24 JANUARY 2006
Abschlußbericht Leg 2 - Letzte Yacht AUS 1 angekommen
It’s a win for ABN AMRO ONE, the third in a row: leg one Vigo to Cape Town, the in-port race in Cape Town, and now leg two to Melbourne. But is hasn’t been plain sailing. Leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race has been full of trials and tribulations and has shaped up to be everything it was expected to be, and more.
Day 14, 15 January was not a good start to the week. ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) had his worse fears realised as ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) stormed up behind him and stole his lead. Movistar (Bouwe Bekking) had more trouble with her keel ram, but the crew made a satisfactory repair and brought the boat up to speed, hanging on to their third place in spite of the overnight breakage. The leading three had made the crucial turn to the north east and were 320 nm from the second scoring gate set at Eclipse Island, 1.5 miles off the coast of Albany on the south western tip of Australia.
The following day Sanderson crept past ABN AMRO TWO and rounded the scoring gate in first place, followed just over an hour later by their team mates. Bekking pulled movistar into Albany to pick up crucial spares to bolster the temporary repair to the keel rams, confident that the 67 mile buffer he had pulled out between movistar and the pirates on the Black Pearl would give him adequate time.
Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) meanwhile, had an encounter with a shark which became caught on the rudder while the boat was sailing at 20 – 25 knots. The Aussie battlers, as they have become known, sailing ING Real Estate Brunel were still three days away from Eclipse Island and Brasil 1 (Torben Grael), now back at sea after returning to South Africa to make a repair, was 2073 miles behind ABN AMRO ONE and had sailed into a light patch of breeze.
After more than two weeks in the southern ocean, the leading pack of four rounded Eclipse Island to be faced with more than a 1000 miles of upwind sailing to the finish. Not what was ordered by the crews from the weather Gods. “It feels like we are on the final straight now. We merely have to straddle just over 1,000 miles of Australian Bight,” wrote Simon Fisher, the navigator on ABN AMRO TWO. “It doesn’t matter how much we try and trivialize it, it is probably going to be a few of the hardest days in this leg.”
He wasn’t wrong. What followed was a crashing upwind sail in a nasty choppy sea and it felt to the crews that Melbourne was a lifetime away still. On day 16, January 17, Pirates of the Caribbean suspended racing and headed into Albany to investigate more problems with their keel ram.
At the tail end of the fleet both ING Real Estate and Brasil 1 were enjoying good boat speed. On Brasil 1 the crew was in a particularly happy, cheerful mood, enjoying sailing their newly repaired boat and crossing the half way stage. “I have been assured by Marcel van Trieste (the Dutch navigator) that the future is currently in the past,” said Andy Meiklejohn proving that he hadn’t left his sense of humour in South Africa.
But it was short-lived as disaster struck the Brazilians on day 17, when they were dismasted 1300 miles from Albany. A dismasting is not uncommon in this race, but this was a particular disappointment for the Brazilians who were determined to sail their boat around the world.
At the time of the dismasting, Brasil 1 was sailing down wind in about 18 knots of breeze under clear, sunny skies. The mast broke into three pieces, but none of the crew was hurt and they were able to salvage all the pieces and all the sails. The crew made a jury rig out of what was left of the mast and continued sailing, but it soon became clear that they would not reach Melbourne in time to restart the next leg and a decision would have to be made.
Meanwhile, back on the race track, Pirates of the Caribbean resumed racing and ahead of her was movistar, which although still having problems with the keel rams, showed no signs of slowing down and seemed un-catchable.
The crews continued to use every ounce of what little energy they had left to push their boats towards the finish in Melbourne. ING Real Estate Brunel was still struggling to reach Eclipse Island and Brasil 1 tried to hurry north to get out of the way of a depression which was intensifying to the south southwest of them.
On day 18, 19 January, ABN AMRO TWO, still in second position, had an electrical fire onboard. “Seb (Sebastien Josse) raised the alarm immediately and Nick Bice and I ran downstairs only to find a smoke-filled boat. Instantly suspecting a charging fault, we began pulling the covers off the generator, only to discover that the smoke was still coming and that it was behind us. Something had shorted out and the nav station was melting down,” described navigator Simon Fisher.
“We quickly found the offending wires – the ones with smoke pouring from them, so not too tricky, and cut them away. However, with everything switched off, there was still a lot of electricity flying around and everything I seemed to touch was live,” he added casually.
While half the crew put out the fire and then got the electronics up and running again, the rest of the crew sailed the boat, steering off the regular compass. “We had to get the computer to talk to the instruments so that I could find out where we were,” explained Fisher.
While the crew of ABN AMRO TWO was fire fighting, ING Real Estate Brunel passed through the scoring gate at Albany and Mike Sanderson, on ABN AMRO ONE, was looking over his shoulder as he sailed into less breeze, worried that the lead he had built up over the last two weeks could easily evaporate. His nearest rivals were the young guns on the second Dutch boat, and although he had a lead of 54 miles, this was not a big margin if the wind died completely. “It’s all about keeping a cool head and not doing any strange things,” wrote Bouwe Bekking wisely as he continued to put pressure on ABN AMRO TWO whilst maintaining his buffer between movistar and the Black Pearl.
Patience began to wear thin on day 19, January 20. How long now? They all asked, and even the navigators had a hard time answering this question. The forecasts indicated strong winds in the finish area, but for now there was barely a puff and the leaders were all but becalmed.
Two thousand miles behind the raging battle for supremacy, a decision had been made on the crippled Brasil 1. To the huge disappointment of the crew, she would officially retire from this leg of the race and a rendezvous with a fishing boat had been arranged by the shore crew. The vessel would hand over 600 litres of diesel to the crew and then escort them to Fremantle, Western Australia. Brasil 1 would then be trucked to Melbourne and her spare mast flown there from London.
Finally, after 18 days, 22 hours, 8 minutes and 40 seconds at sea, Mike Sanderson and his exhausted crew made it a hat trick by winning three stages of the Volvo Ocean Race in a row, with team mates on ABN AMRO TWO finishing in second place four hours behind.
“The guys have done an amazing job and I am so happy for the whole team. To have an ABN AMRO first and second is huge. I am over the moon. We have worked bloody hard for this and we are all just stoked,” said an ecstatic but clearly relieved Mike Sanderson.
Movistar made it to the podium in third position twelve hours later and Pirates of the Caribbean tore into Melbourne in 30 knots of breeze to claim fourth place in the leg on 23 January.
The last boat to finish was ING Real Estate Brunel with a crew who, against all odds, had managed to find funding and sail their boat home to Melbourne where it was designed and built, to the huge welcome from the their many supporters and friends.
As Australian skipper, Grant Wharington stepped ashore he announced that sponsorship from Dutch company Brunel had been agreed and that the team could continue in the race.
LEADERBOARD
LEG FINISH POSITION
YACHT
SGPTS
LPTS
TLPTS
RPTD
FINISH TIME
ELAPSED
TIME
OVERALL
POSITION
1
ABN1
7
7.0
14.0
29.0
21/01/06 09:08:40
18d 22h 08m 40s
1
2
ABN2
6
6.0
12.0
24.0
21/01/06 13:20:23
19d 02h
20m 23s
2
3
MOVI
4.5
5.0
9.5
15.5
22/01/06 01:50:57
19d 14h
50m 57s
3
4
POTC
4.5
4.0
8.5
13.5
23/01/06 12:24:40
021d 01h 24m 40s
5
5
AUS1
3
3.0
6.0
11.0
23/01/06 21:42:44
021d 10h 42m 44s
7
6
BRA1
1
2
1
14.5
-
4
7
ERIC
-
-
1
12.5
-
6
ABN1 ABN AMRO ONE
ABN2 ABN AMRO TWO
AUS1 ING Real Estate Brunel
BRA1 Brasil 1
ERIC Ericsson Racing Team
MOVI movistar
POTC Pirates of the Caribbean
SGPTS: points scored at scoring gates on leg 2
LPTS: leg points
TLPTS: total leg points including actual points from scoring gates
RPTD overall points
Lizzie Green Press Officer at race headquarters:
Tel: +44 1489 554 832, Mob: +44 7801 185 320
Email: lizzie.green@volvooceanrace.org
Sophie Luther Press Assistant at race headquarters
Mob: +44 7956 285548 email: sophie.luther@volvooceanrace.org
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Images
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Email: patrick.anderson@volvooceanrace.org
The Volvo Ocean Race
- The Volvo Ocean Race is a round the world yacht race featuring nine offshore legs, over 31,250 nautical miles. The 2005-06 features an inshore race at each of the main stopover ports.
- Four teams from the last race measured the media value of their exposure. The results showed an average of US$50 million, which equates to a 200-300% return on their sponsorship investment.
- The Volvo Ocean Race 2001-02 achieved a cumulative audience of over 800 million viewers ranking it among the top international sporting events.
- Further information can be found at www.volvooceanrace.org .
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