Sport-heute: Sailing - Auf zum Kap Horn!

21. Februar 2009, 20:47

Auf zum Kap Horn!

Drei Boote kämpfen an vorderster Front Richtung Kap Horn. Ericcson 4- Puma Racing und Ericcson 3 sind alle in den gleichen hundert Meilen und vor allem schon unter der 10.000er Marke bis Rio. Telefonica Blue mit rund 260 Meilen Rückstand und Green Dragon mit 273 Meilen Rückstand halten ihren Abstand in Grenzen.

Volvo Ocean Race 21.2.09 (mk) Die täglichen Originalberichte direkt von den Booten

FAST BOATS FROM CHINA

After two days of postponement, the Qingdao in-port race could finally be held, with Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA) grabbing the top points, followed by Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED), PUMA (Ken Read/USA) and Green Dragon Ian Walker/GBR.

While the top four boats were busy, earning points for in-port racing, Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE) was back at sea and racing towards the finish of leg four after an unscheduled stop in Taiwan to repair the boat. The team finished the leg, collected four points for fifth place, restocked the boat and started leg five just seven hours after the rest of the fleet, recording a turn round time of under two hours.

Earlier in the day, the start of leg five from Qingdao to Rio - at 12,300 nm it is the longest leg ever to be set in the history of the race - there was high drama when Telefónica Blue hit a rock minutes before the start gun fired and had to suspend racing in order to fix a crack to their keel.

So, three boats left Qingdao together, heading for the Southern Ocean and Cape Horn. Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) did not start the leg due to lack of funding, but is expected to return to the track later in the race. Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bérmudez/ESP) and Telefónica Black (Fernando EchÃ¡varri/ESP) both did not finish leg four due to damage and are currently onboard ships bound for Rio, where they will be repaired and re-join the race.

Telefónica Blue, who also took a three-point penalty for changing their rudders for this leg, resumed racing, 19 hours later, the following day at 0742 local time, but by then, the leader, PUMA, was already 169 nm ahead.

By day two, 15 February, the fleet was being catapulted towards the southern tip of Japan at breakneck speeds. Light airs in the initial stages of the leg had helped Ericsson 3 to catch the leaders, but by 1300 GMT on day two, Ericsson 4 had taken the lead from PUMA and was 202 nm ahead of Telefónica Blue. Ericsson 3 had chosen Green Dragon as its first victim and was closing quickly. Temperatures plummeted as the wind arrived on schedule and the first three boats in the fleet were up, up and away.

With the islands of Japan now safely behind, the fleet plunged into the Pacific Ocean towards New Zealand, which is a mark of the course. It was a tough 36 hours, with the winds in the 20s and 30s (knots). 'The decks have been awash and it has been survival suits, lifejackets and harnesses all round, day and night,' wrote Ian Walker.

Walker was missing the helming skills of his former Olympic partner, John Merricks, who was tragically killed in 1997. 'Today would have been John's birthday,' wrote Walker on 16 February, day three. 'How he would have loved to have been doing what I am now. He was one of the best heavy-air sailors I ever sailed with or against,' remembered Walker.

Ericsson 4 had pulled out a lead over PUMA of 16 nm, who had snapped a wheel in half when ploughing into the bottom of a big wave, and Ericsson had swept past the Dragons and taken third place. Meanwhile, Telefónica Blue was still chipping away at the fleet and was 10 hours, or 197 nm behind.

On day four, 17 February, the fleet was still blast-reaching, with very little in the way of tactical opportunities. It was a drag race, where speed was king. Walker and his new navigator, Wouter Verbraak - the former navigator of Team Russia - made a break to the north, a move that was later shown to be a bad one. The wind dropped and temperatures started to improve.

As the drag race continued on day five, sunglasses and sun cream made its first appearance of the leg. Thermals were exchanged for shorts and boots for shoes. Life onboard settled down into a steady rhythm, with speeds hovering between 16 - 18 knots. PUMA had closed to within four miles on Ericsson 4, but for Ericsson 3 and Green Dragon, there were big losses and they were both over 100 nm behind. Life hadn't improved too much for the boys on Telefónica Blue, who was now 284 nm astern, with no opportunity in the near future to do anything about it.

The rather monotonous port-gybe reach continued on day six. The spray was fierce and, onboard Telefónica Blue, various fashion items appeared to deal with it, ranging from a trusty old surf helmet and visor for the majority of the crew, to a very fetching pair of safety goggles chosen by David Vera, and Michael Pammenter was seen sporting a pair of scuba goggles. The miles were clicking off nicely, around 2000 already consigned to history, but conditions for the fleet were, in the words of Ericsson 4's watch captain Brad Jackson, 'hot, wet and manky.' The top boat was still Ericsson 4, with PUMA neatly positioned on her starboard hip, 45 nm to the northwest, but only 10 miles astern.

The first change in the order of the fleet after nearly a week came on day seven, 20 February, when Telefónica Blue overtook Green Dragon. Skipper Bouwe Bekking was determined to stick to his plan and sail to an imaginary point where he thought would be the best place to cross the Doldrums. Green Dragon meanwhile took either a gamble, or a calculated risk, and stayed in the east.

'If it works, of course we will be heroes, and if not, we will be the ones who took the gamble and failed,' noted Ian Walker.

On day eight, 21 February, Ericsson 4 and PUMA both sailed through the 10,000 nm to the finish marker as they raced between the islands of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands, situated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Dateline, and still north of the Equator

Navigator of Ericsson 4, Jules Salter/GBR reckoned his team were about 100 nm north of the first light and fickle Doldrum belt on this leg. Due to a major satellite reorganisation and upgrade, weather and other information is limited for a short period on this leg. Ever resourceful and, much to the amusement of the crew onboard Ericsson 4, Salter was using an old school weather fax.

'With our T&T radio set up, we can get weather maps from the sky,' he says. 'Reception is not digital, but there is a pleasure in receiving a slightly blurred weather map from the airwaves as you hear the tone come in over the SSB radio. Whether it will help us to maintain our slender lead through the first Doldum area is a moot point,' he said, adding that it was good to revisit old technology for a while. 'We become too complacent on so much new technology which we, especially me, do not understand.'

With 9,842 nm to go to the finish, Ericsson 4 led PUMA by 39 nm, a loss for PUMA of over 37 nm in the last 24 hours. Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE) also slipped back another 35 nm and had a deficit of 95 miles. Telefónica Blue led the Dragons by 13nm, although both boats sailed without mainsails for a short period overnight. Telefónica Blue slowed the to make good a problem with the propeller box, while Green Dragon also spent an hour with no mainsail while the crew repaired the end of one of the batten sockets.

With a big split across the fleet, the danger now for the teams will come when the boats ahead reach new weather systems.

Leg Five Day 8: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)

Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) DTF 9,842 nm
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +39
Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +95
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +260
Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +273

Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) DNS
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando EchÃ¡varri/ESP) DNS
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS

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ERICSSON 3 LEG FIVE DAY 8 QFB: received 21.02.09 1552 GMT

Magnus Olsson is disappointed. Not with the team and our efforts. With that part he is very happy. Not the least since we are keeping up with the front guys when we started seven hours after them. Just starting this leg was an effort itself.

But he is disappointed with the wildlife of the first part of this route. Magnus is a friend of the animals. It has been said that during a previous race he found a spider onboard soon after the start and managed to make it survive for 30 days, until the finish.

We have seen no animals so far in these waters where no one onboard has ever been before. No dolphins, no whales, no cool birds. No nothing. Well, that's not entirely true. We had a fly-fish visiting yesterday morning.

"It will be different in the Southern Ocean which is full of life. The birds down there are just fantastic", says Magnus who has a big fascination of the Albatrosses and their way of sweeping over the surface and diving between the waves without moving their wings.

We are soon entering the tricky Doldrums again. It now seems, looking on the satellite pictures, like we are in a good position to make a good way through the first section.
But you can never be sure of anything this close to the equator. The picture can change completely in very short time and we are all preparing for 'squall-hours' with no wind one second and fully powered up the next. It feels like it has already started.

During the day we could breathe out a bit with just around 15 knots of wind, calm sea and sunny sky. We were still heeling quite a bit, sailing with the wind from 70 degrees true, but there was not much water on deck and for a while we could even open up the aft hatch to let some air in under deck. Talk about relief. A normal person wouldn't believe the smell we live in. It's always a bit tough to go down below when you've been on deck and got some fresh air in your nose. But you get used to it quicker than you would think. There's just nothing you can do about it.

At the time I wrote the last sentence, Eivind (Eivind Melleby/NOR) put his feet just in front of my nose. He was about to jump out of his bunk and I'm sitting just below it. That is over the limit.

The nice weather did not last for long. Now the boat is whistling its way forward again. It is pretty bumpy with 20 knots of wind and a wind direction of 80 degrees.
The next 24 hours will probably be quite interesting.

Gustav Morin - MCM

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ERICSSON 4 LEG FIVE DAY 8 QFB: received 21.02.09 0907 GMT

Sods Law for Navigators part 8

You never know how much you miss Inmarsat's Fleet Broadband until it has gone. Here Jules navigator Salter talks through the challenges of having to return to fax in a world of satellite communication.

