Sport-heute: Sailing - Schwierige Lage und schwierige Winde

15. April 2009, 00:03

Schwierige Lage und schwierige Winde

Unterwegs nach Boston

Telefonica Blue hält hartnäckig die Führung mit rund 8Meilen Vorsprung auf Ericsson 4. Bouwe Bekking meint, dass die nächsten 48 Stunden sehr schwierig werden, weil ausser einer leichten Brise gar nichts passieren würde und die Boote eher stillstehen als fahren.Wouter Verbraak, die niederländische Navigator berichtet von einer Position wo es Winde hat zwischen 8-18 Knoten, der Nachteil, sie kommen von überall. Eine mehr als schwierige Lage.

Brüttisellen, 14.4.09 (mk) CHAMPAGNE SAILING? DEFINITELY NOT!

Today at 1300 GMT, Bouwe Bekking and his team on Telefónica Blue held the lead from Ericsson 4 by eight miles. Still sticking the offshore side of the course, Bekking was 270 nm from the Itabuna lighthouse on the Brazilian coast..

“We want to be on the right hand side of the course,” said Bekking in a radio interview this afternoon. “We are making some gains now,” he said. Bekking is expecting very mixed conditions in the light breeze over the next 48 hours, which he says will be very tricky. The fleet is currently hard on the wind.

Following faithfully in the wake of Telefónica Blue were Delta Lloyd, just slightly to the east, Telefónica Black directly in her sistership’s wake, and Green Dragon, the furthest west of this bunch. Fourteen miles east of this pack are the two Ericsson boats and their long-term friend, PUMA.

Now thoroughly into the south easterly trade winds, the fleet should be enjoying a fast transition to the scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha, 700 nm to the north, but instead, the trade winds are not living up to their reputation. In fact, champagne sailing this most certainly is not.

Wouter Verbraak, the Dutch navigator of Delta Lloyd in third place reports winds varying from seven to 18 knots with a wind direction from almost everywhere. To make this even more difficult, clouds have appeared. Some are windy, some are big, some are small, and some have no wind at all. This has meant the crews have had to change sails on a constant basis. Although Verbraak says that using their furling masthead code zero sail has made sail changing in the squalls more palatable. Verbraak’s strategy is to stay with the easterly route, as he believes there are less squalls and better wind further away from the shore.

For Fernando Echávarri’s Telefónica Black, the leader in the initial stages, hope has changed into temporary frustration. “What next?” questions their navigator Roger Nilson. “We are just looking for new chances to be the over-taker instead of the over-taken,” he said.

While the crews struggle under the influence of the clouds, the end of this edition of the Volvo Ocean Race is looming. Rick Deppe, MCM onboard PUMA say’s he is amazed at the way the race has changed his sense of time and distance.

“Capey (navigator Andrew Cape) and I were idly chatting this morning about the way we can just walk down the dock, throw some gear on the boat and set off on a 5000 mile leg with very little fuss. Of course, we want to do well in the race, and we must be sure that everything is taken care of in our own particular area, but pretty much, we take this leg on as though we were going out on an overnight trip. Most of all, you become patient… 750 miles to the gate, then another 300 to the finish. No biggy, we’ll get there.”

Others are not counting off the miles and Ericsson 3’s skipper Magnus Olsson, doesn’t want the race to finish at all. This morning his crew mentioned that it is only approximately two months until the race arrives in Stockholm, the home city of Ericsson. Magnus instantly changed from the smiling skipper the crew are used to, and became very serious. “I know,” he said. “It feels tragic. I don’t want to think about it. Can’t we just continue and make another lap straight away,” he said.

Leg Six Day 4: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)

1. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) DTF 4232 nm
2. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +8
3. Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermúdez/ESP) +14
4. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +20
5. Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) +21
6. PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +25
7. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +32
8. Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS

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GREEN DRAGON LEG SIX DAY 4 QFB: received 14.04.09 1338 GMT

Not quite sure what to write about today as nothing has really happened. Conditions are fairly benign as we fetch pretty much down the rhumb line to Fernando. Every now and then we have changed from the Masthead to the G1 headsail but other than that there is little excitement and there are no real tactical options.

Some boats lose more than others in the clouds which get dealt fairly randomly, particularly at dawn and dusk. In the last 24 hours we have done fairly well at stopping the losses and that would seem to vindicate our slightly more offshore position. As seems to often be the case, our job now is to work hard to stay as close as we can for when the race opens up later in the leg. We are not carrying our new upwind code zero on this leg as we cannot use it on every leg without it falling apart and we are missing it right now as the wind heads and decreases. There has been little or no wildlife to speak of but I expect the flying fish to get going soon. The water is warming up quickly and onboard temperatures are rising.

Fortunately it is not too bad sailing upwind as there is wind over the deck. Other than that all I can report is a lot of discussions about what everyone is going to do when the race is over. It feels strange to be racing towards a point we have already been to (Fernando) and in some respects this closes a loop. For me our loop around the world will be properly closed when we return to Galway in May..

Ian Walker - skipper
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ERICSSON 3 LEG SIX DAY 4 QFB: received 14.04.09 1339 GMT

"It's tragical"

This morning I said to Magnus Olsson:

"Have you thought about that it is only about two months until we will arrive in Stockholm?"

He instantly changed from the smiling Magnus we are used to, to become very serious. He answered with a grumpy face and his head down:

"I know, it feels tragical. I don't want to think about it. Can't we just continue and make another lap straight away?"

"So you would actually want to do that?" I asked.

"Of course, without a doubt!"

I would say that everyone onboard Ericsson 3 is pretty enthusiastic about sailing, and many of us are not saying that we won't do this race again. But no one is as clear about it as Magnus.

We have not been sailing very well the last couple of hours. But it has been very tricky conditions with a lot of squalls and we have all the time been on the limit of the range between two sails.. I think we have changed from the mast head zero to a smaller headsail about six times in four hours.

We have also lost a lot to most of our opponents. Most obvious we lost a lot to Ericsson 4 who had been just beside us for a long time.

We are generally trying to avoid the big squalls but it seems that we sometimes just have to go straight into them. Once, early this morning, we were really happy to being able to avoid a big cloud while Ericsson 4 didn't. Unfortunately for us they got more wind inside the cloud and took of a couple of miles while we were lying still with no breeze at all. It is very tricky to foresee which cloud will pay off to hit and which will not.

Gustav Morin

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ERICSSON 4 LEG SIX DAY 4 QFB: received 14.04.09 1437 GMT

Good afternoon sports fans.

Well here we go again. Four hours on, four hours off. Life has quickly returned to its usual routine aboard Ericsson 4 and after a couple of days getting into the swing of things, our bodies have adjusted back to our watch system and the time is flying by.

Matters are also made better by the fact that we now have a decent strength breeze and are making reasonable speed towards Fernando de Noronha. A couple of active cumulus clouds kept us busy last night but seem to have done us no harm as we managed to gain some ground on Telefónica Blue and open up a few miles on the chasing Ericsson 3, Puma and Telefónica Black, with whom we had spent most of yesterday.

Conditions are pretty warm and humid down below but our trusty bedside fans are serving us well. Also, I dare not complain about the heat as it’s looking like near freezing conditions for the approach into Boston. I personally would much rather be hot with warm sea temperatures than bitterly cold with water around the 5 degree Celsius mark that we are expecting. As such I will save my whinging for later this leg.

The only real situation aboard has been the scent of Stu's (Stu Bannatyne) socks that has turned to near gag inducing. Quite an achievement considering that we have only been at sea for 50 odd hours! Hopefully we have rectified the situation by banishing the socks to above decks and getting Stu to do some work on the foredeck in the hope that the extra water up there might give his shoes a much needed flushing.

That’s all for now.

Ryan Godfrey - bowman
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Gabriele Olivo/Telefonica Blue/Volvo Ocean Race Sail changes, onboard Telefonica Blue, on leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston

Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race PUMA Ocean Racing, on leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston

Gabriele Olivo/Telefonica Blue/Volvo Ocean Race Looking out towrds Green Dragon, onboard Telefonica Blue, on leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston

Gustav Morin/Ericsson 3/Volvo Ocean Race Martin Stromberg repairing a sail on leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston