Oceanracing 2001 - Volvo Ocean Race 2001/2002

Volvo Ocean Race 2001/2002

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VOLVO OCEAN RACE - 4. Wochenbericht
VOLVO OCEAN RACE Southampton, England, October 19, 2001 Week 4
Saving The Best Till Last
With little difference in straight-line speed between the leading five yachts in the Volvo Ocean Race, the procession around the first waypoint of Ilha Fernando de Noronha started on October 11th.
First around, illbruck passed the waypoint at noon with ASSA ABLOY approximately two hours behind. Next in line were News Corp, Tyco and Amer Sports One. All competitors had crossed the equator the day before. Team SEB, djuice and Amer Sports Too followed a day later.
The sprint to the next waypoint of Ilha Trindade turned into a straight boat speed race with the navigators investing their time into the tactics for the race back across the south Atlantic to Cape Town.
In the 1997-1998 Whitbread Race, the last section of the course was where leg one [and overall] winner EF Language [navigated by ASSA ABLOY’s Mark Rudiger] made her leg-winning move by splitting from the fleet and diving south into more breeze.
Perhaps with the most to gain by possibly making a split over the last few thousand miles is Grant Dalton. Dalton was sitting on five safe points and could only win more. “I think that we can be well satisfied with the way we have gone so far, well satisfied,” said Dalton of his position in the fleet at that time, indicating is was already on target to achieve his goal for the leg.
On Friday October 12th, Knut Frostad’s djuice made a brief pitstop for vital spares to repair her broken headboard car, which had stopped the crew from reefing the mainsail without sending their bowman to the top of the 26-meter mast since the first week.
Shore manager BJ Grimholt chartered 55-foot ketch (double masted yacht) and rendezvoused with djuice a mile offshore from Noronha. In under a minute, the transfer of equipment was complete and djuice was on her way.
Meanwhile, out on the racetrack, leader illbruck was less than 500 miles to the next waypoint of Ilha Trindade.
After three weeks at sea and having left with scarcely more than the clothes they stood in and either shoes or boots, hygiene started to become an issue on some yachts. “With only three shirts and three boxers, one has to choose these moments [to change clothes] carefully to make sure that your last shirt has some life left in it at the end,” explained illbruck’s Richard Clarke.
After a salt water wash in the strong headwinds of the first week, a very humid drying period during ten days in the tropics, including several days of thorough use after dozens of sail changes, plus a few equator crossing antics, clothes and bodies started to smell none too pleasant.
“After turning the first corner of this leg, most of us peeled to a fresh shirt and even a few of us went further and donned new boxers [underwear shorts]. This was my last shirt so I am hoping for a quick last portion of this race or the South African authorities might quarantine me due to toxic fumes,” added Clarke. His thoughts were echoed by ASSA ABLOY’s Richard Mason, although Roy Heiner’s crew made further cut backs with no razors in the inventory. “Clean underwear is also becoming a highly cherished item. We are also becoming incredibly hairy as we are yet to locate a razor on board,” said Mason.
The first meal in Cape Town was fast becoming a hot topic of discussion in the rare moment the crews were awake and not focused on deck. “Top of the heap it seems is the barbeque on the dock with fresh hamburgers sizzling away. Also up there is the ever popular pizzas and, of course, some icy cold beers to wash it all down,” reflected illbruck watch leader Stu Bannatyne on the welcome feast the illbruck team are hoping for in South Africa.
Two hundred miles to the waypoint of Trinidade, illbruck held a healthy lead of 31 miles over ASSA ABLOY.
But, even the collective talents of Ian Moore and Juan Vila (navigators on illbruck) who have outsmarted the opposition and weather patterns on more than one occasion since the start, were sure to be wiping their brows over the upcoming decisions.
Once out of the relatively steady sailing of the south east trade wind belt, the fleet had to decide how to negotiate the South Atlantic High that literally dominates the crossing from Ilha Trindade to South Africa. Every skipper had acknowledged it could well decide the outcome of this leg.
Passing directly through any high pressure zone was ordinarily not an option, as the centre of a high is a windless parking lot, but, just to complicate matters, this particular system has parted and a small low pressure system (wind) has started to form in the middle of the two windless zones.
While a number of navigators, such as Roger Nilson (on his sixth lap of the planet), will draw on experience and instinct, the decision makers have a mass of information at their disposal.
Each day, Volvo Ocean Race Headquarters in England make digital weather files available for download by satellite, while live Internet access from the yachts to 80 permitted websites has become a rich source of weather information.
This dilemma was the hot topic of debate for next days. “A lot will happen in the next 24 to 48 hrs, so don’t go away,” added Team News Corp skipper Jez Fanstone.
Meanwhile Team SEB broke a second headboard car, causing them to lose more miles on the leaders.
Having rounded the final waypoint of Ilha Trindade, Amer Sports One took over the lead with a one-mile advantage from illbruck. Six hours later, that lead had stretched to seven miles.
After 23 days of being tucked away in the top five, Grant Dalton saved his bid for glory on the opening leg of the Volvo Ocean Race for the final ten days across the south Atlantic to Cape Town.
Dalton was the underdog of the fleet before the start. His Amer Sports One yacht, designed by Mani Frers and not the popular Farr Yacht Design (who have drawn his last three Whitbread yachts), was one of the last to be built. This gave the Nautor Challenge team one of the shortest work up periods of the eight-boat fleet. Before the start in Southampton, Dalton said he viewed this first leg as a learning curve with another eight legs to mount his assault on the Volvo Ocean Race overall title before the finish in Kiel. Understandably he was chuffed by his leap on the fleet. “We are leading which believe me is as big a surprise to me as I am sure it is to the other competitors,” he said.
Dalton was almost at a loss himself to explain his personal breeze that catapulted him into the lead. Waxing lyrical, he said: “In a situation like we find ourselves in now, a number of superlatives come to mind - luck has a habit of evening itself out, the lord giveth and the lord taketh away, and a couple of others as well - fortune favours the brave”.
But, there was reason behind their tactical decisions, explaining: “The basis of this strategy is that Roger [Nilson] and I have been burnt many times by boats getting south of us, picking up breeze and disappearing. In fact it happened to us on Merit Cup with EF [Language] in exactly the same place 4 years ago [in the 1997-1998 Whitbread race]. So we came round Trindade headed south, no questions, no discussion – not making that mistake again”.
As the yachts reeled off the miles and ticked off the days to Cape Town, the number of overtaking opportunities will start to decrease. Therefore the pressure on the teams behind will start to build.
At the same time, ASSA ABLOY , the only yacht that opted for a northerly route was heading east in the hope of finding better pressure. Their local breeze allowed them to advance only 84 miles in a day. “Dear Friends and fans, I must apologize for ASSA ABLOY’s misfortune the last 24 hrs,” reflected an unhappy Mark Rudiger, navigator onboard ASSA.
Perhaps rubbing salt into the wounds, Amer Sports One skipper Grant Dalton noted: “Mark [Rudiger] and Roy [Heiner] must be under enormous pressure right now. I've been there. It is absolutely soul destroying, and then there is the crew looking at you and you can tell what they are thinking 'So how are you going to get us out of this mess big guy?' And then there is the sponsor who you just know is watching”.
As the leg takes progressively longer, rationing has started again in earnest, although some have adapted to it better than others. “Already we have a prowler, someone who keeps talking to himself, and lately Cheese's [Dirk de Ridder] fascination with food has turned from an obsession to more of a disorder,” explained illbruck’s Jamie Gale.