Sport-heute: Sailing - 'NO BROACH, PLEASE GOD, NO BROACH

20. November 2008, 00:41

'NO BROACH, PLEASE GOD, NO BROACH

It is one wipeout after another as the Volvo fleet endures yet more heinous conditions as it races towards the scoring gate on leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race to Cochin in India. PUMA (Ken Read/USA) has crashed off another wave, but, this time, the damage is rather more serious.

CAPE TOWN - CHOCIN INDIA (mk) 'We flew off yet another nice little wave and came down to another loud crack. This time, not from the bow section, but in the main section of the boat, just behind the keel frame,' explained skipper Ken Read, who was having breakfast with Chris Nicholson and Justin Ferris at the time.

'That didn't sound good,' said Justin. 'Nope' said Ken. 'Maybe it was just an unloaded sheet snapping up on deck?' offered Chris Nicholson. Justin looked down and said, 'Or maybe it was this large crack splitting the main longitudinal frame?'

Ken says that the boat is now a monster hospital ward, not necessarily for humans, but 'just for our beautiful boat'. The crew managed to fix the damage done two days ago, but time it is rather more serious and will take longer to fix. Read says the actual fix may be more of a band-aid, rather than the fairly solid splint that the team applied to the broken front longitudinals.

'If the fix takes as long as we think, we will have to re-route to Cochin, missing most of the points that we could have gotten at the scoring gate and having to bypass the next low coming our way,' Read explains. Simply put, this is not good.

'Andrew Cape/AUS (navigator) and I are hard at work trying to see if there is a tactical solution around this, in order to stay remotely in the race. We shall see. The first priority is the safety of the boat and crew and, because of that, we are looking to get away from the next low pressure that is coming in from behind,' he said.

Meanwhile, onboard Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander/SWE), six-time race veteran Magnus Olsson is praying to the Wind Gods. 'Last night, in complete darkness, we had quite a dramatic broach. We were sailing in steady 30 knots and rough seas when a big squall came in,' describes Gustav Morin MCM.

'In just a few seconds, the wind increased to over 40 knots. Magnus was helming at the time and when he felt the wind coming, he said a prayer: 'No broach, please God, no broach.' A big gust hit us and forced the bow deep under water. We were heeling badly. But it felt like the boat just continued to accelerate. It was one of those times when you feel that the boat is sailing you, and not the other way round,' he said.

The crew, although attached to the boat by their harnesses and lifelines, were washed down the length of the deck. Bowman Anders Dahlsjö lost his grip and smashed
into a winch handle. The handle bent badly and Anders was in agony, holding his hands over his ribs. 'Now we have another guy on painkillers,' said Morin matter of factly.

Ian Walker's crew on Green Dragon, who damaged their boom badly yesterday, is still charging towards the scoring gate at longitudinal 58 degrees east. 'Four days into leg two and the Southern Ocean is living up to it's name,' says Ian, who chalks up one broken steering system, one Chinese gybe, one broken boom and three knockdowns on the drama register. On top of that, half the crew have sore throats and head colds.

But, still, the team is not giving up. They have just under 300 nautical miles to run to the scoring gate. 'We seem to have the boat going pretty well, but we are vulnerable to being knocked down in the frequent squalls as we are fairly committed to carrying a full main and there is no easy way to ease it,' Walker said.

In contrast, Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT is enjoying a solid mid-twenty knot breeze and has begun their climb north, leaving Green Dragon as the southernmost boat in the fleet.

Sickness and 'flu-like symptoms have been rife among the fleet, which makes this tough leg even more of an endurance test. 'It's strange for so much to be going on and not even noticing it,' said Guy Salter MCM onboard Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA), who has had a fever and sickness. 'We had a broach yesterday (apparently) and also damaged one of our headsails, but all I have noticed is the odd slide forward in the bunk when we plough into the back of a wave,' he said.

Meanwhile, onboard Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) in the north, Bekking says that life is busy onboard. 'Some would even say 'chaotic'. With sail making, sickness and injuries, everyone's day is full, keeping the boat in one piece and headed down the track.'

Hopes of a good score at the waypoint gate seem to be slowly slipping away for this team, but Bekking says that with many, many miles to go before they arrive in India, he is hopeful that the team can pull off a good overall result in this leg. 'This is what I am trying to focus on to stay positive,' he says.

Lighter conditions soon will no doubt suit the boat better and a return to the sunshine and warmer climes will no doubt raise the spirits of everyone onboard. 'Right now, it is cold and grey outside, and cool and damp inside,' Bekking says. Telefónica Black (Fernando EchÃ¡varri/ESP) has been sailing abeam of Telefónica Blue this morning, no more than two miles away from each other.

Many of the fleet have seen Albatrosses. One flew between the bowsprit and the stay onboard Ericsson 4. 'I thought we had run the poor thing over until it came out the other side. It's bad luck to harm these giants, as rumour has it they are the spirits of lost seafarers and we don't want to upset any of those,' Salter said.

Lots of albatrosses have been circling the wounded PUMA too, giving a fantastic show. Are they looking out for the boat? Ken Read hopes they are not the 'vultures of the high seas..'

Ericsson 3 has the highest 24-hour run of 505 nm today and has also averaged the highest boat speed in the last hour of 22.8 knots. The north/south divide of the fleet is 127nm between PUMA the northernmost boat and Green Dragon in the south. Ericsson 3 is now three nm to weather of Ericsson 4 and Ericsson 4 is 55 nm to weather of Team Russia. Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) has elected to stay with the northern split of the fleet.

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

PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) DTF 3271
Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE) +24
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +25
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +29
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando EchÃ¡varri/ESP) +34
Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) +75
Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +95
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) +103

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DELTA LLOYD LEG TWO DAY 5 QFB: received 19.11.08 1839 GMT

It's been another day of great sailing on the Delta Lloyd. We've had some great postion reports this afternoon so the guys are in great spirits as we pull some distance back on the leaders.

We switched from our fractional code zero to our downwind masthead VMG sail this afternoon as the wind settled from the mid to upper 20's down into the high teens. We are anticipating a wind shift that will allow us to gybe and head north to the trade winds...and closer to India.

Ryan Houston - watch captain

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TEAM RUSSIA LEG TWO DAY 5 QFB: received 19.11.08 1758 GMT

At last, two minutes to breath! I have just come off deck having peeled to our largest spinnaker; it's a great feeling to be under max sail. The first few days have been testing to say the least, with a tricky first day followed by big wind and close racing, all of which have, of course, been coupled with a few technical challenges onboard.

After a good start, we sped round the inshore course with the lead pack only to sail in into a huge wind hole as the gradient breeze battled with sea breeze. One wrong call as we tried to steal a march on the fleet and we were toast, out the back in no wind as the others sailed off, how depressing! We were left with no choice but to pick up the pieces and battle on, which is exactly what we have done with good effect so far.

With keel issues from the word go again, I was busy early on, this time the new ram boots have been fine but the keel kept easing down from max cant as soon as we loaded the boat up. After much fiddling around, we discovered it was due to some dirt in the release valves and after a thorough clean up; everything seems to be ok now. A few small repairs here and there, but, touch wood, Kosatka is holding up well.

My personal highlight of the race so far has to be the other morning, big rolling seas, overcast sky, and freezing water. Forty knots of breeze, A6 (fractional spinnaker)and 2 reefs, fully stacked aft, Mikey (Mike Joubert/RSA) on the pumps, Jez (Jeremy Elliott/IRL) trimming me on the wheel, just blasting along with prolonged periods of over 30 knots boatspeed and a max speed of 34 knots.

This was then followed by near disaster, however, as soon after the watch change, Mikey and I were in the bow bailing out when we heard the boat take off down what must have been a huge wave. As we hit the bottom, with nowhere to go, the boat had to either roll into the breeze and broach, or Chinese gybe (an accidental gybe).

Unfortunately, the helmsman was powerless to control her and we 'Chinesed'. Carnage on deck and down below. Sail stack in the water, keel on the wrong side, crew clipped on half underwater, runners on the wrong side, boom in the air, spinnaker in the rig, boat half under water, kit everywhere down below as various missiles launched themselves at the off watch. After what seemed like an eternity, we sorted the keel out, completed the gybe, got the kite down and gybed back to our proper course, all very relieved still to have a rig in the boat!

Anyway, enough stories for now, I must go, only 2 hours 'till I need to be up again. We are currently engaged in a thrilling battle to try to beat both Telefónica boats and maybe even Puma to the scoring gate tomorrow afternoon. We should gybe north later on today and the crew are all very excited at warming up. For me, my feelings are slightly different, this will be the last of the Southern Ocean for a while, which unofficially starts at 40S and I do feel a tinge of regret at not following the old course and heading south for Australia.

There are certainly new challenges ahead however so I better prepare for that, if we beat Telefónica Black and Delta Lloyd to this scoring gate we will move up to 6th overall so motivation is high'.. and Green Dragon is only 40 miles directly in front of us, under 2 hours away!

Cheers,

Nick Bubb - watch captain

PS Thank you Cape Town and all the great people we met for such a fantastic stopover, it may have been the first of the race but I know it will be hard to beat!

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ERICSSON 4 LEG TWO DAY 5 QFB: received 19.11.08 1704

All is going smoothly aboard Ericsson 4 this evening and with the breeze starting to moderate it has been a good chance to start to dry out and tidy up ship.

The past few days have been fairly hectic as every couple of hours or so a rain squall has passed over us and raised the wind speed from 25kts into the 40s or so. This increase in breeze means reducing sail suitably, which requires all hands on deck irrelevant of whether you are meant to be on watch or not. As such, sleep has been somewhat disturbed of late!

We are now only a couple hundred miles from reaching the longitude scoring line and at this stage are leading the fleet with our stablemates on Ericsson 3 just 15 miles or so astern. Fingers crossed that things will stay that way for a one two result for Ericsson Racing Team on the points tally.

Everyone is rather cold and wet, and looking forward to Jules (Salter/GBR - navigator) and Torben (Grael/BRA - skipper) giving us the call to gybe onto port and head north for Cochin.

Take care,

Ryan Godfrey - bowman

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Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race Rob Salthouse and Michael Muller on the grinder at dusk, on leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Cape Town, South Africa, to Cochin, India

Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race Andrew Cape sleeps below deck next to Ken Read

Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race Robbie Naismith at the wheel of PUMA

Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race Water everywhere on deck of PUMA