Sport-heute: Sailing - TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG FOUR DAY 8 QFB: received 25.01.09 0037 GMT

25. Januar 2009, 18:11

TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG FOUR DAY 8 QFB: received 25.01.09 0037 GMT

NEWS!!--NEWS!! FROM THE DAY 25.1.09

We survived the worse part of the storm, but still have a stiff breeze and nasty seas... The watch captains, Jordi (Jordi Calafat/ESP) and Jono (Jonathan Swain/RSA) have done and excellent job guiding the rest of the guys.******* Bis 15 Meter hohe Wellen - Sturm - Wind - Böen, einfach alles kommt hier im chinesischen Meer zusammen. Da wo verschiedene Weltmeere aufeinandertreffen, da wo das Wetter aus vier verschiedenen Erdteilen kommt. Fürchterlich! Darum verstehe ich nicht, dass einige von der Staffel, das Rennen neutralisieren wollten, wo kämen wir hin, wo käme die Volvo Ocean Race hin? Wir sind keine Milchbuben, wir sind harte Männer - Seemänner, die solches ertragen müssen. Ich sitze zwar hier in der gemütlichen Koje, weil ich die Bänder angerissen habe und kann mich kaum bewegen. Ich höre aber dem Lauf des Schiffes zu und kann so mit meinen Ohren beurteilen, ob noch mehr Geschwindigkeit drinn liegt. Wir fallen von 14 Metern im Steilflug hinunter auf 0 und gleich wieder auf 10 Meter hoch, da spürt ein erfahrener Seeman, was richtig oder falsch ist. So kann ich wenigstens meine Jungs oben auf dem Deck anweisen wie sie sich verhalten sollen. Und es geht nicht schlecht - wir liegen in Führung.
(Funktelefon)

VOLVO OCEAN RACE 2009, 25.1.09 (mk) They all worked as a great team in the last 36 hours. Since I was still stuck to my bunk, with a back muscle injury, the only thing I could do was being awake and gave my input and advice, above all 'BOYS, KEEP IT ONE PIECE' .

In these conditions, down below is the best way to feel how big the crashes are, and when to throttle down. I was really angry when some of the competitors suggested to cancel racing, so didn't get involved with the ridiculous correspondence regarding scoring, this would be a jury issue anyway. If the organisation had given in, all the slogans about how tough this race is could have been thrown out of the window and, worse, it would have been the kiss of death for the future of the race. We always knew this was going to be a horrible leg.

Cheers,

Bouwe Bekking - skipper

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COMMANDING LEAD FOR TELEFÓNICA BLUE

Telefónica Blue, with Bouwe Bekking/NED and his men, has emerged from the aftermath of yesterday's carnage, unscathed, other than breaking their wind instruments, and now has a commanding lead.

Bekking was directing operations yesterday from his bunk, with an injury to a muscle in his back, and paid tribute to his two watch captains, Jordi Calafat/ESP and South Africa's Jonathan Swain.

'They all worked as great team in the last 36 hours. The only thing I could do was be was awake and give my input and advice, which was, above all, 'BOYS, KEEP IT IN ONE PIECE'.

The team registered 55 knots of wind, prior to losing their wind instruments, which, navigator Simon Fisher said, meant even looking upwind was nearly impossible with so much spray from the wind. 'The sea looked very white and it was very wet on deck,' he said.

The team centralised the canting keel, sailed with three reefs in the mainsail and a storm jib set and the rest of the sails were safely stowed below, to ensure that they could sail as slowly as possible, but with enough steerage to avoid big waves. A professional display of good seamanship without a doubt. . 'We always new this was going to be a horrible leg,' Bekking said.

Bekking added that being stuck down below in his bunk was the best way to feel how big the crashes were. He could tell who was steering and when the boat was about to launch off a wave.

Last night they started to crash the boat too hard, so the team invested some of their lead to sail away from the finish on a better angle to the waves, but now they are back up to full race mode and Bekking is able to move around the boat.

Telefónica Blue has now safely crossed the Luzon Strait and is sailing 25 miles offshore up the eastern coast of Taiwan, just northeast of Botel Tobago Island. Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE) is just six miles from the southern tip of Taiwan and Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA) is 13 miles behind her.

Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR), PUMA (Ken Read/USA) and Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bérmudez/ESP) have all resumed racing, but are now many miles behind Telefónica Blue. PUMA has just started out across the Strait, while the others still have some way to go in the lee of Luzon Island.

Telefónica Black has officially retired from this leg. The boat has a crack in the hull, which is of some concern, and the team is heading towards Manila where they will rendezvous with their shore crew and design team, to assess what needs to be done to get the boat back in shape and ready for the in-port race in Qingdao on 7 February.

Skipper of Green Dragon, Ian Walker, said today, 'We are expecting a tortuous trip, where will have to balance preserving the boat with our makeshift repairs, against getting to Qingdao as quickly as possible.'

Delta Lloyd got going rather quicker than they intended. Yesterday, they ended up in the Bay of Salomague, which was nicely secluded. The first thing the crew did was to rest, and, during the night, Green Dragon pulled in to the same bay.

After sunrise, they tackled their repair list. Mending the mainsail was by far the biggest job, but David Pella also fixed the steering wheel, which had broken on the outer ring. The rest of the crew cleaned up the boat.

'Our goal was to set sail at 1800 hours local time, but, after seeing Green Dragon weighing anchor, the work speed increased even more and we managed to raise anchor at 1710 local time,' said navigator Frits Koek. The team is currently reporting a high swell left over from yesterday's storm, but, with
just 11.5 knots of wind, it is causing no problems.

Ken Read, whose red and black PUMA, snapped her boom in two yesterday, described the conditions yesterday as worst than those found in the notorious Bass Strait. 'This is the nastiest place on earth he said.'

For Telefónica Blue, the air temperatures are steadily dropping although the warm current is keeping the sea temperature up. They have 822 nm to run to the finish are anticipating crossing the finish in Qingdao late on the 28 January/early 29 January. The stopover in Qingdao will be hard for the teams because it will be short and cold and, as well as an in-port race, they have a big leg ahead of them to prepare for. Leg five is the longest leg in the history of the race; 12,300 nm to Rio de Janeiro.

Leg Four Day 8: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)

1. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) DTF 822 nm
2. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +64
3. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +77
4. PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +203
5. Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) +296
6. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +297
7. Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando EchÃ¡varri/ESP) RTD
8. Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS

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Sunday 25 January 2009 10:00 GMT

THE TEN ZULU REPORT, LEG 4, DAY 8 Telefonica Black

By Mark Chisnell

Seven boats raced up the west coast of the Philipine Island of Luzon. Four stepped out into the Luzon Channel. Three returned to shelter, damaged. Two waited until conditions abated. One sailed on.

In a move that was either reckless or brilliant, Bouwe Bekking and the salty old sea dogs aboard Telefonica Blue brought their boat through a truly evil 36 hours in the South China Sea, to take a commanding lead of Leg 4.

And with the MacGyver challenge over for those battling to repair damage - all six boats still racing are now sailing again - this is the run down on the se7en involved in the horror movie:

Telefonica Blue - has held the lead since Telefonica Black pulled out to change to her storm trysail at 05:30 ZULU yesterday. Blue was the first to sail out into the Straits, in a move that Guy Salter, Media Crew aboard Ericsson 4 described as, 'either a stroke of leg winning genius or complete stupidity (if the boat breaks!)'.

It now appears to be a move of genius, as Bouwe Bekking reported that they had 'survived the worst part of the storm' early this morning. They now have a commanding lead of 70 miles.

Ericsson 3 - has been in second place since Telefonica Black damaged her hull and turned back south for shelter at 10:15 ZULU yesterday morning. Media Crew, Gustav Morin sent back this dramatic email yesterday, describing their passage through seas of over eight metres in winds of 50 knots. Navigator, Aksel Magdahl, also described conditions in this audio. And you can see what it was like in this subsequent video clip from Morin, as they nursed the boat up the coast of Luzon with just a storm jib.

They held back in as much shelter as they could find until the 16:00 ZULU Position Report yesterday afternoon, at which time it seemed that Telefonica Blue was managing the conditions and progressing across the Strait - then they followed.

Ericsson 4 - has been in third place since Telefonica Black's hull damage yesterday morning. There's been nothing from the boat, since Guy Salter sent his email yesterday afternoon, recording their cautious passage up the coast. Ericsson 4 waited about another four hours in the shelter of Luzon before following her sistership out into the Straits. No damage reports have been received, but then, they don't usually tell us anyway'

PUMA was the first of the four boats to restart

PUMA - broke her boom while in the lead at 02:00 ZULU yesterday morning. But she won the Macgyver challenge and was the first to restart of the four boats that sought shelter with damage, hoisting sail and heading north at 22:30 last night to take up fourth place on the race track, after 20 hours of repair work.

A disappointed and exhausted-sounding Ken Read, described the 'devastating' failure in this audio interview with Amanda Blackley. And Media Crew, Rick Deppe captured the action in another fantastic clip.

Delta Lloyd - they turned back from the Luzon Strait at 07:15 ZULU yesterday morning with a badly damaged mainsail, and suspended racing three hours later (meaning they can accept outside assistance, but must stop for at least 12 hours). They anchored in the same bay as Green Dragon for repairs - about 20 miles north of where PUMA fetched up. Watch Captain, Guillermo Altadill, talked through their decision to turn back and repair the sail in an interview with Amanda Blackley. And once the job was done, they resumed racing at 09:10 ZULU this morning, in sixth place.

Green Dragon - was the first to suffer damage when they broke their forestay before the storm. Things then went from bad to worse when a major structural component (a ring frame) in the bow shattered yesterday morning at around 08:30 ZULU, and they suspended racing soon afterwards.

Skipper, Ian Walker described the damage to a (very busy) Amanda Blackley. And Walker subsequently wrote of their repair plans from their anchorage in Salomague Bay. The repair seems to have gone well, and they also restarted this morning at about 08:45 ZULU, in fifth place.

Telefonica Black - suffered the most serious damage with a crack to the hull, while leading the race. After heading for shelter to assess the damage, she formally retired from Leg 4. The boat is now motoring to Subic Bay to find the necessary resources to try and get themselves to the start line for the Qingdao in-port, or the start of Leg 5.

While conditions have certainly moderated since yesterday, I'm a little suspicious of some of the wind data coming off the boats, as Guy Salter said - the wind instruments at the top of the masts take a pounding. Bouwe Bekking reported Telefonica Blue's as broken in his most recent email - although their data makes the most sense, with a wind speed (TWS in the Data Centre) in the mid-teens, blowing from the north-east (TWD) - perhaps they have the spare up.

But while the breeze might have eased where they are (for a while), as you can see from this graph of Maximum Wave Height (MAX_WV_HGT), it's still body slam time out there. The priority will remain boat preservation, especially with gaps of 30+ miles between the boats - no one has any reason to push it.

There was huge pressure on the leaders to keep going

One thing we do know - the wind has shifted to the east since yesterday, and all four of the boats in the Luzon Strait were comfortably making course to Taiwan. The one strategic move of the last 24 hours was Telefonica Blue's decision to tack eastwards at about 16:30 ZULU yesterday, sailing for five and a half hours before going back. They did it to protect the boat, according to Bekking in that same email. But it's also kept them out of the Taiwan Strait. The wind there will keep funneling down from the north-east. Whereas to the east of the island, the wind should veer, rotate anticlockwise, and allow a much faster sailing angle.

The real race out there at the moment is amongst those who have completed repairs and are now trying to get to Qingdao asap. This was at the top of Ian Walker's concerns. The reason is that there are 30 knot north-easterly winds forecast in the Yellow Sea on the 29th - visible in today's Predicted Route chart showing the weather and boat positions for the leading four in three days' time.

Based on my experience of walking around Qingdao, looking for a restaurant that was open (it's Chinese New Year), a strong north-easterly is not
something you want to go sailing in. If they break more gear, or have to pull in again for shelter, then the timeline to prepare for the in-port race is going to start to get very tight.

This was always the biggest strategic issue with Leg 4, and the reason why everyone was so focused on getting the boat to Qingdao in one piece. An awful lot of points can slip away if you miss out on Leg 4, the Qingdao in-port race and Leg 5 with its two scoring gates.

And that's why we'll all be talking about each skipper's decision to sail on into some brutal, boat breaking conditions for a long while to come. I'm sure everyone is going to have an opinion - but in reality, I don't think we really expected everyone to sit in the lee of Luzon and wait it out together, did we?

There was huge pressure on the leaders to keep going and maintain the advantage they had fought so hard for - just listen to Ken Read here in comparison to this clip. And once the leader had gone, others felt bound to follow. It was only when the tail-enders - the Ericsson boats - saw the results, that the alternative became not just worthy of consideration, but a no-brainer. With everyone else but Telefonica Blue out of the race, there was nothing to be gained by following, and everything to lose.

Ian Walker wondered a few days ago - when the waypoint at South Rock Light was set - if the fleet needed saving from itself in this way. And the answer it seems is yes. But race officials can only do so much - otherwise the boats wouldn't be out there at all. Ultimately it has to come down to the guys on the boats to make the tough decisions - that's the sport, that's what the race is about.

But I'll give the final word to Bouwe Bekking, who has probably earned it'

"I was really angry when some of the competitors suggested to cancel racing ... If the organisation had given in, all the slogans about how tough this race is could have been thrown out of the window".

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ERICSSON 3 LEG FOUR DAY 8 QFB: received 25.01.09 1336 GMT

Tomas 'Tompe' Johansson just told me a breathtaking story from yesterday night.

We were passing the north top of the Philippines with 40 to 44 knots of wind and nasty sea state. The wind had been the same during the day, but during the night, you have to feel your way forward since the surroundings are just black.

'We were doing alright, punching our way over the wave with just the storm jib up. Every now and then I saw white water and had to steer away and receive the wave a bit from the side. If you don't turn your boat will not survive for long since breaking waves means free falling after you've reached the top', Tomas said.

'One of these breaking waves was a lot bigger than the others. I was quickly trying to steer away, but as I finished the turn the wave washed over the side of the yacht and hit me hard in the side. I lost my grip and was washed off the steering podium. I managed to hold on to the wheel but the rest of my body was swept away. Luckily I had my harness attached. It abruptly stopped the little detour and with my hands still on the wheel I just managed to crawl back in position without losing control of the boat.

The storm has left some wear behind. Yesterday our wind instruments broke, Jens Dolmer/DEN fell and hurt his ribs, everyone is lacking sleep and we had to spend the entire morning fixing rips in the mainsail. You can easily notice the tiredness. Small mistakes are made and people are a bit grumpy.

On the nice side, this afternoon the wind calmed down quite a bit and we took out two of the three reefs. The sun came out and it was pretty nice there for a while. The reason why we didn't then and still haven't hoisted a bigger headsail is because the sea state still is quite messy. And I hear that it is going to be worse again. Another push is heading our way.

Gustav Morin - MCM

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DELTA LLOYD LEG FOUR DAY 8 QFB: received 25.01.09 1215 GMT

Hi all,

First my apologies for not having sent in our QFB yesterday. I had other things on my mind then.

As you all are aware, we had to take shelter after ripping our mainsail whilst trying to start the crossing to Taiwan. We set up the trysail and searched the chart for a good place to anchor. We found a nice spot in the bay of Salomague Harbour. Nicely secluded and giving perfect shelter. First, we all took a rest. After all, it had been a very exciting day. During the night, Green Dragon also arrived in his bay.

After sunrise all gathered on deck and soon we picked up the jobs that needed our attention. The mainsail repairs being the biggest job was taken care of by Stuart Wilson/NZL, Johnny (Gerd Jan Poortman/NED) and Morgan White/AUS. David Pella/ESP. fixed the steering wheel, which was broken on the outer ring

Meanwhile all sorts of other tasks were done, of which cleaning out the boat was an important one. Luckily, some local fishermen came alongside and were willing to take our garbage ashore. Good riddance'

Progress went well and in the afternoon, we were able to prepare the mainsail. Our goal was to sail at 1800 hours, but, after seeing Green Dragon weighing anchor, the work speed increased even more and we managed to raise the anchor at 1710 (LT).

At present, we are sailing on a swell that has the character of yesterday's storm. Still high, but under the current conditions (11.5 knots wind), no problem. The spirit among us all is to sail as fast as possible to Qingdao. Strangely enough, some of us even long for the cold weather in China...

Cheers,
Frits Koek - navigator

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Gabriele Olivo/Telefonica Blue/Volvo Ocean Race Telefonica Blue takes a battering in heavy storms, on leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Singapore to Qingdao, China

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