Volvo Ocean Race 2001/2002 www.VolvoOceanRace.org zurück zur Übersicht Southampton, England, December 27, 2001 2200 GMT SEB Loses Rudder The Swedish yacht, SEB, skippered by Gurra Krantz and currently in fourth position overall in the Volvo Ocean Race, has been forced to fit her emergency rudder after her index rudder became damaged. The rudder has come away from the boat, leaving a hole in the bottom, which the crew has plugged. They have been able to stop the water flowing into the yacht, and although she has been structurally damaged, she is in no danger of sinking. The incident happened at 2000 hours GMT last night (0700 local time). All crew members are well and are working closely with their shore team to make the necessary arrangements to repair the boat. At the time of the incident, SEB was 70 miles off Edistone Point, on north east tip of Tasmania, sailing in 16 knots of south westerly wind. In the meantime, News Corp has taken the lead from illbruck, having planned a rhumb line route which was just to the west of the fleet, as written in a prediction earlier today by Ross Field, “The decision on how to approach Tasman Island is varying thru’ the fleet with ASSA ABLOY and ourselves opting for the rhumb line [direct course] and SEB and the others coming from the east. Who's right? We are.....”. Places have been changing quickly at the front of the fleet. Having opted for the same rhumb line route as News Corp, ASSA ABLOY is now lying second, with illbruck in third place only one mile behind. Cont./.. Southampton, England, December 27, 2001 Day 2 Demolition Derby Amer Sports Too is currently trying to sail under jury rig to Hobart, having suffered a broken forestay in the middle of the Bass Strait. The crew lowered the sails and worked to save the rig, after the eye end of the stay failed at deck level. Skipper, Lisa McDonald, confirmed that they had lost some time until they had tested the temporary repair, before they continued with the race and that they were not in any danger. The failure occurred just over 300 miles from Hobart, where the shore crew will be waiting for the yacht with a replacement strop in order for them to continue on to Auckland. Replacement equipment needed for repairs is subject to the Notice of Race and the crews must fit within the parameters set by the Race Committee; in addition while moored alongside in Hobart the crews must abide by special rules set for the Hobart ‘pit-stop’. At the time of this incident Amer Sports Too was approximately 25 miles behind the fleet leaders. Earlier djuice had nearly become the first casualty of Leg 3, when two of their bow compartments started to fill with water, after a hatch sprung a leak. The water also managed to reach the second watertight compartment, which houses some communications equipment. The crew battled for an hour to attempt to keep djuice up to speed, and all this following a previous problem with a broken index halyard, which had to be repaired in darkness. A common complaint from the crews is that they have been unable to eat any food, given the rough conditions. All they can do is look at their food as Knut Frostad, skipper on djuice put it, “Pretty hard to eat these days, so half the dinner is left for the future. It will probably be more popular among the fish in the Tasman Sea.” Amer Sports One also suffered a series of blows, with the first almost immediately after the start. The port side of the water ballast system ‘exploded’, leaving them unable to use the ballast tank on port tack until much later, after the repair had been carried out. In the meantime, they reported seeing the ‘twister’ giving them winds of up to 60 knots, which forced four of the leading boats in the Sydney Hobart fleet to retire from the race with damage and left Amer Sports One with a blown-out number 3 jib. Unfortunately the ballast failure also meant that they were unable to position the yacht in the maximum strength of the East Australian Current, “Shortly after that tack the lamination work was done on the ballast system. All these unpredictable events put us well behind and west of the fleet at Jervis Bay. We had planned and wanted to be closer to the continental shelf where the East Australian Current runs south at maximum speed. Our ballast failure forced us into a situation, which made positioning of the boat most difficult, and here we are now about 20 nm miles behind illbruck who once again has sailed almost flawless from the start line down to the middle of Bass Strait.” After working in the toughest of conditions to repair the ballast tank and unable to cook, the crew were delighted to be able to get back in the galley, “Tonight the waves and wind have dropped and for the first time since the start we can make hot food without risk of burning ourselves in the galley. In nasty sea conditions like the last 20+ hours, chances are too big that boiling water jumps out from the pot right into your face or onto some other unprotected part of the body. Well fed again we are pulling along south with full index and max headsail.” Tyco also appears to have suffered some problems, but this time over the compulsory reporting for the CYCA (Cruising Yacht Club of Australia) Sydney to Hobart Race at Green Cape. The requirement demands that each boat is asked to confirm its HF radio is operational and has signal strength fit for the ensuing purpose, the required number of life rafts are on board, its engine and batteries are operational, the boat and its crew are in a satisfactory condition to continue and that the skipper has comprehensively considered the most current weather forecasts and considers that the boat and crew are fully prepared for the conditions forecast. The V.O.60s are eligible for the line honours prizes in the Sydney Hobart Race, but not for the overall handicap trophies, and this decision from the CYCA Committee would preclude Tyco from winning any prizes in this race. However, this does not affect her standing in the Volvo Ocean Race, which is subject to separate instructions. Another common discussion amongst the crews is the waterspout, which was put quite succinctly by Gunnar Krantz on SEB, “We had a chance to come close to a huge waterspout. It looks like a gigantic vacuum cleaner coming down to suck away all the tiny boats littering the water. It was formed very quickly and picked up speed immediately. Obviously it went for the maxis 'Wild Thing' and ‘Nicorette’ as they had to take their sails down. ‘Wild Thing’ ended up right in it and had to retire with torn sails. We had a gust of 47 knots and got away easy.” The leading boats are now approximately 80 miles to the east of Flinders Island. Southampton, England, December 27, 2001 1600 GMT Team Tyco in CYCA Sydney to Hobart Rule Infringement Team Tyco was informed by the CYCA Race Committee (Cruising Yacht Club of Australia) tonight that they will record a DNF (did not finish) result for the CYCA Sydney to Hobart yacht race, currently underway. They failed to contact ACS Race Control or Hobart Race control at Green Cape, a mandatory requirement by CYCA Sydney to Hobart Sailing Instruction 43, within the one-hour period of passing the latitude. The requirement demands that each boat is asked to confirm its HF radio is operational and has signal strength fit for the ensuing purpose, the required number of life rafts are on board, its engine and batteries are operational, the boat and its crew are in a satisfactory condition to continue and that the skipper has comprehensively considered the most current weather forecasts and considers that the boat and crew are fully prepared for the conditions forecast. While it precludes Tyco from being awarded line honours, or any other finishing position in the CYCA Sydney to Hobart race, the team will be timed for crossing the finishing line in order for Volvo Ocean Race organisers to allocate a restart time for the reindexing part of leg three to Auckland, New Zealand. The fleet is now approximately 80 miles to the east of Flinders Island, with Amer Sports Too trailing the leaders by 85 miles, following the repairs they were forced to carry out to their broken forestay. Illbruck is still currently race leader. 27. Dezember 2001 Vierergruppe mit „News Corp“, „Assa Abloy“ und „Tyco“ / Tornadowirbel Sydney – Ein heftiger Wirbelsturm im Gewitter und zehn Meter hohe Wellen hoch am Wind vor der australischen Küste südlich Sydneys waren die äußeren Bedingungen der ersten 24 Stunden der dritten Etappe des Volvo Ocean Race. Sie beutelten vor allen die Teilnehmer der traditionellen Regatta von Sydney nach Hobart, von denen mehrere mit Materialschäden aufgeben mussten. Doch die Weltumsegler, allen voran die Crew der Leverkusener Yacht „illbruck“, trotzten dem Unbill. Skipper John Kostecki und seine Mannen hatten zur Halbzeit des 630 Seemeilen langen Klassikers, der den ersten Teil der Etappe nach Auckland/Neuseeland bildet, eine hauchdünne Führung in einer Vierergruppe erkämpft. Dazu gehörten die australische „News Corp “, die auch in der Gesamtwertung hinter „illbruck“ auf Rang zwei liegt, sowie die „Assa Abloy“ (Schweden) und die „Tyco“ (Bermuda). „Unter einer dunklen Wolke bildete sich eine ernorme Windhose, die innerhalb weniger Minuten das Wasser im Kreis aufschäumte“, berichteten alle Boote unisono von dem Tornado. Einige meldeten Windgeschwindigkeiten von bis zu 70 Knoten – mehr als Orkanstärke. Von den Volvo Ocean 60-Racern hatte nur die norwegische „djuice“ Probleme. Nachdem das Großfall brach, folgte auch noch ein Wassereinbruch im Bug ähnlich wie ihn die „illbruck“ zu Beginn der zweiten Etappe erlebt hatte, der dann zur famosen Aufholjagd bis zum zweiten Etappensieg führte. Die Norweger fielen aus der Spitzengruppe auf den fünften Rang dicht neben der „SEB“ (Schweden) zehn Seemeilen zurück. Den Schluss des Felds bildeten am Donnerstag Vormittag die beiden „Amer Sports“-Boote. Nach 320 der 630 Seemeilen bis Hobart hatte sich das Wetter in der Mitte der Bass Strait, die Tasmanien vom australischen Festland trennt, etwas beruhigt. Zuvor hatte der stürmische südliche Wind gegen die starke Meeresströmung steile, teils zehn Meter hohe Wellen aufgetürmt. Die Boote „hämmerten“ mit Wucht durch die Wassermassen. Einmal mehr machte das Sydney-Hobart-Race seinem Ruf als besonders harte und unkomfortable Regatta alle Ehre. Zudem war schon der Start am Zweiten Weihnachtstag im Rauch der Buschfeuer, der die Segler noch eine Weile begleitete, ausgesprochen ungewöhnlich gewesen. Im Laufe des Freitags deutscher Zeit werden die ersten Yachten in Hobart erwartet, wo die Round the World-Segler nur einen dreieinhalbstündigen Kurzstop machen werden, bevor der Regattaabschnitt nach Auckland fortgesetzt wird. Weitere Informationen: Andreas Kling 0061/439/894241 (0172/2578817) akling@illbruck-Challenge.com http://media.illbruck-Challenge.de http://www.illbruck.com Southampton, England, December 27, 2001 1000 GMT Drama On djuice Last night djuice suffered a similar fate as that of illbruck close to Cape Town when their two bow compartments started to fill with water after a hatch started to leak. It took the crew’s combined efforts for one hour to dry out djuice and keep her on pace. Before that incident their indexsail came down the mast when they prepared to reef in the building breeze. djuice managed to resume racing and reports not having lost more than a mile or two on the leaders. At the moment the yachts are in the middle of Bass Strait, 310 miles from Hobart and 100 from Flinders Island, fanned out over 17 miles. The course will lead the fleet close to the Tasman coast at Cape Sonnerat. The conditions became lighter over the last hours with the wind down to 20 knots and the waves to four metres. illbruck, News Corp, ASSA ABLOY and Tyco are within a mile of each other, trying to find the fastest lane in the eddying current and changing wind conditions. 10 miles back, djuice and SEB are neck-and-neck and Amer Sports One and Amer Sports Too bring up the rear. Southampton, England, Month Day, 2001 1600 GMT Smashing Across Tyco reported that they are very relieved with their current performance even though they would have preferred easier conditions for their comeback. They are in the vicinity of four other boats and are “smashing their way across Bass Strait” as they call it. With illbruck close by they have a proper pacemaker as the German yacht has proven to be fast in all conditions. Five of the eight yachts, that is illbruck, Tyco, News Corp, ASSA ABLOY and djuice show identical speed over hours of hard upwind work in up to 10 metre high waves produced by the “Southerly Buster” that is sweeping up the New South Wales coast. The current that goes against the wind makes the waves higher, steeper and more vicious. SEB, Amer Sports One and Amer Sports Too are slowly losing ground on the leading other yachts. Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE