Sport-heute: Sailing - Erfolg oder Missererfolg?

22. Mai 2009, 13:23

Erfolg oder Missererfolg?

Was machst du? Es ist mitten in der Nach, schlag 3 Uhr und es hat Windböen bis zu 42 Meilen Windstärke. Du bist am Anschlag und sagst deinem Steuermann nur, es gibt nur Erfolg oder Misserfolg - such die Mitte und eine gerade Linie. Die Realität ist aber eine andere, den es wird nur gelingen bis die nächste starke Welle ans Boot schlägt und alle Träume und Vorhaben wieder zerschlägt.

Brüttisellen, 22.5.09 (mk) Green Dragon Leg Seven Day 7 QFB; received 22.05.09 1038 GMT

It’s 3 am pitch black and you are on the edge of control when the wind gusts to 42 knots and all the electronic instruments go out. What do you do next?

The answer is you pray the helmsman somehow manages to keep steering that fine line between success and failure. The reality is that he will only succeed for a short while before a wave or gust catches him out and sure enough that’s what happened.

With ‘all hands’ being called to shorten sail, down below was a mass of sleepy bodies trying to get dressed as the boat lay on its side sails flogging. On deck they fought to regain control and furl up one of the sails and Ian Moore went about fixing the electrical problem. Why do these things always happen at night and in the biggest gust of the day?

Minutes later we were back up and running again, with no damage thankfully to boat or sails. This was to happen two more times later in the night and contributed to a loss of some miles after good gains before nightfall. The boat is awash above and below decks.

As I type this in the nav station I am ankle deep in water. Our bunk is soaked and so are many others. Fortunately it doesn’t matter. We have 750 miles to Galway and it doesn’t matter if we live in our kit soaking wet for 36 hours. Nobody goes on deck without being harnessed to the boat and
you need little reminder of why as time and time again people are washed down the decks. Neal got washed clean off the steering wheel twice last night alone. On deck is no fun at night but has turned into fantastic sailing by day.

This leg is setting up for an amazingly close finish into Galway, but wherever we finish the memory of this leg will live with me. What we do in these boats is quite extraordinary.

Ian Walker - skipper

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

Delta Lloyd Leg Seven Day 7 QFB: received 22.05.09 0759 GMT

I sat down to write that we are fast and safe, but thinking of it, it is hard to call this sailing safe when we are, most of the time, sailing right on the edge in 30-35 knots of breeze. A better description is wild. Tons and tons of water are crashing over the bow as we accelerating down the waves and spear through the next one.

My four year old son makes us go time and time again to the Volvo Ocean Race simulator. A compilation of some of the most spectacular sailing in the last Volvo Ocean Race. Afterwards people ask me: ‘is it really like that?’ Yes, it is like that and worse, as where the simulator stops after a few minutes, the pounding here is already non-stop since yesterday afternoon, and we are looking at having strong wind conditions for another 24 hours at least.

Through the night we have been sailing with the fractional code zero and a reefed mainsail. This set-up is relatively safe, and the best way to get through the night. Now, with daybreak here, we can see from the position reports that several boats are putting the hammer down again. The big question is will we be able to handle the A6 fractional spinnaker and be faster and lower? Or is the sea state still too bad and is it better to continue with the current set-up?

Still a long way to go to Galway and the first priority is to get there with the boat in one piece. It is hard to hold back when the fleet is putting the throttle down, but we have to be patient I guess and see how the sea state develops. Pitch poling is expensive….

Wouter Verbraak - navigator
**********************************************************

Telefónica Black Leg Seven Day 7 QFB: received 22.05.09 0335 GMT

The last 24 hours have been very different from the days before. The dreaded downhill battle has started. We got into harder running last night and had to accept that our boat speed was not matching the others. Ericsson 4 moved away from us fast on the radar screen and at 10.5 nm we lost her.

In the morning we found our selves on starboard gybe, with two boats in sight. Telefónica Blue behind on our port quarter and PUMA behind us on our starboard side. We had our A7 up, a furling fractional gennaker as we could not handle the Black boat with the large masthead gennaker in the building breeze. She was just nose diving too much.

Soon we realised that both the Blue boat and PUMA were considerable faster than us. We had to watch PUMA passing us effortless, going more than a knot faster and a few degrees lower, under her biggest masthead gennaker in 27 knots of cold air.

The Blue boat embarrassed us the same way as PUMA, but it was more painful with PUMA as she was so close when she passed us…! Just a few hundred meters away.

Next to come from behind and pass us was Delta Lloyd. She was a dot on the horizon to the south and a few hours later she disappeared straight in front of us! Very frustrating, to say the least.. Delta totally out sailed us with 1.5 knots more speed and going as much as five degrees lower…What to do…?

Our Achilles heel was hurting big time….and no medicine available.
The four of us PUMA, Blue, Black and Delta Lloyd chose the option to hang on to the SSW’ly breeze east of the front, on starboard gybe, rather than going north on port and crossing the front as soon as possible as Ericsson 4, Green Dragon and Ericsson 3 did.

In our case, we chose going east first as the pre-frontal breeze was more left than predicted. At 1800 GMT the front had caught us up and the breeze swung around fast from SSW to west and we promptly gybed to port. As it looks right now, my feeling is that the northern route will win…in two days we will know..

Yours
Roger Nilson - navigator

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

Leserkommentare (0) »

Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race Sails, onboard PUMA Ocean Racing, on leg 7 from Boston to Galway

Sander Pluijm/Team Delta Lloyd/Volvo Ocean Race Team Delta Lloyd moving up to third place, on leg 7 from Boston to Galway

Sander Pluijm/Team Delta Lloyd/Volvo Ocean Race Helmsman Ben Costello suffering with a bad cold, onboard Delta Lloyd, on leg 7 from Boston to Galway