Sport-heute: Sailing - Komplexer Wetterdruck auf die Telefonica Blue

20. April 2009, 18:50

Komplexer Wetterdruck auf die Telefonica Blue

Das führende Boot vor einer schwierigen Aufgabe.

Die Telefonica Blue und ihre Besatzung stehen vor einer schwierigen Aufgabe. Komplexer Wetterdruck und unstabile Situation lassen sie im Moment nur wenig vorwärts kommen. Der Vorsprung schmilzt - die Gegner holen auf. Doch auch dies könnte es nächsten erwischen. Navigator Tom Addis meint über Funk, "ich hoffe wir verhalten uns richtig, eine solche schwache Brise kann bis zu 36 Stunden dauern, wir suchen nach Wegen". Telefónica Blue ist auf dem gleichen Breitengrad wie die Leeward-Inseln, während die Verfolger 7 Meilen mehr im Westen segeln.

Brüttisellen, 20.4.09 (mk) COMPLICATED WEATHER PUTS PRESSURE ON TELEFÓNICA BLUE

The compression has started. Although still leading the fleet, Telefónica Blue has started to sail into a ridge of high pressure, which is checking her progress towards the finish in Boston, and allowing the rest of the fleet a slice of the action.

The compression could last up to 36 hours as the breeze softens ahead and the race from here on in should be a lot closer.

“Hopefully, we have positioned ourselves correctly and we can hang on to our lead,” said Telefónica Blue navigator Tom Addis. “It’s never enjoyable being the lead boat when the fleet is compressing on you, but there is not a lot we can do about it, but we are fine and we are pushing the boat as hard as we can,” he added.

“Now the Weather Gods are smiling in our favour a little bit and pushing Telefónica Blue into lighter air and allowing us to tighten up the gap,” said PUMA’s skipper Kenny Read would dearly like to be on the podium in his home town of Boston.

At 1300 GMT yesterday, Bouwe Bekking and his men had a comfortable lead of 104 nm. Today it is 61nm, and the weather ahead is complicated, making for nervous navigators and skippers.

“The weather models look so horrible that I am contemplating making lots of coffees for the guys, going on deck to help out, check clouds etc. Anything to get me away from the computer and the horrible stuff it is spitting out at me,” said sixth placed Delta Lloyd’s navigator, Wouter Verbraak.

Telefónica Blue is now on the same latitude as the Leeward Islands, while PUMA, Ericsson 3 and Ericsson 4 are in a parallel line with 36 nm between Ericsson 4 in the west and PUMA in the east and all within seven miles of each other.

It is thought that Magnus Olsson, skipper of Ericsson 3, cracked a rib when he was washed into the steering pedestal last week, but according to his crew, he is recovering well.

Today was helmsman Eivind Melleby’s 29th birthday. Part of his surprise was a bag of jelly men sweets, which brought a smile to Olsson’s face when he was handed his share. Melleby said, “The sailing right now is really fun. The team is doing a great job and everybody is enjoying themselves and pushing all the time. Ericsson 3 is a happy ship and goes fast as well.”

In the next tier, just over 40 nm back, are Telefónica Black and Delta Lloyd, followed by Green Dragon a further 22 nm astern. The black boat had an eventful night breaking their gennaker sheet and then having a scare when they collided with a whale. This morning, when daylight broke, the crew checked for damage from the collision and apart from some paint shaved off the forward edge of the keel blade, nothing else was found.

“All onboard love the sea and its animals, and it has been a real shock for everybody to hit one of them,” said skipper Fernando Echávarri.

Current conditions for the fleet are near to perfect, although Wouter Verbraak says that 17 knots of boatspeed just doesn’t have the same adrenaline kick to it. Further ahead, PUMA’s skipper, Kenny Read, is happy.

“This trade wind sailing is a beautiful thing. Just kind of, hook in and hold on, it’s comfortable below and it’s comfortable on deck and we’re ripping along at 20 knots. What is there not to like?” he said.

Phil Jameson from Ericsson 4 says the price paid for such idyllic sailing is being completely soaked, but the water is warm and not many clothes are required. Most of the crew are just wearing very light shorts and short-sleeved shirts under their wet weather gear. “What is nice is coming off watch and just hanging up your foulies and t-shirt and jumping into your bunk with just wet shorts on,” he says.

As the compression intensifies, the blue boat’s speed is down to 14.8 knots, while the black boat is still charging up through the fleet at 20.5 knots. As yesterday, it is PUMA who has the highest 24-hour run, covering 477 nm. No wonder Kenny Read is happy.

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 10: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)

1. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) DTF 2,027 nm
2. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +61 nm
3. PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +61 nm
4. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +67 nm
5. Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) +100 nm
6. Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermúdez/ESP) +109 nm
7. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +131 nm
8. Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS
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TELEFÓNICA BLACK LEG SIX DAY 9 QFB: received 19.04.09 2003 GMT

This was not what you call a normal night. Too many incidents in a few hours. Just after midnight, we had just changed to the A5, when we hit a squall .In the squall we broke the gennaker sheet.

Two hours later we were going full speed, wind 20-22 knots from north east, beam reaching, boatspeed around 21 knots under one reef in main, high clew jib and staysail. Suddenly the boat slowed down to eight knots, and at the same time the boat luffed, came head to wind as the impact was on the keel pointing out 40 degrees to windward, max canting.

Then we bore off, got going again, but sailed slow for a while to inspect what we could see in the darkness of the night. No damage to the boat could be found.

After checking the structure of the boat we started go full speed again and a few hours later the jib halyard bullet broke. Surprising as the fitting is supposed to be ’bullet proof”. We think that the broken fitting could be caused by the previous collision. We spent nearly two hours fixing the problem. David Vera was at the top of the mast twice this morning.

This morning we could not see any damage, except possibly some paint shaved off from forward edge of the keel blade. Now going at full speed. Everybody was of course a bit shocked when it happened. David hit his leg and I fell at the impact and hit my back but now we are fine.

Looks like we had a few black clouds in our path last night. Now we are at full pace, good performance again. All onboard loves the sea and its animals and it has been a real shock for everybody to hit one of them.

Yours

Fernando Echávarri - skipper
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ERICSSON 4 LEG SIX DAY 10 QFB: received 20.04.09 1401 GMT

Trade sailing is warm sunny and very wet on the whole, I could almost advise any budding Volvo sailor who doesn’t like the cold to just take one of these boats into the trades to just go for a burn. It is very pleasant and extreme if compared with the normal sailing world, but relatively safe and tame in Volvo 70 terms. It is a great way to get hooked on the class!

The last couple of days have seen more than just competition on the sailing front. The other evening the duty officer delivered a message to my brother and me from Green Dragon’s very own Ians (Walker and Moore). It was challenge to see how many questions we could answer correctly on a pop quiz they had in their possession.

Now this was exactly what the doctor had ordered - a challenge, which was removed from the relentless obstacles thrown our way during a leg.

It was 100 questions of cryptic clues of various bands names. We had been told in our email from the two Ians that they had already 70 answers, so we had our work cut out.

It was a taxing couple of hours and we started to tick off plenty of band names - some obvious and one technique that worked relatively well was to think of a band from the 80s and then match the clue up to the band name. Some, however, definitely needed a little left field thought.

Luckily Jules (Jules Salter) was an avid pop follower in the ‘80s. Stu Bannatyne and a few of the lads joined in, but unfortunately the quiz was heavily favoured towards us Poms. After a bit of sleep and some distant thought we have managed to get 98 of the answers and are still troubled by the last couple.

Ian W came through and admitted that we may have won round one, but he was sending round two very soon - which we have just received. Fifty questions on English football teams in cryptic form. Along with the questions came a little note from Ian Walker saying that he was definitely within his comfort zone with this topic and also a quick dig from him about the state of Southampton FC (Jules and my beloved team).

The beauty of the football questions is that, as Southampton have made their dramatic decent through the English football leagues, I have followed them to some far off and distant football grounds throughout the UK - so hope that a few of the more obscure teams will be in the answers. Will have to see how we get on.

Today saw yet another birthday onboard - this time was the turn of Stu. He had a small package from his family onboard which contained some sweets and some lovely homemade cards from his kids. The sweets are going down very nicely and thoughts are to carry more lollies onboard for the latter legs.

So all good on Ericsson 4 - and if any of you are thinking of investing in a football team may I suggest Southampton FC - they will be a bargain and could easily be a champions league finalist in four years time - honest!

Guy Salter - MCM

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Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race. Green Dragon, skippered by Ian Walker (GBR) at the start of leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston

Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race. Telefonica Blue, skippered by Bouwe Bekking (NED) at the start of leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston

Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race. PUMA Ocean Racing, skippered by Ken Read (USA) at the start of leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston

Sander Pluijm/Team Delta Lloyd/Volvo Ocean Race Watchleader Nick Bice getting wet while trimming the main and Ben Costello helming, on leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston

Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race.