races are full of gut-wrenching decisions. We had a nice lead, but we were in a precarious position with respect to the weather. We needed to get South, away from the ridge below the wandering low that has been occupying our attention for the last several days. In a few days it looked like it might join up with another low on a Southern Ocean front and contribute towards the "mother of all" lows in the Westerlies heading towards the Horn. To do that required gybing to get South, which had the affect of sailing ourselves into last place. We've had to watch this movie on some of the previous legs as well, having to make gut-wrenching decisions that took us into last place in order to position ourselves where we wanted to be. The only good news about yesterday was that we had the resolve to make the hard decision.”
The conditions have certainly not favored the boats in the north as ABN AMRO TWO found to its cost. Having headed north out of Wellington Seb Josse found the best of the winds and moved into the lead after ABN AMRO ONE had gybed. The latest report however has the young crew in 5th position just ahead of Brasil 1 which sits at the top of the fleet in the most northerly position.
Staying with the pack is the strategy that ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) has elected to follow after their expensive gybe earlier today to position themselves to the south of the fleet. At first this move appeared terrible, but now it is pay back time as the team climbs up to fourth place. Down in the south, Sanderson reports beautiful, fast sailing in clear blue skies with flat water.
But for their Dutch team mates on ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse), south is now not an option. They are committed to the north and if they were to cut their losses now and gybe south, they would cross behind the rest of the fleet. They have watched their lead dwindle to almost nothing and, having realised they were too far north, had no choice but to accept that the rest of the fleet was going to come rumbling up from behind. Over the last six hours they have lost another 11 miles.
“This brings on a range of emotions from panic to anger as you wish you could turn back the clock and make that sail change a little bit earlier and go with the fleet. It is easy to start making irrational decisions and start gybing and chasing south to get to the fleet, but in the nav station, we made an agreement to stick by our guns and not go roaring around the ocean in a blind panic,” explains Simon Fisher, navigator of ABN AMRO TWO. Fisher added, “luckily, with every sched (position report) that has come in, we have been pleasantly surprised how little we have in fact lost. With any luck the bleeding will soon stop and we can go back on the offensive again.”
Surprising, Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) made the same choice but now have their moment in the sun as they take over the lead.
At daybreak this morning, Brasil 1 was just behind ABN AMRO TWO and a close race is developing between the two boats in the north. “It is very exciting as we are all having a pretty extreme approach to the ice gate. We have chosen to stay north of the fleet to give us more options and some other boats have chosen a more southerly route. The wind will drop close to the ice gate so I think things will be shaken around in the fleet quite a lot. ABN AMRO TWO is on our bow, 1.5 miles and we can see her and they have a spinnaker up. At the moment we are two boats quite alone up here, to the north of the fleet,” Knut Frostad from Brasil 1 reported to race HQ this afternoon.
In the south, the battle still rages in the rest of fleet. Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald) moves up to second place, a position which will please this team who are badly in need of some good luck. Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) is in third place, but only two miles behind Ericsson and level pegging with ABN AMRO ONE. Movistar brings up the rear in sixth place, but still well in touch with the rest of the fleet, just 22 miles behind the leader, pinned between Ericsson to the north and Pirates of the Caribbean to the south.
As the fleet begins its approach to the first ice gate, it is looking more and more likely that the gamble taken by ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) and Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) to stay to the north of the main bulk of the fleet, may well pay off. These two are nearest to the gate, approximately 500 miles to the north of them. Around the gate, the winds are light, but once they have passed above it, they may have the opportunity to reach off at greater speeds.
Although the rest of the fleet, positioned 100 nautical miles to the south has better breeze, they may have to sail to windward to reach the gate and this will slow them considerably. ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) is back in the lead, but for how long? The worse case scenario is struggling to get to the gate and, in the end, having to beat in an increasing northerly breeze.
“So who is right and who is wrong?” asks Knut Frostad from Brasil 1. “It’s just like playing poker. What cards to you guys hold? Or no cards at all and just showing up a brave face, trying to make everyone believe something? “
“It’s a bit hairy right now to hear the six hour scheds (position reports) and everyone onboard movistar is holding his breath when the positions come in,” wrote skipper of movistar, Bouwe Bekking, this morning. “We are trying to sail around the high and means we are nearly 50 degrees off course. It makes a huge difference if another boat sails a closer course to the waypoint,” he added.
Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald) is the furthest north of the group trying to sail around the high pressure. She is 27 miles north of movistar. Movistar is just three miles north of Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) and Cayard is 18 miles north of ABN AMRO ONE, a total north south divide of approximately 50 miles in this pack.
The remnants of a tropical storm are causing some headaches for the six Volvo Ocean Race crews as they plan their approach to the first ice way point on leg four, approximately 900 miles ahead and to the north. There are some very complex strategy decisions to be made and there is a complicated weather pattern ahead. Already there have been some quite diverging courses which is unusual for this fleet. The decision to be made is immensely intricate and it will be another two days or so before it becomes clear as to which team made the right choices.
Paul Cayard (Pirates of the Caribbean) in fourth place, explains, “Right now we are working our way to the first ice way point and we are going to have some trickiness there which we wouldn’t normally encounter in the southern ocean, because we have to go through a fixed point. There is a big hole in the wind there. There is a cyclone which is hopefully dying slowly, causing a lot of turbulence in the waves and the wind and so we are going to have some very strange winds in the last 12 hours going into that gate. “
At 23.25 GMT yesterday, ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) made the decision to take a 43 nautical mile loss and gybe south. They gybed back again at 02.40 GMT this morning and are now the most southerly boat in the fleet, making the best speed and benefiting from bigger breeze.
The tropical storm is making its way south towards the position of the first ice gate, possibly arriving at the same time as the fleet. The options are either to go to the north of it, which would carry the higher risk, or to sail to the south of it, which is what the fleet has decided to do. Sailing to the south of the depression also carries risks. It is possible that the storm may move faster south and the fleet could end up in 40 knots of headwinds in order to reach the ice gate.
The boats furthest north have the shortest distance to the finish in Rio de Janeiro, which puts ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) in the lead. The team is cutting the corner to the ice gate, but is closest to the centre of the depression. The danger in this move is that they may find they run out of wind and need to gybe to get south later which could be very costly.
The drama will be played out over the next 48 hours or so.
The Swiss Defender has been allocated sail number 91. The new boat, SUI91, is under construction at Décision Boatyard in Vevey, Switzerland, under the critical eyes of yard director Bertrand Cardis, chief designer Rolf Vrolijk, chief engineer Dirk Kramers, boatbuilding manager Michel Marie and head of design Grant Simmer.
The relationship is a strong one, this being the yard that built both SUI64, the 2003 America’s Cup winning boat, and SUI75, the ACC 2005 Championship winner. Bertrand Cardis comments on the alliance: “Historically, we have been involved with Alinghi since the first day of the creation of the team in June 2000. We have had a very successful collaboration since then!”
Twenty five boatbuilders are involved in the new boat, from both the Décision and the Alinghi camps and the aim is to have the boat finished by May.
The crew will then complete structural checks and start training on the boat. Grant Simmer comments on progress: “The construction of our first new boat for the defence of the America’s Cup is progressing on schedule. Luckily we enjoy a very productive relationship with Bertrand Cardis’ team at Décision and we benefit from the collaboration and experience both within Alinghi and at Décision. Michel Marie is in Vevey regularly while our head boatbuilder Gary Hutchinson and several other Alinghi boatbuilders are working full time to complete the boat.”
Meanwhile, at the base in Valencia, the sailing team is reassembling in the gym and on the water match racing the Beneteau 7.5s. Helmsman Ed Baird comments: “For many of the team it has been a while since they have been racing, so this is a good opportunity to get two of the little boats out and to put different people in different jobs on board. It is good practice and good for the energy of the team to get on the water and racing again. When the big boats are ready we'll spend a lot of time testing and although testing is important it's not thrilling for the guys. They like racing, so that's what we are doing."
Next stop will be Lenzerheide in Switzerland from 4 to 11 March for the winter physical training camp, a week’s intensive training before getting back to base to start two-boat testing at the end of March.
The longest and toughest leg of the Volvo Ocean Race got underway today in a brisk 15 knots of wind. ABN AMRO ONE and TWO stormed out of Wellington harbour in a comfortable second and third place on their way to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As the start gun went, Wellingtonians in their thousands lined the quay and spectator boats filled all corners of the bay – Wellington harbour providing a huge natural ampitheatre for the Volvo 70 fleet.
Despite causing some controversy, the first pit stop of the new Volvo Ocean Race format has been especially memorable for the significant numbers of kiwi team members, who only wish that they were able to stay longer in New Zealand. The rules of the pit stop have meant that no shore crew have been able to board the boats and all repairs have had to be carried out by the sailing team using the equipment they have onboard. For ABN AMRO ONE and TWO this has meant they have both spent the last few days ensuring their bent pulpits, which were damaged as the boats ploughed into heavy seas on leg 3, are ready to face what lies ahead.
This next leg, which is 6,700 miles long, will take the fleet deep into the Southern Ocean and round the notorious Cape Horn before the upwind section north to Brazil. As the crews head into their first night the prediction is they will face 25 knots of wind. The forecast for the coming days is for strong westerlies as they return to the Southern Ocean, but with the tail end of a tropical storm added to the mix as they approach the first ice waypoint in five days time it is set to be a tough leg for the fleet.
For ABN AMRO TWO the other important part of this pit stop was a crew change. Bowman Gerd Jan Poortman has been forced to sit out leg four due to a dislocated tail bone sustained after being thrown down the deck on the first night of Leg 3. Team mate Brazilian Lucas Brun, who has replaced the injured Poortman, will get the opportunity to arrive into his home town, Rio having sailed the notorious Southern Ocean.
Mike Sanderson, skipper of ABN AMRO ONE on the dockside prior to the start: "Thank you very much to Wellington for a fantastic pit stop – they have really turned it on for us and as a kiwi I am delighted to have 'been home' even for such a short time. There are some nerves about this leg, I think it is healthy for anyone going down into the Southern Ocean to be a little apprehensive but we plan to sail our boat in our way and keeping ABN AMRO ONE in one piece will be a big priority for us. If we can sail a solid leg, complete the miles and keep earning points we will have done what we set out to do."
Sebastien Josse, skipper of ABN AMRO TWO commented: "This leg is going to be a big one – it’s more extreme than some of the others, more adventure. I think we need to aim to get to Cape Horn in one piece, and then after that we will race a bit harder. The wind often changes at Cape Horn, where the oceans meet - in the Vendee Globe I arrived there in 25 knots and left in a massive 55 knot squall!! After Cape Horn it will become more tactical, you can choose to go either inside or outside of the Falkland Islands and then it’s a straight line to Rio. I think that it is definitely good to have the ice waypoints, we need to sail safely as these boats are so fast. The big change for us on this leg is that we bring Lucas onboard, he will do pit and Scott Beavis will do bow with Simeon. Scott has done this leg before in the bowman position, and I think it is better to have a bowman with as much experience as possible for this leg. We are now looking forward to getting racing and having the opportunity to sail a long leg again – it suits our boats better and should make for some good sailing.”
On Sunday 19 February, the six Volvo Open 70s will embark on a 6,700nm trek across the Southern Oceans to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Historically the longest and most grueling leg of the race, leg four could throw anything at the sailors from icebergs to furious gales, huge waves and extreme cold. The pressure is on the Ericsson Racing Team which is currently sixth on the leaderboard.
Following the strategic decision to suspend racing two days ago, the Ericsson Racing Team officially crossed the finish line in Wellington today, Saturday 18 February, at 02:57 am GMT, signaling the conclusion of leg three. Less than 24 hours later they will depart for the next leg of this marathon race; a brutal ride south towards the infamous Cape Horn and then on to Rio. The pressure's on the Ericsson boys, who need to get a good result in order to climb their way back up the leaderboard. Ericsson is currently in sixth place, 1.5 points behind Brasil 1 and 3 points behind Pirates of the Caribbean.
The start gun will fire at 14.30 local time (01.30 GMT) in Lambton Harbour - the bay located in front of Wellington - from a line extending northwards from the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club.
"This is going to be an interesting leg, and it is obviously an important one for us," commented skipper Neal McDonald. "Our shore crew has been working flat out during the stopover in Melbourne, and again here in Wellington. They have done a fantastic job and thanks to them we will start this difficult leg with a boat in great shape." McDonald continued: "Ericsson and all of our partners and our families must also be thanked for their moral support. They have understood well that we are involved in a mechanical sport, and that we use innovative technology that is being improved all the time. The crew is in very good spirits despite our current ranking and a big part of that comes down to the support that we have had."
Unlike in previous Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Races, where the boats were allowed to dive as far south as they wanted, two ice-gates have been added for safety reasons at the latitude of 48 degrees south.
"The first hours of racing will be interesting," commented navigator Steve Hayles. "In the past, we were starting from Auckland and diving south immediately. Leaving from Wellington is different, particularly because of the ice gates. We could see the boats adopt very different routes."
The weather forecast for the start is fairly light northerly winds in Wellington harbour and Cook Strait. The spectacular sailing will soon happen, as the boats reach the strong westerly gales.
"During this leg, we will sail in almost all the conditions one can imagine, from deep Southern Ocean racing to tropical weather once we reach Brazil," comments Hayles. "All the focus is on the first part of the leg. But in my experience, the second part - after Cape Horn - is the most challenging one. It is often where the race gets lost or won. For example, we can sail east or west of the Falkland Islands and this is one of the most important decisions on the whole leg."
3.5 points will be up for grabs at the Cape Horn scoring gate, so the teams will be keen to reach this landmark as quickly as possible in order to win this "race in the race". The boats are due to arrive into Rio de Janeiro any day from 6 March after approximately three weeks at sea. At this point they will be three-quarters of the way round the world, although less than half the points will have been allocated.
February 19, 2006, Wellington, New Zealand – Wellington provided a spectacular backdrop as leg four of the Volvo Ocean Race got underway bound for Rio de Janeiro via the Southern Ocean.
In perfect conditions, with blue skies and gentle 12 knots breezes, the fleet jostled for the best position on the start line, just a stone’s throw away from the shore and in full view of the hundreds of spectators that had lined Queen’s Wharf.
As the cannon sounded it was Pirates of the Caribbean, Skippered by Paul Cayard (USA), who had positioned themselves in the best place and shot off the start line closely pursued by overall race leaders ABN AMRO ONE. Seb Josse (FRA) and the young crew on ABN AMRO TWO crossed the line next followed by Brasil 1 and Ericsson.
As the fleet headed upwind to the first turning mark, Pirates of the Caribbean had sneaked out an eleven second lead from Mike Sanderson and his crew on ABN AMRO ONE.
The fleet weaved their way up the shoreline, in a battle to reach the second mark and be the first boat to hoist the spinnaker. Pirates of the Caribbean showed great pace and by mark two had pulled out a 33 second lead over ABN AMRO TWO. Despite making a last minute crew change, the Pirates crew work was slick and they continued to charge out in front.
Further down the fleet, Brasil 1 had problems with their headsail but managed to hold out Neal McDonald’s (GBR) Ericsson causing them to tack for the mark. Ericsson went for an early hoist on the spinnaker and rounded just behind Torben Grael’s (BRA) Brasil 1.
The fleet was a spectacular site for those watching from the shore and by spectator boat, as they picked up speed in the 16 knots gusts and headed out of the Bay. Pirates of the Caribbean pulled away and established a healthy lead from ABN AMRO ONE, who had also managed to pull away from their team mates on ABN AMRO TWO. Brasil 1 and Ericsson continue to tussle at the back of the fleet, with Brasil 1 just having a small advantage over the Swedish entry.
Amongst the spectators watching the start from Queen’s Wharf was the unusual site of a race crew staring out to sea and a Volvo Open 70 still tied to the dock. The crew of movistar, who incurred a two hour time penalty when they opted to repair the boat during the pit stop, carefully watched the route the fleet had taken hoping that they would be able to make up the two hours over the 6,700 nautical mile leg.
Navigator Andrew Cape commented: “It certainly feels strange to be standing on shore and watch the rest of the fleet starting. We had to fix the boat and it was not an option for us. Two hours is not very long over that distance and we will just have to work hard to catch up.”
Leg four is one of the most spectacular legs in the race as it takes the crew round Cape Horn before finally finishing in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The fleet are expected to be at sea for 18 days arriving in Rio around the 9 March 2006.
19 February 2006 - The fourth offshore leg of the Volvo Ocean Race kicked off today from Wellington (NZL); a 6,700 nautical mile trip to Rio de Janeiro (BRA). The Ericsson Racing Team left Wellington with an intense desire to do well. The world's fastest offshore monohulls are due to arrive in Brazil after a minimum of 19-20 days of extreme Southern Ocean sailing.
It was an emotional departure this morning as anxious wives and children bid goodbye to their husbands and fathers on the dockside, before sending them off for three weeks of thrilling Southern Ocean racing. Wellington has really turned it on during this action packed pit stop, with fantastic weather and an electric atmosphere throughout.
"You always feel apprehensive ahead of this leg," commented kiwi crewmember Richard Mason on the dockside. "It's a brutal leg but it's what this race is all about. Our shore crew has fine tuned the boat and our confidence in her is increasing all the time. We will give it our best and hope for some fantastic sailing."
Conditions were light and gusty, with 8-10 knots of northerly breeze, as the start gun fired at 14.30 local time (01.30 GMT). There were just five boats lined up, due to movistar's decision to take the two hour penalty in Wellington in order to carry out repairs. Ericsson was in the middle of the pack but was slightly off the pace. ABN Two was the furthest to windward, then Pirates of the Caribbean who had the best start with full genoa up. Ericsson, sailing with a smaller jib, was covered by Pirates and Brasil 1 and lost ground on the leaders.
The fleet performed an inshore course in the bay, before heading out of the Heads and into the Cook Strait. By the time the yachts left the Heads, the wind had built to 20 knots. The boats are now looking to catch the next weather system, and could adopt very different routes on their way to the first ice gate, at 48 degrees south.
Shorts and t-shirts will soon be replaced by a full set of fowl weather gear as the temperature drops and the boats reach the strong westerly gales that will propel them towards the scoring gate at Cape Horn. After that it will be tropical weather as they approach Brazil.
Ericsson is currently in sixth place on the leaderboard, 3.5 points behind Brasil 1 and 5 points behind Pirates of the Caribbean. With 10.5 points available on this leg, they have an opportunity - and a huge desire - to make a comeback in this race. The fleet is expected to arrive into Rio de Janeiro in approximately three weeks time.
- End -
Notes to Editors
Ericsson Racing Team, headed by Ericsson, the world's leading telecommunications supplier is supported by Sony, Sony Ericsson and by Semcon as design and development partner. For updates and pictures on the Ericsson Racing Team's participation in the Volvo Ocean Race, please visit www.ericssonracingteam.com. You can register as media to download high resolution images for editorial use. High resolution video footage is available on request.
Follow the race on your mobile (get the latest position updates and news sent to your phone) by sending the text message "Alert" to +46 737 49 49 49 (normal SMS text message charges apply; services may not work on all operator networks). Get the mobile portal pushed to your phone by sending the text message "Join" to +46 737 49 49 49 (wireless data account with operator is required).
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After a spectacular re-start from Wellington, New Zealand, earlier this morning, the Volvo Ocean Race fleet now returns to the treacherous Southern Ocean as it takes on 6,700 miles of gales and icebergs in the longest leg of the event.
Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) led the fleet at the gun and for the next few hours, while movistar (Bouwe Bekking) sat out the start, waiting out their two-hour penalty before crossing the starting line. But, at 1000 this morning it was the familiar sight of the two Dutch yachts, ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) and ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) at the head of the fleet, just two miles apart, while movistar has a deficit of 13 nautical miles to catch up.
The fleet is currently 330 miles west of the Chatham Islands. Furthest to the east is ABN AMRO TWO, with Ericsson Racing Team furthest to the west, in an east west divide of 14 miles.
As the Volvo Ocean Race heads south, and the lead is extended by ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), with the second Dutch boat, ABN AMRO TWO following, the main action in the fleet is between Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald) and Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard).
It is hard not to race against another boat when you can see it and Ericsson Racing Team and Pirates of the Caribbean have been in sight of each other and locking horns for the past 24 hours.
“We have had a great battle with them [Pirates],” said Steve Hayles, the British navigator onboard Ericsson Racing Team. “We’ve swapped sides a couple of times and we’ve been going better than them for a good section of it, and then they made a little gain. It’s all down to exactly what sails you’ve got and what the wind is up to. As you make sail changes you loose a little bit, but then hopefully you get it back. It’s been a very interesting battle, we’re very, very similar boats, we’re the same design boat and it’s fairly even.
Paul Cayard and his Pirates are sailing with a man down as Craig Satterthwaite is still sick in his bunk with tonsillitis, which isn’t helping the situation with Ericsson Racing Team. “We’re having a mini battle with them. In fact we’re having a mini battle with everyone out here,” said Paul Cayard. We could actually see them [Ericsson Racing Team] a lot of the time. We were see-sawing back and forth. By and large, they have sailed a little bit faster than us in the last 24 hours. “
Movistar (Bouwe Bekking) reports that that his crew has packed food for 23 days for this leg. “Very conservative, but we don’t want to run out,” says Bouwe Bekking, explaining, “that would be a disaster for our bodies not to forget our minds.” “Food is good for moral and the moral of our troops is good, and we’re ready to take the battle on,” threatens Bekking.
Onboard Brasil 1 (Torben Grael), the crew has had the sewing machine out, repairing a sail they damaged on the start line. Although they are 68 miles from the leading boat, they have gained nine miles in the last six hour period.
At the head of the fleet, onboard ABN AMRO TWO it is approaching crunch time. “Before long we will have to commit to which side of the ex-tropical storm we will go,” explains navigator Simon Fisher. “It is either a long trip up and over the top or a rather nasty upwind beat around the bottom of the system. Until now we have been biding our time and going east as fast we can, while our decision has been unclear, but the sand in the hour glass is running low and will have to hedge our bets and see if the others follow..”
February 18, 2006, Wellington, New Zealand – It was all go on the final day before the Volvo Ocean Race fleet departs as Ericsson finished leg three, Pirates of the Caribbean made a last minute crew change and movistar returned to the water.
After suspending racing at the end of leg three to make repairs to the boat, Ericsson, skippered by British sailor Neal McDonald, finally crossed the finish line on Wellington Bay two days after the winning boat of the leg - movistar.
Although Ericsson has spent the last 24 hours tied up on Queen’s Wharf, next to the other Volvo Open 70’s, she had not actually finished leg three and therefore could not be awarded finishing points. As the stop in Wellington is a pit-stop, shore crew members are not permitted onboard unless the teams wish to incur a two-hour time penalty. As Ericsson’s leg points could not be affected because it was the last boat to finish, the team made the call to carry out their repairs on leg three to prevent them having to take a two hour time penalty for leg four.
McDonald said: “We had an opportunity to fix a wiring problem that we had. It was an issue and we needed professional help to get it fixed, which we have now done. We desperately need points on this leg and we have a lot of work to do. We are up against some incredibly good teams and we have to try and get some points and sail hard. It is really important for us as a team to do that.”
It was a busy day for the leg winners on movistar. After celebrating their first leg victory in the race, the boat was hauled out to repair damage to the bottom of the boat. movistar is the only boat to decide to take the two hour time penalty and will start leg four at 1630 (local), two hours after the rest of the fleet have departed.
As if getting ready for the longest leg is not hard enough, Paul Cayard (USA), Skipper of Pirates of the Caribbean, suffered disappointment as team member Curtis Blewett (CAN) bowed out of leg four due to injury. Shore member Jeremy Smith (NZ) steps up to the role and will join the Pirates for the next leg.
Blewett, who had taken time out from Alinghi to race with the team and will return as planned to the America’s Cup in March, commented: “I am very disappointed because we were a late entry to the race and it has taken a lot of work to get The Black Pearl working well. We finally reached that point in Melbourne and gained a great deal on leg three.”
The skippers were wished on their way today by Conservation Minister Chris Carter, who presented each of the skippers with a copy of the book Subantarctic New Zealand before the skippers signed a pledge to support the Save the Albatross campaign which has been adopted by the Volvo Ocean Race.
Leg four takes the teams 6,700 nautical miles through the Southern Ocean, via Cape Horn, to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The fleet will start from a line in the vicinity of Lambton Harbour, Port Nicholson, before racing around two marks in the harbour and then heading off out to sea and over the horizon.
To prevent the fleet heading too far South in the Southern Ocean and risk colliding with icebergs, two ice gates have been inserted into the course which the teams will have to pass north of at some point. The fleet are expected to arrive into Rio de Janeiro on the 9th March.
During the entire leg there is an opportunity to pick up ten and a half points. The lead boat around Cape Horn will pick up three and a half points as the Horn provides a spectacular scoring gate. The leg winner will add a further seven points to their overall score.
Although ABN AMRO ONE has a lead of ten and a half points it is by no means a comfortable one as there is still plenty of the race left to sail. With eight points separating second and fifth place, the Southern Ocean will provide an exciting battle ground for the fleet.
Mike Sanderson, skipper of ABN AMRO ONE commented: “We are really looking forward to getting into the next leg although not so much the physical side. The leg has been playing havoc with our minds as it is a big one for us. If we can sail a solid leg again then maybe it’s going to be the turning point in the race for our team.
This week has certainly been a busy one for the Volvo Ocean Race teams, with leg three, the first of the sprint legs from Melbourne, Australia to Wellington, New Zealand, starting and finishing dramatically, albeit slowly, with plenty of high speed action in-between. The Tasman sea, notorious for it’s short sharp waves and treacherous weather, did not give the teams much respite, but did allow them to race quickly to the pit stop, giving them a brief chance to rest and recuperate.
After 1450 nautical miles, the race to win poll position into Wellington was finally decided in nail biting fashion at 0009 GMT on Thursday February 16, when Spanish movistar, skippered by Bouwe Bekking from Holland, led Mike Sanderson in ABN AMRO ONE over the finish line by nine seconds. This is the closest finish in the history of the Volvo Ocean Race formerly known as the Whitbread Round the World Race.
Movistar, designed by Farr Yacht Design, has had her fair share of bad luck when she missed the first leg of the race due to structural damage on her first night out at sea. The determined team then had the frustration of keel ram failure in the second leg forcing them to slow down twice, so by leg three they were due some good luck.
They stayed in the middle of the fleet’s north south divide, with ABN AMRO ONE all the way across the Tasman Sea, but as the conditions grew windier, the Kouyoumdjian designed Dutch boat sailed away from them. Knowing their strength lay in light airs, Bouwe and his boys waited, and when the predicted fickle breeze in the Cook Strait materialised, they reeled in their prey and started a passionate fight to the very end.
An ecstatic Bouwe Bekking described his feelings when he reached shore, "This is a really sweet victory. We just managed to hang in there so we are really happy. We have a really fantastic team and a strong after guard in Stuart Bannatyne, Chris Nicholson and myself and it means that we could swap over so we all managed to get some sleep. This leg has been unbelievably tense.”
Mike Sanderson and his predominately Kiwi crew would have revelled in coming first into their home country but it wasn’t to be. But the ever-gracious Sanderson commented, "It was a bit sad for us but great for movistar. We lost a 40 mile lead and that is pretty tough but we have had some awesome racing over the last 24 hours so we are pleased that we managed to hang on. We can't be upset, we have extended our lead by adding six points to our score and that is why we are here.”
Three hours later the same afternoon, The Black Pearl slipped into the harbour with Paul and his Pirates taking third position, followed shortly by disappointed yachts Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) and ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse). Both these teams have suffered a few injuries onboard which may have slowed their progress.
Gerd van Poortman, the Dutch bowman on ABN AMRO TWO, was washed from the bow by a huge wave, breaking his fall on one to the two dagger boards. As well as cutting his face quite badly and needing three stitches, more seriously, he also damaged his back. He was confined to his bunk for the rest of the leg, and on arrival in Wellington, he was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with a dislocated tail bone. His face is healing well, but van his tail bone will take between three and six weeks to heal and he will now skip leg four which starts on Sunday, being replaced by Brazilian Lucas Brun.
Lucas, who has, so far, only sailed inshore races on ABN AMRO TWO, is sad for his colleague, but happy as well. He will now sail the leg into Rio de Janeiro, the city where he was born, grew up and has lived all his life.
Brun commented, “Of course this is not the way I wanted to be on the boat, but I am happy. I have to say as soon as I started the campaign I knew that the chance of not being on the boat for any leg was very real but this leg was the one that I really wanted to sail. Arriving into Rio makes this even more exciting for me is going to be an amazing feeling. Before that though, we have a lot of miles to race and I have to work hard with the guys who have all been sailing together since the start. I am looking forward to Sunday. Rio here we come.”
Finally as Ericsson Racing Team, skippered by British Neal McDonald, came into sight of the finish, they dropped their sails, and motored into Wellington, in a dramatic turn of events.
As this is a pit stop, no outside assistance is allowed in the port of Wellington unless a two hour time penalty is taken at the start of leg four. Movistar has decided to take this penalty in order to haul the boat out of the water to fix the ‘bomb doors’ which are the seals around the canting keel.
Ericsson Racing Team however, made the decision to suspend racing before the end of the leg so that they could have their shore crew overhaul the boat without incurring the two hour penalty. Neal McDonald explained all to a very confused audience, when he reached the dock, “The rules are very clear and you are allowed to suspend racing. It is only something you would do if you were coming last. It is an opportunity to use some extra help and to get everything checked and get out there on Sunday in the best form we can. If we had caught ABN AMRO TWO we probably would not have made this decision but chosen to take a penalty at the start of the next leg.”
Ericsson Racing Team will now have to go back out into the bay, officially resume racing and cross the finish line in order to receive an official finish and elapsed time before the starting leg four.
For legs three and four, the fleet left Melbourne fully loaded with enough equipment and food supplies to take them straight through to the end of leg four in Rio de Janeiro. Pit stop rules do not permit any gear change onboard the boats while they are in Wellington, but the crew is able allowed to sleep ashore and rest before the long Southern Ocean around Cape Horn.
Leg three has possibly been the most action packed leg so far but as the teams prepare for the Southern Ocean again, we wonder what leg four has in store? And whether the strong winds followed by light patches around Rio will favour the Farr or Kouyoumdjian yachts. As Mike Sanderson regularly says, “Time will tell”.
Leg four from Wellington to Rio de Janeiro will start on Sunday February 19.
GLOVERSVILLE, NY – February 16, 2006 - Taylor Made Products has expanded its line of Sur-Moor™ mooring buoys with a new model featuring a recessed shackle nest at the top of the buoy.
The rope-nest design has a built-in cup shape at the top of the buoy that allows the anchor shackle to nest below the buoy surface. This protects the shackle from making contact with the boat when anchoring, and also provides a convenient nesting place for the pennant line when the boat departs from the mooring.
The buoy’s hard-skin polyethylene shell is UV protected to resist the weathering effects of sunlight, and is foam-filled to provide positive water displacement. The galvanized rod runs through the center of the buoy with eyes on both ends. The white buoy has a blue reflective stripe for night-time visibility.
Taylor Made Products, a member of the Taylor Made Group®, is one of the largest and most innovative suppliers of marine aftermarket products, including buoys, fenders, boat covers, bimini tops, dock products, flags, pennants and hardware.
POMPANO BEACH, FL – February 16, 2006 - Dometic Environmental today announced the introduction of a new crushed ice system for the luxury yacht and sport fishing market.
The new Dometic system utilizes a patented space-saving design, with the condensing unit installed separately in the engine room or other machinery space, and the compact evaporator-auger unit mounted close to the fish box in the cockpit.
“We are excited to deliver this new patented ice machine to the luxury yacht and sport fishing market. We have made several improvements over competitive offerings, resulting in improved quality, ease of installation and a new electronic user interface” said Frank Marciano, president of Dometic Environmental. “This product enables us to provide additional value to our customers by taking this technology to a new level and expanding our range of product offerings.”
The Dometic system makes up to 600 pounds of shaved ice per day and constantly refreshes the ice supply in the fish box, with automatic shutoff when the ice box is full. It consumes about 72 gallons of fresh water per day.
Systems are available for 115 and 230 Volt 60Hz power supplies. The condensing and evaporator-auger units and refrigerant linesets are precharged with environmentally friendly R134A refrigerant for fast and easy installation.
The system includes a digital display/control panel, with visible status lights for ice delivery, feed water and system pressures.
The new crushed ice system is the first of a new series of products for the large sport fishing sector, according to Marciano. The company also supplies a range of refrigerated fish keeping and bait freezer systems.
February 16, 2006: ABN AMRO ONE, skippered by Kiwi Mike Sanderson
stormed into Wellington today, taking second place after a tantalizingly close finish to leg three of the Volvo Ocean Race. Pipped to the post at 13:09 hours local time (00:09 hours GMT) ABN AMRO ONE were neck and neck with movistar as they battled their way up the bay all the way to the finish line.
This short sprint leg from Melbourne, Australia has taken ABN AMRO ONE, the current overall race leader just three days and has been fraught with tension for the sailors as they crossed the tricky Tasman Sea. After some nail biting racing through the Cook Strait and into Wellington Harbor during the early hours of this morning, ABN AMRO ONE finished just nine seconds behind Spanish boat movistar. But for Mike and the four other kiwis onboard, including Wellington born Mark Christensen, they were clearly delighted to arrive back on home soil. As they crossed the finish line the boats were just meters away from the huge crowds on the quay on the Wellington Waterfront.
Mike Sanderson, skipper of ABN AMRO ONE: "We have done the things we set out to do - we have extended our overall lead in the race and kept the boat in one piece. For sure, we cannot be disappointed with second place as these conditions are not our boat's forte. In fact we are pleased that we were able to take it to them (movistar) and finish as we did with an America's Cup style tacking dual into Wellington. Wellington has turned it on for us - there was a massive reception and we are very pleased to be here. For the next few days we will concentrate on fixing the few small things that we damaged on this leg and catch up on sleep and food before the next leg which is going to be very tough."
British crewmember Rob Greenhalgh said: "No one can be upset with that, it was a great race - we'll never have another one like that again in our lives. We were certainly pushing hard for the last 24 hours with more people on deck than usual, although always trying to keep the guys rested too. I probably had four hours sleep last night, we've been full on since 4 am, and since then we have been sailing in our in port race positions. Second is a good result. Consistency is the key, keep putting them in and you can win the event."
Global Ocean Sailing Ventures (GOSV) today announced that the Global Ocean Challenge 2007/08 will make Charleston, SC the penultimate stop of this international yacht race. By the time the fleet of 40 and 50 foot sailboats arrive in the United States in April 2008 they will have sailed 23,000 nautical miles and will have visited South Africa, New Zealand and South America before closing the loop and finishing back in Europe.
“Charleston has a long history of hosting racing fleets and we are very excited to add a race of such importance to our agenda,” said Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. “This fleet of short handed sailors will share their enthusiasm and sense of adventure with our citizens and I am certain our citizens will return the favor with gracious southern warmth and hospitality. Charleston will provide an endearing experience that the competitors, their teams and families will not forget.”
The Global Ocean Challenge is a competitor driven event and race organisers have chosen stopover ports that welcome around-the-world sailors. “Charleston is a perfect city to host our race and we look forward to working with local sailors and city officials to make this an amazing stopover,” said Race Director Josh Hall. “In my career as a solo sailor I have sailed into and out of Charleston and know the warmth of the people of South Carolina and feel sure that they will embrace our event.”
Brad Van Liew, Around Alone veteran and champion solo sailor expressed his support. “I moved to Charleston after being exposed to its charm during the 1998-99 Around Alone. While participating in two Around Alones and countless other races I have never seen a host port with so much enthusiasm. Now, I am in the fortunate position as Executive Director of the South Carolina Maritime Heritage Foundation, to host the Global Ocean Challenge in 2008. Our annual Charleston Maritime Festival will function as an exciting wrap around event to showcase the Global Ocean challenge fleet.”
The race restart will be staggered with the 40-foot division setting sail on 14 May, 2008, the first day of the festival, and the 50-foot division setting sail three days later on 18 May, 2008, the last day of the festival. Both fleets should converge on the finish in Europe two weeks later to complete their 27,000 mile circumnavigation of the globe.
LONG BEACH, Calif.---Ten of the top match-racing sailors in the world are lined up for the 42nd Congressional Cup, presented by Acura, April 11-15, but America's premier one-on-one nautical contest also will see some fleet racing for the first time.
Instead of parking their boats on the fifth and final day, the six competitors who fail to reach the semifinals after two round robins will run a fleet race for a $1,000 winner-take-all prize, before the four semifinalists sail off for the championship and the largest chunks of the $41,000 total purse.
Event chairman Randy Smith said the new wrinkle was inspired by the America's Cup's introduction last year of the "Acts" series of fleet races in Europe and the U.S. among teams entered in the 2007 competition at Valencia, Spain.
"I took it from the AC Acts," Smith said. "I like change and taking people out of the comfort zone. It makes them better. If two boats are fun, six boats are a show. I have always thought it was a waste of great talent to have 6 of the 10 sitting around with nothing to do on the last day. Now they will have fun, fight for money and provide a greater spectacle."
Long Beach Yacht Club continues as the organizing host of the event. The racing venue will be adjacent to the Belmont Pier, which will have accommodations and race commentary for spectators at no charge.
The 10 entries include former winners Chris Dickson (1990-91), Gavin Brady (1996-97) and Chris Law (1994). The complete lineup, in order of current international rankings by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF):
Ian Williams, Team Musto, Great Britain, No. 5.
Mathieu Richard, APCC Voile Sportive, France, No. 6.
Staffan Lindberg, Alandia Sailing Team, Finland, No. 11.
Johnie Berntsson, Semcon, Sweden, No. 17.
Chris Dickson, BMW Oracle Racing, New Zealand, No. 30.
Cameron Appleton, K-Challenge, New Zealand, No. 37.
Gavin Brady, Beau Geste racing, New Zealand, No. 40.
Brian Angel, King Harbor Yacht Club, Redondo Beach, Calif., No. 60.
Scott Dickson, Dickson Racing, Long Beach Yacht Club, No. 63.
Chris Law, Outlaws, Great Britain, No. 113.
Chris Dickson is CEO and skipper of the BMW Oracle America's Cup challenger representing San Francisco's Golden Gate Yacht Club and the older brother of Scott Dickson, also a native of New Zealand but a Long Beach resident in recent years.
Appleton, also a New Zealander, is a member of France's K-Challenge America's Cup team.
Angel, 24, qualified by winning the Ficker Cup at Long Beach last September. That event offers a breakthrough opportunity into world class competition for less experienced sailors.
The six-man crews will sail Catalina 37s owned by the Long Beach Sailing Foundation, rotating boats daily.
The Congressional Cup is the premiere inshore sailing event in Southern California. Since it was launched in 1965 by a Deed of Gift recorded in the U.S. Congress, world-renowned sailors such as Ted Turner, Dennis Conner, Rod Davis, Peter Gilmour, Peter Holmberg, Dean Barker, Ken Read and Ed Baird, along with Chris Dickson and Brady, have won the Crimson Blazer emblematic of victory in the prestigious event.
A high level of organization has been maintained over the years by a volunteer force of some 300 club members and their families.
The 10 teams will compete in a double round-robin of match racing, followed by the fleet race and championship sailoffs Saturday, April 15.
In the battle for first place, the Spanish entry, movistar, skippered by Dutchman Bouwe Bekking, finally broke the offshore domination of the Dutch yacht ABN AMRO ONE in the Volvo Ocean Race, by crossing the finish line in Wellington today, nine seconds ahead of the black boat, skippered by Kiwi Mike Sanderson from Auckland.
The finish canon signalled Movistar’s finish at 13:09:26 local time (00:09:26 GMT) with ABN AMRO ONE following at 13:09:35 (00:09:35 GMT). As he stepped ashore, winning skipper Bouwe Bekking said:
“This is a really sweet victory. We just managed to hang in there so we are really happy. We have a really fantastic team and a strong after guard in Stuart Bannatyne, Chris Nicholson and myself and it means that we could swap over so we all managed to get some sleep.
“This leg has been unbelievably tense. We managed to get a little lead and it was gone in no time. New Zealand is a nice leg to win and after the start we had to the race this feels particularly special.
“The boat is in good shape. We have no serious damage and nothing too dramatic has happened.”
Stuart Banatyne (movistar) from Wellington, said:
"That was an epic leg. It was unbelievable to be the first boat into Wellington. I never thought it would come down to a one boat length win, but a win is a win! This is where I grew up, where I learnt to sail, and it is just fantastic to be back here. This is just really awesome and so special to me.”
Mike Sanderson, skipper of ABNAMRO ONE, who finished second, commented:
“It was a bit sad for us but great for movistar. We lost a 40 mile lead and that is pretty tough but we have had some awesome racing over the last 24 hours so we are pleased that we managed to hang on. We can’t be upset, we have extended our lead by adding six points to our score and that is why we are here.
The dockside in Queen’s Wharf, Wellington, was lined with spectators, as the New Zealand Army performed the Haka, in honour of movistar. Helicopters buzzed over head as the climax to leg three, 1,450 miles from Melbourne to Wellington, became more nail-biting by the minute.
It has been a tense 14 hours for these two teams, which began at 1000 GMT yesterday when movistar snatched back ABN AMRO ONE’s comfortable margin of 32 nautical miles as the wind died off Cape Farewell on the north western tip of New Zealand’s South Island.
As the two boats raced neck and neck, it was movistar who led ABN AMRO ONE through the entrance to Wellington harbour by 10 boat lengths, followed by a small armada of spectator craft. In only 13 knots of wind, three miles to the finish line, ABN AMRO ONE drew level again and it was a race dead to windward to the finish.
The leg finish in Wellington is reminiscent of other New Zealand finishes in this event, formally called The Whitbread Round the World Race. In 1993-94, Chris Dickson (Tokio) and Grant Dalton (New Zealand Endeavour) drew gasps of horror from the crowd as Tokio stalled and Dalton heaved his boat across the finish line in Auckland with grim determination.
Four years later, it was Dalton versus Dennis Conner in a match which had the two teams scrapping like cat and dog in 45 knots of breeze in the approach to the Auckland finish. Dalton was victorious by two minutes.
The next boat expected to finish leg three will be Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard).
Paul Cayard (USA) and his team of Pirates racing the Black Pearl claimed the third spot on the podium today when they finished leg three of the Volvo Ocean Race in Wellington, New Zealand, 50 minutes and nine seconds after the winner, movistar (Bouwe Bekking) at 15:59:35 local time, 02:59:35 GMT.
After missing out on leg one from Vigo to Cape Town, and still suffering problems with their keel mechanism on leg two to Melbourne, the Pirates came back with a vengeance, finishing in second place in the Melbourne in-port race. Today’s fine result shows that this team is now up to speed and a force to be reckoned with.
After clearing customs, Cayard commented, “We’re pretty happy with our result, but we were aiming to win, so we’re not completely satisfied. We are gaining momentum all the time, and we are pleased to be having this kind of consistency on the podium.”
The next boat to finish will be Brasil 1 (Torben Grael).
Neal McDonald, (UK), skipper of the sixth-placed Swedish yacht Ericsson, arrived in Wellington Harbour under power, having decided to haul the boat out of the water and make her ready for the next southern ocean leg. By suspending from leg three at 0608 GMT, before finishing, Ericsson is able to undertake repairs and other operations that might have otherwise incurred a two hour penalty for outside assistance at this pit stop.
“The rules are very clear and you are allowed to suspend racing,” explained McDonald when the boat reached the dockside. “It is only something you would do if you were coming last. It is an opportunity to use some extra help and to get everything checked and get out there on Sunday in the best form we can. If we had caught ABN AMRO TWO we probably would not have made this decision but chosen to take a penalty at the start of the next leg.”
Earlier this morning, at 05:12:30 Brasil 1 (Torben Grael/BRA) became the fourth boat to finish, missing a podium position by a little over an hour.
Knut Frostad (NOR) said: “We are disappointed with our result, but at least the boat is in one piece and we don’t have to fix it.
“We are still learning about the boat as we haven’t done the same amount of miles as some of the other teams. We have been able to race the boat hard and that has been good. We now have to concentrate on being first into Rio as that is really important to us.”
The final boat to finish leg three, just under an hour after Brasil 1 at 06:03:58, was the second Dutch boat, ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse/FRA), which has done so well to date. Navigator Simon Fisher commented:
“We are really disappointed with out results. We didn’t have the best start and it spiralled from there as we ripped the mainsail, we had a power outage and then we damaged a crew member. We did catch up with Pirates but then we fell out the back and the rich got richer.
“On the whole we are lucky that we got off as lightly as we did. We have an achievable work list and we will hopefully be on the start line on time.”
Leg four from Wellington to Rio de Janeiro will start on Sunday February 19.
16 February 2006 - Today saw the conclusion of leg three of the Volvo Ocean Race, as the six-strong fleet arrived into Wellington, New Zealand, within six hours of each other. Ericsson finished sixth and last. Technically, the team hasn't finished racing yet as it decided to use the opportunity offered by the racing rules to carry out maintenance and repairs before crossing the finishing line later on during the stopover.
Leg three isn't over yet for the Ericsson Racing Team although the boat has arrived in Wellington and is safely docked in the harbour. During the legs, the teams are allowed to suspend racing and receive external assistance in order to carry out repairs, as three of the competitors have already done in previous legs. However, during "Pit Stops", no external assistance is allowed without incurring a two hour penalty on the next leg. The Ericsson Racing Team has therefore decided to make the best of its unfortunate last place in the leg by allowing its shore crew to step onboard whilst the sailing team has a well deserved rest. When they cross the finish line, the team will pick up two points for arriving in sixth place, bringing its total to 18.5 points.
The team will use the opportunity to carry out maintenance and repair minor electrical problems such as hot wiring, before heading into the Southern Ocean. At the same time, it will check every piece of equipment on the boat to ensure she is in top shape for the next leg, which is possibly the toughest of the whole race. Once the work that needs to be done is completed, the sailing team will step back onboard, hoist the sails and cross the finish line.
It looked like a promising start for the Ericsson Racing Team as they headed out of Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne (AUS) on 12 February, to embark on leg three of the Volvo Ocean Race. Having analysed weather reports in preparation for the leg, they knew that their goal was to be as far ahead (and east) as possible in order to take advantage of the low pressure system that would take them most of the way to Wellington.
However, Ericsson didn't manage to stay ahead of the cold front and they missed the breeze that would soon propel the rest of the fleet across the Tasman Sea. From then on it was a case of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer as Ericsson fell into the light.
During the last hours of racing, Ericsson caught up well with the boats in front, and actually managed to close a 30 nautical miles deficit on ABN Amro Two to about half a mile. However, the Dutch boat managed to hold its lead until the finish line, prompting Ericsson to take its decision to suspend racing.
The fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race will commence on Sunday 19 February at 14.30 local time, a 6,700 nm leg around the infamous Cape Horn to Brazil.
Quotes from dockside in Wellington, New Zealand, at the end of Volvo Leg Three.
Bouwe Bekking – Skipper (movistar):
“I heard it was only nine seconds but it is very sweet. A win is a win.”
“It looked like we had a nice little break just before coming into Wellington. We had a lead of 2-3 miles and then we parked it up and they [ABN AMRO ONE] came right up to us. On the beat they were a little quicker than us but we just managed to hang on. We are really, really happy.”
“The ride was fantastic and nearly all the way we were doing 20-30 knots. The weather was nice with sunshine and you can’t wish for anything better for sailing. Of course the finish was a bit dramatic for us but we are so happy to be here.”
“We have a really fantastic team and a strong after guard in Stuart Bannatyne, Chris Nicholson and myself and it means that we managed to get some rest and sleep as we could swap over.”
“We are really happy to be here and it is a great result for the whole team.”
“This leg has been unbelievably tense – we managed to get a little lead and it was gone in no time. New Zealand is a nice leg to win and after the start we had to the race this feels particularly special.”
“The boat is in good shape. We have no serious damage and nothing too dramatic has happened.”
Stuart Bannatyne – Watch Captain (movistar)
“It is very nice to be here especially in first place. It was an epic race and I am just so happy.”
“It was a very enjoyable leg. Very nice sailing all the way across and then nice to stay in touch with ABN AMRO ONE and have a chance of catching them in the light airs, which fortunately we did. We just managed to hold them off and the breeze came in again.”
“It has been spectacular racing for the class and for the Volvo Ocean Race. I have never experienced a finish as close as that – it was just awesome.”
“It was unbelievable to be the first boat into Wellington. I never thought it would come down to a one boat length win, but a win is a win! This is where I grew up and where I learnt to sail, and it is just fantastic to be back here. This is just so special to me.”
Mike Sanderson – Skipper (ABN AMRO ONE):
“It was a bit sad for us but great for movistar. We lost a 40 mile lead and that is pretty tough but we have had some awesome racing over the last 24 hours so we are pleased that we managed to hang on.”
“We came barrelling into the Cook Straight and then went from wind to no wind and we knew we would lose the lead that we had managed to gain.”
“We came off fairly lightly. Our only real damage was when we stuck the boat into a big wave and damaged the pulpit at the front of the boat but we are pretty sure that we can fix this ourselves and don’t need to take a two hour penalty.”
“The 6-hourly reports were pretty stressful, we would get one and we would have a 30 mile lead and then we didn’t need to receive the next one to know we had lost it as we could see the next boat.”
“The finish was amazing. Movistar did a fantastic job tactically as we came round the heads into Wellington Bay and we had a fantastic tacking dual which was quite amazing after nearly 1500 nautical miles. Unfortunately we didn’t quite manage to pull it out.”
“We can’t be upset, we have extended our lead by adding six points to our score and that is why we are here.”
Paul Cayard, Skipper (Pirates of the Caribbean):
“We are pretty happy with this result but we were aiming to win so we are not completely satisfied. I am happy thought that we are gaining momentum and consistency on the podium.”
“We sailed pretty well to get third. ABN AMRO ONE and movistar took a little better line on the second day. It is all good, I am happy with the progress in general – the crew, the boat and everything is coming along nicely and the campaign in building momentum.”
“We started late, and had problems on the first leg but we are starting to get some traction and I am happy with that.”
“We are well on track to being competitive from Rio de Janeiro onwards. We are going to be competitive and we can certainly finish on the podium. There is still a few thousand miles to go and we are a very keen and solid group and we are looking forward to it.”
Knut Frostad, Watch Leader (Brasil 1):
“We are disappointed with our result but at least the boat is in one piece and we don’t have to fix it. We are still learning about the boat as we haven’t done the same amount of miles as some of the other teams. We have been able to race the boat hard and that has been good. We now have to concentrate on being first into Rio as that is really important to us.”
Simon Fisher – Navigator (ABN AMRO TWO):
“We are really disappointed with our result. We didn’t have the best start and it spiralled from there as we ripped the mainsail, we had a power outage and then we damaged a crew member.”
“We did catch up with Pirates but then we fell out the back and the rich got richer.”
“On the whole we are lucky that we got off as lightly as we did. We have an achievable work list and we will hopefully be on the start line on time.”
Richard Mason – Crew member (Ericsson):
“It was a very difficult leg. It is never easy when you are tail end Charlie, but we did have some fantastic sailing. At one stage we were all separated by two miles. Unfortunately the boats that were just underneath us were on a better angle and just managed to get away. The rich got richer and we just fell off the back. It was a real shame.”
“We had a good tussle with ABN AMRO TWO – we kept chipping away and made good gains, but unfortunately they got round the corner first and went away from us.”
Neal McDonald – Skipper (Ericsson):
“The rules are very clear and you are allowed to suspend racing – it is only something you would do if you were coming last. It is an opportunity to use some extra help. It is an opportunity to get everything checked and get out there on Sunday in the best form we can. If we had caught ABN AMRO TWO we probably would not have made this decision but chosen to take a penalty at the start of the next leg.”
Steve Hayles – Navigator (Ericsson):
“There is a provision in the rules for a boat to suspend racing at any time for any reason and it has been used by people in previous races and in this race and we have some issues here we would like to get some outside help on and get fixed.”
“We came in here and talked about whether we would or wouldn’t and we have taken the decision that we are better off to suspend racing at this stage. We want to get the boat 100% and concentrate on the next leg. We will have to go out and finish leg three to complete it and then we will turn our thoughts to leg four.”
The Volvo Ocean Race fleet is just over two thirds of the way through leg three from Melbourne to Wellington, New Zealand. Although the racing has been dramatic in the opening stages of the leg, the real tactical game will come into play once the fleet rounds Cape Farewell, 125 nautical miles ahead, and turns towards Cook Strait which comes complete with complex tides and unstable breeze.
Movistar (Bouwe Bekking) has been fighting for the lead with ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), who smoked past them a couple of days ago leaving the Spanish boat to claw back the deficit for the rest of the leg. During the last six hours movistar has averaged the highest speed in the fleet and has gained a mile.
Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) is still looking good for a podium finish and has a comfortable buffer of 30 miles between the Black Pearl and Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) in fourth place.
Further down the fleet, the second Dutch boat, ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) is hoping to turn a fifth place into something better. Their injured crewman Johnny (Gerd van Poortman) who suffered a cut face and a badly bruised back is recovering. Navigator Simon Fisher said, when he spoke to RHQ, “We’re trying to rest Johnny as much as possible, because we need him to be good for the leg to Rio. He’s on deck a little bit, but we’re not making him do his normal watch. He’s improving and he is limping around the inside of boat now, getting bored with being in his bunk. He’s a man on the mend, so that’s good news.”
The order in the fleet remains unchanged tonight, although Ericsson is slipping further and further behind, mysteriously unable to match the speed of the leaders and sailing almost three knots slower.
Based on current speeds, the first boat is predicted to arrive in Wellington at 11.36 GMT tomorrow morning, however, with light winds forecast for Cook Strait, this is almost certain to slip back.
Overnight, there have been huge losses and massive gains in the closing stages of leg three of the Volvo Ocean Race. At 0400 GMT this morning the entire fleet was still losing miles to ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), who held a comfortable 32 nautical mile lead over the Spanish entry, movistar (Bouwe Bekking).
For Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald) who slipped a further 40 miles back and trailed the leader by 175 miles, the mental pressure onboard this boat was almost unbearable.
“This race tests many facets of your personality,” wrote navigator Steve Hayles. “Being thrown around continuously, getting cold and wet with not enough sleep or food: all easily understood and very hard on the body, but the mental stress is something that is harder to describe and often much harder to deal with than the physical discomfort.”
Steve is the man onboard who has to break the news to the rest of the crew every six hours, when the latest position report is received. “It’s not easy being the continual bearer of bad news. We have taken the news without any dropping of our heads and we all remain focussed on the last 120 miles of the race course.”
By 1000 GMT today, everything had changed. ABN AMRO ONE and movistar were neck and neck, but the wind died as they reached Cape Farewell, the northern most tip of New Zealand’s South Island, and both boats gybed again to round the Farewell Spit. They are now 32 miles from Stephen Island and Movistar is positioned to windward, sailing at twice the speed of ABN AMRO ONE.