The frustration onboard is compounded by the fact that Ericsson 4 is currently sailing in the wider global spot beam of the I3 satellite and is currently only able to get voice and Sat C for location. It is expected that they will clear this in the next few hours.

We have known for a while that there were going to be some communications problems on this whopper of a leg due to the global satellite reorganisation upgrade which is taking place for the first 10days of the leg.

Such is life...just another Volvo sailor moaning you say. We now can't use our back up Fleet 33 units. These are slower for download - (think dial up CompuServe connection circa '98) and get most of what we need -all you need is a bit more patience. We are currently sailing in a wedge of the west Pacific roughly over Micronesia, which does not get Fleet 33 spot beam coverage, which means that we can't get data via the Fleet 33. The data I am talking about are GRIB files (wind peed and data information our computers use to work out the fastest routes to take), weather maps from expert forecasters, satellite photos and other information we use to help us guess where to position our boats.

Sods law of course dictates that we are in the 100nm or so before we enter the first light and fickle doldrum belt on this voyage. So no weather info other than some general met area text descriptions, our onboard satellite receiver (5 a day if lucky) and much to the amusement of those of a certain age on board, I have got the old school weather fax running. With our T&T radio set we can get weather maps from the sky assent out at the US taxpayers expense from Hawaii, amongst other places.

Reception is not digital but there is a pleasure in receiving a slightly blurred weather map from the airwaves as you hear the tone come in over the SSB radio. You have to tune the unit, look up a schedule, set up the software and also make sure no one has accedentally pulled the plug out of the backstay antenna as they take a leak off the back of the yacht.

Whether it will help us maintain our slender lead through the first doldrum area is a moot point. As much information as possible is always good to base your decisions on but so often with these bubbling, light wind, cloudy weather situations a large amount of good luck will be more important.

Still it was good to revisit old technology for a while as we become ever too complacent on so much newer technology we (me especially) do not understand.

Jules Salter - navigator

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TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG FIVE DAY 8 QFB: received 21.10.09 1011 GMT

Finally a bit of relieve of wind pressure, and this afternoon was the first time on this trip to peel all the foul weather clothes off. But the wind has shifted dramatically, and we are having a way worse angle than the leading boats. The bungee cord is now again working for them, and probably in two days time it will go our way again. As I speak, we are back how it was the previous days, spray flying everywhere in 18 knots of breeze. The person who said the Pacific was all about sunshine, beaches and gentle breezes got it wrong, at least for this year.

Last night we had to slow the boat down dramatically as we had to fix the so-called propbox door. The opening/closing mechanism failed and the door stayed open, slowing us down dramatically and we had to drop the main to sail as slow as possible to be able get inside the box. Going to fast meant the water pressure would go up, resulting in a big stream of water pouring into the boat, once the safety lid was off. Xabi (Xabier Fernandez) and David (David Vera) did a quick fix and we were on our way again in just under an hour.

Tom (Tom Addis - navigator) is bit agitated, as we are sailing in an area where we don't receive any weather information. Trying to do it the old way via the SSB doesn't work either. It is one of these things that you learn over the years. Do not get too upset about things you do not have control over, especially if it is the same for all the other boats. Not receiving data means as well that we can't send any pictures or personal emails. We are lucky we have this kit, called the Sat C, which I am using right now, so at least can get some info off the boat. But it is in the nav station, and off limits normally for other usage, as it safety device as well, where we do all comms with the girls (duty officers) at race headquarters.

Bouwe Bekking - skipper
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GREEN DRAGON LEG FIVE DAY 8 QFB: received 21.02.09 0554 GMT

In the middle of the night we quickly lost speed indicating we must have something caught on the keel. Because it was over 20 knots, we had to bear off, lower the jib and go head to wind and back down. When all said and done, this would have cost us three or four miles.

Today we spent an hour sailing with no mainsail as we had to fix the inboard end of one of our batten sockets. It appears to have just come apart under the load of all this reaching. Fortunately we carry a spare, although as is so often the case the spare wasn't identical so it needed some fine tuning.

I am happy with our easterly position and I am sure the others will have to work this way - it seems to have stopped the loss of miles for a while.

Ian Walker - skipper

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Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009 Ericsson 3Leg 5(Gustav Morin/Ericsson 3/Volvo Ocean Race For EDITORIAL USE only, please credit: Gustav Morin/Ericsson 3/Volvo Ocean Race

Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race Bowman Jerry Kirby standing on Skipper Ken Read's head whilst working on the mainsail en route to Rio De Janeiro in leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race.

Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009 Ericsson 3Leg 5(Gustav Morin/Ericsson 3/Volvo Ocean Race For EDITORIAL USE only, please credit: Gustav Morin/Ericsson 3/Volvo Ocean Race