02.03.2006
Life at the extreme
Life at the extreme is definitely the most apt description of what has happened today for the Volvo Ocean Race fleet. At 0315 GMT this morning, Movistar (Bouwe Bekking) reported that they were taking on large amounts of water but, luckily, they have been able to manage the situation and the boat and the crew are now safe. As movistar’s contingency plans are moving into action, the other boats are passing Cape Horn and will start sailing north towards Rio de Janeiro.
Bouwe Bekking said in a radio interview at 0900 GMT today he and the crew were fine but devastated as they were predicting to get through the scoring gate at Cape Horn in second place, potentially picking up three points. As it stands they will be the last yacht through only receiving one point before heading into Ushuaïa, Argentina.
Bouwe explained exactly what happened, “We were sailing in 30 to 35 knots of breeze just with a jib top, small stay sail and one reef in the main. And then all of a sudden there were shouts from below, “We have a huge amount of water coming in” and everyone was up. The rate of incoming flow was so fast, in a couple of minutes the generator box was already under water, all the water tight hatches were closed and the levels were just rising and rising. We had to get the sails down quickly because the water was coming in so fast through the wetbox which keeps the canting keel system separated from the boat.
“So once the sails were down the other problem was we didn’t have any electricity. So Chris (Nicholson) dove down under water to connect the water pumps to the batteries and once that was done then, actually very quickly, the levels went down and a couple of thousand litres was out of the boat. We still have a lot of water inside but we are okay.
“With the amount of water we had, we all thought that we were going down. It was not very pretty inside. Spike (Peter Doriean) is sitting next to me and shaking his head. We had all the safety gear on deck. Basically ready to abandon ship because although you never should abandon ship unless you have to, you must be prepared for it.
“As soon as the water started to come in, Capey (Andrew Cape) sent a radio message and I went on deck just for a short period to drop the sails and when I came back down and saw how much water we had, I asked Race HQ if other boats could assist us. Because it was such a rate I really thought it was going to end up very badly and because some boats are behind us and they could have sailed past us and picked us up. But once the levels were down I said to race headquarters they could continue racing and that we didn’t need assistance. Which is a nice thing because otherwise we could have been sitting their in a liferaft.”
“They (the crew) is disappointed as we thought we may go round the Horn in second place and we would have gained some very valuable points. We feel that in every leg we have had issues, yet we know we have been sailing well.
“We are making a stop in Ushuaïa and we will have to make a huge reinforcement on the water tight compartment there and probably most likely to carry on from there to Rio.”
Ushuaïa is the capital of Argentina's province of Tierra del Fuego and is widely considered to be southernmost city in the world, populated by 50,000. It is also famous for being a haven for yachts broken on the treacherous seas around the Horn. In the 2001-02 Volvo Ocean Race SEB (Gunnar Krantz) was dismasted on leg four and limped into Ushuaia under jury rig. Before that, in the 1997-98 Whitbread Race, two yachts limped into the safe haven. First Silk Cut (Lawrie Smith) with a broken mast motored in, then followed by EF Education (Christine Guillou) the ladies yacht, who lost the top of her rig, already on their way into Ushuaïa to fix a problematic spreader.
Movistar has approximately 269 nautical miles to Ushuaïa, at the yacht’s current speed their arrival could be as early as 0100 GMT Saturday morning. The shore team have been in constant contact with them and are making plans for the repair. More news on the situation will surely follow in the next hours.
Back on the race track, the front of the fleet is celebrating despite the drama of the past hours. ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) was the first to round Cape Horn at 1238 GMT, which is also the only scoring gate of leg four, picking up three and a half points. The relief of the Kiwi sailor was immense, “It’s been a tough couple of days. Pretty stressful. Over 30 knots of breeze these boats are a handful. If you are doing speeds of over 35 knots in the pitch black with short little sharp waves with three boats within 30 miles of each other and two within half a mile, which they were at one stage, it’s just no fun, because of the level you have to push to try and hang onto your position. I’m relieved to turn the corner and be a little closer to land.
“Coming into Cape Horn it’s been amazing to have the six boats pushing so hard and before the sked that we heard about movistar having an issue, I was expecting to see something go wrong. Whether you were in a Volvo 60 or in the Rolex Transatlantic Race, in those conditions with six boats, odds on someone will have a problem. Now you never wish it was as bad as what movistar had. But you are expecting someone to wipe out or someone to lose a chunk of miles.”
The Black Pearl (Paul Cayard) was the second yacht to pass the famous Cape Horn, the most southerly of the great capes, which marks the northern boundary of the Drake’s Passage. The passage is the strait between South America and Antarctica. The lost souls skippered by Paul Cayard passed through at 1440GMT picking up three points giving them a total 24.5 points. The next yacht to pass through the scoring gate will be Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) which is only 53 nautical miles away. They will be followed by ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) and Ericsson Racing Team (Neal McDonald) who have 13.5 miles separating them and around 130 miles to go. The results of this battle will be known by 2200 GMT tonight, keeping us riveted to our seats for a few more hours.
LEG FOUR DAY 12, 02.03.06, 1600 GMT POSITION REPORT
YACHT
Latitude
Longitude
DTF
SMG
24 Hour Run
24 Hour Speed
DTL
DTLC
SGPTS
PLPTS
PTLPTS
POP
POSITION OVERALL
1
ABN1
55 29.49S
065 46.05W
02203
21.2
515
21.5
00000
+00000
3.5
7.0
10.5
49.0
1
2
POTC
55 52.93S
066 36.39W
02240
20.0
522
21.7
00037
-00009
3
6.0
9.0
30.5
3
3
BRA1
56 09.88S
068 39.36W
02309
21.0
508
21.2
00106
-00001
0
5.0
5.0
25.0
5
4
ABN2
56 43.27S
070 39.40W
02383
21.1
504
21.0
00180
-00002
0
4.0
4.0
32.0
2
5
ERIC
56 52.00S
070 59.57W
02396
21.3
495
20.6
00193
-00001
0
3.0
3.0
19.5
6
6
MOVI
56 24.67S
071 13.89W
02396
09.2
365
15.2
00193
-00073
0
2.0
2.0
27.0
4
ABN1 ABN AMRO ONE
ABN2 ABN AMRO TWO
BRA1 Brasil 1
ERIC Ericsson Racing Team
MOVI movistar
POTC Pirates of the Caribbean
DTF: distance to finish, SMG: Speed made good, DTL: distance to leader,
DTLC: distance to leader change; the difference between the distance from the boat to the leader taken at the time of the last six hour poll, and the distance from the boat to the leader at the previous poll
SGPTS: points scored at scoring gates on this leg to date
PLPTS: projected leg points
PTLPTS: projected total leg points including actual points from scoring gates
POP: projected overall points including actual points from scoring gates
OVERALL: projected position in race overall if yacht maintains current position
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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