Sport-heute: Sailing - Mit 3 Knoten als Sieger durchs Ziel!

18. April 2009, 08:52

Mit 3 Knoten als Sieger durchs Ziel!

Keine leichte Aufgabe und schwierigste Windverhältnisse

Die ersten Punkte auf der sechsten Etappe sind vergeben. Kurz vor Einbruch der Dunkelheit, holte Telefonica Blue das Maximum von vier Punkten. Es war ein Nervenkampf für die Crew und nicht leicht zu gewinnen. Bis 10 Meilen vor dem Tor segelten sie mit 23 Knoten. Die letzten paar Meilen stürtzte die Geschwindigkeit auf Herzfrequenz hinunter. Mit 3!!! Knoten segelten sie durchs Ziel.

Brüttisellen, 17.4.09 (mk) LEG SIX WEEK ONE: SCORES ON THE BOARD

The first points of leg six of the Volvo Ocean Race have now been earned, and early yesterday evening, just before darkness fell, Telefónica Blue claimed the maximum of four points as she led the seven-strong Volvo fleet through the gate at Fernando de Noronha.

It is the first time that Telefónica Blue has been in pole position at a gate, and it wasn’t an easy win. Heavy squalls and rain reduced the visibility and, 10 miles before the gate, the breeze dropped from 23 knots to three knots, which sent the heart rates of the crew racing.

Telefónica Blue has led the fleet from the start and skipper Bouwe Bekking is very pleased with the performance of the boat and crew. Reflecting on the first part of the course, he said, “We can’t see where we made any mistakes, plus, of course, the boat has done a good job for us.”

After leading off the start line in a slow beginning to the sixth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race from Rio to Boston, Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) gave her lead to sistership Telefónica Blue.

Hours after the start, Telefónica Black had had to evacuate their bowman, Mike Pammenter from South Africa, after he injured his ankle as the boat approached the last turning mark in the Guanabara Bay before heading out to sea. The accident happened, when, during a manoeuvre, Pammenter’s foot became entangled in the genoa sheet, which then flung him into the mast. Initially it was thought that the ankle was broken, but it has since been confirmed that is just very badly bruised. Telefónica Black now has to sail this leg of the race with a crewman short.

It was day two before the fleet cleared Cape Frio and boat speeds were a miserable three knots at best, with a horrible rolling swell. On day three, 13 April, speeds were up to 14 knots and the fleet was able to steer straight at the mark. Telefónica Blue had pulled out a healthy 13-knot lead, but Delta Lloyd was tracking her. The fleet had split into two groups. Inshore were Ericsson 4 and Ericsson 3, PUMA and Telefónica Black. On the offshore track were the remaining three boats.

“We want to be on the right hand side of the course,” said Telefónica Blue’s skipper Bouwe Bekking, explaining his tactics. “We are making some gains now,” he said.

By now, day four, the fleet was thoroughly into the southeast trade winds but they were not living up to their reputation. In fact, champagne sailing it most certainly was not. The winds varied from seven to 18 knots from every direction and, coupled with this, big clouds had appeared. Some were windy, some were big, some were small and some had no wind at all. The caused mayhem as the fleet tried to avoid them.

“We are just looking for new chances to be the over-taker instead of the over-taken,” wrote Roger Nilson, navigator onboard Telefónica Black.

On day five, the fleet was passing the most eastern tip of Brazil and it was here that the differences between being inshore and being offshore became apparent. It was a crucial day for the fleet. Telefónica Blue still held the lead, but in a dazzling display, Delta Lloyd swept into second, with Ericsson 4 five miles astern. Along with the leader, Delta Lloyd had invested in the offshore position, believing the wind would be better further east, and had reaped the benefits. The lone scoring gate on this leg was still 424 nm ahead and it would be a battle for the next two days before the rounding order was established.

Day six was about speed, speed and more speed as the fleet closed on the gate and the valuable points to be had there. There were no passing lanes and no capacity for tactical moves.

As the wind started to pick up, Ericsson 3’s skipper, Magnus Olsson was washed into the steering pedestal by a rogue wave, which left him momentarily stunned and with injured ribs. He managed to climb into his bunk without help saying afterwards, “I was not prepared for that wave at all. It feels stupid to be hit like this by the first wave that reaches the deck.”

It was an intense night on April 17. After Telefónica Blue had grabbed the leader’s points at the gate, it was another three hours before Ericsson 4 rounded to take second place.

Further back, it was an intense time for the Delta Lloyd crew as they fought off advances from Telefónica Black and then PUMA at the last minute for third place.

Ericsson 4 had passed Delta Lloyd earlier in the morning and had been steadily sailing away, leaving Telefónica Black and PUMA as the main threats. “Today we are really seeing the difference in boat speed between our first generation boat and her younger sisters,” wrote Delta Lloyd’s navigator Wouter Verbraak, adding, “It’s no problem, it just means we will have to work harder and smarter.”

Next through was Ericsson 3, and, following her in seventh place was Green Dragon.

“For six of us onboard who have sailed every leg and never sailed the race before, this means we have completed our first circumnavigation of the world,” wrote Green Dragon skipper Ian Walker, who says that despite being last at the gate, spirits onboard are good.

The next challenges for the fleet will be the initiation of those have not before crossed the Equator, followed by what the meteorologist say will be a short crossing of the Doldrums, maybe just 24 hours, and out into the northeast trade winds.

Although, technically, the fleet is already in the Doldrums, with towering clouds and rainsqualls, the wind is still good. Walker says the sailing is fantastic, especially at night with lots of medium air reaching.

Verbraak agrees: Everybody is soaking wet as we are grinding sails up, unfurling and furling sails, dropping jibs and hoisting them again 30 minutes later. It is complete madness really, but also some of the very best sailing you can do.”

Scoring Gate Results Fernando de Noronha
1. Telefónica Blue 19:58:56 GMT 16.04.09 4 Points
2. Ericsson 4 22:55:36 GMT 16.04.09 3.5 Points
3. Delta Lloyd 23:28:32 GMT 16.04.09 3 Points
4. Puma 23:29:31 GMT 16.04.09 2.5 Points
5. Telefónica Black 23:42:20 GMT 16.04.09 2 Points
6. Ericsson 3 00:14:28 GMT 17.04.09 1.5 Points
7. Green Dragon 01:27:26 GMT 17.04.09 1 Point

Leg Six Day 7: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)

1. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) DTF 3,317nm
2. PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +63
3. Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermúdez/ESP) +63
4. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +65
5. Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) +69
6. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +70
7. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +81
8. Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS

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PUMA LEG SIX DAY 7 QFB: received 17.04.09 1354 GMT

Getting ahead, digging a hole, battling back. That sums up our little jaunt to the scoring gate. We will take a fourth as it could have been much worse.

As unlucky as we were at the beginning of the leg, that is about as lucky as we were at the end. Any time you sail around a boat that was 10 miles ahead of you with 50 miles to go - good fortune is looking down upon you. And we nearly grabbed a third at the gate as well, getting through the imaginary line at Fernando de Noronha about five boat lengths behind Delta Lloyd. In fact they had to come up to our line and tacked on us to prevent us from getting there ahead of them. All after over 1000 miles of sailing. Amazing.

We are now parked (literally) in the doldrums. We were going 24 knots about an hour ago. Now the speedo reads 2.2 knots and we are heading for South Africa, not South America. Pretty fluky place, but the good news is we all got a much needed shower this morning and - oh yeah - we missed two water spouts that were forming right next to us.

One fairly large one was forming about two miles to windward and the other - a small one was literally forming about five lengths in front of us. We were ripping along at 20 knots at the time and Salty (Rob Salthouse) said, "That looks a lot like the beginning of a water spout." We all told him to have his head examined and within seconds the water started foaming up under the slender little cloud above it. Yikes. Keen eye, that Salty has. We all just looked at each other and I said, hang on. Which we did. And nothing happened. It disappeared as fast as it was born.

(Sorry just had to take a half hour off from writing this as what looked like a simple little patch of rain turned into a 20 knot squall and sent us careening down the track. All the sails not in use were on the bow at the time. We decided as a team that losing all the sails overboard in a nose dive would probably be really bad, so we moved them back.)

Now we have to chip our way through this weather minefield. The best or the luckiest will win the battle and get to the trades first and get a sizable jump on the rest so there is all to play for. Just hope the path we choose to get through is the lucky one.

All good aboard the fine yacht and actually glad to have that scoring gate over with and really glad to be in the hunt. Out in the open ocean again. Boston here we come. Go Sox.

Kenny Read - skipper
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GREEN DRAGON LEG SIX DAY 7 QFB: received 17.04.09 1032 GMT

At around midnight last night we passed the island of Fernando de Noronha for the second time in this race. For six of us onboard who have sailed every leg and never sailed the race before, this means we have completed our first circumnavigation of the world. For guys like Neal McDonald it is simply yet another 'lap'.

Having sailed all through Asia it really does feel like we have sailed the whole world too! This is a great achievement for these guys and for the team as a whole but we will not truly consider the 'lap' complete until we get to Galway.

Spirits are good onboard despite being last at the scoring gate. We are sailing well and over the last 24 hours we have taken lots of miles out of the pack. We need to steal as many miles as we can in the doldrums before we get into the NE trades and power reaching conditions again.

Telefónica Blue has done a nice job leading at the gate but I will admit it is frustrating that we were right behind them at Capo Frio having done the hard bit well. We have 3600 miles between us and Boston to find another break. It is quite bizarre how 3600 miles seems like a short hop after the marathon leg five. In fact if the weather forecast holds true we should have less than 1000 miles to go in a week’s time.

We are technically in the doldrums right now with towering clouds and rain squalls, but still we hold good wind - for now. The sailing is fantastic, especially at night with lots of medium air reaching. It looks like it will only get better too.

Life aboard today is mainly focused on the rite of passage across the Equator for James Carroll, our popular boat captain. Rumour has it an oriental King Neptune, King Chuan, will be making an appearance and a considerable list of 'crimes' has been prepared. Unfortunately for Jimbo the lads have had far too long, with nothing else to think about, for him to get away lightly and this is our third ceremony of the race so we are getting better at them. It seems hard to believe that only six months ago I was among those getting initiated - an awful lot has happened since then.

Ian Walker - skipper
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TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG SIX DAY SIX QFB: received 16.04.09 2123 GMT

The second time in a row to be first boat at Fernando de Noronha, and it was a little less stressful than last time, when we just pipped ABN AMRO ONE. But the rounding didn't come easy, heavy squalls accompanied us, and 10 miles before the gate the breeze dropped from 23 knots to 3 knots.

S"*T was the first reaction, but we made again the right call on the sail choice and soon we were off again. We rounded just before it became dark, in huge rain squall, so visibility was reduced, but we had glimpse of the island.

Just had a short chat with Tom Addis (navigator) to reflect on the first part, and we can't see where we made any mistakes, plus of course the boat has done a good job for us. When it became tight we managed to pull away again. So we are all happy to have beaten Ericsson 4. Let’s see if we can keep going like this until the finish.............which is still long away.

Cheers,

Bouwe Bekking - skipper
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DELTA LLOYD LEG SIX DAY 7 QFB: received 17.04.09 0742 GMT

Nail biting third

"Puma is coming to us on starboard tack, standby tack, three more lengths."

1.3 nm from the scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha and our battle for third place reaches its climax. The whole day we have been fighting with both the clouds and the rest of the fleet.

Our main battle has been with Telefónica Black, but at the last moment PUMA has gone around the outside of a big light patch under a squall and has made huge gains. Now at the last moment the wind has gone left too much for us and PUMA is closing in fast. It is not sure whether we will cross her.

"Tacking! 0.2 nm to the scoring gate, this is the course. PUMA now five boat lengths behind us."

Every time we are close to another boat we are losing slowly but steadily on boat speed, which is incredibly strenuous on the nerves. Now, again, PUMA is closing in on us, but it is not far to go..

"Congratulations, we have just crossed the scoring gate in third."

The message is received on deck with loud cheers, people shaking hands and jumping up and down. An excellent result for all of us here on Team Delta Lloyd. Everybody has put in 110% the last days and worked their hardest as a team. The feeling is great, especially because the result again is due to good sailing, not luck.

The last 18 hours have been incredibly intense with both Ericsson 4 and Telefónica Black always within sight and big squalls coming in from the east.

Ericsson 4 passed us in the morning and has been steadily sailing away from us, and Telefónica Black and PUMA are relentlessly coming closer from behind. Today we are really seeing the difference in boat speed between our first generation boat and her younger sisters. No problem, it just means we will have to work harder and smarter.

Each squall has its own story. It is hard to tell how much wind we can expect from each cloud and the 25 knot gusts come almost unannounced. Everybody is soaking wet as we are grinding sails up, unfurling and furling sails, dropping jibs and hoisting them again 30 minutes later. It is complete madness really, but also some of the very best sailing you can do. Credit goes to our physical trainer George in Brazil, who has gotten all of us in great shape at the starting line. To keep going at it nonstop for 18 hours we have to be super fit and that is exactly how we feel right now. Thanks George!

The next 24 hours we can expect more cloud action as we are crossing the Doldrums to find our way to the NE trades in the northern hemisphere. We are trying to find a balance between going north and getting to the new wind first, and going lower more on course to the mark.

For now we are happy to mainly work on getting to the NE trades and getting through the light and squally messy area as quick as we can. After the last 24 hours we are fully done with clouds, but I am afraid I will have to tell the boys we are in for another 24 hours. How to tell them that? At least everybody has gotten some sleep again, and we are of course boosted by the good result. What a fantastic race this is.

Cheers,

Wouter Verbraak - navigator

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

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

Gabriele Olivo/Telefonica Blue/Volvo Ocean Race Telefonica Blue, skippered by Bouwe Bekking (NED) are first through the scoring gate of Fernando de Noronha at 19:58:56 GMT 16/04/09, securing 4 points, on of leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston