Oceanracing - 2006 - Asia Records

Asian Record Circuit 2006 - Leg 3
www.teamellen.com - Übersicht Leg 3

Tuesday, 4 April 2006 at 16:33
B&Q STARTS LEG 3 TO QINGDAO, 2008 OLYMPIC SAILING VENUE…

IN BRIEF:
* LEG 3 DALIAN TO QINGDAO IS THE SHORTEST LEG of the entire eight-week circuit - only 265 miles. B&Q crew aiming to establish record number four in under 24 hours. [See records established so far listed below and amended elapsed time for records 2 and 3]
* Ellen and crew made decision to DEPART DALIAN A DAY EARLIER THAN SCHEDULED to take advantage of strong northerly winds forecasted but so slow start as winds fail to materialize. Hazards of racing close to shore in busy waters are ever present: “It's quite hard work on deck particularly as there are fishing boats everywhere - I can see nine on the radar and one cargo ship…”

* B&Q trimaran to be BERTHED ALONGSIDE CLIPPER ROUND THE WORLD YACHTS at Qingdao’s Olympic Marina
* New! Users of GOOGLE EARTH can now SUBSCRIBE TO THE LATEST DATA FEED from B&Q to view information from the Asia Record Circuit.

RECORDS?
1. Yokohama-Jeju Island : 5d 11h 10m 51s (906nm)
2. Jeju Island-Dalian : 1d 15h 57m 28s (418nm)
3. The Manchu Record (Yokoham-Dalian) : 7d 3h 8m 19s (1324nm)??

For all the latest information, go to www.teamellen.com 10 record legs, 6 countries, establishing 12 new records

IN DETAIL:
B&Q crossed the start line off Dalian at 09:01:53 GMT today (04/04/06) to start Leg 3 of the Asian Record Circuit. Ellen and an international crew of four (Loik Gallon, Charles Darbyshire, Shaun Weng and Erwan Lemeilleur) will be looking to establish record number four of this circuit in less than 24 hours covering 265 miles to reach Qingdao, the sailing venue for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. MacArthur and her team decided to start leg 3 from Dalian 18 hours earlier than their scheduled to take advantage of the strong north-easterly conditions forecasted for today and tonight. For the first three hours they were beginning to wonder if they had made a wrong decision as light winds barely moved B&Q through the water but finally the wind shifted into the north and is expected to accelerate quickly over the next few hours building this evening to a NNE breeze of 20+ knots.

FROM ELLEN (1130 GMT):
“Well the forecast was for more wind out here than we have right now, things are pretty quiet onboard as I type. The water is glassy-flat, just gently undulating to give it some texture, but like a mirror – without a mark on it. Morale is good on board, and we have just had some snacks for dinner – whilst the wind is light, it is also all over the place. So it's quite hard work on deck particularly as there are fishing boats everywhere - I can see nine on the radar and one cargo ship. We have new ship tracking device onboard, which allows us to just click on anything and see what it is. Right now there is a tanker called ‘Chun Xing’ heading for Dalian - ETA 2100 local time. Interesting stuff! It's a shame for the record time that the proposed wind has not materislised! We left eighteen hours early to give us better conditions, which sadly aren't there. It's also freezing cold outside even though so very still. But you try to make to most of the situation.

One thing that is incredible is the number of things that we see floating in the water here. Every few seconds there seems to be some kind of flotsam floating past. As I type Erwan is on the bow, and calling out that there is a buoy or something similar on the bow, it’s certainly hard going out here! Hoping all is well back at home - the Yellow Sea feels a long way from there!

Dalian equally seems a long time ago – its incredible how quickly your mind is capable of moving on to the next challenge with complete 100% focus. The stopover was a whirlwind introduction to China! After arriving last Saturday night we managed to pack a lot into the two days. The whole team was made to feel really welcome. We certainly attracted some curious looks on our arrival but we have had many visitors to the boat so feel we are sharing our project with the people here. It was quite odd to be visiting the local B&Q store in Dalian which in so many ways is just like any B&Q store in the UK, but I had to keep on reminding myself I was thousands of miles away on the north-east coast of China!
Bye for now - Ellen and the boys...”

GOOGLE EARTH
To follow the trimaran’s progress click on the Position icon at www.teamellen.com or even better download Google Earth at www.earth.google.com
Users of Google Earth can now subscribe to the latest data feed from B&Q to view information from the Asia Record Circuit. Zoom in, zoom out, rotate, see start/finish lines, course sailed – its fantastic! To subscribe, create a new Network link to http://www.teamellen.com/tracker/track.kml. (for details on creating network link visit Google Earth help at http://www.keyhole.com/GoogleEarthHelp/Places/Creating_a_Network_Link.htm)

QINGDAO
Located along the northeast coast of indexland China (300 miles north of Shanghai), Qingdao is the host venue for the 29th Olympic sailing events for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Qingdao has begun making overall plans in order to improve the ecological environment and to build the city into a ‘green Olympic metropolis’ with the best sailing facilities in Asia. For now, Qingdao is a key economic centre and open coastal city with a strong cultural heritage and is one of indexland China’s index ports for foreign trade. B&Q will be berthed at the Olympic Marina.

And B&Q won’t be the only attraction in Qingdao’s Olympic Marina as she will be docked alongside ten 68-foot monohull race boats from the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. The Clipper fleet arrived in Qingdao on Sunday and will depart on their next leg this coming weekend. The ‘amateur’ crews are headed up by a pro-skipper and race around the world, stopping at major cities en route. www.clipper-ventures.co.uk/2006

REindexING SCHEDULE
4-5 April ?Leg 3: Dalian to Qingdao??
6-8 April ?Stopover 3: Qingdao??
9-10 April ?Leg 4: Qingdao to Shanghai??
11-15 April ?Stopover: Shanghai??
16-18 April ?Leg 5: Shanghai to Taipei??
19-20 April ?Stopover: Taipei??
21-23 April ?Leg 6: Taipei to Hong Kong??
24-30 April ?Stopover: Hong Kong ?
1-7 May ?Leg 7: Hong Kong to Sanya (Hainan Island)?Leg 8: Sanya to Nha Trang, Vietnam?Leg 9: Nha Trang to Terengganu, Malaysia??
8- 11 May ?Stopover: Terengganu??
11-12 May ?Leg 10: Terengganu to Singapore??
13-17 May ?Stopover: Singapore