Oceanracing 2001 - Volvo Ocean Race 2001/2002

Volvo Ocean Race 2001/2002

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Pressemitteilung der illbruck Challenge am 10. Tag der 1. Etappe des Volvo Ocean Race
Neun Seemeilen Vorsprung im Osten erkämpft
Die Leverkusener Hochseeyacht „illbruck“ hat am 10. Tag der ersten Etappe des Volvo Ocean Race wieder die Führung übernommen. Der taktische Schachzug von Skipper John Kostecki und seiner Crew, sich zunächst unter Verlust einiger Seemeilen von der Spitze nach Osten abzusetzen, ging voll auf. In der Nacht zum Mittwoch (3. Oktober) nutzte das illbruck Challenge-Team den dort erhofften besseren Wind und schob sich von Platz fünf vorbei nach vorn. Am Morgen betrug der Vorsprung schon neun Seemeilen vor der „Tyco“ (Bermuda) und der „Assa Abloy“ (Schweden), die sich weiter im Westen fast gleichauf immer noch einen erbitterten Zweikampf lieferten.
Nach fast 2.000 der insgesamt 7.350 Seemeilen von Southampton in England nach Kapstadt in Südafrika hofft die „illbruck“-Mannschaft nun, den Nordost-Passat als Erste zu erreichen, um schnell Richtung Brasilien voran zu kommen, wo die erste von zwei Wendemarken auf dem Kurs liegt. Die größte taktische Herausforderung, der Kalmengürtel mit oft flauen und drehenden Winden am Äquator, liegt allerdings noch vor ihr. „Wenn sie diesen mit einen guten Vorsprung erreicht, könnte sie nach der jetzigen Großwetterlage als Erste in den Südost-Passat auf der südlichen Halbkugel einfahren, der sie dann schnell nach Südafrika bringen sollte“, erklärt illbruck Challenge-Meteorologe Chris Bedford.
Neue aktualisierte Positionsreports gibt es um kurz nach 12 Uhr und 18 Uhr.

Weitere Informationen:
Andreas Kling
0172/2578817
akling@illbruck-Challenge.com
http://media.illbruck-Challenge.de

Southampton, England, October 2, 2001 22.00 GMT
illbruck Gamble Pays Off
After four days, Team Tyco’s reign at the front of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet concluded this evening as illbruck’s bold move to the east paid handsome dividends.
The pre race favourites are now seven miles ahead of Tyco and at times, John Kostecki’s crew are sailing south over four knots faster than the pursuing pack.
As Stu Bettany reported from illbruck this afternoon, their easterly track yesterday looked promising as the fleet sailed into an area of little wind. “The moves we made yesterday to break from the four other boats at the front of the pack (Tyco, ASSA ABLOY, Amer Sports One and Team News Corp) and head east is slowly paying off,” said Bettany.
He continued, “We had a good position report a couple of hours ago (16.00hrs GMT) that had great gains on all boats to the west, looks like we have slightly more wind than they do. We can't wait for the next few reports to come in”.
Illbruck will now be looking to find the northeast trade wind belt and extend their lead.
ASSA ABLOY had also been waiting for sunset to pounce on Tyco and may yet snatch second place. “We have been chasing Tyco for two days now, slowly eking out boat length by boat length,” explained ASSA ABLOY co-skipper and navigator Mark Rudiger. “At the moment we are making our big move to pass before sunrise. They are just to leeward off the port bow 15 boat lengths.
Roy (Heiner, skipper and Olympic medallist helmsman) has been driving like a possessed panther for hours and won’t give up the helm until we are ahead. The advantage of passing them close at night, is that during the day, by the rules, they are allowed to take evasive manoeuvres to stop us from passing, but at night, they have to adhere to the ‘regulations for safety and prevention of collisions at sea’, and must not alter course when an overtaking vessel passes. So we are pushing hard to get by them before official sunrise”.
Aside from the battle for the lead at present, the crews of djuice and SEB report good spirits despite their lowly positions. With just over 2,000 miles under their keels and over 5,000 miles left to decide the leg, neither is prepared to give up the fight.
“Never in my life has my patience been tested harder,” reflected djuice skipper Knut Frostad in an email. “A small loss during the first days out of England has grown to a massive distance, even if we have been fighting like hell, day and night and most likely made very few mistakes the last days. BUT……. Don’t you ever think that we have accepted the loss”.
On board each yacht, the first round of washing is just starting to take place. Most feel though it is too early for a complete overhaul. “A few people are having their first shave but still far to early to consider a change of any clothes,” explained Tyco skipper Kevin Shoebridge.
Southampton, England, October 2, 2001 16.00 GMT
Champagne Sailing Just Around The Corner
Team Tyco’s four-day lead could be erased in hours as a potential parking lot of high pressure now sits between them and the relative safety of the trade wind belt.
“It has been a frustrating few days as we have sailed in very light air (6 –7 knots) crossing a ridge of high pressure. This area needs to be crossed before we sail into the trade wind belt. We are still in the lead but have watched the fleet sail in from behind in more favorable breeze,” reported skipper Kevin Shoebridge today.
“The speed differences between the boats is almost immeasurable and all gains and losses come from positioning and strength of breeze you are in,” added Shoebridge.
While Tyco can cover ASSA ABLOY if they choose, Shoebridge has no control over the route Team News Corp, Amer Sports One and illbruck take as they are at least ten miles to the east.
Anyone of these five could emerge the leader and accelerate away in the trade winds.
Two hundred and fifty miles to the east, SEB continues to be the fastest boat in the fleet. While no-one will be concerned at this stage due to her bad positioning, the leading navigators will be keeping one eye on her progress, just in case.

Volvo Ocean Race Leg One Position Report. Day 10, 16.00hrs GMT
PS Yacht Latitude Longitude DTF CMG SMG TFHR DTL DTL-C ETA PS
1 TYCO 25 28.96N 022 53.16W 05511 197 04.5 197 00000 00.0 24-Oct-01 8
2 AART 25 28.56N 022 47.88W 05512 166 03.5 199 00001 00.0 24-Oct-01 7
3 NEWS 25 27.36N 022 33.84W 05515 211 06.7 187 00004 00.5 24-Oct-01 6
4 AONE 25 29.75N 022 34.42W 05517 218 07.7 183 00006 00.3 24-Oct-01 5
5 ILBK 25 19.40N 022 02.88W 05517 202 08.0 196 00006 01.3 24-Oct-01 4
6 TSEB 25 14.92N 017 31.52W 05615 202 08.6 231 00104 01.0 24-Oct-01 3
7 DJCE 27 00.69N 021 43.64W 05618 208 08.0 195 00107 02.6 24-Oct-01 2
8 ATOO 27 30.48N 021 34.84W 05649 201 10.0 188 00138 02.0 24-Oct-01 1

PS – Position; DTF – Distance to Finish; CMG – Course made good; SMG – Speed made good; TFHR – 24 hours run; DTL – Distance to leader; ROC - Rate of closure; ETA – Estimated time of arrival; PO – Points; ND – No data

Southampton, England, October 2nd, Day 10
Light Winds, Heavy Burdens
The weight of expectation may be a heavy burden to carry, yet the crew of Team Tyco continue to thrive on the pressure and nerve required to indextain a lead in some of the lightest prolonged sailing experienced in any round the world race.
Kevin Shoebridge’s crew has been at the top of the standings, through thick and thin, for four of the ten days that the fleet have been at sea.
However, they have yet to really shake off ASSA ABLOY, who have almost become a sparring partner. Roy Heiner and his crew are now resorting to other tricks in the book and will try to slip past Tyco under the cover of darkness.
“We have been chasing Tyco for two days now, slowly eking out boat length by boat length,” explained ASSA ABLOY co-skipper and navigator Mark Rudiger this morning. “At the moment we are making our big move to pass before sunrise. They are just to leeward off the port bow 15 boat lengths. Roy (Heiner, skipper and Olympic medallist helmsman) has been driving like a possessed panther for hours and won’t give up the helm until we are ahead. The advantage of passing them close at night, is that during the day, by the rules, they are allowed to take evasive manoeuvres to stop us from passing, but at night, they have to adhere to the ‘regulations for safety and prevention of collisions at sea’, and must not alter course when an overtaking vessel passes. So we are pushing hard to get by them before official sunrise”.
For the last twenty-four hours, a northerly 8-10 knot breeze has gently pushed the leading five yachts – Tyco, ASSA ABLOY, News Corp, Amer Sports One and illbruck - towards the equator at a touch above the wind speed.
Their Carbon rigs are fully loaded with every ounce of canvas available while the crews have to be as sharp as razor blades not to miss an inch of forward movement.
Giving an insight into the tensions on board, Team News Corp navigator Ross Field, who has twice won the Whitbread race, reflected: “Light airs ocean racing: this would have to be the most stressful part of ocean racing. Give me 35 knots in the southern ocean, dodging icebergs, blasting downhill, any time. The stress of getting those tenths of a knot of boat speed from the boat, making sure the crew whisper when talking, walk around the boat quietly, man up the rig search for that little vane of air, getting the right sail on, monitoring the radar every minute to plot the progress of the other boats, making sure that we don’t make too much fresh water at one time so the boat doesn't get heavy, making sure that the exact wind angles are being sailed. The list goes on and on and all the crew are dying for the moment when you hear the water start moving against the hull and the breeze increases”.
Adding fuel to the tactical fire, illbruck made a bold move late yesterday evening to split east from Amer Sports One and Team News Corp, looking to sail away from the clouds that have dogged the fleet for two days now.
illbruck helmsman and trimmer Ray Davies explained: “We took a big loss to head east into better pressure and away from the suck of the breeze-sapping clouds. Hopefully we can line ourselves up for the night of clear sky or at least one the right side of the clouds, which is what it's all about at the moment”.
But, in the far east, Marcel Van Triest’s tactics, inadvertently brought on by a pit stop off Madeira, saw the lime green SEB sail into the most favourable conditions of the fleet, running up the best 24-hour mileage bill of the day.
While SEB has to give away southerly miles to head west at some point to make the waypoint off Brazil, skipper Gunnar Krantz and his crew will just be relieved to reel in some miles on the fleet after their headboard car debacle.
With progress continuing to be slower than predicted and the major hurdle of the doldrums still left to negotiate (some estimations are for a 34 day leg at present pace), the crews continue to be frugal with supplies. “Because of the light trades, we are continuing to squirrel away food and supplies. We still have the doldrums to get through, and they’re not looking so good either,” added Rudiger.
All in all, no position is a done deal and with over 5,500 miles left to sail to Cape Town, South Africa, any yacht in the fleet will still find it as easy to finish last as first.
On a lighter note, the fleet had their second birthday yesterday when illbruck’s Mark ‘Crusty’ Christensen, on his third lap of the planet, sailed into his 32nd birthday. However, with the current stakes as high as they are, all celebrations will be kept on hold until the Tavern of the Seas (Cape Town).

Southampton, England, October 2, 2001 1000 GMT
Marcel Kept His Promise
After the big gains last night, Team SEB has reached similar conditions as the leading group and therefore settled to equal speed. By now they are the southernmost yacht, but still long way to the east of everybody else. “Marcel [van Triest, Navigator] kept his promise”, that’s all they can say about their good advance after passing the Canary Islands. They are looking forward to get back in touch with the rest of the fleet, which can take some time as they try to find their fastest route toward the next waypoint off the Brazilian coast. As their position is far to the east, it will be a different route compared to the other yachts.
Talking to Emma Westmacott, watch leader on Amer Sports Too, she reported that the breeze is picking up and that they are sailing along in comfortable conditions with the wind from the northwest. They plan to get south as quick as possible to get into the northeasterly trade winds. The whole team is still learning a lot about the boat and are improving every day.
With the wind conditions becoming better, the 24hr runs are rising accordingly and Team SEB has covered 220 miles within the last 24 hours.

Southampton, England, October 2, 2001 0400 GMT
Two Duels
The leading group of the Volvo Ocean Race has split up in three groups over 60 miles, almost on the same latitude. Tyco and ASSA ABLOY are duelling each other within a couple of hundred meters, pushing their sail trimming abilities to the limit in the quest for every ounce of boat speed. Amer Sports One and News Corp are the next pair to the east approximately one mile apart but in a slightly better breeze. Illbruck decided for the option to the east and gybed away from the others last night.
Team SEB is catching up in big strides, still sailing faster than all the other boats, narrowing their distance to the leaders to 119 miles with the best 24 hour run in the fleet.