03.06.2006
Ericsson struts her stuff
After hugging the shore to avoid foul tide for much of the 23 hours since leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race began in Portsmouth, the whole fleet is now approaching The Lizard and Ericsson (Neal McDonald), the leading boat, has just 13 miles to go. This is not a scoring gate on this leg, so no points to be gained by arriving here first, but psychologically, this will be good for McDonald and his crew.
The first 24 hours of this race has seen some reshuffling of the fleet, and almost every boat has had their moment in the sun, but, for the third ‘sked’ in a row, McDonald has been at the top and now Ericsson Racing Team has a nice lead of 11 miles over Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) in second place.
“The troops who started this campaign probably didn’t imagine that they were building a boat to have success when it was light and weird,” writes Ericsson’s Ken Read. “Well, so far in this race, we are doing just that. Our speciality: Light and weird!”
In fact the whole of leg eight has been light and weird so far, according to Read. The fleet had a long beat to try and round Portland Bill before the tide turned, but there was no chance and it took almost two tides to get there. “We prepped the anchor all night, but didn’t have to use it, and in the morning, the entire six boat group was all within sight,” said Read.
Then came some light air reaching and Ericsson found a chance to strut her stuff. The breeze nearly shut off around mid-morning but then a sea breeze filled in from southwest as predicted and Ericsson got away from the group.
“There will be light air and very tricky sailing for a couple more days at least,” explains Read. “You need a bit of skill to get around these tricky parts, but you also need a ton of luck. Our pulling away this morning had a bit of both for sure, but we will take it,” he adds.
Light air sailing is difficult and the crews have to concentrate for every second to get the best performance from their boats. Steering the boat requires the most concentration, and the crews are constantly stacking the boat one way or another to get some heel on to improve performance. The sea is glassy calm but this is no time to relax. Onboard ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse), much of the day has been spent looking through binoculars, trying to find that extra puff of wind or trying to get a jump on their rivals. “What have seemed like hours between sail changes have only been minutes so far in the race,” exclaims navigator Simon Fisher. “With the wind constantly changing and the fleet reshuffling so rapidly, you are easily tricked into thinking hours have passed you by,” he says.
The pirates on The Black Pearl have had a frustrating time so far. They have forgotten to take with them their endoscope, the device that allows the crew to see if the rudder and keel are free of weed or other debris which can wrap itself around the foils and slow the boat down. The team was forced to execute two back downs and then put crew man Anthony Merrington into the water to make doubly sure that nothing was slowing the boat down.
But for those crew members who have battled their way around the globe in howling winds and gales, perhaps the chance to sleep a little better and even a moment to enjoy the change of pace will be welcome. “Heck”, says Ken Read, “we’ve even seen the sun and stars. A small miracle at least for my 4,000 portion of this race.”
LEG EIGHT DAY 02 1600 GMT POSITION REPORT
Leg Standing
Yacht
Latitude
Longitude
Distance To Finish
Speed Made Good
Distance To Leader
Distance To Leader Change
Projected Leg Points
Estimated Time of Arrival
Projected Race Points
Projected Overall Standings
1
ERIC
50 03.66N
004 55.24W
01327
06.8
00000
+00000
7.0
09/06/06 __:__:__
52.0
5
2
BRA1
50 13.96N
004 45.68W
01338
07.1
00011
-00004
6.0
09/06/06 __:__:__
58.0
3
3
POTC
50 15.36N
004 44.43W
01340
07.0
00013
-00006
5.0
09/06/06 __:__:__
64.5
2
4
ABN2
50 14.42N
004 42.36W
01340
06.6
00013
-00008
4.0
09/06/06 __:__:__
52.5
4
5
ABN1
50 15.04N
004 38.92W
01342
06.4
00015
-00008
3.0
09/06/06 __:__:__
87.5
1
6
AUS1
50 16.32N
004 38.33W
01343
06.5
00016
-00009
2.0
09/06/06 __:__:__
10.0
7
ABN1 ABN AMRO ONE
ABN2 ABN AMRO TWO
BRA1 Brasil 1
AUS1 Brunel
ERIC Ericsson Racing Team
POTC Pirates of the Caribbean
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
Lizzie GreenPress Officer at race headquarters:
Tel: +44 1489 554 832, Mob: +44 7801 185 320
Email: lizzie.green@volvooceanrace.org mailto:lizzie.green@volvooceanrace.org
Sophie Luther Press Assistant at race headquarters
Mob: +44 7956 285548 email: sophie.luther@volvooceanrace.org
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