Sport-heute: Sailing - Wir haben viele Meilen verloren!

23. April 2009, 00:12

Wir haben viele Meilen verloren!

Auf der Telefonica Blue herrscht im Moment keine Panik. Doch wir müssen eingestehen, wir haben viele Meilen verloren und nur noch deren dreissig Vorsprung. Beruhigend ist, dass die Winde wieder zunehmen und wir beginnen können zu segeln. Wir arbeiten schon die längste Zeit sehr hart und versuchen alles aus dem Boot rauszuhohlen.

Brüttisellen, 23.4.09 (mk) TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG SIX DAY 11 QFB: received 21.04.09 1525 GMT

Despite being fully prepared for some compression in the fleet, the last 24 hours have been pretty tough on us. Each sched has been anxiously awaited, with fingers crossed hoping that we have stopped losing miles. However, it has taken quite some time for the haemorrhaging to stop, and although our last sched was not so bad, we are still not fully confident that it is over! In the last day we have seen our lead taken down from 100 to only 30 miles which has made everyone on board a little anxious to say the least!

The good news is that the wind is filling in again though and we are seeing our boat speeds improving so we are almost certainly through the worst of it now. With little power over the Wind Gods, we are doing what we can though, working hard and making sure the boat is at peak performance all the time. Having a pack of boats quite literally breathing down your neck does wonders for the motivation and all on board are giving it their all! Hopefully soon we will start to see some rewards again!

Cheers,

Simon Fisher - helmsman

*********************************************************

ERICSSON 3 LEG SIX DAY 11 QFB: received 21.04.09 1827 GMT

Magic sailing is the only way to describe the conditions out here at the moment, Sailing along in beautiful blue water, 11-15 knots of wind and 15-20 knots of boat speed.

Ericsson 3 is enjoying the conditions and so are her crew. We seem to be tied together with a rubber band to Ericsson 4, our sister ship. Sched for sched we are gaining and losing small amounts. We can see them to leeward at the moment, unbelievable that the boats and the speeds can be so close.

We had Magnus Olsson back on deck today. He has a suspected broken rib that has been very painful and kept him in-his bunk for several days. It was nice to get him steering and moving a little bit, smiling again. Back to his old self. We were a bit worried there that he was going to try and catch up on all the sleep he has missed in the last 60 years, but in typical Magnus fashion you can't keep a good man down, especially him.

From a personal view it is fantastic to be back out here with the lads, it is incredible to see what this team has become. They were always a great bunch of sailors, but now they are a very well established bunch of Volvo sailors who can no longer be called rookies. The guys are always aiming for the top, thinking outside the box, how can we go faster, shall we try this? Sounds a little strange but why not, if it works in a 49er it can work here. I think being able to think outside the normal realms is one of this team’s great strengths.

It looks as there is going to be a fantastic battle in the closing stages of this leg. It is shaping up for another Singapore finish with boats finishing within seconds of one another. Everything we can do now may mean the difference between a place in six days time.

Time to head of to the bunk, for a couple of hours in the sweat box; it is a lot more pleasant on deck at the moment.

Looking forward to Boston. The talk on deck this last watch is that we should auction of our Media Man Gustav Morin for a dinner in Boston to the highest bidder and give the proceeds to one of the Millennium goals that we are representing while we are sailing. Any Takers?

Back to Racing.

Richard Mason - Watch Captain

********************************************************

DELTA LLOYD LEG SIX DAY 12 QFB: received 22.04.09 0818 GMT

Out of the blue the wind has just dropped three knots and become very unstable. The boat decelerates and we are switching gears by powering up the sails and moving the weight forward on deck. Fifteen minutes later we reverse the process as out of nowhere the breeze picks up and we are on our bikes again.

It has been around for centuries and already, in the time of the tea-clippers, it was a well noticed phenomenon. Some people call it the ‘sunset wobble’.

Nick Bice is helming with the sun setting in the background. The sky resembles the inventory of a baby shop with colours ranging from baby blue to purple and pink. Again it has been a day of champagne sailing.

One might wonder if this expression is hinting at the slightly unstable first steps when leaving the table after a dinner with a few too many glasses of wine. Maybe Sherlock, but since we are in a sailing race, let's stick to the nautical interpretation of the expression.

It could be our media man Sander Pluijm, who causes this wobbly wind, as it always happens when he comes on deck to shoot his award winning pictures in the last sun rays of the day. It would make him a very powerful wizard. To me it is just some weird weather thing that messes up the wind around sunset and makes us run around like madmen for half an hour.

Just as well as we can do with some activity after this pretty laid back day. Conditions have been amazing, and so has been the racing. Since we left our friends on Telefónica Black this morning and made a bit of a move east, we have been trading places on the scoring board with them. Some gains to us, some gains to them. It is amazing to think that after 10 days of sailing we are still within two hours sailing of the majority of the fleet. That is a difference of less than one per cent, a good reminder that every last little detail out here matters, and we have to keep finding those extra tenths of knots of boatspeed.

Looking ahead today looks like one more light wind day with a transition to stronger winds in the evening when we are crossing a weak front. Then finally we might see some running sails. Wow! Anybody remember those things? You know those big colourful sails you see in the pictures from the old days?

Apart from leg one, we have hardly seen any spinnakers so far. Sure we see them sitting in their bag on deck and drag them backwards and forwards from time to time. Not exactly why we are bringing them. It will be nice for a change to go downwind for a bit and have a go at them before we turn to upwind mode again for the last couple of days of this leg. I have to tell the boys we are in for some 25 knots plus upwind soon. Ouch!

Wouter Verbraak – navigator

*********************************************************

PUMA LEG SIX DAY 11 QFB: received 21.04.09 1931 GMT

One of the fun parts of this race is learning about each other’s lives in ways that you never could otherwise. You live in close quarters for nine months. Eleven guys crammed into, quite literally, a shoe. Here are just a few simple ones:

For example, I know that Erle Williams takes his job with the J Boat ‘Ranger’ so personally that he could feel the collision that they had with Velsheda yesterday at the Antigua Classic Regatta from here.

I know that Shannon Falcone likes to night time kiteboard back in Antigua. Sounds like a tough life doesn't it?

I know that Casey Smith is possessed about dune buggy-style cars and has put together his own engine in his garage and is searching desperately for a chassis to go with it to drive around Newport in style.

Justin Ferris went home over the last break and went sailing. Think about that for a minute. Thing is, he went sailing on his new 30' version of a Volvo 70, that is painted purple.

Andrew Cape gets IT jobs on the side when he isn't sailing.

Sidney Gavignet has a mural of a Phoenix painted on his back.

Rob Salthouse can fix just about anything on a boat - whatever kind of boat it is.

Bob Greenhalgh is passionate about deep sea fishing and puts a photo of himself with some big fish up as a screensaver on all our computers.

Ricky Deppe has a very interesting sense of what makes a movie good and what doesn't.

And Michi Mueller - the quiet one, has a competitive a streak as anyone I have met. First one to the nav station every three hours to see how we are doing - won't talk about it though. Oh yeah, and his new born daughter will be meeting him on the dock in Boston - a very special moment that will be.

They are a bunch of good guys that will be part of this ‘Monster Club’ for the rest of our days.

As for the race? Oh yes, we are heading northwest still in search of a little more wind. The boats to the west of us have capitalised on a bit more breeze in the past 24 hours. We have to do something about that soon. We think we’ll be able to claim the miles back soon but time will only tell. The drag race continues.

Kenny Read - skipper

*******************************************************

Leserkommentare (0) »

Sander Pluijm/Team Delta Lloyd/Volvo Ocean Race David Pella trimming and Nick Bice helming onboard Delta Lloyd, going strong with 23 knots in 20 knots of breeze, on leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston

Sander Pluijm/Team Delta Lloyd/Volvo Ocean Race 23 knots in 20 knots of breeze, on leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston

Sander Pluijm/Team Delta Lloyd/Volvo Ocean Race Delta Lloyd going strong with 23 knots in 20 knots of breeze, on leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston

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

Guo Chuan/Green Dragon Racing/Volvo Ocean Race Grinding onboard Green Dragon, on leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston