Oceanracing 2001 - Volvo Ocean Race 2001/2002

Volvo Ocean Race 2001/2002

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VOLVO OCEAN RACE - 6. Wochenbericht
Southampton, England, November 2, 2001, Week 6
Protests Question Result Of Leg One
With illbruck and Amer Sports One already moored in Cape Town and enjoying the onshore life, third place on the podium was taken by the Australian Volvo Ocean Race entry News Corp, skippered by Jez Fanstone from Great Britain. During their last 24 hours of racing the yacht was seriously beaten by gale-force southeasterly winds, which unfortunately caused injuries. Joe Spooner hit his head, slashing a big gash that had to be closed with two stitches by onboard medic and sail maker Alby Pratt.
Upon arrival, Jez Fanstone said: “We always wanted to finish among the top three. The whole leg was very intense with every wind condition you can imagine.” Being asked about the food issue, he continued: “I am approximately six kilos lighter and we haven’t had any food for the last 24 hours. But we knew that it would be like this. Just the last 24 hours were pretty miserable; we didn’t expect 50 knots of wind and 11 metre seas. When freezing and being hungry this is even worse. The crew did fabulous, more than from anyone could have been expected.”
After arrival, a doctor took care of Joe Spooner, to check Alby’s handiwork.
Tyco, the Bermudan based entry in the Volvo Ocean Race finished fourth on October 27 at 0637 GMT, after 33d 16h 37m 49s at sea, claiming five points for this leg.
After powering through the storm 48 hours before, they had to use their full-size light wind sails for the final miles into Cape Town. At the early stages of this leg Tyco was holding the lead and showed great speed potential. Skipper Kevin Shoebridge and Navigator Steve Hayles often positioned their yacht to take advantage of local weather phenomena and put a lot of pressure on illbruck. After rounding Ilha de Trinidade, they missed the lane to the south, which could have hooked them into the weather system that helped illbruck and Amer Sports One for the fast crossing of the South Atlantic. Their fourth place was never endangered across the South Atlantic.
Sailing the yacht that is likely to be the fastest in the fleet, the result for Dutchman Roy Heiner was certainly disappointing. However, the good thing about it is that in every one of the coming legs, any of the yachts could finish fifth or worse and as ASSA ABLOY has shown, one mistake is enough to be swept back from fighting for the lead to fighting against being left behind. They have only to take care that it is not them again.
Arriving in miserable weather with rain, Roy Heiner, who was born in South Africa, mused: “As long as I do not see this distinctive mountain that I remember here, I do not believe I am in Cape Town.” Once the rain clouds were burned away, he was convinced that his navigator, Mark Rudiger did a perfect job.
Before the crew was allowed to enjoy proper food, a medical team stormed the yacht and took blood and muscle samples, as the whole team participates in a research program about the long-term effects of changes in muscle substance.
On October 30, two whales escorted the green SEB racing yacht over the final mile to the finish line, acknowledging their achievement of sailing 38 days from Southampton to Cape Town and reindexing competitive until the last moment. The SEB support boat, a 55-foot motor yacht, went out in a fresh breeze to welcome the 12-strong crew.
On arrival Gunnar “Gurra” Krantz said: “We had 5 good days and 32 bad ones, we don’t want this to happen again!” He emphasized that they used the same headboard car they were using on their training boats in Portugal over the last winter and did not understand what caused the failure. He pointed out that they will come up with a redesigned version for the next leg, where the yachts are expected to be exposed to more heavy air.
Two yachts were still out at sea and they were expected to arrive over the next 18 hours depending on the wind situation. djuice successfully defended herself against Amer Sports Too’s assault, who were closing in at high pace.
Knut Frostad, skipper of the Norwegian yacht, seemed very relieved as he and his 11-strong multinational crew finally passed the finish line off the Cape Town harbour entrance. Arriving six days after the winning yacht, illbruck, considerably shortened djuice’s preparation time, putting pressure on their shore crew as well.
Knut announced that there would be major changes to improve their performance on the next leg; whether it will be people or equipment reindexs to be seen. In an interview right after entering the harbour he confirmed this without giving away any specific details.
On his experience of this leg, he commented: “It was not only the worst leg, it was the worst race I have ever done, awful, horrible. I have never fought so hard for so little.”
As the pink djuice crew is part of a medical research programme as well, after securing the lines at the pontoon, instead of being handed hamburgers and beer they were given fresh underwear and handed to the medical team for a check-up.
Just six hours later at 3 a.m. local time, Amer Sports Too powered towards the finish line with eased sails, in drizzling rain and under the glare of floodlights. For the last half mile the wind kicked in and the yacht accelerated once again, showing the assembled media that they were still racing.
Crossing the line, they lit white flares on both sides of the yacht, illuminating the scenery as the wind dropped in the lee of table Mountain.
Once alongside at Victoria and Alfred waterfront, a crowd of journalists surrounded Lisa McDonald, skipper of the grey and red yacht. Lisa said, “even though we came last, I am very pleased with the performance of the yacht and the crew. Over thousands of miles we could stay with the guys that sailed together for more than two years.”
But the fight for victory was not yet over - it continued on the green table. On October 29, ASSA ABLOY lodged a protest against leg winner illbruck over a breach of the race rules. On the protest form, ASSA ABLOY states that "Access to a site containing extensive meteorological information can only be obtained by adding the suffix '/rsm' to the illbruck Challenge nominated site 'http://atmosfera.lma.fi.upm.es’. The required suffix is not publicly known and it is not mentioned on the Web site, nor was it published in the Leg 1 Sailing Instructions, Annex C. Therefore, the site was not publicly available nor known to all other boats, so use of it infringes RRS 41 (as it falls outside the exemption of NOR (Notice Of Race) 7.4.3); and NOR 7.4.4.”
Under the new rules introduced for the Volvo Ocean Race each team is allowed to list 10 web sites they want to view during each leg, and can access each other’s nominated list. Navigators pick sites where they can download information they require for a leg. Met offices from different countries provide different forecasts and it is possible to obtain all manner of other meteorological information from currents to icebergs to different types of satellite weather images. Prior to the start of each leg these lists are compiled and published as part of the leg sailing instructions. For the public, interested in the Volvo Ocean Race and the background facts, all nominated sites were published on the web site www.volvooceanrace.org.
The hearing was provisionally scheduled for 1000 local time (0800GMT) on Friday 2 November at Race headquarters, Cape Town.
On Tuesday 30 October, another protest was launched against the German entry illbruck, this time by the race committee on a technical issue. James Dadd, V.O.60 class measurer reported to the race committee, “It has come to my attention that illbruck challenge have carried out modifications to their Volvo Penta supplied S-Drive. A weed cutting device has been attached to the leading edge over the full exposed length of the S-Drive, and filler compound has been added and faired between the blade edge and the S-Drive body. Additionally the oil drain located at the lower end of the S-Drive has been filled and faired to create a single surface area on the S-Drive.
Volvo Ocean 60 Rule 5.4.2 states, “Only modifications to specified machinery approved by the chief measurer are permitted. The chief measurer may only approve modification in exceptional circumstances. Modifications, which result in lighter specified machinery, will not be approved. All items supplied by Volvo Penta including engine beds and auxiliary equipment are governed by this rule.”
“The above modifications have not been approved by the chief measurer and as such the illbruck challenge no longer complies with the Volvo Ocean 60 Rule.”
In the meantime, chief measurer, John Warren issued the following interpretation in response to the question: “Would the addition of a weed cutter to the leading edge of the Volvo Penta S-Drive [the mechanism holding the propeller that is mounted under the body of the yacht] be considered as modification of specified machinery as in rule 5.4.2?”
He answered that the addition of a weed cutting device attached to the leading edge of the S-Drive alters the profile of the drive and is a modification. It is considered that there are no exceptional circumstances and the modification is not approved. The addition of a weed cutter attached to the hull and separate from the S-drive leg would not be contrary to the V.O.60 Rule.
He also stated, that any addition of fairing compound to alter the standard shape of the Volvo Penta S-Drive is also a modification for which there are no exceptional circumstances for approval.
The protest hearing was scheduled at 1500 local time (1300 GMT) on Friday 2 November 2001.

PS Yacht Arrival Time Elapsed time Points
1 ILBK 24 OCT 01 20:19:49 31d 06h 19m 49s 8
2 AONE 24 OCT 01 22:20:56 31d 08h 20m 56s 7
3 NEWS 26 OCT 01 05:57:17 32d 15h 57m 17s 6
4 TYCO 27 OCT 01 06:37:49 33d 16h 37m 49s 5
5 AART 28 OCT 01 08:11:59 34d 18h 11m 59s 4
6 TSEB 30 OCT 01 09:35:47 36d 19h 35m 47s 3
7 DJCE 30 OCT 01 19:00:53 37d 05h 00m 53s 2
8 ATOO 31 OCT 01 01:20:12 037d 11h 20m 12s 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
ILBK illbruck Challenge
AONE Amer Sports One
ATOO Amer Sports Two
AART ASSA ABLOY Racing Team
NEWS News Corporation
TYCO Team Tyco
TSEB Team SEB
DJCE djuice dragons

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