Sport-heute: Sailing - Puma - Auf dem Weg nach Rio!

18. Februar 2009, 00:05

Puma - Auf dem Weg nach Rio!

Das Rennen ist im vollen Gange. Die Abstände noch gering und jedes der Boote versucht den bestmöglichsten Wind zu erwischen. Gut tönt es mittlerweile auch von der Telefonica Blue, die jetzt sogar eine grosse Spinnhacker aufgezogen haben. Doch gerade für Sie war es schwierig den zweimaligen Start zu verkraften. Dieser hat sie total aus dem Rythmus gebracht. ++++++NEWS!!! Die Flotte segelt nach Osten - doch Green Dragon geht scharf nach Ost ein komplett anderer Kurs. "Wir nützten die Winde voll aus und können dann in zwei drei Tagen wieder Richtung Süden halten so hoffen wir dann plötzlich alleine an der Spitze zu sein mit einem riesigen Abstand.+++++

VOLVO OCEAN RACE 2009, 17.2.09 (mk) Die Original Mails von den Booten

GRINDING DOWN THE OPPOSITION

The Volvo fleet is heading east and Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR) has taken a more easterly course than the others have. Why are they not taking the straighter route towards New Zealand? Stu Bannatyne, watch captain onboard the leading boat, Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA) says the answer is simple really:

'These Volvo
Open 70s like the wind to be free so we can sail fast angles and really keep the boat moving along at wind speed or higher. To this end, we are using the northerly winds we now have to make some miles to the east before we join up with the north-east trade winds in a few days time. If it all pans out, then, by the time we are headed, we will have enough of an easterly position to head south and keep the boat sailing the fast angles that it loves. This should enable us to reach the scoring line at 36 degrees south a lot sooner than taking the direct route.'

But, why has Ian Walker/GBR decided to take Green Dragon even further to the east? Walker and his new navigator, Team Russia's Wouter Verbraak from Holland, have held a more northerly course for most of the past 24 hours, and now they are 60 miles due north of Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE), and 120 miles to the north-west of the Ericsson 4. Mark Chisnell goes into the minutiae in today's TEN ZULU report http://volvooceanrace.org/news/article/2009/February/TEN-ZULU-L5-D4/index.aspx .

As the fleet continues to blast reach, the breeze has dropped slightly and the temperatures are rising. For Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) it is just a question of grinding down the opposition and not being tempted into taking short cuts. The team has set their big spinnaker and reports a grey sky. 'Reaching is a bit boring for most of us, but it means good mileage in the right direction,' Bekking said.

It might be dull for those on deck, but for the media crew members, whose responsibility it is to manage the onboard media, life is easier when the boat is not bouncing about. Added to that, there is a bit of rocket science going on up above the fleet, which has given them a bit of 'time out'.

Rick Deppe/GBR, MCM onboard second placed PUMA explains the reason:

'Race sponsor, Inmarsat, who operates the satellite technology and provides the communications and data transfer services to the race, is having a bit of a re-organisation up in space,' he said.

'Inmarsat recently launched a new satellite which has allowed them to re-position some of the other satellites in their network and which will result in a better overall service to users. However, in the short term it causes a 10-day outage for us here on our little Volvo 70s in terms of being able to get media off the boats.

'We do have a back up system onboard. The Fleet 33 allows us a more stripped down service which can be used for voice, text and smaller data files. The more powerful Fleet 500 system will come back online on 24 February and this will allow us to start sending the video and full resolution pictures that everyone has come to expect.'

Gustav Morin, Ericsson 3's MCM, says that due to the satellites being unavailable, he is living in luxury. Describing his life onboard, he said: 'I still take photos and do video and editing, so that I will have material ready to send when the satellites get back in business, but there is no stress. I
had a six-hour nice sleep, woke at five and made porridge for the guys as usual. Then I indulged myself with some muesli with pieces of fresh orange and pear (we still have some fruit onboard and it is a fantastic contrast to the freeze-dried stuff). After that, I 'worked from home' for a couple of house, which means I was sitting in my bunk with the laptop in my lap.'

In the last 24-hours, there has been no change to the order of the fleet, however, PUMA (Ken Read/USA) has closed the deficit by half and is hanging on to Ericsson 4's coat tails by just eight nautical miles. Conversely, Ericsson 3 has slipped back and is now 79 nm behind the leader, losing 16 miles in the last 24-hours. Green Dragon has faired even worse and is now 125 nm behind, but this may look worse than it actually is due to their easterly position. Telefónica Blue has made a small gain of four miles. The fastest 24-hour run of 455 nm goes to Ericsson 4.

Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) DTF 11305 nm
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +8
Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +79
Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +125
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +193

Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) DNS
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando EchÃ¡varri/ESP) DNS
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS

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TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG FIVE DAY 4 QFB: received 17.02.09 1110 GMT

Hi There,

After our unplanned stop we are well on our way. It was a shame to find ourselves back in Qingdao so soon after we had left, but I have to admit that I managed to take full advantage of what I saw as a bonus meal while the boat was sat on the dock for repairs and, as a result, I left Qingdao (on the second attempt) full of steak, pizza, chicken nuggets and any other junk food that happened to stray in my direction! Hopefully that junk food fix will last me the next 40 days (unlikely though I think!!!). Early Sunday morning, after some fantastic work by the shore team we, with a keel as new, said goodbye to our loved ones once again and set about getting back into this 12,000 mile marathon.

Once we finally left the dock, we were underway pretty swiftly and have been blast reaching since we left the waters of Qingdao. Korea then Japan flew by and with it the water temperature has been steadily climbing make things warmer on deck even though the spray continues to pelt us non-stop. We have had pretty good pace since the start, but it is going to be a long process to grind down the opposition and get ourselves back into the race. However, we must remain patient, stay motivated and keep alert for the opportunities that arise, however small in order that we can close the gap to the four in front.

As for me, I am very much enjoying a return to things on deck. It is nice to be back on the wheel, driving the boat hard and focusing on making us go fast once again. With the wind at 25-30 knots at times and things on the edge I once again get to feel the adrenaline rush of having to go on deck and push the boat hard, but, at the same time, keep it on its feet and under control.

I have to admit I am also rather enjoying a return to a more regular sleeping pattern too and cannot remember the last time a spent so relaxed and refreshed after a couple of days into a race!! That said, it is important that with our rivals so far in front we do not get too settled - it is up to us to keep the pressure on ourselves, to get the very best out of the boat as the other boats are not around to push us on.

With that said, I am going to put my head down for a couple hours before returning back to the fresh air and salt spray in order to push hard again for another four hours.

Until tomorrow,

Simon Fisher - strategist/helmsman
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ERICSSON 4 LEG FIVE DAY 4 QFB: received 17.02.09 0446 GMT

We are now leaving behind the cold water and cold air as we enter the Pacific and continue our march to the east. You may wonder why we are all heading predominantly east and not taking a straighter route towards New Zealand.

Well, the answer is simple really. These Volvo 70s like the wind to be free so we can sail fast angles and really keep the boat moving along at wind speed or higher. To this end, we are using the northerly winds we now have to make some miles to the east before we join up with the north east trades in a few days time. If it all pans out then by the time we get headed we will have enough of an easterly position to head south and keep the boat sailing the fast angles that it loves. This should enable us to reach the scoring line at 36 south a lot sooner than taking the direct route.

The Volvo 70s, more than any previous Volvo/Whitbread design, use their incredible reaching performance to sail around unfavourable weather at much faster speeds than sailing direct. What this means in practice for leg five is that for a 12,300 mile leg we will probably end up sailing close to or even more than 1,000 miles further than that in order to arrive in Rio as quickly as possible. We knew it would be a long leg but thinking about the best routing option being so much longer is hard to take! Anyway, back to it, three days gone and only 11,500 nm to go. Or should that be more like 12,500?

Stu Bannatyne - Watch Captain

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ERICSSON 3 LEG FIVE DAY FOUR QFB: received 17.02.09 0504 GMT

Black and white

Life onboard a Volvo 70 is very different from day to day, everything depends on the weather and winds.

As a media crewmember, it is more black and white than for the sailors. When it's windy you are full on. That is the best time to take stills and video and, at the same time, you need to pump the bilge out every hour. That is also the time when the crew really appreciates help with all that, and it includes food and drinks. It is also the most important time to send media material, since everyone on land wants to know how the boats and crews are coping with the heavy conditions.

When it's calm weather everything is more calm. You still need to take pics and video, but everything is easier and takes less energy since the boat is not rocking like it was an earthquake. It's also time to catch up with everything you couldn't do when it was windy.

But now, this early in the race when I don't have a massive amount of material from before to deal with, and without the possibility to send video due to the satellites being unavailable, I am pretty much living in luxury. I still take photos and do video and editing, to have material to send when the satellites gets back in business on the 24th. But there is no stress.

This morning was really a luxury one. We had around 16 knots of wind and almost flat water. The boat was behaving calm and controlled and there was no water to bilge out.

I had a six hour nice sleep. Woke up at five and made porridge for the guys, as usual. Then I indulged myself with some muesli with pieces of fresh orange and pear. We still have some fruit onboard and it is a fantastic fresh contrast to the freeze-dried stuff. After that I 'worked from home' a couple of hours, which means I was sitting in my bunk with the laptop in my lap.

Quite a contrast to the days before when the boat was rocking constantly doing between 20 and 36 knots in up to 40 knots of winds. You really have to enjoy the luxury moments when you get the opportunity.

Gustav Morin - MCM

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TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG FIVE DAY 4 QFB: received 17.02.09 0808 GMT

Not much happening. We are still reaching, and right now have a big spinnaker up. The sky is very grey, it is time that the sun comes through, we haven't seen much of that in China.

It wasn't easy, to roll straight away in a hard reaching conditions, but we did ok, in other words it could have been way worse, and the losses could have been bigger.

We have been sailing in less breeze than the others boats ahead of us, but kept the distance, even gaining a bit on Green Dragon. Last night, when we where under the Japanese south coast, and particularly under the island Yaku-shima, we all of a sudden parked up for two hours. The wind went from 26 knots to a mere three knots, unbelievable the flapping of the sails as we were still rolling in the big breaking waves, but luckily no breakages of gear or personnel.

Super-frustrating as the other boats had sailed right through this patch of water. But, then without warning, the breeze picked up again to 18 knots and we were off again. Reaching is a bit boring for most of us, but it means good mileage in the right direction.

Bouwe Bekking - skipper

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