17.02.2006
Movistar steals Kiwi thunder
This week has certainly been a busy one for the Volvo Ocean Race teams, with leg three, the first of the sprint legs from Melbourne, Australia to Wellington, New Zealand, starting and finishing dramatically, albeit slowly, with plenty of high speed action in-between. The Tasman sea, notorious for it’s short sharp waves and treacherous weather, did not give the teams much respite, but did allow them to race quickly to the pit stop, giving them a brief chance to rest and recuperate.
After 1450 nautical miles, the race to win poll position into Wellington was finally decided in nail biting fashion at 0009 GMT on Thursday February 16, when Spanish movistar, skippered by Bouwe Bekking from Holland, led Mike Sanderson in ABN AMRO ONE over the finish line by nine seconds. This is the closest finish in the history of the Volvo Ocean Race formerly known as the Whitbread Round the World Race.
Movistar, designed by Farr Yacht Design, has had her fair share of bad luck when she missed the first leg of the race due to structural damage on her first night out at sea. The determined team then had the frustration of keel ram failure in the second leg forcing them to slow down twice, so by leg three they were due some good luck.
They stayed in the middle of the fleet’s north south divide, with ABN AMRO ONE all the way across the Tasman Sea, but as the conditions grew windier, the Kouyoumdjian designed Dutch boat sailed away from them. Knowing their strength lay in light airs, Bouwe and his boys waited, and when the predicted fickle breeze in the Cook Strait materialised, they reeled in their prey and started a passionate fight to the very end.
An ecstatic Bouwe Bekking described his feelings when he reached shore, "This is a really sweet victory. We just managed to hang in there so we are really happy. We have a really fantastic team and a strong after guard in Stuart Bannatyne, Chris Nicholson and myself and it means that we could swap over so we all managed to get some sleep. This leg has been unbelievably tense.”
Mike Sanderson and his predominately Kiwi crew would have revelled in coming first into their home country but it wasn’t to be. But the ever-gracious Sanderson commented, "It was a bit sad for us but great for movistar. We lost a 40 mile lead and that is pretty tough but we have had some awesome racing over the last 24 hours so we are pleased that we managed to hang on. We can't be upset, we have extended our lead by adding six points to our score and that is why we are here.”
Three hours later the same afternoon, The Black Pearl slipped into the harbour with Paul and his Pirates taking third position, followed shortly by disappointed yachts Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) and ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse). Both these teams have suffered a few injuries onboard which may have slowed their progress.
Gerd van Poortman, the Dutch bowman on ABN AMRO TWO, was washed from the bow by a huge wave, breaking his fall on one to the two dagger boards. As well as cutting his face quite badly and needing three stitches, more seriously, he also damaged his back. He was confined to his bunk for the rest of the leg, and on arrival in Wellington, he was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with a dislocated tail bone. His face is healing well, but van his tail bone will take between three and six weeks to heal and he will now skip leg four which starts on Sunday, being replaced by Brazilian Lucas Brun.
Lucas, who has, so far, only sailed inshore races on ABN AMRO TWO, is sad for his colleague, but happy as well. He will now sail the leg into Rio de Janeiro, the city where he was born, grew up and has lived all his life.
Brun commented, “Of course this is not the way I wanted to be on the boat, but I am happy. I have to say as soon as I started the campaign I knew that the chance of not being on the boat for any leg was very real but this leg was the one that I really wanted to sail. Arriving into Rio makes this even more exciting for me is going to be an amazing feeling. Before that though, we have a lot of miles to race and I have to work hard with the guys who have all been sailing together since the start. I am looking forward to Sunday. Rio here we come.”
Finally as Ericsson Racing Team, skippered by British Neal McDonald, came into sight of the finish, they dropped their sails, and motored into Wellington, in a dramatic turn of events.
As this is a pit stop, no outside assistance is allowed in the port of Wellington unless a two hour time penalty is taken at the start of leg four. Movistar has decided to take this penalty in order to haul the boat out of the water to fix the ‘bomb doors’ which are the seals around the canting keel.
Ericsson Racing Team however, made the decision to suspend racing before the end of the leg so that they could have their shore crew overhaul the boat without incurring the two hour penalty. Neal McDonald explained all to a very confused audience, when he reached the dock, “The rules are very clear and you are allowed to suspend racing. It is only something you would do if you were coming last. It is an opportunity to use some extra help and to get everything checked and get out there on Sunday in the best form we can. If we had caught ABN AMRO TWO we probably would not have made this decision but chosen to take a penalty at the start of the next leg.”
Ericsson Racing Team will now have to go back out into the bay, officially resume racing and cross the finish line in order to receive an official finish and elapsed time before the starting leg four.
For legs three and four, the fleet left Melbourne fully loaded with enough equipment and food supplies to take them straight through to the end of leg four in Rio de Janeiro. Pit stop rules do not permit any gear change onboard the boats while they are in Wellington, but the crew is able allowed to sleep ashore and rest before the long Southern Ocean around Cape Horn.
Leg three has possibly been the most action packed leg so far but as the teams prepare for the Southern Ocean again, we wonder what leg four has in store? And whether the strong winds followed by light patches around Rio will favour the Farr or Kouyoumdjian yachts. As Mike Sanderson regularly says, “Time will tell”.
Leg four from Wellington to Rio de Janeiro will start on Sunday February 19.
LEG THREE FINISH
YACHT
LEG POINTS
OVERALL
FINISH TIME
ELAPSED TIME
POSITION OVERALL
1
MOVI
7.0
25.0
16/02/06 00:09:26
003d 22h 09m 26s
3
2
ABN1
6.0
38.5
16/02/06 00:09:35
003d 22h 09m 35s
1
3
POTC
5.0
21.5
16/02/06 02:59:35
004d 00h 59m 35s
4
4
BRA1
4.0
20.0
16/02/06 05:12:30
004d 03h 12m 30s
5
5
ABN2
3.0
28.0
16/02/06 06:03:58
004d 04h 03m 58s
2
YACHT
Latitude
Longitude
DTF
SMG
24 Hour Run
24 Hour Speed
DTL
DTLC
PLPTS
POP
ETA
OVERALL
6
ERIC
41 16.54S
174 48.02E
2
03.9
220
09.2
00000
+00001
2.0
16.5
16/02/06 09:30:44
6
ABN1 ABN AMRO ONE
ABN2 ABN AMRO TWO
BRA1 Brasil 1
ERIC Ericsson Racing Team
MOVI movistar
POTC Pirates of the Caribbean
DTF: distance to finish, SMG: Speed made good, DTL: distance to leader, DTLC: distance to leader change; the difference between the distance from the boat to the leader taken at the time of the last six hour poll, and the distance from the boat to the leader at the previous poll
PLPTS: projected leg points
POP: projected overall points including actual points from scoring gates
OVERALL: projected position in race overall if yacht indextains current position
Sacha Oswald, Press Officer in Wellington
Tel: +64 21 104 5614
Email: sacha.oswald@volvooceanrace.org
Lizzie Green Press Officer at race headquarters:
Tel: +44 1489 554 832, Mob: +44 7801 185 320
Email: lizzie.green@volvooceanrace.org
Sophie Luther Press Assistant at race headquarters
Mob: +44 7956 285548 email: sophie.luther@volvooceanrace.org
Images
Royalty free images for editorial use are available from the Image Archive at http://media.vemuk.com For assistance, please contact: Patrick Anderson, Picture Desk Manager Tel: 44+ 1489 554867 Mobile: 44 777 55 33 956
Email: patrick.anderson@volvooceanrace.org
- Further information can be found at www.volvooceanrace.org .
|
