Sport-heute: Sailing - PUMA packs a punch

17. Oktober 2008, 13:57

PUMA packs a punch

PUMA (Ken Read/USA) broke away from the rest of the Volvo fleet today and headed for the open ocean. She gybed away from the shore and onto a westerly course at around 1040 GMT and has added over 20 nautical miles to her lead over the last 24 hours.

Interantional Atlantic Ocean (mk) TEAM RUSSIA LEG ONE DAY 6 QFB: received 16.10.08 1655 GMT

Normal is an odd word when used in conjunction with the Volvo Ocean Race. There isn't much 'normal' about the sailors that compete in this race. There isn't anything 'normal' about the mad turbocharged boats that we are sailing. But on this day, day six, the word that comes to mind most readily is 'normality'. It is starting to feel 'normal' to crawl aft, down on my hands and knees in a thin swirl of water, through the watertight bulkhead and leaver myself into the media station.

It's 'normal' to grip my computer mouse with one hand and hang on with the other like I was standing on a crowded London Tube bumping to abrupt stop jolting from side to side. It's 'normal' to move around the boat stepping over someone or something. Shaking off sleeping people, equipment, food and sails in full swing. The lads are pretty efficient at it now. Whole ingenious systems have been invented to leaver, ratchet and swing the tonnes of stuff that can legally be moved from side to side, forward and back to trim the boat to optimum speed. So in the strangest environments a feeling of familiarity can be reached.

One thing that I haven't come to terms with yet is not being able to contribute to the sailing of this sailing boat. I just find myself getting more involved in my MCM duties and daily tasks of filming, interviews, photography, cooking, writing, bailing, crew medical survey, tagging, editing film and stills, extracting the footage off the boat and my very favourite job of all, the biological water collection test survey. Just a normal day.

Life for the crew is of course very different. I can sum up their world as focused routine with moments of concentrated intensity. Earlier this year when we sailed round Britain and Ireland for our Volvo Ocean Race qualifier the crew pushed hard to get the record but also relaxed enough to look around and chat with a healthy dose of on-the-rail humour and banter. This time, on this first leg the mood is quite different. After the trials of the first few days the crew have shut down to a race mode I've never experienced before.

In my sailing world of short intense AC or Olympic round the cans day sprint racing, if you have a bad day you get on you bike and cycle up a hill, shout at the wind and go out the next day with a new start and a fresh head. On the Volvo you can't press the restart button so readily. The approach playing out before me is one of dogged hard-headed cold emotion, push harder, up the effort minimise the grey areas. Maximise rest, sleep then awake, off watch, power up then attention. Up and into it like a soldier at night, sleeping with a gun by his side, sailing boots and harness hooked onto the bunk, ready to fire.

Yes I can crack a joke and raise a smile but soon the crew snaps back into the zone. It's a zone that I can't participate in, but only respect and give them space. It's my job now to slowly break through the hard-headed round-the- world mind and start to see and report on life and the race through their eyes and use their words. Helmet on, visor down, wish me luck, cover me, I'm going in.

More from me soon
A big man reporting from a small space in a huge sea!
Mark Covell - MCM

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Interesting how far away land life is. We hear about a bank crisis (what bank crisis) somewhere on dry land, couldn't be more unimportant out here in the country of the flying fish. Kosatka has entered Utopia (Thomas Morus famous old book) where money doesn't rule. You could be rich as hell, still you couldn't buy a wind shift here, no new sail if you ripped one, nor could you leave even if you put cash on the table here in Waterworld. Two more weeks living the illusion until reality will catch up with us again.

Since today we see marine life, we already started wondering where the flying fish, the birds the dolphins and whales were. The flying fish seem to be surprised by the speeds we are doing. While they could easily escape a VO60, they struggle with the bigger sister we are pushing through every wave trying to slow us down.

Thanks Lizzie for you email today, I remember us discussing during the 01-02 race that it couldn't be so hard to send stuff from the boats in time. It is b_..y hard, believe me, we were so wrong back then in Whiteley's Race HQ. Life at the extreme has a different rhythm on the boat and in the office. Out here you get up and you have to race a boat, then eat, sleep and race a boat again. Still, understanding your struggle, I promise we ll be good boys and make you happy, at least we ll ty.

Best regards from west of Nouadhibou,

Andreas Hanakamp - skipper

(Note: Andreas Hanakamp worked as Press Officer at Race HQ during the Volvo Ocean Race 2001-02)

Telefónica Black (Fernando EchÃ¡varri) made the move west yesterday and is now 328 nautical miles offshore and the Spanish team's position is not looking good. The black boat is now 221 nautical miles behind il Mostro, who snatched the lead from Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander/SWE) at 0700 GMT yesterday.

Is the 'cat' afraid that the wind will be light off the coast of Mauritania and gybed west to avoid it?

Ericsson 3, who has been faithfully latched onto PUMA's track for the last 24 hours, has not followed the move to the west and is still screaming along the African coast. As PUMA started to draw away, the crew of Ericsson 3 piled on the pressure.

'We are VERY close to a wipe-out,' wrote Norwegian navigator Aksel Magdahl today. Their team mates, on Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA), are 74 nautical miles to the west of them and in third position.

Meanwhile, cool, calm and very collected, at the head of the fleet, PUMA's skipper Ken Read says it's all in a day's work. But, earlier today, he explained that actually it is a tactical a game of cat and mouse with the fleet, waiting to see who will break first for the west.

'We will certainly find out in a couple of days who is right, and who is wrong,' he said. 'You never really know until the cards are dealt - sometimes days after the decisions are made, and this dash to the west is still starting for us all.' Which team will pick the correct line? We will have to wait and see. PUMA clearly likes the 20-knot running conditions. 'It's a relief I guess,' says Read. 'Hopefully as we learn our strengths and weaknesses against the fleet, we will grow to love the 'monster',' he added.

Over the last hour, it has been Delta Lloyd (Ger O'Rourke/IRL) who has averaged the highest boat speed of 22 knots over the last hour, but PUMA has the best 24-hour run of 390 nm. Both Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR) and Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) have reached a top speed of 28 knots, while three other boats have recorded 27 knots.

'If you like speed, open oceans and the feeling of overwhelming power that surfing down a wave gives you, then a Volvo Open 70 is the boat to sail,' says Gustav Morin, the media crew member on Ericsson 3. 'I asked our skipper how the boat feels to sail in comparison with Playstation/Cheyenne, the big record-breaking catamaran that he raced around the world. The answer came with a shout: 'It's like sailing a bus compared with this'.'

At the tail-end of the fleet, Telefónica Blue is still trying to claw back the miles after their pit-stop shortly after the start for repairs. Although the team is trying to be patient, it is proving hard.

'Having to watch the rich get richer is never a nice thing,' says navigator Simon Fisher/GBR. 'We are looking longingly at the position reports, wishing we were up there too - something that we know that we are more than capable of, but have not yet had the chance to show.'

Andreas Hanakamp/AUT in charge of Team Russia, currently on the hip of Delta Lloyd, is also trying to find a way to reel in the leaders. 'We have the most pleasant sailing one can imagine,' he says, but, 'the only thing that doesn't make us happy is that we don't find a way to close up to the leaders. As it looks at the moment, there are not too many opportunities until we get to the Doldrums. The key is, to stay in touch.'

Green Dragon came out of hiding yesterday afternoon at 1600 GMT after playing their Stealth card, the first time StealthPlay has been activated on this leg. The Dragons went into hiding in fourth place and secretly went straight through the Canary Islands before emerging at 1600 GMT still in fourth place. As yet, no one else has been tempted to 'disappear', but there are still just over 5,000 nautical miles to go on this, the second longest leg of the course.

Leg One Day 6: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to leader)

PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) 5056 DTF
Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE) +24
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +52
Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +69
Delta Lloyd IRL (Ger O'Rourke/IRL) +95
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) +106
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +148
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando EchÃ¡varri/ESP) +221

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