Oceanracing 2001 - Volvo Ocean Race 2001/2002

Volvo Ocean Race 2001/2002

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Sydney, Australia, December 8th, 2001
Amer Sports One Seeks Redress
On December 8th, Amer Sports One submitted a request for redress to the International Jury under rule 62.1(a).
Below is an extract from the Protest Form:
The protest form claims, “because the Race Committee informed all boats during the briefing (held in Cape Town) that they would protest any boats not obeying the traffic separation zone out side of Cape Town. Amer Sports One asked the Race Director to confirm that they would protest, and he did the night before the start. All other boats did sail through the exclusion zone, either at the wrong angle, or down the wrong side. We believe the actions not to protest have cost Amer Sports One up to two points on all the boats.”
On Friday, December 7th, the Race Committee informed the fleet it would no longer proceed with a protest against Amer Sports Too and djuice as, “new information from the South African Maritime Safety Authority that the Traffic Scheme does not apply to pleasure yachts involved in sport or recreation, as stated in ‘Marine Traffic (Inshore Vessel Traffic Services) Regulations 2000’” would make the protest impossible to win.
The International Jury will convene a preliminary hearing on Sunday to determine how to proceed with the request for redress from Amer Sports One.

Sydney, Australia, December 8th, 2001 Amer Sports Too Skipper Lisa McDonald on the dockside after Leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race
At Eclipse Island we managed to make up a lot of lost ground, but unfortunately for us as we rounded Eclipse the guys were just that far enough in front to get into another system and we missed it.
It’s really tough. You’ve just got to make the best of what you’ve got out there. You’ve got to learn to get the most out of your boat and your crew for each situation.
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.
Quite a difficult leg, two legs in one. It was a big learning curve, a few minor breakages. The boats in this race are so close, it only takes breaking one sail, and there’s a lot of down time.
At Eclipse we saw a potential to 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.
Overall it was good leg. It had it’s moments obviously. We got a taste of the Southern Ocean again.
Today’s sailing was really fantastic.
There were real highs, and lows when we got behind initially, and great highs as we were catching up. Eclipse Island being so close yet so far. The Bass Strait when we suddenly had 20 knot headwinds.
When we’re with the other boats, we actually have very good boat to boat with them. The difference is, that when we’re on our own, the other guys have all had one – three year’s preparation and we’ve had one month prior to the start of the race and that’s a learning curve we have accept this time round.
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 one round the world race to compete against six or seven.
We’re giving it our all, every step of the way.
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 got thrown of a wave and she got thrown into the bulkhead on the first night out. Apart from that a few strains, shoulders, wrist etc.
I’m looking forward to the Sydney Hobart, it’s always a great race and it has a bit of everything. I’ve done it twice in 1998 and 1995.