Volvo Ocean Race 2008/2009 - Oceanracing 2009

Volvo Ocean Race 2008/2009 - Leg 3 - Conchin/IND - Singapur
www.volvooceanrace.org - Übersicht

21.12.08
Leg Three Day 9 PRESSURE ON IN HOME STRAIT

Although the Volvo Ocean Race fleet is in the final stages of the 1950nm leg three from Cochin to Singapore, nothing is certain and a nail-biting finish is in store.

At 1000 GMT today, it was all change again and Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) snatched back the lead. Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander/SWE) had moved into second place, just a mile behind and PUMA had clawed her way up to third, just four miles astern. Former leader Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA) had slipped to fourth, as the pack takes it in turn to apply the pressure.

Foto: Guy Salter

The fleet is sailing up the Malaysian side of the shipping lane in the Malacca Strait. Closest to the shoreline is PUMA (Ken Read/USA) with Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) and Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander/SWE) side by side. Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR) and Ericsson 4 opted for the outside lane, but both teams have now tacked back towards the shore, Green Dragon taking a hit in doing so and letting Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) slip ahead. Kosatka Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) is now also heading for the shore, but 60 miles further back.

All the teams have activated their AIS system, which is mandatory for racing in the Malacca Strait. This device sends the direction and speed of each racing yacht to all commercial shipping within a 20 nautical mile radius of each yacht.

Wouter Verbraak, Dutch navigator on Kosatka Team Russia says, “We appear on their screens as a dot with a tag: ‘Kosatka racing yacht, limited manoeuvrability’. So far, this has worked like a very powerful insect repellent. None of the cargo ships want to have anything to do with us, and whilst we are blasting (or drifting like last night) along, the armada of cargo ships magically opens up in front of us! Brilliant.”

Ericsson 4 had been reeling in Telefónica Blue, but once darkness fell, the blue boat had the upper hand again. Skipper Bouwe Bekking says that his team often seems to make their best gains in the hours of darkness. Ericsson 4 is sailing in ‘light mode’ having relinquished comforts such as mattresses, sleeping bags and some clothing. They even considered taking a smaller crew. “We felt that it was still early enough in the race and the leg was still long enough not to go too extreme, so we will still have all our crew onboard and a reasonable spares package,” says watch captain Stu Bannatyne/NZL.

PUMA is back in the race and right in touch with the leaders, but, after chipping away so hard, earlier this morning, their fairy tale came to an abrupt, but temporary halt when they parked about 30 miles off the coast of Malaysia and watched the rest of the fleet sail up behind them.

“Telefónica Blue got back around us and we are completely drifting as we speak, “wrote Kenny Read at 0408 GMT this morning. “Amazingly, Ericsson 4 never has really gotten reeled in by their own personal ‘glass off’ of no wind, not yet anyway. My guess is that all our times will come at some point,” he said. Perhaps that point has now arrived?

Yesterday, Telefónica Black was caught with seaweed entwined around the keel and rudders. “We had to stop the boat and sail backwards to get rid of a v-shaped stick next to the bulb and some seaweed close to the hull,” explained Mikel Pasabant MCM. The team also had a small issue with the indexsail clew, which came off. The crew put in the first reef, but a repair was made quickly and the sail was fully hoisted pushing the boat back up to full speed.

This team is enjoying sailing in the Malacca Strait. As they entered the region under the cover of darkness, they were able to watch a Volcano erupt just in front of them.

At the tale end of the fleet, Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) is making good progress. The team has managed to tack the boat gently and are confident that they will reach the finish under sail, but about a day behind the rest.

“We were a bit nervous about our first tack,” writes navigator Matt Gregory. “We had to sail around an island yesterday afternoon. We made it very slowly and had three guys with their heads in the keel ram compartments as we rolled through the tack. There were some crunching and cracking sounds from the broken side of the boat, but all seems to be OK,” he said.

Race Meteorologist, Jennifer Lilly says that over the last 48 hours, the wind speeds have stayed slightly slightly stronger than expected, but the wind direction has not been favourable and the teams have had to continue sailing upwind into Malacca Strait.

Looking ahead, Jennifer says, “initially the winds will decrease to nearly calm conditions, but after a period of light and variable winds, the fleet should start to see the wind direction become more favourable. In fact, by 1200 GMT today, the winds should be out of the north to northeast. This will allow the teams to ease off, sailing at a faster angle to the wind. Meanwhile, the winds speeds will start to increase with some acceleration down the axis of the Straits. Still, as the fleet sails south, the sea space will decrease and the chance of squalls will increase. At the moment, neither the satellite nor the radar images are showing any significant squalls in the course area; however, any squall development could slow the fleet before they finish.”

Based on current conditions, computer routeing software is indicating that the first boat could finish tomorrow around evening GMT

Leg Three Day Nine: 1000 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)

Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) DTF 220 nm

Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE) +1
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +4
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +7
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) +28
Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +49
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) +60
Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) +203

Scoring Gate Order
Ericsson 4 (4 points)
Telefónica Blue (3.4 points)
Ericsson 3 (3 points)
PUMA (2.5 points)
Telefónica Black (2 points)
Green Dragon (1.5 points)
Kosatka Team Russia (1 point)