Sport-heute: Sailing - Telefonica Blue

21. Januar 2009, 15:51

Telefonica Blue - Left and Right

We were passed on both the left and the right side, not a good day for the blue boat. We were parked for a long time, a finally got moving again this afternoon.

VOLVO OCEAN RACE 2009, 21.1.09 (mk) The good news is that we have a good push from the current, in the right direction. The boats all have spread out now, some staying more offshore and some going towards the Philippines. Offshore there is more breeze, but a less favourable shift, inshore maybe less pressure (that is what I hope).

There is still more than 35 hours to go the waypoint and all upwind. The sun is out, and a very nice temperature, at least that is right and all the boys are well, eating and drinking plenty, so that is a good sign.

Cheers,

Bouwe Bekking - skipper

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DELTA LLOYD LEG FOUR DAY 4 QFB: received 21.01.09 0958 GMT

Hi all,

The first manoeuvres have been taken place today: three tacks! Getting closer to the coast of Malaysia/Brunei, it gave us the impression that near the shore the conditions were less favourable. On one side, the shallows didn't look friendly and we expected the wind to be less and more NE along the shore.

We tacked in a dark, squally night and moved towards more offshore regions. We had to tack twice more to manoeuvre into a safe position - referring to the many shallow places around here - and into a stronger breeze. At this moment, we are experiencing some decreasing wind speeds, but still more than 10 knots. Our wind will arrive shortly... Even more in a couple of days.

Being new onboard such a racer, I'm trying to get into the rhythm of the daily routines. Having said that, with the parts that don't work properly in the nav-station and a limping satellite system (not our fault) I have to work with, I spend a lot of time in the nav station.

In between every three-hour report, I try to 'sleep' - what a NOISY boats these are - and eat and drink sufficiently. Food is not gourmet, but all right. Unfortunately a series of rotten freeze-dried food was packed, so we have to be careful with our choices and rations.

For now, we are looking ahead to a relative quiet night with NE'ly winds around 15 knots.

Cheers,

Frits Koek - navigator

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GREEN DRAGON LEG FOUR DAY 4 QFB: received 21.01.09 0702 GMT

It's not often that I am lost for words, but I have little to say today. We continue to plod upwind and even had the excitement of some tacks, which came in a bit of a flurry as we were hit by one big shift after another this morning.

It seems Ericsson 3 has done a really nice job of footing into the right hand shift and has managed to consolidate their gains. We have also slipped past Delta Lloyd in our own private battle, but it remains very close. The wind is clearly very variable for the leaders and we have to hope this may help us to catch up some miles.

Onboard life is pretty easy, with few sail changes and only a few tacks. Even the freeze-dried food tastes better, so I must be getting used to 'offshore life'.

We have hit some quite considerable amount of debris in the water and have just removed a bamboo shoot from the daggerboard but, so far, nothing has led to any damage that we know of. The boat remains in perfect shape although it is quite clear she is happier sailing downwind than up. That goes for all the sailors too!

Ian Walker - skipper

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PUMA LEG FOUR DAY 4 QFB: received 21.01.09 0328 GMT

This is going to be the leg that, at least up until now, is defined by who is 'picked'. You know, like a pick in basketball where a big guy stands there and the offensive player runs around the big guy and his defensive person is cleaned off him. I think a lot of sports use 'picks'. Add sailing to the list.

It really started when we were leaving Singapore and there were a ton of ships. We were sailing along about five lengths to windward of Ericsson 4 and we could just make it to weather of a 1000-foot anchored super-tanker. They couldn't; the ship was a pick. They had to go under and we took the lead. A lead we would keep for a day and a half.

So now comes the 'reef-style' picks. We were going upwind for about a day and a half with Ericsson 4 about a mile and a half behind. Approaching the North Lucoma Shoals the water depth goes from 1000 metres to three metres. We had three charts of these shoals and one said we could go through the middle, one said maybe and one said no way. We chose the 'no way', and along with a breeze header, had to dip the shoal along with Ericsson 4.

Telefonica Blue on the other hand was far enough behind, and sailed in the next wind shift, which was a lift, and got around the top of the shoals gaining five miles in the process. A bummer for us, good for them - and the 'good' news is there are about a thousand of these shoals all over the South China Sea. Many, many more 'picks' to come. One final factoid about all these 'picks' - the accuracy of the charts is absolutely in question and supposedly there are a lot of reefs that are unmarked out here. As if there wasn't enough on this leg to make my stomach turn...

Of course, you could go way out and around this massive area of shoals but that would be a race loser. We will all be short tacking through the shoals and reefs. From thousands of metres of depth to virtually nothing. Really fun at night especially!

As all these last legs have done, the wind has gone light and it is very mixed up with black rain clouds and big shifts. It's all about the luck of the draw right now and the boats behind have had a nice opportunity to get right back into the game with the lead boats hitting the lighter airs first. I know this sounds like a broken record, but I can say that in these last couple of legs, the rainsqualls have made or broken the legs for all. A little skill, a lot of luck. Both are needed.

So, we will keep plugging away. Our lead evaporated and the restart complete. Time to get our heads back into the game. And try to avoid the 'picks'.

Kenny Read - skipper

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ERICSSON 3 LEG FOUR DAY 4 QFB: received 21.01.09 1359 GMT

So far, this race has been exciting. Everyone is talking about what is to come with the heavy winds and the big waves and forgets about the race that goes on every second out here.

It has been close racing and several crucial calls. Yesterday we were playing a nerve-wracking game when we sailed a route no one else did. Our skipper, Magnus Olsson, was biting his fingernails off and we were pretty freaked out about it. Yet, he believed in it and supported our navigator Aksel Magdahl in his decision.

This morning it paid off and we found ourselves in front of the whole pack. For a while, we could see Ericsson 4, Telefónica Blue and Puma behind us.

'This is our chance to get back the race. You don't get many of those chances so we really have to take good care of the opportunity,' he said this morning.
But, not a day goes by without things happening.

There is a lot of lumber and seaweed in the water around here. It is certainly an advantage to have a skipper used to competing in slalom. I don't know how many times we have been less than one metre away from hitting something big enough to break a rudder or daggerboard. During the day, you can spot and avoid the biggest things. During the night, you're dependent on luck'

Every hour someone checks the rudders and the keel with an endoscope to see if something has stuck. So far, we have had to stop the boat three times.

Gustav Morin - MCM

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TELEFÓNICA BLACK LEADS PACK THROUGH MARINE MINEFIELD

Telefónica Black (Fernando EchÃ¡varri/ESP) is the new leader of the pack today, after the Volvo Ocean Race fleet made its first proper manoeuvre of this leg, tacking onto starboard last night when the predicted windshift occurred. Since then, the tracks of the boats have wavered as the crews carefully pick their way through the minefield of reefs and shoals that clutter this part of the South China Sea. The weather is due to close in approximately three days from now, and the sailing is about to get serious.

'Approaching the North Lucoma Shoals, the water depth goes from 1000 metres to three metres,' explains Kenny Read/USA, skipper of PUMA. 'We had three charts of these shoals. One said we 'could' go through the middle, one said 'maybe' and one said 'no way'. We chose the 'no way' route and along with a breeze header, had to dip the shoal along with Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA).

There is still just over 30 hours before the fleet reaches the 'weather waypoint' set at South Rock Light, positioned near Manila in the Philippines. The fleet has to keep to the east of this point to protect them from the full force of the expected bad weather. However, the mark is directly upwind and between the fleet and the mark lie the notorious Spratly Islands.

There are have been no systematic surveys of the area for many years, which means there are vast patches of uncharted coral reefs, atolls, rocks and sand banks, all capable of causing major damage if struck. Those that are charted, may have moved, making the passage through the Spratly Islands, named after an English mariner who charted them in the 19th century, an extremely precarious affair.

'Much of this leg will be raced in darkness, and navigators and skippers will be looking for the quickest way through to gain an edge of the rest of the fleet,' explains Will Oxley who was a navigator in the 2005-06 event. Oxley says that the reefs could be up to six miles out of place, so much of the navigation will be by sight.

'If the fleet has clear visibility during the day, they should be mostly OK,' says Oxley, but added, 'In the dark, it could be tricky, especially if there are squalls too.'

'Of course,' says Kenny Read, 'you could go way out and around this massive area of shoals, but that would be a race loser. We will all be short tacking through the shoals and reefs. From thousands of metres of depth, to virtually nothing. Really fun at night especially. A little skill, and a lot of luck. Both are needed,' he said.

The fleet is now spread over an inshore/offshore divide of 91 nautical miles. Ericsson 4 is the closest inshore, just 43 nautical miles off the coastline of Palawan Island with Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bérmudez/ESP) and new leader, Telefónica Black joined together and furthest offshore.

Frits Koek, the Dutch navigator of Delta Lloyd explained that as they moved closer to the coast of Brunei, they got the impression that the near the shore the conditions looked less favourable. The team tacked in the dark, squally night and moved further offshore. They had to tack twice more to manoeuvre into a safe position.

Added to the difficulty is the amount of debris floating in the water. Telefónica Black collided with a stray log, which made contact with their starboard rudder, however the team reported that there was no damage.

At 1300 GMT today, Telefónica Black had moved up from fifth place at 1300 GMT yesterday to dislodge PUMA and take the lead. Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) also slides one place down the leaderboard largely due to 'parking' for a long time. Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE) moves up to fourth place from sixth yesterday, Delta Lloyd is level pegging with the Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR) in fifth and sixth place, and, shockingly, race leader, Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA) is bringing up the rear, 51 nautical miles adrift.

Leg Four Day 4: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)

1. Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando EchÃ¡varri/ESP) DTF 1674 nm
2. PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +5
3. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +9
4. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +28
5. Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) +29
6. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +29
7. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +51
8. Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS

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TELEFÓNICA BLACK LEG FOUR DAY FOUR QFB: received 21.10.09 1226 GMT

Hi out there!

It has been a busy day, but the good news is our FIRST POSITION in the
race!

As you all can see through the videos, there has been a lot of discussion on the tactics recently, as it has to be, and it has proved worthwhile, as we are currently holding the first position in the fleet.

Anyway, we all know this is a very tricky leg and anything may happen. Wee are sailing through what could be called a mine field, not only due to the continuous reefs you face, but for the tricky winds and squalls, which may put you in front of the fleet or at the back in one position report's time.

And not to forget the stray logs all around these waters: we had a collision against one of those with our starboard new rudder, and thank God nothing happened to the appendage nor to the Demonio.

So we keep on working hard, let's hope for some good luck, as we will soon face a notorious wind change in speed, and water and air temperature.

Mikel Pasabant - MCM

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Gabriele Olivo/Telefonica Blue/Volvo Ocean Race Skipper Bouwe Bekking helming, at the start of leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race

For EDITORIAL USE only, please credit: Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race The crew of PUMA Ocean Racing have a team discussion at the start of leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race The Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 will be the 10th running of this ocean marathon. Starting from Alicante in Spain, on 4 October 2008, it will, for the first time, take in Cochin, India, Singapore and Qingdao, China before finishing in St Petersburg, Russia for the first time in the history of the race. Spanning some 37,000 nautical miles, visiting 11 ports over nine months, the Volvo Ocean Race is the world's premier ocean yacht race for professional racing crews. For all media enquiries please contact Lizzie Ward on +44 (0)1489 554 832 or email lizzie.ward@volvooceanrace.org. For all photographic enquiries, please contact Tim Stonton on +44 (0)1489 554 867 or email tim.stonton@volvooceanrace.org. For further images, please go to http://images.volvooceanrace.org

Guo Chuan/Green Dragon Racing/Volvo Ocean Race Freddie Shanks and Phil Harmer changing sails on Green Dragon, on leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race from Singapore to Qingdao, China

Gustav Morin/Ericsson 3/Volvo Ocean Race New crew member Klaes Nylof onboard Ericsson 3 on leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race

Mikel Pasabant/Telefonica Black/Volvo Ocean Race Telefonica Black at the start of leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race

Mikel Pasabant/Telefonica Black/Volvo Ocean Race Telefonica Black battle through the squalls, on leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race from Singapore to Qingdao, China

Mikel Pasabant/Telefonica Black/Volvo Ocean Race Javier de la Plaza looks out from Telefonica Black, at the start of leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race