Wochenbericht - 1
Southampton, England, Week 1, Leg 7
Records And Masts Break
At the start gun, fired at April 28 1300 hours local time , the fleet beat
towards the Bay Bridge, just a quarter of a mile to windward, with very
little visibility. Amer Sports One made an impressive start, gaining
clean air quickly, whilst the rest of the fleet jostled for position.
The half-mile corridor was flanked by enthusiastic spectator boats, which
were kept back from the course by patrol boats. With 14 knots of south
southwesterly breeze over a flooding tide, the sea surface remained
relatively calm until the fleet broke free of the corridor and the
hundreds of spectator boats started to churn up the water.
Amer Sports One and SEB continued to fight it out until Grant Dalton’s
Amer Sports One, keeping up a blistering pace, emerged at the head of the
fleet at the gate, followed by SEB, News Corp and djuice, all very close
together just 35 seconds behind Amer Sport One. Assa Abloy was next
through, 55 seconds after Amer Sports One followed by Tyco – one minute,
illbruck – one minute 45 seconds and Amer Sports Too – three minutes after
the leader.
The sailing instructions for this last trans-ocean leg in the Volvo Ocean
Race have added an exclusion zone to keep the yachts out of the ice that
is swept south by the Labrador Current. Large icebergs are drifting as far
south as 40N.
That’s as far south as Spain or Italy. It was about this latitude where
Titanic hit an iceberg, exactly 90 years ago in an average ice year. The
introduction of the ‘ice-box’ was made after the dangerous incident in the
Southern Ocean, where News Corp hit a growler that eventually cost her the
rudder on leg four after passing Cape Horn.
Although each year brings slightly different steering currents, there is a
general region that can be counted on for berg congestion. The
International Ice Patrol has identified an ‘iceberg alley’ about 250 miles
east and southeast of Newfoundland. Flowing southward from Flemish Pass,
the Labrador Current helps concentrate icebergs in the area. The area
called Iceberg Alley is located about 250 miles east and southeast of the
island of Newfoundland, Canada. Iceberg Alley is usually considered to be
that portion of the Labrador Current, that flows southward from Flemish
Pass, along the eastern edge of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, to the
tail of the Banks.
The transition zone from the warm Gulf Stream to the cold waters of the
Labrador Current is known as the Cold Wall and it has a reputation for
being an area of extremely volatile weather. The east end of the Cold Wall
presents the greatest hydrodynamic contrasts in the world, the water
changing from the olive or bottle green of the Arctic side to the indigo
blue of the Gulf Stream, with temperature changes of 11 degree Celsius or
more over short distances.
In a cruel twist, nature created yet another hazard that exacerbates the
problem - fog. The cool waters near the Grand Banks are a breeding ground
for dangerously thick fog, making the chore of spotting ice all the
harder.
For the Volvo Ocean Race organisers, crew safety is paramount, and the
decision to avoid ice was probably easy.
After leaving the Chesapeake Bay the yachts fanned out in search for the
quickest way into the favourable Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream gives the
yachts an extra boost toward Europe. The navigators obviously had
different views on how to get into the current as quick as possible. While
ASSA ABLOY, illbruck, Tyco, News Corp and SEB go straight east; staying
closest to the direct course, djuice and Amer Sports One chose to stay to
the south but within ten miles of the others tracks. Amer Sports Too has
sacrificed eight miles over the last six-hour period to sail away from the
coast a right angles.
On April 30 all the yachts reached the Gulf Stream. Steve Hayles,
navigator on Tyco was the first one to report on what the crews call their
flying carpet.
"We stayed relatively close and the majority of the boats are in sight at
present as we enjoy very fast spinnaker reaching conditions and the main
flow of the Gulf Stream, which the leading pack reached about an hour ago,
boosts our speed. As I sit here the speed over the ground on the GPS is
regularly reading over 20 knots.”
The transport of the Florida Current is approximately 30 Sverdrups (Sv).
One Sverdrup is one million cubic meters of water per second! The
transport of the Gulf Stream increases to 85 Sv near Cape Hatteras, peaks
at 150 Sv near 65°W, then decreases eastward of 65°W.
The Gulf Stream is probably one of the most researched oceanographic
features on the planet. It has a great influence on the climate of Western
Europe and the weather of North and Middle Europe. Dr. Simon Boxall from
the Southampton Oceanographic Centre and scientific head of the Volvo
Ocean Adventure is therefore concerned about the effects pollution and
global warming could have on the “central heating” of Europe: “In a worst
case scenario, we looked at a diversion of the Gulf Stream. This could
mean Labrador conditions for large parts of Europe inspite of global
warming.” To collect more information on the Oceans, all the yachts
sailing in the Volvo Ocean Race are fitted out with sensors that collect
various scientific data to be analysed by Boxall’s team.
The vagaries of the Gulf Stream are putting extra pressure on the
navigators as Knut Frostad, skipper on djuice wrote: “A few hours ago we
finally touched the Gulf Stream, sending us northeast with about three
knots. It’s pretty hard to predict the exact movements of the stream as
the information we can get is not updated more often than once every five
days, and right now all the boats are trying to hit the corner where it
changes direction from going north east to going straight east. At the
same time you want to have a favourable wind direction and make sure you
do not get lifted out of the stream as well. Lot’s of variables, and some
very exiting days for the navigators.”
Screaming downwind sailing is the call of three onwards. With a top speed
of 29.9 knots recorded by leg and race leader illbruck, the eight yachts
in the Volvo Ocean Race were flying toward Europe. Even though the pace
was the same as in the Southern Ocean, the sailing was much more
comfortable. The Gulf Stream acted like a huge central heating system,
keeping the temperature in the boats above 20 degrees Celsius.
At April 30, 1534 GMT it looked as though illbruck had broken the 24 Hour
Monohull World Record by covering a huge 473 nautical miles, just a few
hours later the crew has pushed even harder and, subject to confirmation
and ratification by the International Sailing Federation, she has achieved
a staggering 484 nautical miles. This was achieved between 2002 GMT on 29
April and the same time today, 30 April 2002. As focused as ever,
skipper John Kostecki, said: “It feels great going fast and we also had
the benefit of the Gulf Stream pushing us, so it is great to get the
record.
We have about 25 to 30 knots of wind and we have our masthead spinnaker up
and probably for the last eight or nine hours we had our smaller reaching
spinnaker up. So it is the combination of two or three sails that broke
the record for us. We kept the watch system the same, we are trying to win
this leg of the Volvo Ocean Race and it just happens that we are going
fast enough to break the world record.
The atmosphere was extremely happy when we heard that we have broken the
record. But we were soon back to business and really racing hard.”
For several 10-minute periods illbruck has averaged 27 knots of boat
speed. Deducting the three-knot push of the Gulf Stream still leaves 24
knots through the water. Impressive by any means. The previous record was
held by Bernard Stamm on the Open 60 Armor Lux (467.70 nautical miles,
19.49 knots average speed) since January 2001, sailed in the Gulf Stream
as well. EDS has sponsored a trophy for the record.
Whilst leading the fleet, illbruck has managed to hold onto a lead of 14
nautical miles ahead of the second placed yacht, ASSA ABLOY. ASSA ABLOY
has managed to pull slightly ahead of Tyco into second place.
illbruck was not the only V.O.60 yacht to have broken the both the class
and world records, again subject to confirmation and ratification, it
looks very likely that Tyco has achieved a 24 hour run of 474 miles, ASSA
ABLOY 471 miles and SEB just squeezing in at 468 miles.
With the wind easing, yachts behind lost some miles on illbruck, while
southernmost boats SEB and News Corp made the biggest gains. Djuice was
troubled by sail damage and their onboard sailmakers were working hard to
get a blown out Code 5 spinnaker put together.
On May 1nd, disaster struck Lisa McDonald’s Amer Sports Too when they were
dismasted at 1645 GMT - all crew were reported safe and no one was
injured. At the time the team was lying at 39 14.92N, 058 21.5W, 400 miles
south east of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
After considering all available options after the dismasting, skipper Lisa
McDonald decided to turn towards Halifax / Nova Scotia and retire from
this leg.
The mast broke at the second set of spreaders while they were sailing in
around 14 knots of wind from the southwest. “There was a loud bang and the
mast came down,” commented McDonald in an email from the stricken boat.
“We don't know why it broke. Once we have sorted ourselves out and got
underway again we will take a very close look.” She said they were not
going through any sort of manoeuvre at the time, so it seems fair to guess
that it was indeed a problem with the hardware rather than the crew work.
“I can’t really say at this stage. Until we can get it down would be
unfair to say, but I believe to be a technical failure,” Lisa continued.
The crew has cut away the broken topmast and rather than throw it
overboard have managed to lash it securely to the deck. They stabilised
the remains of the 26-metre mast and will have re-cut some of their
existing sails to fit the new reduced sail plan. “There's enough mast left
to set up a reasonably effective jury rig," wrote McDonald.
Lisa McDonald spoke to the Volvo Ocean Race HQ via radio link-up: “We’re
all gutted, everyone wants to do well, and we had high expectations for
this leg.” Prior experience doesn’t make these situations any easier to
cope with emotionally, but at least the team was able to set to and deal
with the carnage quickly and effectively.
With a spare rig in England, it shouldn’t be too difficult to get the
girls up and running in time for the restart from La Rochelle on 25 May,
certainly not compared with the epic trip that SEB’s spare rig had to
endure down to Rio de Janeiro. But it was not yet clear to McDonald as to
whether it would be feasible quite yet. “We’re all quite happy we’re not a
thousand miles away from the nearest land [as could have been the case in
the Southern Ocean], and it would be nice to think we can get over there
[to La Rochelle] in time for the next leg.” But they have yet to locate a
suitable cargo ship that happens to be heading in the right direction. “I
don’t know about that, that’s not my department.”
On the evening of May 4, SEB decided to break away from the fleet on a
more southerly route. Checking the great circle routes from the point
where the routes parted reveal, that SEB stays on the great circle route,
while the main pack goes northeast.
ASSA ABLOY’s, Tyco’s and News Corp’s navigators have been discussing this
option in their emails as cutting the corners of the Azores high and were
curious, whether anybody will dare to go this way. SEB had to accept
setbacks on this route, losing more miles then anybody else due to less
boat speed. Marcel von Triest, SEB’s navigator must have been certain that
these losses could be outweighed at a later stage when the weather will
get lighter. The danger with this approach is becoming trapped under the
Azores high-pressure system.
The main pack of the fleet with illbruck leading in front of ASSA ABLOY
and Tyco chose to stay closer to the low-pressure system that is on the
way to Iceland. The timing of SEB’s move was interesting; by changing
course soon after the position report without the rest of the fleet
knowing about the move to gain an advantage. Did the rest of the fleet
react to this move, or were they going to flatten out their courses this
morning anyway? Probably a bit of both, but with SEB out of the running
for overall glory the leg position makes little difference in the overall
results. They are racing for leg prizes so a flyer is worth the risk.
A dramatic incident occurred on board SEB, when the whole yacht was
submerged as the yacht shot through a wave. Crewman Glen Kessels was
washed off the winch pedestal, only to be caught by the steering wheel.
Not really designed for this purpose, the wheel gave way and broke. Gurra
Krantz’ email gives a lively account about the situation on board: “A bit
hairy when the gusts are coming in at 43 knots. We had one sensational
wave when we buried the whole boat and Glen Kessels got washed off the
grinding pedestal. The result of this is that we have only half the
steering wheel on the port side. Glen’s body knocked the other half off
when cockpit surfing towards the stern. Luckily just a few bruises and
very wet was the price for that ride. The steering wheel looks like one of
these airplane steering wheels that is only half a circle.”
Background Stories:
Volvo Ocean Race Position Report, Day 8, 1554 GMT
PS Yacht Latitude Longitude DTF CMG SMG TFHR DTL DTL-C ETA PO
1 ILBK 47 50.80N 025 48.88W 1007 95 14.6 407 0 0 09/05/02 00:23 49
2 TYCO 47 55.00N 026 20.20W 1027 84 14.9 426 20 -4 09/05/02 02:05 34
3 AART 48 03.68N 026 24.52W 1030 86 14.7 420 23 -3 09/05/02 02:16 40
4 TSEB 46 03.96N 026 57.96W 1065 79 13.3 401 58 +6 09/05/02 05:07 26
5 NEWS 47 53.68N 027 18.88W 1067 79 15 429 60 -3 09/05/02 05:13 35
6 AONE 47 54.56N 027 37.44W 1079 74 14.4 426 72 +3 09/05/02 06:03 35
7 DJCE 47 25.88N 027 42.32W 1085 77 13.7 420 78 +4 09/05/02 06:40 23
8 ATOO 44 38.96N 063 34.24W 4512 0 0 152 3505 +85 No Data 10
PS – Position; DTF – Distance to Finish; CMG – Course made good; SMG –
Speed made good; TFHR – 24 hours run; DTL – Distance to leader; DTL-C –
Distance to leader change; ETA – Estimated time of arrival; PO –
accumulated Points
ILBK illbruck Challenge
AONE Amer Sports One
ATOO Amer Sports Two
AART ASSA ABLOY Racing Team
NEWS News Corporation
TYCO Team Tyco
TSEB Team SEB
DJCE djuice dragons
Volvo and Volvo Ocean Race Background
The Volvo Car Corporation has its headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden.
27,400 people worldwide are employed by Volvo Cars and in the year 2001,
the company sold 420,500 cars.
Volvo is one of the world’s leading suppliers of commercial transport
solutions. The group manufactures trucks, buses, and construction
equipment, power systems for marine and industrial use, and aircraft
engine components. Founded in 1927, Volvo currently has about 79.000
employees, manufacturing operations in 30 countries and a worldwide market
and service organisation.
The Volvo Ocean Race is run every four years. It starts in Southampton on
September 23rd 2001 and finishes in Kiel, Germany, on June 9th 2002. Over
a period lasting some nine months, the Volvo Ocean Race will reach a broad
audience around the world via modern communication technology.
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