Sport-heute: Sailing - Ericcson 3 - Die Crew um Magnus Olsson und seinen goldenen Händchen!

09. März 2009, 23:28

Ericcson 3 - Die Crew um Magnus Olsson und seinen goldenen Händchen!

Ein bessere Linie hätte die Crew mit Capitain Magnus Olsson nicht erwischen können. Klug haben sie eine Route gewählt, die viel Risiko beinhaltet aber bei gelingen viel Vorsprung gibt. Mit über 200 Meilen Vorsprung auf Ericcson 4 segelt die Drei Richtung zweites Tor - dem Eistor und holt vermutlich wertvolle Scorerpunkte.

Volvo Ocean Race, 9.3.09 (mk) Die Original Mails von den Yachten

ERICSSON 3: FAST AND FURIOUS

Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE) is stretching out a substantial lead in leg five of the Volvo Ocean Race as the team rides a weather system, which is sweeping them quickly towards Cape Horn and maximum points at the next scoring gate.

Magnus Olsson and his men have now pulled out a lead of 208 nautical miles as they continue to average a boat speed of 24.3 knots, almost four knots faster than the chasing duo of Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA) and PUMA (Ken Read/USA). Their latest 24-hour run of 516 nautical miles is 83 nm better than overall race leader Ericsson 4 in the same period.

In the last 24 hours, their lead has nearly doubled, while the rest of the fleet made losses of between 14 nm at the best and 45 nm at the worst. Their pace is fast and furious, but the rest of the fleet has now also been able to set big downwind sails and give chase.

Ericsson 4 and PUMA remain engaged in battle, a little over 200 miles astern of the leader.. At 1300 GMT yesterday, PUMA led from Ericsson 4 by seven miles, but today, when the grey mist cleared briefly, the Ericsson 4 could see PUMA two miles behind. They have since extended the margin by 12 miles.

“I expect we will be close to them again before the second ice waypoint,” predicted Ericsson 4’s navigator Jules Salter. “It will be interesting to see how this duel in Ericsson 3's wake pans out in the next few grey days. It won't be simple and easy that is for sure,” he said.

The fleet is clearly split with Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR) and Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) both down at 45 degrees south, while Ericsson 3 is at 43S and Ericsson 4 and PUMA at 42S.

Green Dragon and Telefónica Blue are both in a position with big breeze and the right angles to cash in and regain some of the massive losses they have suffered to the leading trio.

Bekking says there is a long way yet to go and, because his team is in different breeze from the leaders, they have a different set of options open to them as they approach the second ice gate. “We will see what we can do with those,” he says.

Earlier Telefónica Blue had a near miss with a whale just at sunrise and within a minute of the crew hoisting their large A3 spinnaker. They had already trapped a fish in their paddle wheel, which measures the boat’s speed through the water.

“Just like when we were racing through logs and other debris coming into the Malacca Straits on leg three, we are all very relieved that all these obstacles disappear at night time…” said navigator Tom Addis.

Moral onboard has improved and, despite the grey skies and occasional rain, the weather is not too cold. “It isn’t too wet, and the miles are falling away,” says Simon Fisher. “Cape Horn now does not seem quite so distant and we have the bit between our teeth once more.”

Leg Five Day 24: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)

Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) DTF 5,227 nm
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +208
PUMA USA (Ken Read/USA) +222
Green Dragon IRL/CHI (Ian Walker/GBR) +346
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +499

Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) DNS
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) DNS
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS
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ERICSSON 4 LEG FIVE DAY 24 QFB: received 09.03.09 0901 GMT

Two sides of an ocean...

Yes, the Pacific is a big ocean and now we are starting to move along its bottom edge after what seems like an age at sea. The first three weeks have been largely southbound down the west edge of this huge wilderness. We have seen only a few islands, reefs and atolls (some more closely after the jaunt through Fiji), but largely it has been only Pacific, warm, blue sea.

That was then and now is different.

The other side is the where the Pacific meets the Southern Ocean. This is a different place; it is cooler, greyer, windier and even the waves have a lumpier quality. Our progress south east is gathering pace and the weather has become more 'normal' after the set up at the scoring gate. Our friends on Ericsson 3 used this well to their advantage with a carefully thought out punt 'over the top'. This had been lurking as an option since Fiji but old school conservative thinking (south is good) rather tempered our risk assessment. This left us taking a loss, but at least we are in touch with our main rivals overall. Good to see the Ericsson 3 move, a lot more Arsenal than Chelsea so to speak.

After some less than comfortable upwind sailing into the sub tropical low we were treated with some good lightning and ramping head seas as the wind shift allowed us to sail east.

One 20 knot leap by the boat felt like we were fully airborne and after Horatio’s (Horatio Carabelli/BRA) checks of the keel rams, a few sheared bolts probably attest to the hull being clear of the water. I know that’s what my teeth felt like when we landed.

We have been lucky to reduce our deficit with Puma and saw them cross behind us 2 nm away this afternoon when the visibility lifted briefly from the murk and mist. I expect we will be close to them again before the second ice waypoint.

My mind goes back three years to the last race when I was on Pirates of the Caribbean and we ended up boat for boat with movistar approaching the second ice waypoint. This is an imaginary mark about as far away from land you can get on the planet, which we must pass on the correct side before we can head south to Cape Horn. It is to keep us clear of ice bergs.

Last time, we had the preposterous situation of two boats overlapped at the mark in the middle of nowhere with movistar choosing to gybe set and the Pirates straight setting spinnakers.

A few of the protagonists are the same. Again it is Capey (Andrew Cape – navigator) and I who are fretting about whether we have passed the point correctly. Watch leaders have swapped. Stu Bannatyne is with me this time (and I remind him that his gybe set resulted in a cross to Pirates by 12 miles a few hours later). Capey has the pleasure of the company of Erle Williams who no doubt will be regaling the Pumas with his tales – Erle’s ‘Continuing Adventures of Flyer’ from the old Whitbread days - Justin Ferris must know these off by heart by now.

It will be interesting to see how this duel in Ericsson 3's wake pans out in the next few grey days. It won't be simple and easy that is for sure.

Jules Salter - navigator

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TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG FIVE DAY 23 QFB: received 08.03.09 1606 GMT

We had another big rig maintenance day. We were not happy with our so-called forestay arrangement, so it was up and down the rig several times. On the first descent on deck David (David Vera/ESP) came with some bad news. He had discovered a crack in the rig, causing, of course, some extra wrinkles in our foreheads. So we got some good photos taken, so we all could see the extent of the damage.

Not good of course to see this kind of thing, but we saw a way to relax that area a bit more, by adding another temporary stay, this time one facing aft and even that we are concerned about it, but we think we can keep it under control.

So the rig starts slowly looking like the Eiffel Tower, with bits and pieces of rope everywhere to stabilize it fore and aft as good as possible, but we are happy with it.

We have been sailing mainly the entire day with our small jib up, as the seaway is too nasty to put u the big Anaconda (our code 0). It feels horrible to drive in these conditions, the speed down several knots from normal and playing with the keel angle all the time. But we quickly figured out to that hoisting our storm jib inside of the small jib, actually gave us a couple of tenth of speed. It is the old fashion way of settings sails, but since we are going so much slower the apparent wind is coming more from behind, so this little sail is efficient.

Bouwe Bekking - skipper

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PUMA LEG FIVE DAY 24 QFB: received 09.03.09 0811 GMT

I spent the morning training Salty (Rob Salthouse/NZL) to be a back up MCM. We're thinking of a switch out in Rio. Maybe at the Horn if he's ready. Not sure if he’s had enough of it on deck, or if I've had enough of it down here in the hole. Either way he's already half way there because he always has great ideas, now he just has to learn all the different programmes, and we’ll be good to go.

PS: Just kidding about Salty's new position, we need him right where he is.

Its amazing how many of our crews user names end with a Y or the Y sound -Salty, Kenny, Capey, Jerry, Ricky, Casey, Michi, Willy, Sidney! Of course that still leaves Rob who could become Robby and Justin... hmmm. So much for that train of thought.

It just occurred to me that we’re going to miss Mardi Gras in Rio, and that’s disappointing. But it could also be a good thing. This will put me at three for three in Brazil (missing Mardi Gras), although Capey (Andrew Cape – navigator) just reminded me that when the Whitbread stopped in Sao Sebastiao in 1998 they ran a Mardi Gras style parade for the visiting fleet. As I recall it was quite impressive..

Needless to say, not much going on here today, we are just blasting along at 20 knots in the dense fog that has been with us for days now. I can’t help thinking about the first time we sailed 400 miles in a day on the Whitbread 60. It was really quite terrifying. Fast forward 10 years to now and it seems quite routine to sail that distance and each 400 miles takes a big chunk out of the DTF (Distance to Finish) and brings us closer to the corner (Cape Horn). It’s ironic that people look forward to the Southern Ocean and then once there, just want to get the hell out of it.

Today was my day as minister of the interior. I was able to give the galley and head as well a the whole boat to leeward a good going over with hot water and the Chinese version of Dettol disinfectant. Just the smell alone made things a little more bearable and hopefully having a clean boat will pay dividends down the road if we can keep the germs at bay.

The whole forward part of the boat, where we don’t really hang out that much is experiencing major condensation. It’s caused by the temperature difference between the cold water rushing by the outside of the hull and the warmer air inside the boat. When we dive south after the next ice gates this will start to become even more of a problem in the rest of the boat. Something to look forward to. Not.

Rick Deppe - MCM

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Gustav Morin/Ericsson 3/Volvo Ocean Race Arve Roaas holding an octopus, onboard Ericsson 3, on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro

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Guo Chuan/Green Dragon Racing/Volvo Ocean Race Skipper Ian Walker, onboard Green Dragon, on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro

Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race Erle Williams onboard PUMA Ocean Racing, on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro

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Gustav Morin/Ericsson 3/Volvo Ocean Race Anders Dahlsjo working on bow for a sailchange, onboard Ericsson 3, on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro