8. Tag der 4. Etappe des Volvo Ocean Race - 3. Februar 2002
„illbruck“ rekordverdächtig
Vorsprung ausgebaut / Beste 24-Stunden-Distanz des Feldes
Das müssen die Bedingungen sein, um dem berühmten „Teufel ein Ohr
abzusegeln“. Mit Spitzengeschwindigkeiten von über 30 Knoten (fast 60
km/h) surften die Yachten beim Volvo Ocean Race am Wochenende teils mehr
als zehn Meter hohe Wellenberge herunter. Allen voran die Leverkusener
„illbruck“, die ihre Führung in der vierten Etappe von Auckland nach Rio
de Janeiro gegenüber allen Konkurrenten deutlich ausgebaut hat. „Amer
Sports One“ (Finnland/Italien) lag als Zweite am Sonntag Morgen bereits 30
Seemeilen zurück vor „News Corp“ (Australien/32). Dabei legte die Crew um
Skipper John Kostecki rekordverdächtige Distanzen zurück. Einmal waren es
124 Seemeilen in sechs Stunden, ein Schnitt von über 20 Knoten. Der
24-Stunden-Weltrekord von 460,1 Seemeilen wackelte, die „illbruck“
schaffte 452, mit Abstand der beste Run der Flotte.
„Wir gehen Tag und Nacht Eiswache, es ist riskant, aber da müssen wir
durch“, meldete Kostecki von Bord der „illbruck“. An Schlafen sei kaum zu
denken, wenn der stürmische Wind das Boot über die Wellenkämme treibt.
Allein das Knarren der Winsch, auf der die Spinnakerschot getrimmt wird, sei
ohrenbetäubend. Unter Deck breiten sich die kriechende Nässe und Kälte
immer mehr aus. Noch 2.500 Seemeilen, rund eine Woche bis Kap Hoorn,
dürfte es so weitergehen. Die härteste Segelregatta der Welt macht ihrem
Ruf alle Ehre.
Die anderen Boote sind dem Spitzenreiter mit einem Höllentempo auf den
Fersen, doch vor allem in der Nacht von Sonnabend auf Sonntag konnte
keiner Schritt halten. Sie verloren in sechs Stunden zwischen 13 („Amer
Sports One“) und 26 Seemeilen („SEB“) auf das deutsche Boot. Alle wollen
zwar verhindern, dass illbruck Challenge ihre Führung in der Gesamtwertung
weiter ausbaut. Nach zwei sensationellen Siegen in den ersten beiden
Etappen und einem vierten Rang von Sydney nach Auckland trägt die
grün-weiße „illbruck“ das gelbe Trikot seit Kapstadt ununterbrochen. Doch
Schritt halten kann offenbar zur Zeit niemand. Der Ritt nach Rio ist mit
6.700 Seemeilen nicht nur der zweitlängste, sondern auch die vermeintlich
letzte der insgesamt neun Etappen, auf der dauerhaft über Tage schwere
Stürme herrschen.
Nachfolgend eine Email von Bord von Skipper John Kostecki:
Eiswache über Radar
2. Februar 2002, 15.00 Uhr
Seit heute sind wir offiziell im südlichen Eismeer. Wir sehen bei
Starkwind und rauer See Eisberge. Viele Boote meldeten heute "growlers",
kleine Eisstücke, die wir über Radar nicht erkennen können. Ganz schön
riskant! Was können wir des nachts dagegen tun? Gute Frage … auf die wir
keine Antwort haben. Wir können nur das Beste hoffen. Viele sagen, dass es
gefährlicher ist, durch eine verkehrsreiche Innenstadt zu fahren als durch
das Eismeer zu segeln. Ich hoffe nur, das erweist sich als richtig! Aber
wir halten auch nachts ein Auge auf dem Radar und hoffen, dass die
Eisstücke groß genug sind, auf dem Bildschirm zu erscheinen.
Heute hatten wir eine steife Brise, die bis auf 40 Knoten aufgefrischt
ist. Manchmal ist es mit Spinnaker ein bisschen zu viel, aber wir reiten
es einfach aus. Denn wir müssen für das Mittel die richtige Beseglung
haben - immer auf die durchschnittliche Windgeschwindigkeit achten und
daraus den Trend ableiten. Zeigt der Trend nach oben, über 35 bis 40
Knoten, dann ist wohl Zeit, den Spi einzuholen. Machen die anderen das
auch so? Keine Ahnung, aber wir wissen genau, dass jeder sein Boot bis an
die absolute Grenze treibt.
Es ist schwierig, hier etwas Schlaf zu erwischen. Das Boot wird
herumgeschubst und auf den Wellen hin- und hergewirbelt. Bei 25 bis 30
Knoten Bootsgeschwindigkeit macht das Wasser einen enormen Krach. Am
lautesten ist es, wenn die Spinnakerschot getrimmt wird, während das Boot
über jede Welle surft. Die meisten Jungs tragen Ohrstöpsel, um all diese
Geräusche auszublenden. Als Skipper habe ich aber auch im Schlaf lieber
meine Ohren "offen", damit ich alles hören kann oder jederzeit zu allem
bereit bin.
Cheers
John Kostecki
Weitere Informationen:
Andreas Kling
Tel: 0172/2578817
akling@illbruck-Challenge.com
http://media.illbruck-Challenge.de
http://www.illbruck.com
Southampton, England, February 3, 2002 Day 8
The one thing you just don’t need
Flu is the one thing that plagues most of us at some time or another.
Sometimes, at best it is a hindrance and at worst, it lays us flat
completely and we are forced to take time off from work to recover. In
the middle of the Southern Ocean, however, this is certainly not an
option. Conditions are tough for the healthiest and fittest body, but
add to that the misery of a fluey cold and a day in the office can turn
into your worst nightmare.
For Lisa McDonald on Amer Sports Too, this is reality. She reported back
that she had gone down with the flu and it was making her feel extremely
listless. All she could hope was that the antibiotics will start to take
effect soon.
“We take for granted that after a four hour watch you come down below with
red, watery, stinging, salt sore eyes: a nose so cold and dribbly you
think it may fall off or at least you hope it might: jaw-ache from
chattering your way through the cold air; hands so cold that your numb
fingers can't operate even the simplest task of unzipping a dry-suit and
walking on stumps because you can't feel your toes...and that is all while
being a healthy finely tuned athlete.”
“What I have experienced the past few days I wouldn't recommend to anyone,
all of the above combined with a nasty fluey cold, adding to the list a
stuffy, achy, sinus blocked sore head; constantly weepy eyes and drippy
nose; complete and total lack of energy; sore throat with no voice and a
relentless chesty cough. All this 24 hours a day. If you were home in a
proper daily job this would definitely call for a day off in bed with a
good book and a hot toddy or bundled up in front of the telly and a warm
fire, but no good in thinking about all that as we don't have days off; or
even sick days…. I’m told, the antibiotics will kick in a day or so, I
can't wait,” she continued.
Conditions on board the other boats are similarly miserable. The crews
are coping with extreme cold and wet on deck and severe condensation
below. Combine this with constant attention to the radar for icebergs
and ice watch as well, along with the high winds the boats have been
working with and it’s not surprising that the crews are feeling humble
towards the elements.
Nicholas White wrote from News Corp, “On board, life is pretty much like
the brochures would have said if they had given us some when we joined up.
Everything is damp and the boat seems to continually develop new places to
let the water in. The slosh of ice-cold water in the leeward bilge beside
my nav station is not a very warming sound.” They had seen more icebergs
along with a whale, which they had passed just five metres from the boat,
while sailing at around 20 knots.
Life onboard illbruck for Richard Clarke was not much better, “It is hard
enough to stay in your bunk let alone sit here on the floor in the back of
the bus and not get tossed into the puddle of water to leeward. I am also
being dripped on from the constant condensation that accumulates on the
ceiling. It is so cold on deck and I spend most of the time on deck
counting the minutes until I can crawl into my mostly dry sleeping bag and
get warm again.”
djuice were enjoying the exhilarating sail, but in a slightly reserved
sense with safety paramount, “A wipeout in these conditions would
certainly result in untold damage. When off watch you lay in your bunk
with the feeling of riding a massive roller coaster on a bumpy track,
hoping like hell that the juggling driver and trimmers manage to keep all
the balls in the air,” wrote back Grant Wharington.
