Velux 5 Oceans - Alone-Round the World Yacht Race www.velux5oceans.com - Übersicht 12.01.2007 THREE DAYS TO GO! THE VELUX 5 OCEANS SKIPPERS MAKE FINAL PREPARATIONS Western Australia host Fremantle prizegiving ceremony for leg one The skippers of the VELUX 5 OCEANS are counting down the final days until the second leg of the Ultimate Solo Challenge, one of the toughest and longest legs in solo ocean racing. Parked at the Fremantle Sailing Club, the formula one ocean yachts are beginning to look ready for the test that lies ahead. Whilst Bernard Stamm (SUI) and Kojiro Shiraishi (JPN) have enjoyed well over a month of preparation time in Fremantle (Western Australia), skippers such as Graham Dalton (NZL) and Unai Basurko (ESP) have had less than two weeks to prepare their yachts for the extreme conditions of the Southern Ocean. During the stopover, all the boats have come out the water and taken out their masts to ensure that everything is repaired and primed. As the clock ticks down towards 15:00 on Sunday (06:00 GMT) when the start gun fires and the fleet crosses the start line off Fremantle, the skippers have begun to prepare mentally, physically and emotionally for the challenges that lie ahead as they look east towards Cape Horn. However, before the intensity of racing recommences, Friday night saw the VELUX 5 OCEANS celebrate the achievements of the exciting first leg at a special prizegiving ceremony hosted by Western Australia at the Fremantle Maritime Museum. Skippers, families, shore teams, sponsors, organisers and friends of the race all joined together for evening to applaud the efforts and accomplishments since the fleet left Bilbao in October 2006. The race organisers and sponsors will award prizes after each leg for the 'Leg winner', for 'Seamanship' and for 'Media Contribution'. At the end of the race in Bilbao, the overall winner on elapsed time will collect the VELUX 5 OCEANS Race Trophy. Skippers will also accumulate points for seamanship and media contribution throughout the legs and in Bilbao overall winners will be chosen on merit. The winner of the media contribution award for the race will collect EUR 5,000 for their efforts, whilst the overall winner for seamanship throughout the race will receive the Shuten-dohji II Trophy. Bernard Stamm collected the VELUX leg trophy as winner of Leg One after completing an historic victory and enduring one of the toughest sailing experiences in his career. The result in leg one is a testament to the Swiss skipper's skill, tenacity and determination, affirming him as one of the top solo sailors in the world. Stamm managed to survive the incredible storm off Cape Finisterre and pushed ahead of the fleet, battling through torrid and icy conditions in the Southern Ocean with no thermal clothing onboard. The defending champion was forced to climb the mast three times alone at sea and two days before arriving in Fremantle Stamm encountered savage conditions worse than the storm in the Bay of Biscay and ran out of food before finally arriving in Fremantle with a lead of three days over rival Kojiro Shiraishi. The VELUX leg trophy exactly tells the story about the challenges the skippers battle against in the race as well as showing the route around the world that the skipper have to sail. It tells the story about one man's battle against the elements and celebrates the beauty of the race by using hard windows glass together with warm copper markings and burnishing which shows the route of the race. Early spring 2006, the Danish artist and designer Bettina Schori, accepted the assignment to create a trophy for the skippers who win the leg in the VELUX 5 OCEANS. The last couple of months she has been working intensively on the assignment in her studio in Copenhagen. The Seamanship Award was won by Mike Golding (GBR) for his heroic efforts in rescuing Alex Thomson (GBR) from HUGO BOSS. Thomson, who took the decision to abandon his yacht in the Southern Ocean, 1,000 miles from Cape Town, after suffering severe and irreparable damage to his canting keel system. Golding, who was close to 100 miles upwind of Thomson, did not hesitate to turn his boat back into 30 knots and big seas. Despite numerous problems onboard Ecover, which hampered his movement, Golding completed a dramatic rescue and saved Thomson from his life raft. Sadly, only hours after the rescue, Ecover's mast broke and after limping to Cape Town, Golding was forced to retire. The Media Contribution Award was collected by Japanese skipper Kojiro Shiraishi. The winner was judged on a number of criteria, evaluating the quantitative and qualitative output from the skippers with respect to video, photographic images, written reports and audio interviews. Koji, who has consistently delivered engaging and compelling media content, has become a huge star in Japan. Twice a week, Shiraishi talks live to the morning show on Fuji TV for ten minutes, regularly delaying the morning news. Bernard Stamm, Cheminées Poujoulat: "I will really have to look after all the gear and make sure that I don't break anything, because if I have to stop then I will have to comply with the 48 hour penalty and then Kojiro and the rest of the fleet will be very close. The six weeks in Fremantle have been instrumental; it was very important to undertake a full check-up. However, I only got my container yesterday which was obviously very late; I should have been finished preparing weeks ago but I still have a few things to do before the start so I am not as relaxed as I should be!" Kojiro Shiraishi, Spirit of Yukoh: "Whether I can win is really up to God and that all I can do is everything to the best of my ability. I really never, ever feel alone or lonely at sea. I try not to lose myself, and on the sea I talk to the ship and myself, and that's how I get through all the hardships. For me, the sea is what I have been aspiring for since I was a kid; it's something amazing and it shows you beautiful and very dynamic sceneries. The sea is my mother and my father, and to be able to learn from the sea is a blessing for me." Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Saga Insurance: "These are thoroughbreds these boats. They're not like Suhaili and you've got to be in charge of them, you've got to be focused on them, you've got to work hard on them. It's a very different sort of sailing to what I did thirty-seven years ago. And it was much easier then because my radio broke down after two and half months, and I didn't have to deal with all these communications and all these computers that keep breaking down. So I think in many ways, I'd be much happier if everything broke down, all the satellites fell out of the sky and I could just go back to just sailing." "I've had a super team backing me up here. They've done a fabulous job on the boat and most of the problems I had; in fact I think all the problems I had that caused trouble getting here have been addressed. So, I'm feeling much more confident about this next leg, although I have to say, one faces it with a certain amount of apprehension because it's a tough leg from here to Cape Horn, and I think like all the others, we will be very relieved when Cape Horn bears west. I came here to race. This first leg has been a disaster from a racing point of view, as far as I'm concerned." Graham Dalton, A Southern Man AGD: "We've got new sails coming in but they haven't arrived yet, and we're short of time but that's a function of arriving late. We had no major structural problems with the boat, I'd like another week, but I haven't got another week, and so there's no use complaining about that, you just have to get on with the job." "When I was given the news that my partner Robbie had undergone a mastectomy during the first leg, she told me that it was a bad story with good ending. It really didn't have an effect in terms of how I sailed the boat, that might sound a bit callous, but the sort of conditions that we were sailing in at the time, we were making decisions all the time that potentially were life and death decisions. The conditions were very, very bad, and so that just went into the mix, and she seems fine. We're here to race around the world and that's what we've got to be focused on." "I think probably all the skippers will be starting to feel the pressure a little of the Southern Ocean, because you know you're going to go out there; you know you're going to have problems and it's how you solve them. You know we could get a very good run to the Horn at this time of the year or we can get beaten up. We know that we've got ice south of New Zealand." Unai Basurko, PAKEA: "My shore crew has been working on the autopilot and we have been very, very clear on what we had to do. The designer was here in Fremantle, as well as constructor, so everybody has been working non stop and now the boat seems ready; of course I would like to have more time, but the boat is ready for a start." "The Southern Ocean is a very, very hard part of the world with big winds and big. I am actually looking forward to the leg and looking forward to passing Cape Horn. For the 72 days of leg one, I was very, very happy and my relationship with the ocean and with the boat was very good; It's true I have only been a few days onshore and that is a shame as I haven't been able to fully enjoy the pleasures of being onshore. But being positive, with such a short time on land, sailing is very, very fresh in my mind." LEG ONE AWARDS: Winner Leg One Bernard Stamm Cheminées Poujoulat Winner Seamanship Award Mike Golding Ecover Winner Media Contribution Award Kojiro Shiraishi Spirit of Yukoh - END - For more information on VELUX 5 OCEANS please visit www.velux5oceans.com , or contact: Tim Kelly RACE PRESS OFFICE: + 44 20 7494 1616 MOBILE: + 61 (0)420 409 848 / + 44 (0)7773 325 533 E: tim.kelly@pitchpr.com About Norfolk, Virginia (USA) Norfolk, which is home to Naval Station Norfolk, the largest military station in the world, can host hundreds of vessels at one time including cruise ships, destroyers and submarines and once made history when it berthed five nuclear aircraft carriers at the same time. The port will provide the skippers and ground crews of the VELUX 5 OCEANS with world class facilities. The City is bordered by the Chesapeake Bay and the Hampton Roads Harbour, one of the most famous sailing areas in the USA which attracts hundreds of thousands of yachts and sailing fanatics to the area every year and has played host to some of the world's major sailing events including the Volvo Ocean Race and the Mount Gay Rum Sailing Week. The situation of the City also makes it an idea venue for the VELUX 5 OCEANS providing unique opportunities to watch the fleet arrive from vantage points on the coast and on the water. www.norfolk.gov Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE