Oceanracing 2006 - VELUX 5 Oceans

Velux 5 Oceans - Alone-Round the World Yacht Race
www.velux5oceans.com - Übersicht

29.01.2007
VELUX 5 OCEANS - Leg 2, Day 16 Report
STAMM PASSES THROUGH THE FIRST ICE GATE AND EXTENDS HIS LEAD

* Bernard Stamm (SUI) passes close to the easterly mark of the first ice gate in the Southern Ocean after skillfully navigating past the high pressure system that stood in his way
* Kojiro Shiraishi (JPN) loses ground to the leader as the high pressure system causes tactical problems and leaves the Japanese skipper wallowing in light winds
* Graham Dalton (NZL) prepares to leave Bluff at 16:30 GMT this afternoon after sitting it out on home soil for 48 hours in order to replace his contaminated food stores
* Unai Basurko (ESP) dives south in front of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (GBR) and holds off the challenge from the last placed competitor in a close fought battle

This weekend presented Bernard Stamm on CHEMINEES POUJOULAT with a challenging route to pass through the first ice way gate in leg 2 of the VELUX 5 OCEANS, a mandatory line positioned at 52 degrees South between 160 and 145 degrees West. But the defending champion's tactics were both daring and flawless, and certainly delivered the desired results. With the onset of a high pressure system from the north that would have left him wallowing without wind, Stamm dived south, ignoring the westerly mark of the ice gate. The Swiss skipper dived south into the icy waters of 56 degrees before heading north again. Using this tactic CHEMINEES POUJOULAT sailed many more miles but at a much faster speed than if he'd sailed the direct route. He passed the eastern end of the way gate at around 18:30 UTC last night.

920 miles behind Stamm in second place, Kojiro Shiraishi has been relatively unlucky with the weather, although the Japanese skipper blames himself as much as the luck and skill of the race leader. The weekend saw the Japanese skipper struggling upwind to the northeast as he attempted to round the top of the same high pressure system that Stamm rounded to the south. The sailing was tough with light winds and SPIRIT OF YUKOH's speed was badly affected as Stamm extended his lead further. At midnight last night the wind shifted from northeast to east as Koji reached the north end of the high and he was forced to tack southeast to get back on course. Unfortunately the weather forecast has the high, which has reindexed fairly static in position over the weekend, slowly moving to the northeast. As a result Koji is likely to find himself wallowing for another day in abnormally light conditions for the Southern Ocean.

Graham Dalton is counting down the hours before he can re-join the race track after pulling into his native New Zealand on Saturday. The Kiwi skipper was forced to land to replace his food stores after nearly one third was contaminated and ruined by leaking diesel fuel. Dalton can re-commence racing at 16:30 GMT, but will probably fall into last place as Unai Basurko and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston pass New Zealand to the south.

The battle between fourth placed Unai Basurko on PAKEA and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston on SAGA INSURANCE continues to be close fought. Over the weekend Unai has been the winner, now 57 miles ahead of Sir Robin, compared to 33 miles on Friday morning. Since arriving in the Southern Ocean Sir Robin has indextained a more southerly track than his Spanish rival, but yesterday the two boats swapped sides of the course. After an awkward weekend weather-wise, particularly for Sir Robin, this morning both are enjoying favourable westerly winds which should take the past Dalton and into third and fourth position.

Bernard Stamm, CHEMINEES POUJOULAT:
"After having rounded the easterly mark of the gate one, I'm now heading east, more or less on the great circle. The wind is very shifty in force and in direction. It goes from 12 to 30 knots and it can change by 40 degrees. It is not so easy to set the right sail. But the general direction of the wind is good, I'm doing the right course, so everything is ok."

Kojiro Shiraishi, SPIRIT OF YUKOH:
"This morning we tacked and are now heading south east. But this tacking angle is also not so good. We want get more east but the waves are quite bad and we are not making much progress in the direction we want to go. The wind is blowing 20 to 25kts and we are punching into waves; it's difficult sailing now."
"It's really painful to have been caught by this high pressure. Bernard who is on the other side of this high is having a splendid run. And in this one move, we will have a large separation. It's unlucky that we ran into this large high pressure at this time, but we can't say it's only bad luck. Bernard has sailed well in some heavy wind conditions and has kept his boat safe. It's my fault not to have been closer to him. But at the moment I am focused only on getting through this high. Even in these poor wind directions and difficult waves, Spirit of Yukoh is trying hard. We have said a little prayer for the wind to turn to the north as soon as possible. Under these hard circumstances, we will be doing our best."

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, SAGA INSURANCE:
"Shortly I'll have to put some more sail up because we are a bit underpowered, but it won't be the indexsail because I can't clear the lazyjacks in the dark. So I'll probably put the solent up in the next half an hour and get a bit more power because we're being thrown around a bit. She's been handling it brilliantly."
"Unai will have weather information, so probably knows what he is doing whereas I am going a bit blind. All I get is the text from Australia and New Zealand and they say there is a trough here and it is going there. It doesn't tell you what the wind is doing in between. Whereas if you have MaxSea you can see what the wind is doing down to a mile and I can't get MaxSea because the Fleet 77 isn't working. I really am fighting blind here. I'm going on what I have got and I have very little to go on. There is not much I can do about it. I can't take the terminal off and play with it in these conditions."

Boat Positions as at 10:20 UTC 29 January 2007
Yacht Skipper Latitude Longitude Course (°) Speed (knot) DTL (nautical miles) DTF (nautical miles) Dist - last Pos (nautical miles) Dist - 24h (nautical miles) Average speed - 24h (knots) VMG - 24h (knots)
1 Cheminées Poujoulat Bernard Stamm 52° 32.56 S 138° 56.96 W 88 17.4 9493 74.5 339.5 14.15 13.6
2 Spirit of Yukoh Kojiro Shiraishi 50° 58.00 S 163° 55.72 W 139 5 921 10415 37.9 144.3 6.01 5.94
3 A Southern Man-AGD Graham Dalton 46° 35.72 S 168° 20.32 E 272 0 2039 11532 0 0 0 0
4 PAKEA Unai Basurko 50° 30.88 S 165° 28.00 E 68 7.1 2063 11556 34.7 205.1 8.54 8.46
5 SAGA Insurance Sir Robin Knox-Johnston 49° 30.25 S 164° 55.73 E 142 7 2120 11613 38.7 224.8 9.37 8.9

Audio Interviews
Week 3, Leg 2: Commencing Monday January 29
The VELUX 5 OCEANS will speak to all the skippers at the following times this week:
MONDAY, January 29 at 10:00 GMT / 11:00 Europe Guest host Erik Orsenna will speak to Bernard Stamm (French) TUESDAY, January 30 at 10:00 GMT / 11:00 Europe WEDNESDAY, January 31 at 10:00 GMT / 11:00 Europe THURSDAY, February 1 at 10:00 GMT / 11:00 Europe FRIDAY, February 2 at 10:00 GMT / 11:00 Europe

Interviews every day with Bernard Stamm (French), Kojiro Shiraishi (Japanese), Unai Basurko (Spanish), Sir Robin Knox Johnston (English) and Graham Dalton (English). Audio summaries will be provided in English for all interviews in Spanish, French and Japanese.

You are invited to join the calls and listen to the skippers live from the roaring forties and furious fifties.
LOCAL DIAL-IN NUMBERS FOR MEDIA AND PARTICIPANTS: UK: +44 (0)20 7138 0808 FRANCE: +33 (0)1 70 99 42 75 JAPAN: +81 (0)3 3570 8242 SPAIN: +34 91 453 3434 USA: +1 718 354 1158
AUDIO FILE AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD FOLLOWING CALL To Download the file, click the following URL (please allow over 60 minutes for turn around): ftp://2434403:3044342@ftp.premconf.ie
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For more information on VELUX 5 OCEANS please visit www.velux5oceans.com , or contact:
Tim Kelly / Justine Ozoux / Kate Fairclough
RACE PRESS OFFICE: + 44 20 7494 1616 E: tim.kelly@pitchpr.com / justine@pitchpr.com / kate@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