Asian Record Circuit 2006 www.teamellen.com- Übersicht Leg1/2 25 Mar 2006 // 07:32 THEY'RE OFF: B&Q CROSS THE START LINE FOR LEG 1 Ellen and crew have crossed the start line at 0703 GMT for leg one of the Asian Record Circuit 2006. B&Q crossed the line (5nm long), which bears west from Jogashima Light House approx (35º 08.10'N; 139º 36.64'E) in Tokyo Bay in upwind conditions of 10knots, similar conditions expected for the next 6 hours. * The 75ft trimaran B&Q crossed the start line off of the east coast of Japan at 07:03:22 GMT today (25.03.06) * A 906 mile (1678km) leg from YOKOHAMA (JAPAN) TO JEJU ISLAND (SOUTH KOREA) kicks off the Asian Record Circuit 2006 * NEW TERRITORY, NEW RECORDS – Ellen and her team are setting out to establish 10 new offshore record runs between 9 cities in 6 countries onboard the trimaran B&Q * Before departing Ellen and the team met Japanese Olympics sailors and Minorou Saito – a Japanese sailor and the oldest person in the world to sail solo around the world - finishing last year at 71. Go to http://www.teamellen.com for further information. AUDIO ADVISORY: LATEST ELLEN MACARTHUR AUDIO AVAILABLE ELLEN AND CREW KICK OFF ASIAN RECORD CIRUIT 2006 IN JAPAN Before her departure today, Ellen talks about the Asian Record Circuit, the records ahead and her experiences in Japan. Why are you in Asia, what is the Asian Record Circuit? We are here for the Asian Record Circuit to try and establish new records over in Asia. The objective of the programme is to go to new places, to see new places but equally to break new ground in establishing times which have never been established here before. So it’s a huge step forward for us, it’s a huge step logistically and we’ll be gong to many different Countries starting in Japan and finishing in Singapore. Going via South Korea, China, we head down towards Hong Kong, we go over to Taiwan, we go to Malaysia and we pass very close to the shores of Vietnam, so it’s very very interesting. Fotos; Kaoru Soehata/DPPI - www.teamellen.com An der Startlinie Letzte Fotos von Land Abschied von Yokohama FROM ELLEN BEFORE THE START: What does the weather look like for the start? The weather situation looks like it’s going to be downwind and then once the downwind has passed it will go light for a little while and then once the light has passed we get very strong headwinds. We have to go round the corner of Japan with strong headwinds before we get more downwind for the final approach to Dalian in Northern China. Are you looking forward to sailing with a crew? I’m really looking forward to sailing with a crew, it’s going to be fantastic and I can’t wait to get out there and to get on with the tour. It’s a fantastic experience sailing with a crew and something I’ve done a lot of on B&Q although people are generally not aware of that. We have an amazing team and we’ve sailed many miles in the Atlantic, the Southern Ocean and around the coast of Europe and between Australia and New Zealand. We’ve dome a lot of sailing as a team and this is fantastic as we are establishing new records, so sailing the boat properly, as a team, so I’m very much looking forward to getting out there. How will sailing in Asia differ from you previous sailing experiences elsewhere in the world? It’s going to be very different the waters are very different, the weather is actually quite different, the boat on the way over from Hong Kong got 55 knots! It’s fairly aggressive (the weather), the currents here are very strong, there is debris in the water, we hit a huge floating log when we were on the way over from Hong Kong to here in Yokohama, Japan. So, there are risks out there, there is a lot of shipping and you’re near the coast so it’s and interesting challenge. There are certainly risks involved but we have a team of people who know the boat very well, we have a lot of equipment onboard to help the safety of the boat and we have a Chinese sailor onboard as well, Shaun Weng, and the objective there is that we have a Chinese speaker if there are any problems with any other boats and also with the ports. So we’ve tried to cover everything that we can to try and help. Culturally what is your impression of your stopover in Japan? Japan is an amazing place, it’s very very different there are very few people who speak English and I was surprised by that, I thought there would be more. It’s a very very different culture, the people are incredibly generous, they’ve given many gifts, people are very excited by seeing the boat. And everybody is friendly from top business people, to taxi drivers, to people in the hotel, it’s a very very friendly country and I think that’s what I will take away the most with me when we leave Japan. To download Ellen audio, click here: http://www.ocftp2.com/asia/audio/em240306a_uk_e.mp3 For further information, please contact Offshore Challenges Sailing Team: Lucy Harwood T: +44 (0)870 063 0210 E:lucy.harwood@ocgroup.com These images are copyright free for web and print media [excluding magazines in France]. For media enquiries, images and stills contact Lucy Harwood E: lucy.harwood@ocgroup.com Tel +44 (0)1983 282797 Fax +44 (0)207 6812912 Mobile +44(0) 7966587060 Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE