19.05.2006
Tragic week for ABN AMRO TWO
Week two has ended in tragedy for the young guns on ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse), when yesterday, day eight of leg seven, one of their crew was washed overboard.
ABN AMRO TWO was sailing in five metre seas and 30 knots of wind, about 1300 nautical miles from Land’s End, England, when Hans Horrevoets (32) from the Netherlands, was washed overboard in darkness at 0211 GMT. The crew immediately turned the boat around, took the sails down and mounted a search and rescue effort. In an amazing display of seamanship, they were able to locate Horrevoets and lift him back onboard. But, despite the efforts of the crew to resuscitate him under the direction of medical advisors from Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, UK, Horrevoets did not regain consciousness.
“We are all devastated by the events that took place this morning and all our thoughts are for Hans’ family,” said skipper Sebastien Josse who was at the helm of the boat at the time of the accident. “I would like to stress that, throughout the whole man overboard procedure, the crew handled themselves calmly, professionally and with the utmost maturity,” he added.
Volvo Ocean Race CEO, Glenn Bourke, said: “All of us at the Volvo Ocean Race are deeply saddened to learn of the loss of Hans Horrevoets. At this time our thoughts are with Hans’ family and friends, his fellow crew members and all the members of Team ABN AMRO.”
Earlier in the leg, which set out last week from New York to Portsmouth, day three, May 13, saw the fleet sailing upwind in 25 knots of wind towards Halifax and Sable Island off the notorious Grand Banks. It was a typically cold and foggy night, which this area is famous for. ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) was in the lead with only 12 nautical miles separating the first six yachts. Movistar (Bouwe Bekking) was still in last place, having taken a two hour penalty in New York in order to have her shore crew onboard to make repairs.
It was a relentless beat. ABN AMRO ONE and Ericsson (Neal McDonald) had chosen to head south-east on port tack, while the rest of the fleet were heading north-east on starboard. Black Betty, (ABN AMRO ONE) was now the boat positioned furthest to the north. Still the beat went on. “And on, and on and on” echoed Mike Sanderson, as the skippers faced boat-breaking conditions on their Atlantic crossing.
On day four, ABN AMRO ONE had three experiences which they were not keen to repeat in a hurry. They found themselves trapped in the north with a weather system changing, so they decided to leap from one end of the leaderboard to the other, cut their losses and head south. Next, Sanderson and the crew had that awful, sinking feeling you get on a canting keel boat as they realised they had lost all the oil out of the keel system and were losing cant. They battled to fix the problem, but had lost more precious miles. Not long after this incident, they hit a whale which stopped the boat dead and sheered off one of the dagger boards. The damage appeared to be limited to cracking on the inside of the dagger board casing and the crew sailed conservatively until they were sure that the structural integrity was there.
The crew were sure it was a whale they collided with, as they saw its tail slide down the side of the boat. It was dark and there was no way that the whale could see the boat coming, or for the crew to see whale in the path of Black Betty. Sanderson said that it appeared to swim away so, hopefully, a few aspirin later, it was fine.
Meanwhile, positions in the fleet were reshuffling as the fleet tacked back and forth and set up for a lane to take them around the high pressure system that was mounting over Newfoundland. Movistar was the furthest to the inside and about to play a very dangerous game, hoping to punch through the high pressure and lose miles, but then gain them back later with a strong northerly position. “If it works,” said Brunel’s navigator Will Oxley, “then they will smoke us all.”
The strategy debate continued into day five, May 15, as the fleet split in its decision as to how to cross the Atlantic the quickest. After taking the lost to go south, ABN AMRO ONE was back up at the top of the leaderboard with the rest of the fleet spread out to the north of them in a distance spanning 24 miles. Movistar continued to press north alone. By 1600 GMT, she was trapped by the high pressure ridge, and their only option was to try and sail over the top of it, while the rest of the fleet sailed quickly below it. Movistar was drifting at 4.9 knots, while ABN AMRO ONE was achieving 12.5.
Day six and the fleet began the sleigh ride they had been hoping for as the wind built and changed to a more westerly direction, but movistar had missed the train. Worst of all, there was another ridge building in their path. “I’m spending heaps of time with Capey (Andrew Cape – navigator) in the navstation and looking at all the options,” said skipper Bouwe Bekking. “We missed the train and need Concorde back on duty – with us onboard – if we want to catch up,” he said. The fleet was now 170 nautical miles west of the position that the Titantic struck an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912.
Life was looking rosy onboard Ericsson in second place – apart from the fact that the heater didn’t work and it was freezing cold onboard. “We’re in good shape and setting ourselves up for the rest of the leg,” McDonald said in a radio interview. “We are very pleased to be comfortably in second place. We have been improving all along and we have got to know the boat better.”
Onboard Brunel, Matt Humphries and the crew were finding that the modifications made to the boat in Australia had turned her into a very different beast and the crew was uncovering new ways to get a little more speed from her, minute by minute.
Day seven was another day of plain sailing. The crewmembers on the homeward stretch would even describe it as a ‘walk’, or perhaps a ‘jog’ in the park, but for rookie, Mark Rudiger, the newly joined navigator onboard Ericsson, the roller coaster downwind experience was a white knuckle ride. The Pirates blew out their big masthead spinnaker in a costly breakage as they put the pressure on Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) and 40 knots of wind was forecast. The crew on ABN AMRO TWO were waiting impatiently for the wind to increase and the fun to begin.
“Already, as the winds start to nudge over 20 knots, the waves are getting bigger, the speeds higher and all the gear downstairs is slowly making its way to the back of the boat in order to keep the bow up out of the water,” said navigator Simon Fisher. It all seemed to be working as ABN AMRO TWO gained six miles, averaging 18 knots. And then it all went horribly wrong.
Today, day nine, and it is still a somber state of affairs. The crews are sailing carefully, focusing on bringing their boats and their crews safely into Portsmouth in the teeth of a gale, while reflecting quietly on a day none of them will ever forget.
Lizzie Green Press Officer at race headquarters:
Tel: +44 1489 554 832, Mob: +44 7801 185 320
Email: lizzie.green@volvooceanrace.org
- Further information can be found at www.volvooceanrace.org .
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