Sport-heute: Sailing - Ein grosser Fehler und dann ein plötzlicher Stillstand

07. Juni 2009, 21:19

Ein grosser Fehler und dann ein plötzlicher Stillstand

Der Wind tobte mit gegen 40 Knoten. Der Wellengang war hoch und mitten drinn wurden wir von einer Welle erfasst - hochgehoben und wir glaubten wir bekommen Geschwindigkeit, dann ein Knall und wir stehen Bockstill. Alle sind durchs Boot geflogen. Blaue Flecken, offene Arme. Der Fehler lag bei uns, wir sind wie Anfänger in die Falle gelaufen. Viel Wasser alles weiss - der Spinnhaker hat wenigstens keinen Schaden genommen. Puma.

Brüttisellen, 7.6.09 (mk) High Winds, High Speeds, High Drama

Leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race – the first of three legs, which takes the seven-strong fleet to the finish in St Petersburg, Russia, later this month, has started with a bang. Almost literally in Ericsson 4’s case.

In approximately 38 knots of wind yesterday, it became necessary to gybe - not the easiest of manoeuvres in these highly-strung racing yachts at the best of times, but in a strong breeze, it can become more than exciting.

It was a highlight for the Green Dragon team, who led the fleet round the Fastnet Rock late last night. They timed and executed their gybe perfectly whilst flying thief masthead spinnaker. They made the whole manoeuvre look easy, in spite of forgetting to swing the keel. PUMA and Ericsson 4, both of whom were right alongside at the time, did not fare quite so well.

A 38-knot squall hit PUMA just as they needed to gybe.

“Along with a big shift, we decided to drop the kite and gybe to the jib, and jib reach for a bit until the squall passed. Good plan, bad execution,” said skipper Kenny Read. “Full gear up in 38.7 knots of wind is pretty touch and go. Just getting the kite down is touch and go, especially when it pops up and over the top of the mainsail and jams in the sheave,” Read said, adding, “Last time I saw Ericsson 4, they were laying on their side and blowing out to sea.”

“We should have been smarter and sailed a little more conservatively, but it’s hard when you are charging along right next to first place,” explained Ericsson 4’s MCM Guy Salter, who described Ericsson 4’s events.

“We made a very big school-boy error and were caught in a huge gust. The boat seemed to accelerate in no time and before we knew it, we had ploughed into the back of the next wave and had white water everywhere.

“This sudden stop also sent us into a spin and we ended up on our side with the kite flapping. We had broken our leeward steering wheel and its cage. Luckily the spinnaker was still intact and all of us were still attached to yacht – just – but with a few extra bumps and bruises.”

“We brushed ourselves down and got read after the wipe out. We went into the gybe, and I must say these boats are hard to manoeuvre at the best of times, but in 30 knots of wind, the inevitable happened and we spun out on the gybe.”

The team carried on as if nothing had happened. Skipper Torben Grael steered from the leeward side while the broken wheel was removed and the emergency tiller put in place. The boat was also taking on a fair amount of water and on inspection, it was discovered that there is a relatively large area of delamination between the hull and the deck on the after starboard quarter of the boat.

The team is happy that it is not structural and has set up regular bailing timetable, but it does mean more work for the crew once they reach the pit-stop in Marstrand, where assistance by their shore crew is against the rules.

Overnight, the fleet has made very quick progress across the Celtic Sea, round the famous Fastnet Rock off south west Ireland, through the Western Approaches, leaving the Scilly Isles to starboard (only Green Dragon and Telefónica Black went to the south), past the Lizard Point and up into the English Channel.

The fleet left Galway yesterday after what has been a most memorable stopover and ventured out into the teeth of a gale. The downwind start gave the hoards of spectators a real chance to see the Volvo Open 70s performing at their best. Guy Salter, MCM on Ericsson 4 suggested that the fleet burned around Galway Bay like a bunch of delinquents in a stolen car (not that he condones that sort of behaviour!).

At 1300 GMT today the fleet was 21 nm off the coast of Devon. Telefónica Blue was in the lead, just a mile ahead of Ericsson 3 and Ericsson 4; however, the whole fleet was only divided by seven miles from Telefónica Blue in the lead, to her sistership Telefónica Black at the back of the fleet. After a wet overnight ride, the breeze has dropped to around 10 knots and the crews are able to catch up on some rest.

Fastnet Rock Rounding Order
1. Green Dragon 22:46:34 GMT
2. PUMA 22:51:51 GMT
3. Telefonica Blue 22:53:15 GMT
4. Ericsson 4 22:55:20 GMT
5. Ericsson 3 22:56:23 GMT
6. Delta Lloyd 23:14:15 GMT
7. Telefonica Black 23:23:50 GMT

Leg Eight Day 2: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)

1. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) DTF 911 nm
2. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +1
3. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +1
4. PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +2
5. Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermúdez/ESP) +3
6. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +5
7. Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) +7

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Telefónica Blue Leg Eight Day 2 QFB: received 07.06.09 1455 GMT

After spending two weeks in an extremely welcoming town, where everyone was involved in the race, from the bus driver to the waiter of every single restaurant, we finally set off again.

Green Dragon seemed to know the bay quite well and they soon got into the lead straight after the start, followed by the rest of the fleet. For us was a pin start close to PUMA, starting what it seems to be a very exiting duel for the next three legs.

During the first few hours was a neck to neck with PUMA and Ericsson 4 and by 9pm we were flying downwind on more than 30kn of speed. We showed great improvement with our new A2 and we’re very happy about it. Our first objective of this leg was to hang on with the leaders until the Fastnet, and we did so. Was great sailing and beautiful landscape, gybing down the cost of Ireland close to the cliffs as much as we could. All hands were on deck, we didn’t start the watch system until 12pm, when we passed the Fastnet Rock.

After that, we peeled to the J2 and started the fire hose straight to the face. What a beginning of a leg. This morning we were all close to each other, with Ericsson 4 and PUMA slightly ahead of us and Green Dragon and Delta Lloyd just to leeward of us. Within four hours things changed dramatically. The wind softened up and the leaders got sucked into land, while the guys offshore managed to maintain the pressure all the time, climbing back mile after mile. We had to gybe three or four times to position ourselves where we thought was best.

So now we’re into lead but it seems that Green Dragon and our sistership Telefónica Black are going to cross in front of us having a more offshore position. It looks like is going be a very long and stressful four days, where whoever wins will have handles the pressure better, but not only the isobaric one. We know that we have to push hard if we want to stay ahead of PUMA and Ericsson 4. So no time for sleeping or resting, right now, for every little change, everyone is on deck ready for action.

Strait of Malacca part two, here we come!

Gabriele Olivo - MCM

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Gustav Morin/Ericsson 3/Volvo Ocean Race Ireland's cliffs onboard Ericsson 3, on leg 8 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Galway to Marstrand