“We have seen a fair bit of ice last night within half a mile, especially
last night with a bit of moonlight. It is pretty hard to see that stuff on
the radar and I am pretty nervous about it. I hate that stuff. You are not
going to catch me down here again with this much ice, that’s for sure,”
wrote Mark Rudiger from ASSA ABLOY. They were pushing the boat hard and
were feeling in a good spirits, “Now sailing with the A5 [asymmetric
spinnaker], it feels good. Got lifted a bit, sailing east-southeast.
Sighted another iceberg of our port bow. They are around that is for
sure.”
Steve Hayles on Tyco found that the crew were also finding condensation
and the cold and damp an uncomfortable issue, “As to life on board - well
its certainly colder than it was, but will probably get colder yet as we
drop deeper south into colder seas. With so much water flying about on
deck, it’s hard to keep the inside of the boat dry and that means cold and
wet bunks, which in turn means bad sleep. We do what we can to dry the
boat out, but I was still surprised yesterday to see Damian [Foxhall] with
a chamois in his hand wiping down the hull next to his bunk. It’s
actually not as strange as it may seem, as condensation is one of the
major reasons for the boat being cold and damp inside.”
The fleet continues sailing east towards Cape Horn at 57 degrees south
with SEB the southernmost boat and Amer Sports One and illbruck the most
northerly of the leading boats.
Southampton, England, February 3, 2002 2200 GMT
illbruck stretches away
In the last six hours, illbruck, now race leader for 24 hours, has
stretched away further from Tyco in second place by another seven miles
and also managed to put distance on the rest of the boats. illbruck has
indextained wind speeds of over 20 knots for most of the period and
although Amer Sports One has generally been sailing in stronger winds, she
has not been able to close any distance. The race for second place still
reindexs tight, with only nine miles separating Tyco, Amer Sports One and
News Corp in fourth place.
Amer Sports Too has taken a big dive to the south, and ASSA ABLOY, djuice
and News Corp have all attempted to put a little more south into their
tracks. Gunnar Krantz from SEB was disappointed that their southerly
route had not paid for them and wrote, “We should have been more
aggressive to abort the southerly track and go east a lot earlier,” but he
was hopeful that there would be a new weather system which would help
reduce the distance on the leaders.
Volvo Ocean Race Position Report, Day 8, 2156 GMT
PS Yacht Latitude Longitude DTF CMG SMG TFHR DTL DTL-C ETA PO
1 ILBK 57 29.92S 140 58.72W 04559 095 16.2 416 0 0 19 FEB 02 29
2 TYCO 58 02.20S 142 46.88W 04592 099 14.5 398 33 +7 19 FEB 02 19
3 AONE 57 27.12S 142 17.64W 04597 092 15.3 390 38 +8 19 FEB 02 24
4 NEWS 58 21.16S 143 27.76W 04601 100 14.2 385 42 +8 19 FEB 02 21
5 DJCE 58 28.56S 145 16.96W 04646 113 12.8 354 87 +11 19 FEB 02 14
6 AART 58 07.40S 144 57.48W 04649 111 13.2 360 90 +10 19 FEB 02 18
7 TSEB 58 49.48S 146 18.28W 04663 109 12.6 351 104 +14 19 FEB 02 13
8 ATOO 56 49.44S 150 10.00W 04832 128 09.9 319 273 +27 20 FEB 02 6
Southampton, England, February 3, 2002 1600 GMT
Cold and damp
Conditions in the Southern Ocean are still miserable for the Volvo Ocean
Race crews. Most of the boats are reporting that conditions below decks
are not an awful lot better than they are on watch. The index problem is
the condensation for the off watch crews, while they are trying to sleep.
“The boat seems to continually develop new places to let the water in…”
moaned Nicholas White from News Corp. Richard Clarke from illbruck
reported, “I am being dripped on from the constant condensation…”. As
for the cold, Grant Wharington confirmed from djuice, “4 degrees water
temperature, outside temp around 1 degree and then there is the wind
chill…”.
The wind conditions are varied across the fleet. SEB in the south has
around 17 knots, Amer Sports Too is also struggling with 15 knots, while
Amer One is indextaining wind of around 30 knots! illbruck, Tyco, djuice
and News Corp are sailing with around 20 – 25 knots. Accordingly boat
speeds are varied too, from 11 knots on occasions, to illbruck at 18!
Volvo Ocean Race Position Report, Day 8, 1554 GMT
PS Yacht Latitude Longitude DTF CMG SMG TFHR DTL DTL-C ETA PO
1 ILBK 57 22.28S 143 58.36W 04646 086 17.2 432 0 0 19 FEB 02 29
2 TYCO 57 48.00S 145 27.48W 04672 094 16.8 414 26 -7 19 FEB 02 19
3 AONE 57 24.20S 145 06.76W 04676 086 16.9 395 30 +2 19 FEB 02 24
4 NEWS 58 06.36S 146 06.68W 04680 090 16.1 398 34 +2 19 FEB 02 21
5 DJCE 57 58.32S 147 30.44W 04722 096 14.9 372 76 +4 19 FEB 02 14
6 AART 57 39.72S 147 16.32W 04726 101 15.2 379 80 -1 19 FEB 02 18
7 TSEB 58 24.40S 148 34.92W 04736 094 15.2 372 90 +3 19 FEB 02 13
8 ATOO 56 13.00S 151 36.04W 04892 106 13.7 362 246 +6 20 FEB 02 6
Southampton, England, February 3, 2002 1000 GMT
Bad Memories
The fleet is splitting up more and more. illbruck is still holding the
lead with incredible pace, hunted by Amer Sports One, News Corp and Tyco,
all roughly 30 miles behind, doing the same speed or slightly faster. Amer
Sports One is on the same latitude now having managed to get down without
bigger losses after being the first one who went east further north some
days ago.
Djuice, ASSA ABLOY and SEB are all falling back, lacking one to two knots
of boat speed, without a noticeable difference in wind conditions.
Amer Sports Too’s skipper Lisa McDonald reported a bad cold with symptoms
of flu. Still she is doing her watch and pushing the boat. It must be a
bad day for Lisa, because four years ago she was in the same waters, when
damage in the rig of EF Education, eventually caused the mast to come down
a week later.
Volvo Ocean Race Position Report, Day 8, 0956 GMT
PS Yacht Latitude Longitude DTF CMG SMG TFHR DTL DTL-C ETA PO
1 ILBK 57 29.44S 147 08.36W 04728 090 17.8 447 0 +0 19 FEB 02 29
2 AONE 57 31.28S 148 13.48W 04756 097 17.1 397 28 -2 19 FEB 02 25
3 NEWS 58 06.92S 149 08.20W 04760 095 16.9 403 32 +0 19 FEB 02 22
4 TYCO 57 40.44S 148 35.16W 04761 095 18.0 425 33 -4 19 FEB 02 17
5 DJCE 57 49.56S 150 17.20W 04800 093 16.3 378 72 +6 19 FEB 02 14
6 AART 57 22.76S 150 01.00W 04809 092 16.1 393 81 +8 19 FEB 02 18
7 TSEB 58 17.68S 151 27.80W 04815 087 16.6 371 87 +10 19 FEB 02 13
8 ATOO 55 50.40S 153 56.20W 04968 089 14.4 375 240 +22 20 FEB 02 6
Southampton, England, February 3, 2002, Leg 4, Week 1
Shorts to thermals in 48 hours
Temperatures have plummeted quickly for the crews on the Volvo Ocean Race
in a very short time frame. Just one week ago, they started in Auckland
in warm and sunny conditions and were plagued with lighter than expected
winds. Since then, however, the teams have been on constant ice alert
for icebergs and growlers at 57 degrees south, in gale force winds on
their way to round Cape Horn, on this leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race to Rio
de Janeiro. Total distance for this leg is 6,700 nautical miles and it
is widely acknowledged that this can be the most demanding part of the
entire race.
All the crews thoroughly enjoyed Auckland, taking a holiday or going home
to see families over the three-week period. But now they were all glad to
be back on the racecourse. Nick White from News Corp wrote: “We're finally
back at sea. The last week seems to have dragged on, so most of us are
very pleased to be back here and we are one step closer to Rio!” Gurra
Krantz, who left his family onshore, also appreciated the good side of
racing again: “Good to be back on the water. Of course we like it in
Auckland, and of course it is hard to leave our nearest and dearest.
Despite that, the best thing for us on SEB is to get back into the racing
after our disastrous leg 3.” On the first night he was not so lucky, when
he cut himself on a knife when shifting sails. The latest medical
technology repaired it quickly, however - on board medic Glen Kessels
applied special superglue to the wound and simply put it back together.
Tyco led the fleet off the start line in Auckland and around the first two
turning marks, but from then on there have been numerous leader changes.
The fleet had to endure very light winds for the first few days, making
less than 12 knots of boat speed for the first five days.
Knut Frostad, skipper of the Norwegian yacht djuice, reflected during a
night watch, “It feels a bit strange right now. Here we are sailing side
by side in flat water, only seven knots of wind. It’s so quiet I can hear
the guys breathing in their bunks. In a week we will hardly hear our
voices for all the noise on deck from waves breaking over the deck,
winches grinding and crew screaming.”
The standard of racing in the fleet appeared to have dramatically improved
and sailors who had not raced all the legs are those who are more likely
to notice the increase in the level of competition. Nick White,
meteorologist on News Corp, was back on board after skipping leg three. He
wrote, “The good news is that this is extremely enjoyable sailing. One
thing I've noticed after having the last leg off, is that the standard in
the fleet has improved noticeably since legs one and two.”
One of the new faces on this leg of the race is previous race winner Paul
Cayard, joining Amer Sports One, to replace Dee Smith after an operation
on his shoulder had knocked him out until leg 5. It did not take Paul long
to get back into the rhythm of round the world racing: “Now that we have
been out here for a few hours, it is all coming back to me. The motion,
the sounds, the small quarters.”
On the afternoon of day three, eight yachts in the Volvo Ocean Race passed
their last island on route from New Zealand to Cape Horn; Chatham Island
which is 850km east of indexland New Zealand. This island group consists of
two index islands, both inhabited - Chatham Island and Pitt Island, which
form one of New Zealand’s smaller regions. The islands were formed by a
volcanic up-thrust.
The Chatham Islands have some history associated with the Volvo Ocean
Race, as Mark Christensen, watch leader on board illbruck explained,
“There is a little patch of water just south and east of Chatham Island
that is a little special to me. Eight years ago I sent a fax off Winston
(93-94 Whitbread Race) to my then girlfriend asking her to marry me. She
accepted, although it took her a few days and some worrying moments for me
as she worked out how to send back a reply. Technology has moved on a
little!”
The fleet held on to the light weather pattern and continued to head south
to sail around an area of high pressure and on into the Southern Ocean
where winds would pick up for them. Navigators and tacticians struggled
with the forecasts to try and predict where the next weather fronts would
help them to avoid the high and tensions mounted as the right tactical
decisions were agonised over.
Getting to the new wind from the west first is crucial to success in the
Southern Ocean and as the boats skirted around the western side of the
high pressure, the leading boats reindexed close together and still in
sight of each other.
ASSA ABLOY and djuice made the first significant move of the leg and
headed very slightly west away from the leading group. With wind
forecasted to increase from the west as two cold fronts moved east over
the fleet over the next two days, ASSA ABLOY’s navigator Mark Rudiger was
hoping that sailing the extra distance would pay off.
“We have set [ourselves] up to the west of the fleet and seem to be
gaining [distance] to the south which is where we believe the best passage
through the ridge will be. Currently we are gaining bearing on the boats
we can see. Also, all signs indicate new pressure will come from the west,
so we have that covered as well. The question is, will the extra miles we
have to sail pay off before they get the pressure as well? I think so,”
reported Rudiger.
Conditions reindexed light and News Corp reported that in 12 hours they
completed one manoeuvre, “What have we done recently? Well we’ve done a
gybe!” The News Corp crew, however, were enjoying the fine sailing
conditions ahead of what would be in store for them, when the stronger
westerlies would help to push them on their way fast forward towards Cape
Horn.
Amer Sports Too were trying to avoid gaps in the breeze, caused by the
high pressure system now centred to the north, but were questioning why
the routing wanted them to go to the east. Lisa McDonald wrote, “Being
this close to the centre of such a big high pressure system is like
walking on eggshells. As soon as the wind shifts and starts to drop I
hold my breath for a quick glance at the barometer… so far so good. We
are just skirting the edge of the system and staying in enough breeze to
keep us rolling… It seems crazy with all the weather routing wanting us
to go east, east, east and yet the fleet stays tight and dives south. “
The crews started to prepare in different ways for what laid ahead in the
Southern Ocean. They knew it was going to be extremely cold, wet and
windy. Gurra Krantz, skipper from SEB, had noticed that the crew’s minds
had turned to the Southern Ocean and that they were anxious to ensure that
the heaters would not fail them, “Our two heaters have been tested for
days… you want the heaters to work. To be able to dry your socks will make
all the difference when you get on watch. … you can at least start with
warm and maybe dry socks. It is the difference between heaven and hell.”
Finally the long wait for the big winds of the Southern Ocean was over.
The navigators and crews had been eagerly anticipating the cold front,
with the associated build in the wind speed for some days.
Paul Cayard had predicted the wind direction change and temperature drop
from the cold front, “A front is coming in the next 12 hours. We will
soon get some southwesterlies and start making some miles toward the Corn
(Cayard for Cape Horn). The good news down here is that the miles are
cheap. Degrees of longitude have fewer miles in them the further south
you go.
It will be cold in 30 hours. We are expecting 30 knots [wind] from 200
[degrees on the compass]. That is straight off the ice. With 200 wind
direction, we will be sailing 90-110 [degrees] true wind angle, so the
fire hose will be turned on again...we will see how much I missed that.”
Then finally the strong wind from the northwest set in, launching the
fleet immediately. Amer Sports One was the first boat to react and gybed
onto port. Immediately they started shooting off towards the southeast.
Shortly later djuice gybed, followed by illbruck, then SEB and ASSA ABLOY.
djuice decided two hours after their first gybe to go back to their
southerly course to move faster towards the approaching front of the low
pressure system. This index group calculated that they would have faster
conditions behind the front in the south, while Amer Sports One tried to
stay in front of the cold front as long as possible.
Tyco, News Corp and Amer Sports Too stayed on their course south and
changed heading once the front, which was moving with 35 knots to the
east, passed through. This change in wind direction also meant sail
changes, as Knut Frostad, skipper of djuice reported, “We had up to 36
knots of wind, and we are getting pretty close to the front that is
approaching from the west. We were throwing in a couple of gybes over the
last four hours to take some advantage of the breeze before the big shift.
The wind should lift a bit, go the north and we want to take advantage of
this before the big shift. I think that we gained a bit through this
moves. “
At this stage, tactical decisions were not being taken lightly, with
places being won and lost through just one small manoeuvre at the wrong
moment. In just 24 hours, SEB moved from top of the leader board to sixth
place. Navigators and tacticians juggled with 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, “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.
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 felt that eventually there would
be a gain to them, which would put them in a better position. As he said,
“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 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, “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.”
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.”
The fleet were then on constant alert for ice. Whether they were
watching for larger icebergs on the radar or growlers and small fragments
while they were on deck, the crews must reindex extra vigilant especially
at night. With SEB furthest in the south, she reported multiple
sightings of small free-floating fragments and growlers, as well as larger
ones on the radar. ASSA ABLOY, News Corp and djuice also made sightings.
As the boats were sailing with spinnakers and indextaining average speeds
of up to 20 knots, the conditions proved extremely dangerous.
Ross Field reported from News Corp, that there was concern in the crew and
that they were on full ice alert, “Never seen so many icebergs and
growlers in all my sailing in the Southern Ocean. Spotted our first one
and then all of a sudden sighted many others with growlers everywhere. We
were sailing thru, surfing at 23 knots, small bits of ice and at one stage
we passed within 20 feet of growler. Global warming???? I say yes,
there is ice breaking off the ice cap all the time. I have never seen ice
on this leg of the race before.”
“I am seriously worried now with night approaching. We have the radar on
full time and praying like hell we miss. Those jokes 'the ice bergs go
away at night' have disappeared and there is real concern,” continued
Field.
John Kostecki wrote from illbruck that they were sailing in strong winds
and he was also concerned about spotting ice at night, “We are seeing ice,
getting strong winds and having rough seas. Many boats today reported
growlers, small bits of ice, which were not showing up on the radar
screen. This is scary. What do you do at night? Good question..... we do
not have an answer, except hang on and hope for the best.”
illbruck were still pushing on with the spinnaker up in 40 knots of wind,
but kept an eye on the situation for any changes in wind speed, “We also
had some strong breeze today gusting to 40 knots. It is a bit much with
the kite up at times, but you just ride it out. You have to play the
averages. Keep an eye on the average wind speed over a period time, which
gives you the trend. If the trend is up, over 35-40 knots, then it might
be time to drop the kite.... But are the other guys doing that? We don't
know, but we do know that everyone is pushing these boats to the limit.”
The off watch crews even had to sleep in their foul weather gear, in case
they were required on deck in a hurry for sail changes, “This is the whole
thing about 'stand by'! I'm actually off watch, typing this report and
getting ready to nap, but every second off watch I’m on 'standby'. If it's
really rough, the 'standby' will sleep either in their full wet weather
gear on the sails downstairs or with their boots and gear down around your
ankles, but in a bunk, for easy and fast dressing” came back from djuice.
Volvo Ocean Race Position Report, Day 8, 0358 GMT
PS Yacht Latitude Longitude DTF CMG SMG TFHR DTL DTL-C ETA PO
1 ILBK 57 30.00S 150 26.48W 04816 104 18.5 452 0 +0 19 FEB 02 29
2 AONE 57 19.52S 151 21.52W 04846 104 16.0 413 30 +13 19 FEB 02 25
3 NEWS 57 57.52S 152 18.12W 04848 091 17.3 410 32 +17 19 FEB 02 22
4 TYCO 57 31.64S 151 53.92W 04853 093 17.3 433 37 +16 19 FEB 02 17
5 DJCE 57 45.04S 153 19.36W 04882 100 15.8 393 66 +17 19 FEB 02 14
6 AART 57 19.08S 152 58.44W 04889 104 16.2 406 73 +14 19 FEB 02 18
7 TSEB 58 22.12S 154 36.48W 04893 096 14.8 375 77 +26 19 FEB 02 13
8 ATOO 55 51.48S 156 29.48W 05034 097 17.0 385 218 +17 20 FEB 02 6
Southampton, England, February 3, 2002 0400 GMT
No Place For Error
Once again the Southern Ocean highway is producing exhilarating 24hr runs.
Five yachts are doing more than 400 miles in a day and illbruck is within
nine miles of SEB’s class record of leg 2. This performance has given
illbruck a 30-mile lead over Amer Sports One, but considering the speed
the yachts are doing this is under two hours sailing time.
Wind conditions are a constant 30 - 35 knots southwesterly with the wave
height down to four metres. News Corp had snowfall and Paul Cayard just
said, “the spray comes at you hard and cold”. SEB sailed through a field
of many small growlers again, but they are the southernmost yacht, close
to 60 degree south.
Illbruck’s straight line approach worked well over the last days, while
boats who did a lot if zigzagging like djuice, ASSA ABLOY and SEB had
always to pay in the long run for a short term gain. Amer Sports Too stays
on her northerly position, has kept pace with News Corp and djuice and
gained on SEB.
Volvo Ocean Race Position Report, Day 8, 0358 GMT
PS Yacht Latitude Longitude DTF CMG SMG TFHR DTL DTL-C ETA PO
1 ILBK 57 30.00S 150 26.48W 04816 104 18.5 452 0 +0 19 FEB 02 29
2 AONE 57 19.52S 151 21.52W 04846 104 16.0 413 30 +13 19 FEB 02 25
3 NEWS 57 57.52S 152 18.12W 04848 091 17.3 410 32 +17 19 FEB 02 22
4 TYCO 57 31.64S 151 53.92W 04853 093 17.3 433 37 +16 19 FEB 02 17
5 DJCE 57 45.04S 153 19.36W 04882 100 15.8 393 66 +17 19 FEB 02 14
6 AART 57 19.08S 152 58.44W 04889 104 16.2 406 73 +14 19 FEB 02 18
7 TSEB 58 22.12S 154 36.48W 04893 096 14.8 375 77 +26 19 FEB 02 13
8 ATOO 55 51.48S 156 29.48W 05034 097 17.0 385 218 +17 20 FEB 02 6
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