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Southampton, England, Leg 4, Week 4
Dedication, Emotion And Excitement
illbruck has won leg four of the Volvo Ocean Race into Rio de Janeiro,
finishing at 05:58:42 GMT. The wind had died and left the fleet to claw
their way to the finish line in a frustrating stop start fashion. ETAs
were pushed further back as the wind shut off.
However, a delighted John Kostecki from illbruck said on the dock, “It
feels really, really good. It was a tough leg, especially these last three
days with the fleet catching up the whole time. It was some tense sailing
and I think all the competitors will admit to that. We toughed it out.”
The tactics into the finish were tough for the entire fleet, but
especially for illbruck to indextain her lead, having watched her gain
shorten so quickly, “We just played it safe the whole time, played it
smart. We went with the gains when we could, sometimes it paid off,
sometimes it didn’t. Sometimes we couldn’t cover and other times it worked
for us.”
A very happy team on board djuice fought to their second place in the
final twelve hours of the race and Knut Frostad said, “If you have been
stressed watching us, imagine how it has been onboard. Unbelievable.
Twelve hours ago there were three miles between second and fifth place.
We made a pretty good call to gybe later than the other guys to stay
nearer to the shore and realising that nobody else wanted to do it. I
don’t think I slept at all during the last 30 hours. But it’s been great.
I haven’t slept for 36 hours but I am pretty happy!”
Tyco came in third, leaving ASSA ABLOY becalmed just one mile from the
finish. “Really good. It’s been a very strange leg. The first couple
of weeks in the Southern Ocean were tough and we felt really happy about
how we got through that. We got to Cape Horn in third place, but right
alongside Amer Sports One, so we felt really good with that. We pretty
much sailed the race we wanted to sail up the coast of Brazil and it all
went strange in the last couple of days. We got into second but lost
that, but at the same time we’re happy to get third, we could have easily
have been fifth,” said Kevin Shoebridge on the dock at the finish.
ASSA ABLOY managed her fourth place, although for a while it appeared that
Amer Sports One could have caught her on some breeze, while ASSA ABLOY was
becalmed just before the finish.
Paul Cayard was disappointed with the fifth place, but expressed the
wonderful experience for the entire crew, “It was tough, a lot tougher
than last time. It was close all the way from the Horn; there was never
more than 40 miles between the boats. I would rather have left a better
mark on the project than coming fifth”, and also acknowledged that the
results could have gone either way.
With the five leading boats in the Volvo Ocean Race already finished and
safely tied up in Rio de Janeiro, the race was on for Amer Sports Too
trying to catch up with and pass the damaged News Corp. News Corp lost
her rudder on February 14 and at the time, the crew had their suspicions
that the growler they hit in the Southern Ocean could have weakened it.
Amer Sports Too has been gaining on News Corp constantly. Most of the
time, News Corp had much less wind than Amer Sports Too, trying to
overtake and gain another point. The big question was: Will they make it?
In the light conditions, Jez Fanstone and his crew could sail the boat on
maximum performance, but when the ride would get too bumpy in more breeze,
the pressure on the rudder could easily exceed the specifications for the
stern hung emergency rudder system. This would have forced them to take
the throttle back and slow down, leaving them defenceless against the
charging Amer Sports Too.
News Corp reported a scary experience with a waterspout, developing right
above their heads with the funnel coming right down on them. The yacht
managed to avoid it be a mere 50 metres, dangerous even if much smaller
than the one experienced at Sydney.
On the last miles, News Corp had to beat into headwinds after the wind
shifted over the final hours all the way to the north-northeast. Then
finally, a relieved crew took down the sails after crossing the finish
line, knowing that they have made the best that was possible under the
difficult circumstances.
After good progress for most of the night, Amer Sports Too got stuck right
in front of the harbour entrance to Rio, just four and a half miles from
the finish line. The sunrise in three hour will give hope for some
convection, creating a local breeze to help them over the final miles.
Finally in the early hours of February 21, Amer Sports Too crossed the
finish line, bringing a historic leg of the Volvo Ocean Race to an end.
Overall position after four legs pending protests
PS Yacht Leg 4 points Arrival Time Elapsed Time Combined Time PO Overall
Pos.
1 ILBK 8 19 FEB 02 05:58:42 023d 05h 58m 42s 085d 16h 33m 38s 29 1
2 DJCE 7 19 FEB 02 11:52:42 023d 11h 52m 42s 092d 06h 23m 59s 17 6
3 TYCO 6 19 FEB 02 13:04:52 023d 13h 04m 52s - 18 5
4 AART 5 19 FEB 02 14:22:21 023d 14h 22m 21s 089d 18h 56m 07s 20 3
5 AONE 4 19 FEB 02 14:50:55 023d 14h 50m 55s 086d 08h 41m 09s 22 2
6 NEWS 3 20 FEB 02 21:55:10 024d 21h 55m 10s 088d 20h 04m 50s 19 4
7 ATOO 2 21 FEB 02 11:05:50 025d 11h 06m 50s 099d 09h 24m 16s 7 8
8 TSEB 1 Retired ---------- ---------- 8 7
Leaderboard
PS Yacht Points
1 illbruck 29
2 Amer Sports One 22
3 ASSA ABLOY 20
4 News Corp 19
5 Tyco 18
6 Djuice 17
7 SEB 12
8 Amer Sports Too 7
PS – Position; DTF – Distance to Finish; CMG – Course made good; SMG –
Speed made good; TFHR – 24 hours run; DTL – Distance to leader; DTL-C –
Distance to leader change; ETA – Estimated time of arrival; PO –
accumulated Points
ILBK illbruck Challenge
AONE Amer Sports One
ATOO Amer Sports Two
AART ASSA ABLOY Racing Team
NEWS News Corporation
TYCO Team Tyco
TSEB Team SEB
DJCE djuice dragons
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