22.12.08
Leg Three Day 10
“MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY, IT’S A KILLER”
Leg three of the Volvo Ocean Race is in its final stages, but which teams will be on the podium today in Singapore is still anyone’s guess. Only 22 nautical miles separate the top four boats, which are due to finish in just one hour’s time. “A solid three iron is what it would take to whack a golf ball off the indexsail of half the fleet at this stage,” says Kenny Read, American skipper of PUMA currently in second place.
In a nail-biting finale, Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) leads PUMA by two nautical miles. Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander/SWE) and Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA) are just three three miles behind.
There is a wider gap to Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) in fifth place, who has 45 miles to run. Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR) leads the second field, with 102 miles to the finish and the Russians sailing Kosatka are only two miles behind her.
“Mentally and physically, this leg has been a killer,” said Gabriele Olivo, the MCM onboard Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED), the team who has held and relinquished the lead on almost an hourly basis during the last five days.
Gustav Morin (MCM onboard Ericsson 3), is so excited about the prospect of a podium finish that he is getting butterflies in his stomach, the same feelings he had when he was a little boy, wondering what he would be receiving for Christmas.
Overnight, there was a skirmish between Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander/SWE) and Telefónica Blue, which has resulted in Bouwe Bekking filing a protest against the Swedish team. In this morning’s TEN ZULU, Mark Chisnell details the comings and goings of the fleet overnight http://www.volvooceanrace.org/news/article/2008/december/TEN-ZULU-L3-D10/index.aspx .
At the back of the fleet, Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) is having a new problem associated with their damaged keel ram. The team can’t keep the hydraulic fluid in the one reindexing cylinder that is holding the keel in the centre cant position. This means that the keel slowly creeps to the leeward side. Hydraulic oil is running out of the cylinder and into the bilge.
“It’s a huge mess,” says navigator Matt Gregory. “We’ve used all our spare oil. Now we are collecting the oil – watery slurry that ends up in the bilge, putting it in buckets, letting it settle, skimming off the oil from the water and pouring it back into the hydraulic pump.”
Positions are now updated every hour, on the hour, at www.volvooceanrace.org http://www.volvooceanrace.org/ .
Leg Three Day 10: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) DTF 19 nm
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +2
Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE) +3
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +26
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) +26
Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +83
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) +85
Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) +187
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)
Race reports are issued daily to the media at 1330 GMT (1030 GMT weekends) by email; however, positions are updated every three hours on www.volvooceanrace.org http://www.volvooceanrace.org/ where you will also find the latest news, feature stories, images and video. Full press information can be read and downloaded from: http://press.volvooceanrace.org http://press.volvooceanrace.org/
For media information on the Volvo Ocean Race, please contact:
Lizzie (Green) Ward – Senior Race Press Officer (Race HQ - UK)
Tel: +44 1489 554 832: Mob: +44 7801 185 320
Email: lizzie.ward@VolvoOceanRace.org mailto:lizzie.ward@VolvoOceanRace.org
Images
High-resolution images can be downloaded from: http://images.volvooceanrace.org http://images.volvooceanrace.org/
Tim Stonton, Picture Desk Manager Email: images@VolvoOceanRace.org
Tel: +44 1489 554 867 Mob: +44 7816 975 355
Visit www.volvooceanrace.org http://www.volvooceanrace.org for all the latest news!
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