Miami, USA, April 11th, 2002
JOHN KOSTECKI/SKIPPER ILLBRUCK/PRE LEG 6
Q: What is your crew line up for the next leg?
A: We have 13 sailing crew and 12 on the boat. Ian Moore did the first
leg with us and we are going to go back to crew we had on our successful
first leg. This will beef up our navigation and tactical strategy side on
our boat. This leg is going to be short and it is going to be very
difficult sailing in the Chesapeake. We want to be strong tactically and
in the navigation areas as well.
Q: Have you been up and had a look at the Chesapeake?
A: We were up in the Chesapeake this week. Chris Bedford our
meteorologist, our two navigators and myself. We flew over the Chesapeake
and we also got an opportunity to speak with some of the locals up there
so it was a quite valuable experience.
Q: How do you think this leg will shape up?
A: Every leg has been tight, and anyone could win it (leg 6). Oddly
enough we could see some separation because of the Gulf Stream. The Gulf
Stream normally plays a big part in this leg, when to exit it and when not
to, and in the last race, that proved to be the deciding factor between
first and second. I hope it is a close race and that we will be up in the
top three.
Q: As the leaders, are you expecting to have a tough race?
A: Nobody really gives us any chances or clean air. It’s tough but that
is always the case in sailboat racing, when you are leading the regatta,
nobody really gives you a break. We have tough guys on board mentally and
we are very capable of overcoming that.
Q: How confident do you feel about sailing in the Chesapeake Bay?
A: I did the this leg last time, so I have raced in and out of the
Chesapeake, then last year we sailed our two training boats from
Charleston all the way up the Chesapeake and into Baltimore and also back
out. We have spent a fair amount of time up there and we feel quite
comfortable.
Q: Is it nice being back in the USA?
A: It’s great to be back in the United States and I am enjoying the
American comforts. All the past stopovers have been good as well and it
has been fun.
Miami, USA, April 10th, 2002
NEAL MCDONALD/SKIPPER ASSA ABLOY/PRE START LEG 6
Q: Three days of tough racing ahead, what have you had to do to get the
boat ready for a different kind of leg?
A: I’ve been looking at it since we got here, and the weather
characteristics, although it is a very different part of the world, it’s
not dissimilar to the Hobart. Sydney you start in a sunny, warm, nice
place with sea breezes and you get whacked as soon as you get into the
Bass Strait. Here we start in predictably South-East trades, so we start
in light medium winds reaching, and by the time we get to Hatteras we
start getting out of the trade wind belt, and into frontal systems, more
like the weather we see in England. So what we normally would expect would
be a change from running, reaching conditions to on the wind, and probably
quite unpleasant conditions.
Q: Are you happy with your performance in those conditions?
A: Yeah, we’re pretty comfortable, we’ve invested some time and effort
during the last few legs planning what we will do in terms of the light
wind end that we’re likely to have. Chesapeake Bay is about 120 miles up
the bay there, and the odds are at some stage we’ll get some light airs,
so we’ve had to specialise a couple of sails to look at that, we’ve got
them here, and we’re pretty comfortable with what we’ve got. Other than
that it’s a leg where we’re going to see quite a varied set of conditions,
so we’re not setting up the boat particularly specially.
Q: Is it important to get a good start on the next leg?
A: I think it is, I don’t think we have had a good start yet, or not what
I would class as a good start. So we’re trying to home in on that part of
the race, I think it is always important to try and get a good start, some
legs it is less significant than others, but as the legs get shorter it
generally is. So we want to get a better start this time.
Q: Is it very important now to get a podium place?
A: For sure, we need to keep getting some good results if we want to keep
moving up the scoreboard, there’s not far for us to go up that scoreboard,
so we’re hoping to get a good result. We know what sort of racing we’re
likely to get, it’s going to be very difficult to be consistent, and any
one of the boats could win this leg.
Q: How do you try to minimise mistakes?
A: We just have to try and keep on the ball, it’s a bit like the Hobart in
that it’s a hard dilemma, three days is a difficult length of race, the
tendency is to try and be on deck more, to try and push the boat harder,
but it is important that people don’t tire themselves out, so it is a
compromise that we’re going to have to work quite hard on.
Miami, USA, April 11th, 2002
LISA MCDONALD/SKIPPER AMER SPORTS TOO/PRE LEG 6
Q: Are you looking forward to the next leg?
A: Yes and no to looking forward to leg six, we know what potential leg
six has to be one of the roughest and most uncomfortable legs, based on
experience from four years ago in the Whitbread race. If you’ve got very
strong northerlies against a very strong southerly current that makes for
very unpleasant seaway, very near to land. However, at the moment we’re
looking to see what the conditions are shaping up to be, and if they end
up being conditions which are good for us and good for a smaller, and bit
lighter weight crew, then we may have a small advantage over the other
teams. At the moment we’re just trying to get the boat geared up, make
sure that everything works and is back in order, and try to do a little
bit of what we did last time, it’s potentially a four day race, we’ll see
what the wind Gods throw at us!
Q: You’ve had a few problems this stopover, how is Amer Sports Too?
A: The boat is actually in very good shape at the moment, we have a
fantastic shore crew, who helped us out with a lick of paint and covered
up a few minor dings in the bottom of the boat and the keel. We have been
quite busy with our guests and sponsors in town, doing a lot of sailing.
At the same time as taking them sailing out here in Miami, we are ensuring
the boat is back together and in good shape for leg six.
Q: Have you had a chance to go to Chesapeake and have a look?
A: No, I hear a few people have been up there. I think we know the
Chesapeake as the beast she is, and some of the pitfalls to look out for.
At the moment we are really concentrating more on the weather on the way
up, then once we’re up there we’ll focus more on what to do when we get
there!
Q: Have you sailed this course much before?
A: I have only sailed locally in Miami and Ft Lauderdale, and once all the
way up the Chesapeake, twice actually, going up and coming down. We’re
looking forward to going to Baltimore, it was a fantastic stopover for us
last time, and I’m certain it will be the same again.
Q: Any local knowledge onboard? Katie Pettibone, for example?
A: Absolutely, Katie’s knowledge of Florida will be superb having been to
school here, and having done a lot of sailing in the Miami area, for
getting out of here. We’re also bringing back Melissa Purdy for this leg,
with her tactical background we’ll hopefully find a good position amongst
the fleet.
Miami, USA, April 11th, 2002
KEVIN SHOEBRIDGE/SKIPPER TYCO/PRE LEG 6
Q: Leg six, more match racing, you must be getting sick of it!
A: It is a very short leg and people consider it a sprint, but not a lot
changes between a three day leg and a 20 day leg, like the one we’ve just
had. We match raced the whole way for 20 days. So it doesn’t really mean
we will be changing the boat a whole lot, we have to change our watch
system slightly so that we can get more manpower on deck for longer
periods, but we’ll only do that weather-dependent. If it’s light we will
probably want the weight downstairs, so we’re not making any crew changes,
we’re really just reorganising ourselves about how we make tactical
decisions, but staying with the same guys.
Q: Is this a leg you like?
A: I like it because it is short! And its going be intense, but the bad
side to this leg is that if you do make one little mistake and get five
miles behind, you never get it back. You can defend a five mile lead on
this leg where you can’t on any other leg. On any other leg the options
are so wide to get out the side of someone, you can get round them; we’ve
seen boats come back from 100 miles behind no problem. You can’t do that
here, it’s a direct route and it’s very difficult to get out of sight of
someone. It’s like doing the Hobart race if you can see them on the
horizon, you’re hardly even thinking about them on this leg.
Q: Everyone’s talking about weather, how much homework do you have to do?
A: We’ve done a lot of homework, we’re doing the scientific side, which
everyone does, gathering data and all the rest of it, but what we’re also
trying to do is get a little bit more practical information. We’re trying
to get some local guys who have done the sail a lot and just sit down at a
table with them and just talk it through; especially Cape Hatteras and the
approach into the Chesapeake. Also we have got three of our team up in
Baltimore, our navigator, our tactician and our weather expert. They’re
just trying to familiarise themselves with the area, like we anticipate
that it will be a very close race and there’s the possibility we’ll be
going up there in the middle of the night, and we don’t want any
surprises.
Q: Not making any changes, are you happy with the way things are?
A: Yeah, we made one change in Rio, and that was a change within our team
anyway, we got Fuzz, our sail designer onboard, which went really well, so
we’re using him again; he’s also a local in Annapolis so that’s quite
handy. We’ll probably make another change from that point on for the next
leg. But we’re pretty happy with how the boat is running.
Q: You have three successive thirds, but with the points situation you
need a better podium place…
A: We do really, if there is any hope of any of us getting close to
illbruck, they have to stop getting in the top three, they need to fall
back a bit or do some damage or something. For us, we’re in a tight spot,
we’re only one point behind third and one point ahead of the boat behind
us. We’ve really got to make or break, this leg will see some overall
changes I would imagine, on the overall positions. Grant’s got to defend
his placing, we’ve got to try and get up and keep News Corp back, but
we’re not going to go out and try to defend against one boat, we’re not
going to match race any boat or pick on one boat in particular, because I
can see us working our way to the back of the fleet. We are just going to
get to Baltimore as fast as we can
Q: I was going to ask you whether you would be covering illbruck!
A: No, I’ve done this before and you can get yourselves seriously messed
up by doing it, that guy could be going the wrong way so he’s just
dragging you with him! I think it is a bad focus to have, it might work on
the last leg, but on a leg like this when you are still trying to break
away from the pack we need to come first, we don’t want to come fourth.
Q: Have you enjoyed Miami?
A: Miami has been a good stopover for us, it’s given the team a good
break, but the problem with good breaks is that you’ve got to get everyone
back here and get the mind back on the job. The guys don’t get enough rest
and it’s a hard, hard nine months, its very hard to flick moods, I was
just starting to enjoy my time off on the last day and on the last night
all I could think about was what we hadn’t done over the last five days, I
don’t know if you ever relax, which is probably a bad thing.
Q: Do you have to crack the whip as skipper?
A: Not really, they’re all self-motivated people and they all know what
they’re here for, they’re professional, they get paid to be professional
so they have to act like it. I think everyone knew that before the start,
occasionally when we have a few things, it’s never a bad thing it’s just a
reminder.
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