The rest of the fleet have made massive gains between 0400 and 1000 GMT this morning as the leaders sailed in to the light breeze. Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) gained 52 miles and set a course midway between movistar to windward and ABN AMRO ONE to leeward. Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) gained 79 miles and is now only 16 miles behind ABN AMRO ONE, while fifth placed ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) made up 83 miles, the biggest gain of all, and is trying to cut the corner to Stephens Island, sailing close to the Farewell Spit.
For once, Ericsson Racing Team, are the winners. They still have 22 knots of breeze which will bring them to Cape Farewell swiftly, gaining them 74 miles.
As night falls in New Zealand, the wind will die almost completely and the prospect of a complete park-up and consequently a re-start of the race is very likely.
The choice of sails selected for this leg is proving critical. The front which gave the fleet strong winds in Bass Strait is moving quicker than the boats and the fleet is now slowly starting to fall off the back. Every ounce of boat speed is important because the boat that can ride the front for the longest, will be the one which will stretch away from the boats that fall off the system first.
“We are doing everything we can to hold onto this band of breeze for as long as possible,” said Marcel Van Triest, Dutch navigator onboard Torben Grael’s Brasil 1. “Right now it is about who has what sail inventory and what kind of sails have been brought onboard. We were surprised to see some of the boats using a furling jib at the start. We didn’t bring ours, thinking it would not have enough use in between Melbourne and Rio de Janeiro. Right now, it is maybe a sail that we are missing at times, but such is life. It is very a short sprint across the Tasman and whoever has exactly the right sail for this angle in the south westerly breeze might have a little edge on the other boats.” Skipper Torben Grael is nursing a damaged hand, which has been strapped up by the onboard medic, Joao Signorini. He was at the helm when the boat was hit by a big wave and got knocked sideways.
ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) appears to have exactly the right sail for the wind angle. The black boat is pulling away from the fleet at rate which will be alarming the chasing pack, gaining more and more with every position schedule. This morning at 1000 they had overtaken movistar (Bouwe Bekking) and were five miles ahead. By 1600 this afternoon, they were 17 miles ahead, and tonight movistar had lost another four miles and the Dutch boat is now 21 miles ahead.
Neal McDonald and the team onboard Ericsson had their heads in their hands earlier today as they watched Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) sail easily away from them. “Never give up” is the motto onboard, but this team has had a nasty 24 hours and now they are 70 miles behind the leader, sailing consistently slower and losing 17 miles to the leader in the last six hours. “We have to tough it out and make sure any opportunities to get back at the leaders do not escape our clutches. They guys are giving it their all despite the situation,” McDonald concluded.
There is high pressure filling in from the west across the Australian Bight which will give lighter winds towards the end of the leg and there is a reasonable chance of the race restarting just before the finish, making for some nervous hours on Wednesday.
Race meteorologist, Chris Bedford says, “As things progress today, it is looking like the wind will improve for the southerly boats as they finally extend far enough away from Tasmania to escape its lingering influence. In addition the wind will generally fill from the SW, reaching the trailing boats first. From tonight through tomorrow, wind speeds will be slightly stronger on the boats with the more southerly leverage.
At the moment, though, it doesn’t quite look like the improving conditions for Ericsson, ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) and Pirates of the Caribbean will be enough to overcome the jump gained by movistar and ABN AMRO ONE coming out of Bass Strait. I would expect the two favourites to continue their advantage as winds slowly build with time going toward Cook Strait.”
While ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) is cruising along nicely, doing 20 knots at the head of the fleet, the pressure is on the chasing pack as they gybe in order to claw their way north to round Cape Farewell on the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, 354 nautical miles ahead.
Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) and Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) are now following the same course to windward of the rest of the fleet. ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) and Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald) are in the middle of the group but further back, and movistar (Bouwe Bekking) is to windward of ABN AMRO ONE.
The wind speed for the leaders is around 20 knots, but Neal McDonald only has 17 knots, making it harder and harder to make inroads into the lead, although he has been able to maintain his position over the last six hours. All may not be lost, as, looking ahead, the likelihood of much lighter and more variable conditions in Cook Strait suggest a possible restart as the lead boats stall and the trailing boats race up from behind. Often such variable conditions can benefit the trailing boats as they can watch for mistakes made by the leaders and possibly sail right past any stalled boats.
11 February 2006 - Tensions are rising in Melbourne, Australia, as the Ericsson Racing Team and the Volvo Ocean Race fleet prepares to set sail for New Zealand. The third offshore leg of the Volvo Ocean Race will commence on Sunday 12 February - a 1,450 nautical mile sprint across the Tasman Sea to Wellington, New Zealand.
This Sunday 12 February, the Volvo Ocean Race fleet will leave Melbourne, Australia to start leg three of the 31,250 nautical mile race around the world. The teams will head off on a 1,450 nautical mile leg to Wellington, New Zealand, where they are expected to arrive four to five days later.
The Melbourne stopover has been action packed for the Ericsson Racing Team, which has been busy conducting modifications to its keel movement system, replacing its titanium rams with a more robust steel set, testing out sails and checking every piece of equipment on the boat. "We would have liked more time to test the new keel movement system," commented crewmember Richard Mason (NZL). "However, we have been sailing offshore in racing mode and we have acquired a good level of confidence in the system."
Looking forward to the next leg, many of the teams are treating leg three and four of the race with a unified approach as, unless they want to take a two hour time penalty in New Zealand, they will have to load the boat with all of the sails, food and equipment to see them through to Rio de Janeiro.
"The next two legs will be very important for the Ericsson Racing Team," comments skipper Neal McDonald (GBR). "We're expecting changeable conditions en route to Wellington and an odd combination of sprint and endurance. It's a difficult length - not long enough to get into a good routine, but too long to go flat out all the way - so it will be very tiring. The hardest part or the 'make or break' could be getting out of the bay tomorrow."
The start line for leg three will be positioned right off the Melbourne waterfront at Station Pier, in front of a huge spectator fleet as well as thousands on shore. Once the gun goes the boats head south to a set of gates and marks of the course to the exit from Port Phillip Bay. From there, it's the Bass Strait, the Tasman Sea and the Cook Strait before going through into Wellington Harbour and up to the finish line.
The next leg bares great significance for Australian born kiwi, Richard Mason. His lasting memory of returning to his homeland was taking the helm of Assa Abloy in the last Volvo Ocean Race, when they won the leg under the captaincy of Neal McDonald. "It will be fantastic to sail to my homeland," comments Mason. "It's always nice to go back to the shaky isles. Hopefully we can get a good result and storm in there at the front of the pack!"
Looking at the predicted forecast, the boats could be in for a swift ride to Wellington, with a predicted arrival on 16 or 17 February. Ericsson Racing Team meteorologist, Chris Tibbs, predicts the following forecast for tomorrow's start:
"It will be hot and sunny with a light northerly breeze, around 10-15 knots. There is a strong possibility of the sea breeze filling in throughout the afternoon and an approaching cold front is likely to arrive early Sunday evening. Once the front goes through the wind will swing to the west or south west, and there will be around 25-30 knots of breeze."
We always knew leaving Port Phillip bay was going to interesting and it certainly did not disappoint. Everything from fast running conditions to flat calm in the bay before a stiff 20 knot SW'ly made it into the bay leaving us all beating through the heads in a very tough sea state.
It seems like a long time since we have been offshore in Ericsson but it’s an instantly familiar feeling. Reaching along in thirty knots of wind with muffled shouts from the boys on deck, whilst trying desperately hard to focus on the computer screens in front of me without smashing my head into the winch and hydraulic parts that I share my nav station with.
The feeling is of 'run away' speed, as we hurtle down each wave before spearing our way through the bottom of the wave. You feel the impact a second or so before the solid water smashes into the cockpit and finds its way inside the boat through the tiniest of openings. Fittings that are tested watertight on the shore always seem to leak out here in these conditions; at least its only Bass Strait and not the southern ocean where the water is just above freezing.
It’s looking like a fast trip, but it’s like an inverse law that the
faster you get there the harder it is and somehow whatever the conditions each leg will take everything that you can give.
Steve Hayles - navigator
Did a couple of laps around the world, and to be honest this was best
stopover ever had in Australia. Thank you to all the people who made it happen.
Saying goodbye to the families was probably gonna be the hardest part of this leg, as we won't see them for more than a month, girls and boys we will miss you.
The sailing: slipping along nicely in 25 -30 knots of breeze, with a
spinnaker up. Last night we were very close to four boats, and it was
magnificent to see them blasting along in full moon. The we made a
headsail change to our reacher, in difficult conditions, but after that we were on our bike, slowly dropping the others behind us. All well onboard, and no issues, besides difficult to hold on deck and downstairs as movistar is catapulting over the waves.
Bouwe Bekking - skipper
Well, we had a great start and that made us all feel good for about 30 minutes. Then the wind died where we were and it all started to get weird.
It was a long day on Port Philip Bay while we all waited for the sea
breeze to fill. It finally did and we were well positioned for that being most west. We got going first and had the lead at Mornington with ABN1 coming up fast. It did not take them long to pass us upwind in 22 knots of wind, both us of us on J4’s and full mains. Meanwhile, Movistar, Ericsson and Brasil were having a good battle just behind us.
When we got outside the entrance to the Bay, the wind was 24 knots and the sea was very rough. There were enough helicopters around to make four feature films so they must have gotten some good footage there.
Things progressed well from there with us and ABN 1 making some small
gains on the group. Then, around 000 local time, we caught ABN 1 and they set a course to pass behind and to leeward of us. They eventually came back out in front by Ľ of a mile. Not sure exactly what they were doing there.
Later on, we performed some bad changes from one spinnaker to another and lost quite a bit of distance. One of Ericsson, Brasil, or Movistar almost passed us. I am waiting for the position report right now to see what is going on and where everyone is. Our radar is pretty hopeless…can’t see another VOR 70 when it is 0.5 mile astern. Thank God the race committee is keeping us out of the ice this time.
The big picture for tonight is to get through Bass Strait, dodging several islands and to stay far enough away from Tasmania to not get too much of a wind shadow from it in the South West wind. The wind is about 20 knot from 225 right now. The big pressure that we were supposed to see from this front hasn’t materialized.
Still now position report so I guess I will fire this off to you all and you can see when I do where everyone is.
It never went.
Now it is 5 hours later. I haven’t slept yet on this race and now it is day time again. . Something went wrong on every maneuver we did last night so it was always necessary to have an extra guy on deck. Too many issues to list but nothing went smoothly and everything took a real long time. So we went pretty slow and lost some miles on the position report I was waiting for and I bet we lost more on the one coming up.
We have one problem that we have to resolve in order to be able to fly spinnakers. Right now we have a jib up.
That is it for now.
Paul Cayard
Pirates of the Caribbean
12 February 2006 - Leg three of the Volvo Ocean Race kicked off today and the fleet set sail on a 1,450 nautical miles sprint to Wellington, New Zealand. The Ericsson Racing Team got off to a good start and is currently headed out of Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne, looking to catch a swift ride across the Tasman Sea.
Sailors bid an emotional farewell to loved ones this morning before cutting their lines and heading out into Port Phillip Bay. Thousands of spectators took to the water for the start of the third leg of the Volvo Ocean Race; a short sprint across the Tasman Sea to Wellington, New Zealand.
The start line for leg three was positioned right off the Melbourne waterfront at Station Pier, in front of crowds of spectators on the shore. Ericsson Racing Team got off to a good start in light winds, behind Pirates of the Caribbean and Brasil 1. From then on it was a game of cat and mouse with all boats looking for the nearest patch of breeze.
Ericsson charged off down the middle of the course with a powerful new gennaker. After being covered by ABN Amro One for a short while, they managed to get away, chasing Brasil 1 in second place before briefly taking the lead.
After the fast and eventful start, the six Volvo Open 70s ended up parked up some seven miles before the first mark of course, located in Mornington on the eastern side of Port Phillip Bay. The sea breeze finally filled in by 3:30 pm. Well centred and in a controlling position, Ericsson was one of the first boats to take profit of this new situation, together with movistar and Brasil 1.
Later on this afternoon, the six yachts will sail out of the bay and into the Bass Strait. As Ericsson Racing Team meteorologist Chris Tibbs explains, a cold front is expected to arrive around midnight tonight, bringing 20-25 knots of wind, with the occasional 30 knots:
"The speed of the cold front across the Tasman will be the most crucial part of this leg. If Ericsson can stay in behind the cold front then they will get a magic carpet ride most of the way to Wellington. All the teams will be going flat out tonight in order to get east as quickly as possible and hang on to the cold front - they are not going to be shy."
If the teams have the fast ride they expect, the yachts could arrive in Wellington anytime from Thursday morning (16 February), after just four days at sea. Wellington is a Pit Stop, and all the boats will re-start to head to Rio de Janeiro via Cape Horn on Sunday 19 February. No assistance whatsoever will be allowed during the Pit Stop. Should any team wish to make repairs or embark new equipment, they will incur a two hour penalty.
February 9, 2006, Melbourne, Australia – After three weeks in Melbourne, the Volvo Ocean Race competitors are gearing up for the next leg, but not before leaving a lasting impression on Melbourne and in particular Waterfront City, Docklands.
The hands of the seven skippers that steered the Volvo Ocean Race fleet into Melbourne are to be immortalised in bronze at Waterfront City.
The skippers – New Zealander Mike Sanderson (ABN AMRO ONE), Frenchman Seb Josse (ABN AMRO TWO), Dutchman Bouwe Bekking (movistar), American Paul Cayard (Pirates of the Caribbean), Brazilian Torben Grael (Brasil 1), Briton Neal McDonald (Ericsson) and Australian Grant Wharington (Brunel) – today each placed a hand in a clay mould on the Waterfront City Piazza.
The moulds will be transformed into bronze tiles to be placed on a Wall of Fame on the piazza, where the boats have docked during their time in Melbourne, to commemorate the first-ever stopover in Melbourne of the Volvo Ocean Race.
Brasil 1 skipper Torben Grael commented: “This is a really fun thing to be doing but for me it is not the first time. The Brazilian Olympic Committee has one imprint of my hands and now Melbourne has the other.”
Since ABN AMRO ONE took the leg two victory into Melbourne on January 21, over 220,000 visitors have flocked to Waterfront City to join in the Melbourne Stopover celebrations.
The yachts are due to start leg three of the 31,250 nautical mile, around the world race on Sunday 12 February, with the crews waving farewell to Waterfront City from 10 00 (local) as they head to the start line off Station Pier, Port Melbourne.
From the start, the fleet will head out to a turning buoy off Mornington before heading off on the 1,450 nautical mile leg to Wellington, New Zealand.
Looking at the predicted forecast the boats are in for a swift ride to Wellington, and are expected to arrive into port on the 16 February.
One boat that will not be on the start line will be Grant Wharington’s Brunel. The predominantly Australian team have decided to rejoin the race in Baltimore, America, to allow for extra time to modify their boat to make it more competitive.
Guts and determination were the order of the day for the Ericsson Racing Team, after a premature start in the third in-port race of the Volvo Ocean Race. The team fought its way back from the rear of the pack and ended up fighting for a podium spot, before finishing fourth behind ABN Amro One, Pirates of the Caribbean and movistar.
The conditions were perfect at 14.00 local time for the start of the third in-port race of the Volvo Ocean Race, with 10 knots of southerly breeze. The seven Volvo Open 70s built up their speed a few seconds before the start, Ericsson and ABN Amro Two crossing the line slightly in front of the rest of the pack. The bad surprise came a few seconds later for the Dutch boat, and almost a minute later for Ericsson; both boats were recalled by the race committee and had to head back across the starting line.
"Unfortunately, we heard the radio announcing our premature start one minute after it actually happened, which penalized us a lot," commented tactician John Kostecki. As a result, Ericsson re-crossed the start line approximately 2.5 minutes behind the leaders.
The Brazilians got the best start and led the fleet on the first of four windward-leeward legs. They rounded the top mark ahead of ABN Amro One and movistar, with Ericsson taking up the rear.
From then on it was a game of catch up for the Ericsson Racing Team, who fought their way back into the race. Sailing simply and independently from the rest of the fleet, Ericsson gained ground on the leaders, passing three boats in the first five legs and reducing their deficit from 2 minutes 45 at the first windward mark to 55 seconds at the end of the third lap. At this stage, Ericsson was well back into the leading group, in fourth place, just behind Pirates and ahead of movistar.
"I didn't have to say anything to the guys: they are all professionals and none of them lost their concentration after the start," said Kostecki. "We just had to get on with it and that's what we did. We fought our way back into the race thanks to good boat speed and excellent manoeuvres."
As the forecasted sea breeze filled in through the afternoon, the battle became intense between Ericsson and movistar. "We had some great moments during today's race, particularly whilst competing against the Spaniards," commented Australian Tom Braidwood, "We caught up with them from a two minutes deficit, which was pretty neat, and even overtook them. But in the end they finished just ahead of us and deprived us of a position on the podium."
Taking the premature start into account, Ericsson was the fastest boat around the track today. But line honours went to ABN Amro One, who sailed a beautiful regatta and continued their winning streak. Pirates of the Caribbean finished second, followed by movistar and Ericsson just 15 seconds behind the Spaniards after 25 nautical miles of exciting closely fought racing.
February 4, 2006, Melbourne, Australia – Port Phillip Bay played host to the most dramatic in-port race the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 has staged to date. In the end it was New Zealander Mike Sanderson’s ABN AMRO ONE who took victory in front of a spectator fleet of almost 1,000 spectator boats.
American Paul Cayard’s Pirates of the Caribbean finished second after
working her way up through the fleet from fourth place. A final duel with Bouwe Bekking’s Spanish entry movistar eventually saw Pirates pass, leaving the Spanish boat claiming the third podium position in an enthralling battle throughout the entire two and a half hour duration of the race.
A delighted Cayard said: “It was a great race today for all of us. The racing was really close and there were plenty of lead changes so we all really enjoyed it. It was also great to see so many spectators out cheering us all on. One of the nicest things about today is that the boat is fast. Added to that we had good crew work and a couple of times we were passing ABN AMRO ONE downwind on the gybes so that was really encouraging.”
Ericsson (Neal McDonald), who jumped the gun at the start, recovered from having to re-start to claim fourth place ahead of Brasil 1, ABN AMRO TWO, who suffered the same fate as Ericsson at the start, and the Australian entry Brunel.
Brasil 1 was shaping up to be the story of the race by snatching the lead soon after the start as the fleet tackled the upwind beat to the first mark in 14 knots. They maintained their hold over the fleet until the halfway stage, as the wind built to 20 knots, before misfortune struck.
A bad spinnaker set along with a keel problem dropped them from first to fifth place as their hardship in the Volvo Ocean Race continued. The trials and tribulations for Torben Grael and his crew aboard Brasil 1 have been numerous.
Following a dismasting en route to Melbourne from Cape Town on the second leg of the race, the boat made the 4,000km journey from Fremantle, Western Australia to Melbourne just three days before the in-port battle. Finally a hastily modified rig was fitted just prior to the fleet leaving their moorings in Melbourne Docklands.
Grael commented: “It is quite disappointing. We started really well but started having problems on the third leg. It was such a big effort to go sailing today and we got such a good start, so it was really disappointing to finish with this result.”
Having stumbled in the opening in-port race in Sanxenxo, Spain in
November, Sanderson and his ABN AMRO ONE crew have completed back-to-back victories in the two following races in Cape Town and Melbourne.
The win enables ABN AMRO ONE to extend their overall dominance of the
race. Since that last place finish in Sanxenxo, ABN AMRO ONE has picked up maximum points by leading the fleet home in the first two ocean legs (Spain to Cape Town and Cape Town to Melbourne) to push their overall lead out to 7.5 points over second-placed ABN AMRO TWO. Another podium result for movistar sees them hold on to third place overall.
Sanderson said: “That was an unbelievable yacht race. It was a long race and we just dug our heels in and managed to get the desired result. When we started we were just in our boat’s crossover range and then the wind picked up so today was just fine for us.” Sanderson also recognised the effort of Brasil 1: “The Brazilian team did an amazing job. To be that quick out of the starting blocks and get straight into racing after the race against time they have had this week is just amazing.”
The teams now have one week to get their boats ocean ready before setting off on Leg Three from Melbourne to Wellington and then on to Rio de Janeiro via the Southern Ocean. The leg restart is at 13 00 (local) on Sunday 12 February.
Sailors from across the country and around the world have begun their preparations for Acura Miami Race Week 2006. Re-matches and second chances will be the order of the day when the 2005 and recent Acura Key West 2006 class champions defend their titles next month.
The TP52 class will hold its first ever global championship at Premiere Racing’s Miami event. The 2006 Rolex TP52 Global Championship will feature an expanded racing format over 6 days and includes both a distance and coastal race.
Stuart Robinson’s Stay Calm II (London, UK) coming off a hard fought win in Key West looks to be the boat to beat. Tactician Adrian Stead and eight other members of GBR Challenge crew for Robinson, who took delivery of his TP52 in early January.
The competition in these high tech, thoroughbreds will be fierce. The challenging Gulf Stream will factor in during the distance races ensuring that the 2006 global champion is a deserving boat and crew.
Swan 45s, Farr 40s, J/105s, Mumm 30s, and Melges 32s are the other one design classes invited to compete on the Ocean Courses in the waters off Miami Beach. Handicap racing will return next month under both the IRC and PHRF rules.
The Farr 40 class will be back at full strength with more than 20 of the owner/driver boats projected. Steve and Fred Howe’s Warpath, a mere 3 points out of first in the 25-boat Key West fleet, is seeking a class win with John Kostecki back as tactician.
“Having the Swan 45 World Championship in Key West now the Rolex TP52 Global Championship in Miami has added a lot of buzz,” said Event Director Peter Craig. “We’re looking at two consecutive regattas with some of the very best sailing talent out there. It should be another great week of racing.”
Key West set the stage for the Acura Grand Prix Trophies, to be awarded at the conclusion of Acura Miami Race Week. These prestigious awards debuted in 2005 and recognize the boats with the best combined score from both Key West and Miami Race Weeks. The TP52, Swan 45, Farr 40, J/105, Mumm 30 and Melges 24 classes are currently eligible.
The defending J/105 Miami champion Masquerade, is a clear pre-regatta favorite coming off a command performance in a 29-boat Key West class. Thomas Coates skippered the San Francisco entry to a resounding 18-point victory in the Midwinter Championship and will be looking to repeat as combined champion.
Handicap racing is certain to be intense with the Ker 55 Aera and Swan 601 Moneypenny continuing their remarkable week-long Key West duel. The two boats traded the lead time and again with Aera ultimately prevailing. James Madden’s R/P swing keel Stark Raving Mad will debut in Miami, adding intrigue to the big boat class.
Biscayne Bay racing will be hosted at the modern Shake-A-Leg facility in Coconut Grove. The Melges 24s, Etchells and J/24s will race at this venue. As many as 25 Etchells will compete in the 3-day competition in the final event on their winter circuit.
Melges 24 Acura Miami Race Week 2005 Champion and Boat of the Week winner, Riccardo Simoneschi (Nautica - Genoa, Italy) will defend against a strong international and national fleet.
Iker Belausteguigoitia (LaCalaca – Mexico and Florida) will defend his hard fought J/24 title against second and third place Peter Benziger (Gotta Go – Miami) and Jonathan Luscomb (Pick Up Styx, West Plan Beach).
After a premature start in the third in-port race, the Ericsson Racing Team fought its way back from the rear of the pack and ended up fighting for a podium spot, before finishing fourth behind ABN Amro One, Pirates of the Caribbean and movistar.
The conditions were perfect at 14.00 local time for the start of the third in-port race of the Volvo Ocean Race, with 10 knots of southerly breeze. The seven Volvo Open 70s built up their speed a few seconds before the start, Ericsson and ABN Amro Two crossing the line slightly in front of the rest of the pack. The bad surprise came a few seconds later for the Dutch boat, and almost a minute later for Ericsson; both boats were recalled by the race committee and had to head back across the starting line.
"Unfortunately, we heard the radio announcing our premature start one minute after it actually happened, which penalized us a lot," commented tactician John Kostecki. As a result, Ericsson re-crossed the start line approximately 2.5 minutes behind the leaders.
The Brazilians got the best start and led the fleet on the first of four windward-leeward legs. They rounded the top mark ahead of ABN Amro One and movistar, with Ericsson taking up the rear.
From then on it was a game of catch up for the Ericsson Racing Team, who fought their way back into the race. Sailing simply and independently from the rest of the fleet, Ericsson gained ground on the leaders, passing three boats in the first five legs and reducing their deficit from 2 minutes 45 at the first windward mark to 55 seconds at the end of the third lap. At this stage, Ericsson was well back into the leading group, in fourth place, just behind Pirates and ahead of movistar.
"I didn't have to say anything to the guys: they are all professionals and none of them lost their concentration after the start," said Kostecki. "We just had to get on with it and that's what we did. We fought our way back into the race thanks to good boat speed and excellent maneuvres."
February 3, 2006, Melbourne, Australia – There was a break in the busy schedules last night when the teams attended the Volvo Ocean Race Leg Two Prize Giving Dinner at Crown, Melbourne. It was a chance to award the winners from Leg Two as well as present some special accolades.
Before the main Leg trophies were awarded, the evenings proceedings started with three special awards.
The first award to be given was the media prize which was presented by Erling Pedersen from Volvo Car Corporation. The media prize is presented by the race organisation to the crew member who makes the best contribution to the overall media efforts. Traditionally this award is presented to an individual crew member however, for Leg Two it was felt necessary to present this award to a team. Brasil 1 won the prize for the spectacular footage that they sent back from the leg as well as the in-depth and heart-felt emails.
The second prize of the evening, the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics Ocean Watch Environmental Award, was presented by Laurtz Andersen from Wallenius Wilhelmsen and went to Pirates of the Caribbean. Skipper Paul Cayard (USA) was invited onto the stage but insisted in bringing team member Justin Clougher (AUS) with him, who was responsible for the creative writing.
The final special award of the evening was the Musto Seamanship Award which is presented in recognition of an act of bravery, goodwill or sportsmanship on the part of a crew member. Torben Grael, skipper of Brasil 1 presented the award to fellow Brazilian Andrea Fonseca who played such an integral part in rescuing the boat when Brasil 1 was dismasted. Fonseca dived overboard to cut away the broken rig to prevent it puncturing the boat.
ABN AMRO TWO were presented with the Gant Time Trophy for the best 24 hour run, after they clocked up 563 nautical miles in 24 hours, setting a new world record.
There were no surprises with the rest of the evening’s awards. David Jones, Chairman of the Melbourne Stopover Organising Committee, presented a Waterford Crystal Trophy to movistar who finished third in the Leg. Peter Hertinge, President of Volvo Commercial Vehicles Australia, presented ABN AMRO TWO with their second prize. The final trophy of the evening was presented to the overall leg winners ABN AMRO ONE who received their prize from Alan Desselss, General Manager Volvo Cars Australia.
With the Leg prize presentations out of the way, the crews will now be looking towards increasing their trophy count and points at the in-port race. The race is still on for Brasil 1 who now has their boat back in the water and will be rigging their mast overnight.
The rest of the fleet have managed to get a full days practice in today out on Port Phillip Bay in preparation for tomorrow’s race which kicks off at 14 00 (local).
The fleet will leave their berths at Waterfront City Race Village, Docklands from 09 15 (local). They will leave the dockside at 15 minute intervals to allow for time to get under the Bolte Bridge and commence out to the race area on Port Phillip Bay.
After an intense and exciting 2-3 hour in-port race the boats will return to the Waterfront City Race Village, Docklands, for the prize presentation at 19 00 (local).
Follow the in-port race live in audio on the Volvo Ocean Race website www.volvooceanrace.org. It starts at 14 00 local on Saturday 4 February (03 00 GMT). Live commentary will also be broadcast from the leg re-start on the 12 February at 13 00 local (02 00 GMT).
The Ericsson Racing Team is busy squeezing in all the practice it can before Saturday's race in Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne. Inshore tactician John Kostecki (US) has arrived and the team took to the water yesterday to practice manouevre training with Pirates of the Caribbean.
As skipper Neal McDonald (GBR) confirms, Kostecki is very much the man in charge for the in-port races. "He's been with us since the start and he's got a good strength in both offshore and inshore racing. As a tactician he's second to none and I'm very pleased to have him on the team. Neither of us have done a huge amount of sailing in the Bay, but we will go out there and take it on."
Ericsson returned to the water on Wednesday and the crew headed out to check all the systems onboard are in good working order - from the mast, to the rig and the canting keel system. Every single piece of titanium equipment on the boat has been scanned.
Magnus Olsson (SWE), Ericsson's Technical Director and five times Whitbread / Volvo Ocean Race veteran, played an integral role on the water today. Charged with laying the buoys and offering expert advice to the crew, Olsson is optimistic about the future. "The chemistry between the crew is strong and on the technical side we have come to good decisions on how to overcome our problems."
"We are focusing hard on crew work and getting into race mode," said Kostecki. "Difficult times can make you a stronger team and everyone is keen to get out racing again.
February 1, 2006, Melbourne, Australia – Melburnians had quite a surprise today as they looked out of their city office blocks to see a 70 foot, high performance ocean racing yacht glide past their windows on a truck.
After an epic 4000km journey from Fremantle to Melbourne via the arid Nullabor Plain, the first Brazilian entry in the Volvo Ocean Race finally arrived to take up her berth at the Waterfront City Race Village, Docklands.
Charlie Mills was the truck driver who was entrusted with the nerve wracking task: “It was a pretty worrying journey as everyone was phoning me up and asking where I was and I was saying I am getting there as quick as I can. There were a few delays on the way. During the run across the Nullabor we had gale force winds pushing the boat around and I had to back off a little bit. It has certainly been an experience and a half.”
The boat was quite a site on the back of the lorry and at times he was given some humorous advice, as Mills explained: “Going across Nullabor I had a lot of comments. People were telling me I was going the wrong way and pointing in the direction of the nearest water, but thankfully I managed to keep my promise to the team and the main thing is that we got here in one piece and I think the crew were delighted to see us.”
The final part of the trip took Brasil 1 over the West Gate Bridge in front of a spectacular Melbourne skyline. Whilst the rest of the fleet went under the Bolte Bridge as they arrived in Melbourne, Brasil 1 went over it before making the final turn into the race village.
The boat was greeted by an anxious race team who have spent the last few days looking at the seconds tick down, knowing that every minute the boat was delayed, would be less time to get the boat repaired.
With the new mast arriving a few hours in front of the boat, the team will now get the new mast fitted and the boat race ready for the in-port race out on Port Phillip Bay this Saturday 4 February.
The movistarť is back in the water in the port of Melbourne (Australia), where it arrived on the 22nd after finishing third in the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. This last week, the movistar shore crew have been in constant action conducting an exhaustive review of the Spanish boat, changing the hydraulics of the keel and repairing the parts that have suffered damage in the 6,1000 miles of tough sailing from Cape Town, South Africa.
Once again, we are back on the established programme –remarks Pedro Campos, team general manager. Starting training on Wednesday means that we will have three days to prepare next Saturday inshore race. Our objective for this race remains the same: to win as many points as possible and try to reduce the differences with the two boats that are ahead of us in the general ratingsť.
movistar has been weighed in, an operation required by the organisers to check that the boat is still below the maximum authorised weight 14 tonness after the repairs have been done. The aadded weight of the steel hydraulics that have replaced the titanium ones in the “movistar” has meant that the team has had to reduce the weight of the bulb on the keel to meet the VO70 rule restrictions for the competition.
At weigh in, we saw that we were 5 kilos over the maximum weight authorised by the organisers – confessed boat skipper, Bouwe Bekking. Such a small amount represents a mere 0.03 percent of the total weight of the boat, so you could say that we have adjusted the weight really well. Anyway, this discrepancy means that we have had to reduce the weight of the boat by another 5 kilos before putting it back in the water. Once it was readjusted, we were within the limits and we can sail againť.
The movistarť entered the water of Melbourne harbour around 8 p.m. Pepe Ribes, bowman in the Spanish boat, tells us about the operation and about the programme to follow: “The first thing after stepping the mast was to check that the keel hydraulics were working. Early Wednwesday morning, we will conduct a more detailed system check to move the keel before the first training session. The idea is to set off about 11 o'clock in the morning and sail for about four hours. Basically, we will train next Saturday's inshore in the regatta waters, checking sails and that everything is perfectť.
Having several Australians aboard in this race will be an asset for the movistarť, as Xabi pointed out this morning: “Both Spike Peter Doriean and Nitro ro Noel Drennan live and sail in Melbournurne, so they know these waters well. Their local knowledge will undoubtedly be a great help in the inshoreť.
Helping each other out Parts of the titanium hydraulics discarded by the movistarť have been in the Pirates of the Caribbeanť base since this morning, as Fred Barret, manager of the Spanish boat's shore team, points out: They asked us if they could use the parts of the hydraulic arms that we are not going to use, for their hydraulic system, and, of course, we said yes. We are not sure if they will finally be of any good to them, but if they can put them to better use than us, then go ahead.