Sport-heute: Sailing - THE TEN ZULU REPORT, LEG 3, DAY 6

18. Dezember 2008, 22:47

THE TEN ZULU REPORT, LEG 3, DAY 6

By Mark Chisnell

Telefonica Blue have just about ' sort of ' almost ' retained their grip on first place as we move into the end game of the crossing of the Bay of Bengal. Bouwe Bekking and his team have dug themselves out of their hole in the south, once they got the shift they needed, after some anxious hours and lots of deep breathing. They have shut down the leverage, as Simon Fisher also reports in an email, with all but one of the threatening boats.

cochin-singapore (mk) Yup, it's Torben Grael and Ericsson 4 that have retained the separation and pose the most serious threat this morning - and from here it's all about the Crosswind, yikes.

At 10:00 ZULU, everyone was on port tack in a solid and bumpy north-easterly True Wind Direction (TWD in the Data Centre), with a True Wind Speed (TWS) in the high-teens. Telefonica Blue had planted herself squarely between the bulk of the fleet and the southern end of the scoring gate at Pulau We (marked on the Race Viewer). Starting at about 20 miles behind and either sailing in her wake, or in a lane slightly to leeward, were PUMA, Ericsson 3, Telefonica Black and Green Dragon, with Delta Lloyd trailing that group by about another 75 miles.

But taking the northern, high road were Ericsson 4, positioned to the northwest of Telefonica Blue, having closed the gap down to single figures on the Leaderboard. Meanwhile, back at the ranch house, Team Russia were covering the exits, sailing a lane even further north than Ericsson 4, and a 100 miles behind them.

Everyone has spent the last 24 hours making sacrifices to the relevant wind gods, as they tacked on each and every wind shift in an effort to optimize their passage eastwards, while staying in the stronger breeze to the north. Hard work in these temperatures, endlessly shifting gear from one side of the boat to the other, like some Sisyphean rock.

If we check out today's graph of True Wind Direction, then we can see how the wind has rotated anti-clockwise from the east, into the north-east since yesterday morning. We know from yesterday's TEN ZULU (the section sub-titled How are the wind shifts going to affect the rest of the leg?) that a north-easterly means everyone can sail east, and that's the reason we find them all on port tack this morning - having picked their moment to set off east overnight (Steve Hayles was pondering this very matter in yesterday's audio).

The whole fleet is now more or less sailing at the scoring gate. The operative phrase here is 'more or less' - none of them is actually sailing a course to Pulau We. We can check this by using another couple of numbers in the Data Centre - Bearing to Waypoint (BRG_WPT) and Heading (HDG).

The current waypoint is Pulau We, and for Telefonica Blue at 07:00 ZULU it was bearing 94 degrees, while their Heading was 110 degrees. That tells us that they are sailing 16 degrees below the course they need to get round the top of Sumatra and into the Malacca Straits. If you do the same calculation for Torben Grael and his team, then they are only missing it by ten degrees - close, but still no cigar. Neither boat has spent enough time on starboard and got far enough north - it's still an upwind leg, and we're still breathlessly dependent on the capricious, shifting wind to see what happens next.

There are plenty of big changes in wind direction out there

We went through the general set up for how the changes in True Wind Direction works for and against boats in the north and south in yesterday's TEN ZULU - in general an anticlockwise rotation into the north will favour Ericsson 4, while a clockwise rotation towards the east will favour Telefonica Blue.

But today, as a special treat (hey, it's nearly Christmas) - and after posting a big, red, flashing, neon, technical content warning sign - we're really going to get our hands dirty. So, for the particularly keen amongst you, there is a more scientific way of looking at how this will play out, one which requires a number that we haven't mentioned before - and that number is crosswind.

Crosswind is the measure of whether you are ahead or behind another boat that has leverage, when you're sailing upwind or downwind. It's actually pretty simple - just a line drawn through your own bow, at a right angle to the True Wind Direction (TWD). If you are going upwind, then anyone upwind of that line is ahead of you, and anyone downwind of that line is behind (if you draw that out on a piece of paper, you'll see it makes sense, or you can just take my word for it).

So if we imagine ourselves to be Simon Fisher, navigator on board Telefonica Blue, then the calculation he's doing for Bouwe Bekking is this' First he will go to the latest position report sent out from the Race Office (downloadable here), and plot both Ericsson 4 and his own boat on a chart (actually, that's old skool, the software does it all for him these days, but I prefer to imagine him doing it the traditional way). Then he will measure the bearing between the two boats, which I prepared earlier, and I can tell you is 344 degrees.

Now, if we add 90 degrees to 344, we get 74 degrees - and this is the True Wind Direction for which the boats are positioned exactly at right angles to each other. If the wind shifts clockwise from this, then Telefonica Blue will be ahead; while if it shifts anti-clockwise, then Ericsson 4 will be ahead.

At 07:00 ZULU, the True Wind Direction on Telefonica Blue was 58 - that's 16 degrees anti-clockwise from 74, and it puts Ericsson 4 safely ahead. If nothing changes, Torben Grael will be first to the scoring gate, and Bouwe Bekking needs a big clockwise shift in the wind direction towards the east to get out of jail.

So now you know ' watch out for the True Wind Direction at each of the coming Position Reports, and I suspect we'll see that at every opportunity, when the wind is clockwise of 74 degrees, Bekking will tack onto starboard and try and close down the leverage to Ericsson 4 (which he did, right before the TEN ZULU). And if the wind doesn't shift clock-wise of 74 degrees, then er ' normal service will be resumed.

But we've seen in the last couple of reports from Race Forecaster, Jennifer Lilly, how the incidence of cloud and squall activity will increase as they close on the Malacca Straits, so there are plenty of big changes in the wind direction out there - Ericsson 4 have already reported on plenty of encounters of the cloudy kind.

So, no
Predicted Routes this morning, because it's all going to come down to those clouds, the wind shifts, and how long the breeze stays right of the magic number of 74 '

The TEN ZULU REPORT (so called because it follows the 10:00 GMT fleet position report, and Zulu is the meteorologist's name for GMT).

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GREEN DRAGON LEG THREE DAY 6 QFB: received 18.12.08 0513 GMT

Going upwind in a Volvo 70 sucks. I am beginning to question the merits of the new route through Asia if so much of it is upwind. The first problem is that these boats don't point very high so it takes forever to get anywhere truly upwind.

The second is that the hulls have so little rocker and are so flat that they slam on every wave.

The third is, of course, that the boats are so powerful that in any wind the waves that make life so uncomfortable come thick and fast. It hasn't really been windy (an average of about 20 knots overnight) or with big seas, but still it is hard to even stay in your bunk at times, let alone sleep. The next leg to China will be a nightmare.

So what's going on out here? Well we have all made our way northwest and are set up on port tack near the layline to the scoring gate at Pulau We. It has been a real drag race for the last 24 hours - something we are not too well equipped for in these conditions and we have slipped to sixth.

Our last tack to the east was probably a mistake, but we realised this really fast and fortunately only went for an hour. There has been more wind in the north which, coupled to a left shift has made gains out here. Our plan now is to stay close to the leaders so we can capitalise on any shut downs towards the end of the leg. We are comfortably ahead of Kosatka and Delta Lloyd at this stage.

Onboard all is quiet as we are enjoying crossing off some miles finally. There is the normal battle with saltwater sores in this heat, but otherwise nothing major to report. Probably the funniest incident in the last few days was young Freddie Shanks, who went on the bow at night in the pitch black. We all heard a bit of a scuffle forwards and were rather surprised to see him coming out of the companionway hatch cursing and swearing 20 seconds later.

He forgot that we had opened the front hatch to get some air in the boat to help people sleep and had fallen straight through. A 7ft drop onto solid carbon, landing on your back is not something I would wish on anybody and in truth he was lucky to escape serious injury - a broken back or neck would not be out of the question and has been known. In typical Freddie-style, he hardly said a word, picked himself up and went straight back on the bow to do what he had meant to do! Lesson one - don't leave the front hatch open at night.

Ian Walker - skipper

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ERICSSON 4 LEG THREE DAY 5 QFB: received 17.12.08 2330 GMT

Tough going on Ericsson 4 today, ducking and weaving through some of the biggest clouds we have seen so far. Sleep in near impossible due to the sail changes associated with each cloud and due to the fact that the seaway is just a short chop and we are slamming our way upwind. The half portion lunches have started today and we are all feeling a little hungrier, but now we have wind we may be back up to a more normal sized lunch as out ETA improves, which is great news. Otherwise it's all good and we hope our northerly route will start to pay soon

Ryan Godfrey
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DELTA LLOYD LEG THREE DAY 5: received 17.12.08 2317 GMT

The strategy for today has been pretty straightforward; make progress to the north side of the course where there will be more wind for the second half of the beat across the Bay of Bengal. And do so by staying on the lifted tack. We've seen the wind direction swing from 70 to 105 degrees, so there have been plenty of opportunities to chip away at the fleet. We've tacked at least 15 times today. We've had to negotiate through several rainsqualls, just to add a bit of flavour, with some 'game time' calls on which way to work around these clouds.

By my calculations, we just passed the Russians who are sailing on the same tack as us directly in the north, although the Position Reports still place us a couple miles behind them.

With a very slim lead on the Russians, we still have a long grind to catch the lead group. They seem to be quite quick on this leg and we'll have our work cut out for us. In the meantime, it's going to be a long slug- fest of upwind sailing for the next couple of days. Joy (sic).

Matthew Gregory - navigator

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TELEFÓNICA BLUE v ERICSSON 4

The wind filled in, just as it was supposed to, and Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) was given a 'get out of jail free' card. Telefónica Blue's plan of owning the right-hand side of the course on leg three of the Volvo Ocean Race to Singapore has worked, and the team is now back in the game, but just how handsomely the payout will be is yet to be seen, and that will depend on the direction in which the wind shifts.

Mark Chisnell explains the possibilities in detail in this morning's 1000 ZULU Report http://www.volvooceanrace.org/news/article/2008/december/TEN-ZULU-L3-D6/index.aspx .

Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA) is breathing down the necks of Telefónica Blue and has closed the deficit to just seven nautical miles. Whether Ericsson 4 will beat the blue boat to the scoring gate can only be determined by the wind Gods.

'We had some nervous moments yesterday as we watched the fleet from our far away right-hand corner,' explains navigator Simon Fisher. 'We have successfully managed to work our way back into the game and got the shift we were looking for. The shift came not a moment too soon.'

Bouwe Bekking's team was separated from the fleet by over 100 miles, and, just as the crew were starting to discuss a contingency plan to deal with the situation if the hoped-for windshift failed to materialise, a line appeared on the water that signalled the arrival of new wind. With it came an expression of relief on faces of the crew. 'Now it is a case of hanging on in there for the last few hundred miles into the entrance of the Straits of Malacca, in order to consolidate a decent position,' says Fisher.

Onboard Ericsson 4, the plan is to gain miles on Telefónica Blue but keep their distance from the rest of the fleet. There are just over 300 miles to run to the scoring gate at Pulau We at the entrance to the Malacca Strait.

In third position today, in a race that has seen the teams slide up and down the leaderboard on almost an hourly basis, is Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander/SWE), just 28 nm behind the leader. Two miles behind her is PUMA (Ken Read/USA), who has found her way back in touch. PUMA has Telefónica Black (Fernando EchÃ¡varri/ESP) two miles behind and Ericsson 3 to weather with both boats in sight.

'It's very wet and not super-fun,' said PUMA's watch captain Sidney Gavignet in a radio interview this morning. He also explained that four of the crew are stricken with diahorea, which is leaving them with little energy.

Telefónica Black followed by a rather disheartened Green Dragon crew, whose boat is not suited to the current conditions. They at least have a good buffer over Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) and Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez/ESP), both of whom have a delta of over a 100 nm from the leader.

This leg has been a big test of patience for the crews. An upwind slog for most of the leg, the ride is bumpy and unpleasant at best. The eight-strong fleet is currently pounding upwind in 20 knots of wind against a sometimes very nasty seaway, with a little over 850 nm to go to the finish for the leaders. Speeds are averaging around 12 knots. Simon Fisher sums up the leg so far, 'It has been described as the beat from hell, but I think that perhaps we are just warming up,' he said.

The next stage of this leg will see the fleet negotiate one of the busiest areas for shipping in the world. The Malacca Strait is the 500 nm channel between Sumatra (Indonesia) to the south and Malaysia to the north, which, at its narrowest point, is only 1.5 nm wide. There are, reportedly, masses of fishing boats, some of which may be unlit, all with fishing lines or nets. 'Let the fun begin,' says Kenny Read, skipper of PUMA, when he thinks about this next challenge.

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

Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) DTF 869 nm
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +7
Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE) +28
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando EchÃ¡varri/ESP) +30
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +32
Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +41
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) +104
Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) +122

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PUMA LEG THREE DAY 6 QFB: received 18.12.08 0956 GMT

The Bay of Bengal. Bringing these boats here for this leg is like using a Ferrari for a Tractor Pull. Slogging upwind, tacking on every shift for days. In fact, for one 24-hour period we had 51 squalls come through bringing rain, shift, no shift, wind, no wind etc. You get my drift. Mix in the heat and humidity and you have a real glamorous sailing spot at this moment in time.

Great news is the conditions are evening out and the squalls are far less frequent. In fact the fleet is lining up and starting to leg it out for the northwest corner of Indonesia and Sumatra. We were joking on the rail that every place we now talk about - Sumatra for example - we have never even used the words before never mind been here. Wild new world for boat racing.

The good news is that things are starting to at least normalise out here a bit. The bad news is it is about to get really strange once we enter the Strait of Malacca. This is the channel between Indonesia to the south and Malaysia to the north. Here the fun really begins. It is one of, if not the, most used commercial shipping lane in the world. There is an Indonesian navy who is rumoured to stop random boats and request fees to pass through. Potential outright piracy. And supposedly heaps of fishing boats, which may be lit or unlit, with lines or nets. Let the fun begin.

On board the fine yacht, we have gotten back in touch with the leaders and are now running fourth. Quite a number of changes on this leg. Just when a pattern would start to develop everything would change. We currently have Telefónica Black just behind us and Ericsson 3 to weather- both within sight and, as usual, it is full on. Never a dull moment.

On board we are surviving the plastic fork situation barely. Thanks to all the second graders' suggestions for what to use. The problem is that not a single one of their suggestions is actually aboard the boat. Like soup can tops and aluminium foil. Great ideas if we were on a normal boat in normal conditions. One small problem that may be related to our plastic fork salutation or not is that a pretty good case of diarrhoea has overcome the boat, to the point that our toilet pump broke from overuse! Talk about a disaster. Fortunately, Dr Falcone is on the case and hopefully we can shake this before the entire team takes their turn. The stern railing is getting a lot of use these days...if you get my drift.

The questions are starting to come to the nav station a little more frequently concerning our projected ETA. We have several crewmembers flying home to be with families and several of us have families who will anxiously be in Singapore hoping to celebrate the holidays with all the sailors out here on the water. Hope the Straits are kind to us. That is all I want for a Christmas present this year.

Kenny Read - skipper

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ERICSSON 4 LEG THREE DAY 6 QFB: received 18.12.08 1050 GMT

Hi! We are now 330 miles from the scoring gate and all the boats are really close. We are trying hard to gain some miles on Telefónica Blue and keep our distance from the others. At the moment, we have 16-20 knots of wind and we are sailing in a fast up wind mode.

Life on board has not been easy. Down below it's really warm and we are glad that we have fans in our bunks! On deck has been also very warm and if we are not wet because of the waves and the rains, once you put your gear on you start to get very sweaty... But, we all know that we are going to miss a lot this kind of weather on next leg to Qingdao!

Although this is one of the shortest legs during the race, our trip has not been not quick. We already have had a look in some of our food bags and prepared to have our Christmas dinner onboard, in case we have some delay in our previous ETA. Some of the guys are not happy, as from now we have a few less snacks and some meals have got smaller. We all hope that we get some good winds at the Malacca Strait and that we arrive in time to have a proper Christmas dinner!

Good winds
Joca Signorini

Also today saw Jules turn 40! He was his usual flamboyant and jolly self, happily sat at his nav desk in his pants (must be turning Brazilian!). Not sure what will happen with the approaching mid life crisis -I doubt the Harley Davidson and leather jacket will be enough for Jules after going round the world. I'm sure his mid-life will be more likely to involve a comfortable sofa and plenty of Coronation Street, a nice cup of tea and a fish finger sandwich.... Hold on a second - I think he is already having it.

Guy Salter - MCM

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TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG THREE DAY 2 QFB: received 18.12.08 1537 GMT

I heard of the mishap of our friends on Delta Lloyd, and you don't have to tell me how they feel. Been there, seen it and done it. As soon as I saw the message, I reported to race headquarters, that we are on standby to assist, as I know as well what that means to hear for Delta Lloyd - that others are there for them. Of course, this is a yacht race, but it is oh so relative, when you are in trouble on this big ocean. But I hope that they can continue without assistance, Chuny (skipper Roberto Bermudez/ESP) will a grip on the situation, and will make the right calls.

Oh, yes, we are still in a boat race and a hot one to be first to the gate. We had a very similar situation in the last race, and managed to keep first by only a whisker, and it looks a very similar situation. Ericsson 4 is behind, but has a better angle to the gate, meaning that they can sail relatively faster. The other boats are also still in striking distance, so we are keeping a close eye on them as well.

We have been stubborn, and we stuck to our guns, separated from the fleet and went for the shift, and hopefully we will be rewarded full points for that. Another 260 miles to go, without any proper sleep possible. Lying in my bunk, I might doze away, but then very quickly I will check wind direction and wind speed. For Sifi (Simon Fisher - navigator) is the same, and I hope we can pull it off for his sake. Regarding Tom Addis: well, when we made the decision to go our way, I trusted him and what he saw developing, but when the shift finally came through, I was so happy. I told him: "if you weren't a man, I would have kissed you'.

Cheers,

Bouwe Bekking - skipper

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DELTA LLOYD LEG THREE DAY 6 QFB: received 18.12.08 1633 GMT

At 7:30 this evening, we were sailing upwind in 20 knots of wind - pounding away in a short steep sea state with our J1 headsail and a reef in the main. All of a sudden, there was a massive breaking sound from inside the boat.

One of the hydraulic rams, that cants the keel from side to side, had ripped off the bulkhead that connects it to the boat. Immediately we put our safety plan into place.

Unsure of extent of the structural damage and integrity of the boat, everyone moved to their areas. We took down our headsail. The water pumps were deployed and put on standby. Survival suits and grab bags were pulled from the safety locker in case we were sinking and needed to abandon the boat. I called the race office to tell them our position and to be on standby in case we needed assistance from another boat. I also worked on finding ports that we could take refuge. The closest ones were 400 miles away. Meanwhile the guys on deck limped the boat along at three knots.

The next phone calls were to the designer, Juan Kouyoumdjian to help us assess the implications of the structural failure. He helped us determine that we could continue to sail, with our keel locked in the centre position by using the starboard hydraulic ram.

Right now, we are sailing with our little J4 headsail and a reef in the main towards the northern tip of Indonesia, which also happens to be the location of the scoring gate. Using the sails to heel the boat helps to reduce the slamming loads on the hull. We are making decent headway at about nine knots of boat speed. Over the next two days, we will work with our shore team to figure out how we are going to get to Singapore.

It was a very scary moment onboard, but it was great to see the entire team handle the emergency in a calm and professional way. We are fortunate to be able to continue east towards Singapore. However, every wave that we crash into is a bit more worrisome than normal. Hopefully, we can get the boat safely to the Malacca Straights in one piece. For now, we are happy to be safe, which is always our first priority.

Matt Gregory - navigator

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VOLVO OCEAN RACE NEWS EXTRA: DELTA LLOYD LIMPING

The Dutch/Irish entry in the Volvo Ocean Race, Team Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) has suffered damage to the port side carbon structure around the keel ram. The boat was half way across the Bay of Bengal when the damage occurred, at 1930 local time, midday GMT. Skipper Roberto Bermudez de Castro and his crew are safe and the boat is not taking on water.

'We are currently putting up the J4, and we will sail eastwards (upwind) with the keel centred using only the starboard ram,' reported navigator Matt Gregory/USA. 'We should be able to sail at seven knots. According to the boat's designer, Juan Kouyoumdjian, it is safe to continue under sail and we are about 400 nm west of the northern corner of Sumatra. We have a fuel range of 450 nm and enough food for 11 days at sea,' he said. Trimmer, Edwin O'Connor/IRL is leading the process of repairing the structure onboard.

'We heard a big bang. Johnny (Gerd van Poortman/NED) and I thought the mast had come down. Everybody was shocked and we started searching below deck. It did not take long before we found the problem. The port side carbon structure that holds the ram was broken. At the moment, the guys are consulting external expertise to secure the keel,' explained MCM Sander Pluijm from the Netherlands.

It is too early to know the exact cause of the damage, but it is likely to be a failure of the hydraulic system. The crew have not retired from the race but are considering the possibility of going to the nearest harbour or continuing towards Singapore, which is the preferred option.

'This is incredibly bad luck, but the safety of the crew is my first priority,' said skipper Roberto Bermudez. 'It is my job to bring them home safely,' he added.

The shore team is ready to start repairing the damage, which should enable Team Delta Lloyd to start the in-port race in Singapore on 10 January.

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ERICSSON 3 LEG THREE DAY 6 QFB: received 18.12.08 1519 GMT

It does not take much to make 11 primitive guys happy, just a little jump from 6th to 3rd in the standings. Even Gustav (Gustav Morin MCM), who has a stomach infection, has been seen smiling today!

We basically always positioned ourselves on the preferred side of the different medium sized cloud clusters, which enabled us to play some huge wind shifts through the night yesterday. When we got in touch with Green Dragon, we went just a little further than them before a tack, and slowly passed them sailing in a better shift. It actually gave us most of the distance we have on them now. It was difficult with wind shifts not forecast, but satellite pictures helped a lot in this largest thunderstorm area I have ever seen.

Now the question is: how far north is too far? We can ALMOST sail straight towards the waypoint on port tack, but in the end, it looks like we will end up in the light spot south of the scoring gate. It is very expensive to get north at this stage, but expect us to try to utilise some small shifts to get up on that layline.

There will also be plenty of boat-on-boat tactics going on. We just tacked twice to cover Puma on a small shift. Martin Krite is very angry with me now - more than normal - as tacking seems to have the same effect on him as a red cloth has on a bull! So he has hidden my iPod before he went to sleep after the stacking fest. I guess that the 'Full Stack Double Tack' within an hour on his off-watch justifies it a little bit.

Best from E3
Aksel Magdahl - navigator

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Gustav Morin/Ericsson 3/Volvo Ocean Race Thomas Johanson helming Ericsson 3 at sunset, on leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race from India to Singapore

Sergey Bogdanov/Team Russia/Volvo Ocean Race Skipper Andreas Hanakamp grinding onboard Team Russia, on leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from India to Singapore

Guy Salter/Ericsson 4/Volvo Ocean Race Ericsson 4 at sunset, on leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race from India to Singapore

Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race Rob Salthouse, trimming in light winds, onboard il mostro, on leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from India to Singapore

Gabriele Olivo/Telefonica Blue/Volvo Ocean Race Jordi Calafat, who is in charge of sail development, checking some sails pictures onboard Telefonica Blue, on leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from India to Singapore

Sander Pluijm/Team Delta Lloyd/Volvo Ocean Race The Dutch/Irish entry in the Volvo Ocean Race, Team Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) has suffered damage to the port side carbon structure around the keel ram. The boat was half way across the Bay of Bengal when the damage occurred, at 1930 local time, midday GMT. Skipper Roberto Bermudez de Castro and his crew are safe and boat is not taking on water.