Volvo Ocean Race 2001/2002 www.VolvoOceanRace.org zurück zur Übersicht Southampton, England, December 7th, 2001 Day 27 Amer Sports Too Completes Second Stage Lisa McDonald’s team sailed into Sydney Harbour under the cover of darkness within the last hour to become the final crew to complete the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. It had taken the all-women team on Amer Sports Too an extra three and a half days to sail the 6,550-mile leg from Cape Town, through the Southern Ocean and onto Sydney, Australia, than leg winners illbruck. As they crossed the Opera House finish line at 02.59hrs (Sydney time), the rain that had been falling on and off over the last few hours stopped and a small complement of spectator boats sounded their horns in tribute to the 13 women as they cut the line. The final one thousand miles were drawn out after they endured strong headwinds in Bass Strait, but the final six hours of the 26-day trip were relatively plain sailing. Amer Sports Too averaged 11.5 knots up the New South Wales coast, with boat speeds peaking at over 20 knots in the following southerly breeze. Lisa and her team now have 18 days to recuperate and replenish themselves before the fleet set sail on leg three of the nine-stage around the world race on Boxing Day. On December 26th, the eight yachts will join the Sydney to Hobart race fleet. They will have a brief three-hour pit stop in Tasmania before setting off again across the Tasman Sea to Auckland, the City of Sails, New Zealand. Meanwhile on the second Nautor Challenge yacht Amer Sports One, Keith Kilpatrick, who was taken seriously ill during the second leg, has decided not to continue in the race on medical advice. Keith was taken off Amer Sports One at Eclipse Island off the coast of Western Australia during the final week of the leg after being diagnosed with an intestinal blockage, which has since cleared. "After consulting several specialists it has been decided it is in my best interests to go home to California and recuperate,” explained Keith. ”It has become evident that the trauma experienced by my body is more severe than previously thought. After recuperating for about two months I will be totally fit. "Obviously I will not be sailing on the next two legs (from Sydney to Auckland and Auckland to Rio de Janeiro) so in the best interests of the team I have decided to step aside so that a permanent replacement can be made." Elapsed time for leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race Illbruck: 022d 13h 22m 26s SEB: 022d 14h 35m 45s News Corp 022d 15h 17m 29s djuice 22d 19h 43m 35s Amer Sports One 022d 19h 50m 12s ASSA ABLOY 022d 22h 31m 05s Amer Sports Too 026d 04h 59m 22s 8 December 2001 A happy Amer Sports Too crew finished leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race today at the end of a marathon 6550 nautical mile voyage from Cape Town, South Africa. Amer Sports Too crossed the finish line off the Sydney Opera House at Sydney at 2.59am local time, after 26 days 4 hours 59 minutes and 22 seconds at sea. After completing customs formalities, the crew was met by the shore team with birthday cakes for Keryn Henderson and Liz Wardley whose birthdays were on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Quotes from skipper Lisa McDonald after the finish: “It was quite a difficult leg, two legs in one - the first from Cape Town to Eclipse Island, the second from Eclipse to Sydney. We had a few minor breakages, but that’s all it takes. The boats in this race are so close, even blowing a sail can cost of lot of miles in down time. “The first couple of nights out of Cape Town were extremely rough and one girl, Katie Pettibone, cracked her shin, and we will send her off tomorrow to get it looked at. We were thrown of a wave and she was tossed into a bulkhead. Apart from that, there were only a few strains, shoulders, wrist etc. “Overall it was good leg. At Eclipse Island we managed to make up a lot of lost ground, but other yachts were far enough in front to get into another weather system and we missed it. “We saw potential in the weather by staying north. If we had gone south we would have sat there and wallowed for a few days and we might not have been in until Sunday. “We had to make the most of what we had. You’ve got to learn to get the most out of your boat and your crew for each situation. “For example, today we sailed all the way up the NSW coast with the big spinnaker up, big breeze and we didn’t have too much of that in the Southern Ocean. “There were real highs, and lows when we got behind initially, and great highs as we were catching up. “When we’re with the other boats, we actually have very good boat to boat with them. The difference is, the other guys have all had one to three year’s preparation and we’ve had just one month before the start of the race. That means we have to accept that it will take a couple of legs to build the crew. It doesn’t happen overnight. “We’re all professional sailors here and it’s a job as well as something we all enjoy doing. It’s an incredibly tough fleet. Look around you. The guys have done Olympics, America’s Cups and five, six, seven Whitbreads. You can’t expect us, with experience of one round-the-world race to compete immediately against six or seven. We’re giving it our all, every step of the way.“ Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE