Pressemitteilung der illbruck Challenge am 6. Tag der 4. Etappe des Volvo
Ocean Race
1. Februar 2002
Spitzen-Trio mit „illbruck“ führt auch Etappe 4 an
„News Corp“ hat „Amer Sports One“ Platz eins abgenommen
Ungeachtet der Spekulationen über die Zukunft der America’s Cup-Teilnahme
der illbruck Challenge segelt die Crew beim Volvo Ocean Race weiter auf
Erfolgskurs. Am Freitag rückte die Mannschaft um Skipper John Kostecki auf
der vierten Etappe von Auckland nach Rio de Janeiro auf den dritten Rang
vor. An der Spitze hat es einen Positionswechsel zwischen der „Amer Sports
One“ (Finnland/Italien) und der „News Corp“ (Australien) gegeben, die die
Führung übernahm. Damit liegt das Spitzen-Trio der Gesamtwertung in
umgekehrter Reihenfolge auch auf der zweitlängsten Etappe der härtesten
Segelregatta der Welt über 6.700 Seemeilen vorn.
Stürmische Bedingungen herrschten im Southern Ocean am 54. Grad südlicher
Breite, wo die Yachten allmählich immer weiter nach Osten Richtung Kap
Hoorn steuern. Nach mehreren Tagen mit warmen Leichtwind sind Handschuhe
und Skibrillen ausgepackt. Die Durchschnittsgeschwindigkeit der „illbruck“
betrug 15,4 Knoten, die höchste im gesamten Feld. „Aber darauf kommt es
letztlich nicht an“, schrieb der Skipper von Bord, „die richtige Taktik,
die zum günstigsten Weg führt, wird am Ende entscheidend sein.“ Vor dem
Wochenende waren noch weit mehr 5.000 Seemeilen zu absolvieren.
Indes laufen auch die Verhandlungen mit potenziellen Partnern der illbruck
Challenge weiter auf Hochtouren. Am Donnertag (7. Februar) wird
Syndikatsboss Michael Illbruck in Bremen nähere Auskünfte zum Stand der
Vorbereitungen auf den XXXI. America’s Cup geben. Dort wird derzeit die
erste deutsche America’s Cup-Yacht gebaut.
Weitere Informationen:
Andreas Kling
Tel: 0064/21/184-7474
(0172/2578817)
akling@illbruck-Challenge.com
http://media.illbruck-Challenge.de
http://www.illbruck.com
Southampton, England, February 1, 2002 2200 GMT
Yippy, We Can Go Spinnaker
Spread over quite a small area the fleet reports different wind speed and
therefore different boat speed. Up in the north, Amer Sports One is
suffering from lighter air and dropped back to third place. Illbruck is on
the pace, keeping up with News Corp who is still in the lead.
The yachts in the middle are struggling with the pace of the leaders. SEB
and djuice dropped back some miles, but djuice’s skipper reported his
redemption from suffering from tight reaching: “Wind direction 210....
yippy. We can go spinnaker... I have to run on deck now - time for some
fast sailing again. We will still be heading south for a while, avoiding
the ridge with lighter wind north of us.”
On the yachts the temperature has dropped significantly, from tomorrow
onwards they will start iceberg watches at night.
Volvo Ocean Race Position Report, Day 6, 2150 GMT
PS Yacht Latitude Longitude DTF CMG SMG TFHR DTL DTL-C ETA PO
1 NEWS 55 51.00S 167 32.24W 05310 122 13.9 338 0 +0 19 FEB 02 24
2 ILBK 55 11.80S 166 41.24W 05317 113 14.9 354 7 -1 19 FEB 02 28
3 AONE 54 25.52S 165 25.92W 05319 114 13.8 336 9 +4 19 FEB 02 24
4 TYCO 55 49.52S 168 03.48W 05324 121 13.9 342 14 +1 19 FEB 02 17
5 AART 55 36.72S 167 52.40W 05328 125 13.9 322 18 -1 19 FEB 02 19
6 DJCE 55 23.48S 167 56.96W 05340 120 13.7 327 30 +3 19 FEB 02 13
7 TSEB 55 32.72S 168 19.20W 05342 125 13.4 308 32 +2 19 FEB 02 13
8 ATOO 53 59.32S 169 53.44W 05447 112 12.1 286 137 +15 20 FEB 02 6
Southampton, England, February 1, 2002 1600 GMT
The Gloves Are Out
ASSA ABLOY and illbruck reported that they are close reaching with the
true wind from abeam at 20 knots. The boat speed moves the wind forward
and drives all the water that is picked up by the bow straight into the
faces of the crew on deck. Fortunately for the crews it is not yet as cold
as it was on the second leg. Amer Sports One recorded 14 degree C air and
10 degree C water temperature.
News Corp and Tyco are the first boats that have passed 55 degree south
and they still continue on their southeasterly course. The great circle
route, which is the shortest course they could possibly sail, would lead
them to 67S, which will be regarded to far in “iceberg country”. Over the
next days the boats have to decide how much risk they are prepared to
take.
Even though the yachts are in similar condition, djuice, SEB and Amer
Sports Too lost valuable miles on the leading yachts.
Volvo Ocean Race Position Report, Day 6, 1600 GMT
PS Yacht Latitude Longitude DTF CMG SMG TFHR DTL DTL-C ETA PO
1 NEWS 55 08.12S 169 32.48W 05389 115 14.1 339 0 +0 19 FEB 02 24
2 AONE 53 53.32S 167 31.04W 05394 110 14.4 349 5 +1 19 FEB 02 25
3 ILBK 54 37.84S 168 59.16W 05397 107 14.7 345 8 +1 19 FEB 02 27
4 TYCO 55 08.12S 170 05.56W 05402 115 13.9 340 13 +1 19 FEB 02 17
5 AART 54 50.84S 169 49.24W 05408 120 13.0 325 19 +3 19 FEB 02 19
6 DJCE 54 44.40S 169 57.24W 05416 111 13.5 326 27 +6 19 FEB 02 13
7 TSEB 54 47.68S 170 10.64W 05419 122 12.0 311 30 +9 19 FEB 02 13
8 ATOO 53 32.56S 171 43.24W 05511 111 12.7 290 122 +11 20 FEB 02 6
Southampton, England, February 1, 2002 Day 6
The toughest of decisions
Tactical decisions are not being taken lightly in the Volvo Ocean Race
fleet, with places being won and lost through just one small manoeuvre at
the wrong moment. In just 24 hours, SEB has moved from top of the leader
board to sixth place. Navigators and tacticians are juggling the
variables in the weather, along with their position on the racecourse
relative to the rest of the fleet, to try and come up with the right
answers.
As Paul Cayard from Amer Sports One said yesterday, “The amount of
information now available is unbelievable. Several grib files and 200
weather maps, satellite pictures, and other sources of information, every
day. This compared to 1 grib file and 10 maps per day last time. You can
definitely keep two people busy 24 hours a day analysing this stuff.” He
went on to mention that sleep was still paramount and therefore he and
Roger Nilson were managing to split their duties. “Luckily Roger, who is
50+, only sleeps 4 hours a day but I, at a youthful 42 still need my 4
hours per day or I get grumpy. So we just have to make do with 42 man
hours per day on this stuff.”
Amer Sports One took the decision on an early gybe due to weather patterns
giving a split on the north versus the south. To gybe early on the leading
edge of the front, meant that they could put more miles in towards Cape
Horn; to gybe later meant pushing further south and sailing more miles
with a possible longer term gain. Steve Hayles from Tyco had also had this
tough decision to wrestle with, but eventually stuck to his guns on
pushing further south and then had to watch the fleet push them into
seventh place for a while. However, they feel that eventually there will
be a gain to them, which will put them in a better position. As he said
earlier, “It was pretty tricky for all concerned, we had all made an
aggressive dive south. When the front came through initially it was very
tempting to get onto the other gybe and make some ground towards Cape
Horn. Having fought hard to stay in the south and the west, we didn’t want
to give that away and so initially we made some big losses, which were a
little hard to swallow. We have just made some ground on the boats to
leeward, so only time will tell really.” Steve went on, “I understand
exactly what their [Amer Sports One] thinking was, as we thought exactly
the same and it was a very difficult juggle to decide exactly what to do.
They managed to stay in front of the front, so they had good
northwesterlies and that allowed them to shut down some distance.
Initially they have made some miles there. Right now it’s tough for them,
but this leg could very easily turn into a situation where the guys in the
north start to pay again. We are not really going to know the outcome of
these decisions, until we start to make our final approach into Cape
Horn.”
It’s all about short-term gains and losses versus the longer-term gains
and losses and positioning the boat for the next advantage. Gurra Krantz
from SEB was told off by his daughter earlier for losing places on the
fleet, “Daddy, could you please get some speed on that boat?” A contrite
father admitted to his indiscretion, “I realized I was trapped and
admitted to her that we had lost the lead,” but expressed his
disappointment that she was not missing him. “I mean, what do you do? At
least she could have pretended she cared more about me than the race and
the boat...” Of the positions and their loss of position, he wrote, “We
did lose a lot in the passage of the [cold weather] front. We came out of
it too far north and will struggle to hang on to the leading boats. It
will be interesting to see what will happen to Amer Sports One in the
following skeds, as she is the most radical boat on a northerly route.
Tyco and News Corp played it well and have better wind direction in the
south.”
Disappointed words came from Paul Cayard off Amer Sports One. Obviously
they had expected a bigger return from their tactical decision to be the
first boat to gybe to the east yesterday: “I guess it’s not quite as rosy
as we had hoped. About 24 hours ago we decided to gybe away from the
fleet, to take advantage some wind shifts associate with a front. And
everything was looking very good until a secondary low developed on that
front, and with us being the most northerly boat we got quite affected by
that in an adverse way. We popped ahead and we were planning on
consolidating that gain by sailing low and south down in front the fleet,
but we are unable to do that because of the wind flow. It seemed quite
logical with the information available to us.
“We are weighing up our options. One option is to bite the bullet and just
sail south on a slow angle and come in somewhere behind the fleet and say
that was a 50-mile mistake but with 6000 miles to go, it’s not the end of
the world. Or if we have confidence in an alternative route to that
philosophy then we might go with that, which might be a shallower taper
into the fleet. We are making the choice now, and we are sailing the
alternative route and have not taken the more drastic move of biting the
bullet yet.”
After having a leave of offshore racing for almost four years, Paul Cayard
was eager to get back into the Southern Ocean. His first experience reads
like this: “It’s reasonably rough. It’s hard to sleep and noisy because
the boat belly flops down the waves so everything vibrates. I love [the
Southern Ocean] it. Spray that flies off the rail is just like a fire
hose. We had a serious hose down for thirty seconds. Those moments are so
special.”
Questioned on his co-operation with Grant Dalton, the skipper on Amer
Sports One he commented: ”Everybody has their own style and it’s
interesting to see how Grant runs the boat.”
Southampton, England, February 1, 2002 1000 GMT
SEB makes move to the south
SEB has made a determined move towards the south, altering her course by
20 degrees since the last sked, even passing across illbruck’s track. In
the north Amer Sports One has hung on to slightly more breeze, but News
Corp has overtaken her and now holds the position of race leader.
djuice, News Corp and Tyco reindex protective of their positions to the
south. Tyco had made the decision to head south as reported by her
navigator, Steve Hayles a few days ago and today Kevin Shoebridge, skipper
of Tyco confirmed, “Over the past day we have made a move to set up on the
south side of the fleet.”
Conditions are extremely wet for the V.O. 60s right now and the gloves and
balaclavas are coming out, along with all the foul weather gear. With
winds expected to increase later and on this very wet point of sailing,
the crews on watch will feel like they are under a very cold fire hose for
the foreseeable future.
Volvo Ocean Race Position Report, Day 6, 0959 GMT
PS Yacht Latitude Longitude DTF CMG SMG TFHR DTL DTL-C ETA PO
1 NEWS 54 33.00S 171 44.92W 05466 113 14.8 324 0 -9 19 FEB 02 24
2 AONE 53 24.44S 169 47.60W 05470 101 14.0 359 4 +4 19 FEB 02 25
3 ILBK 54 12.52S 171 22.96W 05473 107 15.4 334 7 -7 19 FEB 02 27
4 TYCO 54 33.28S 172 16.28W 05478 112 14.7 323 12 -8 19 FEB 02 17
5 AART 54 12.52S 171 45.28W 05482 119 13.2 315 16 -3 19 FEB 02 19
6 TSEB 54 09.60S 171 53.92W 05487 120 12.5 310 21 0 19 FEB 02 14
7 DJCE 54 16.24S 172 06.72W 05487 111 14.3 322 21 -5 19 FEB 02 12
8 ATOO 53 05.48S 173 40.24W 05577 107 10.9 260 111 +16 20 FEB 02 6
Southampton, England, February 1, 2002 0400 GMT
It’s cold and wet out here
“It’s cold and wet and wild out here”, wrote Mark Rudiger from ASSA ABLOY
earlier, while in the middle of a gybing duel with SEB and illbruck.
Amer Sports One is on latitude 50 nautical miles to the north of the two
southernmost boats, News Corp and Tyco and sailing in around 25 knots of
wind. Her boat speed gains of the last sked are not so noticeable now,
with the rest of the fleet keeping up with her on pace. illbruck and
Amer Sports One both hit 20 knots [boat speed] for a short while earlier,
but the wind is generally down from the initial big breeze that came
through.
Ross Field on News Corp, was also relieved when the wind finally kicked
in, “The Southern Ocean is alive and kicking…”. Life on board had
changed somewhat for the new watch crew, however, as it was now taking
them half an hour to get on all their sailing gear before going on deck.
Volvo Ocean Race Position Report, Day 6, 0359 GMT
PS Yacht Latitude Longitude DTF CMG SMG TFHR DTL DTL-C ETA PO
1 AONE 53 06.96S 172 11.56W 05541 114 14.1 328 0 0 19 FEB 02 26
2 NEWS 53 56.88S 174 10.60W 05550 113 13.9 311 9 +3 19 FEB 02 23
3 ILBK 53 44.76S 174 01.12W 05555 111 14.0 313 14 +3 19 FEB 02 27
4 AART 53 32.08S 173 48.28W 05560 103 14.3 300 19 +7 19 FEB 02 20
5 TYCO 53 57.92S 174 42.48W 05561 114 14.7 310 20 -3 19 FEB 02 16
6 TSEB 53 30.52S 173 50.16W 05562 105 14.1 294 21 +7 19 FEB 02 14
7 DJCE 53 43.76S 174 30.08W 05567 113 13.2 306 26 +5 19 FEB 02 12
8 ATOO 52 44.72S 175 29.92W 05636 108 12.1 261 95 +16 20 FEB 02 6
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