Points North
Leg 2 Day 6 - 14:59 GMT Thursday, November 20, 2008. |
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| Ericsson Racing Team made it a one / two this morning when Torben Grael / BRA and his team racing Ericsson 4 cruised through the scoring gate on leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race at 03:40 GMT, adding another four points to their tally, bringing their total to 18. On their heels was Anders Lewander / SWE and his Nordic team racing Ericsson 3, crossing at 06:51 and swiping another 3.5 points. They now have 8.5 points overall. |
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Ericsson 4 at the start of leg 2 of
the Volvo Ocean Race from Cape Town, South Africa to
Cochin, India.
Photo © Rick Tomlinson / Volvo Ocean Race.
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The wounded Green Dragon (Ian Walker / GBR) is still going in strong, although with one wing clipped when she broke her boom two days ago. She crossed at 08:40 GMT, scoring three points (total now 14 points).
"We are thrilled to get third place and three points at the scoring gate," said Green Dragon’s skipper, Ian Walker this morning.
"This has been our focus since breaking the boom two days ago. We seem to be able to sail downwind with spinnakers quite well and even now, reaching with one reef seems OK. It is the upwind sailing that we must hope to avoid," he said.
The team hopes to start repairs on the boom once the temperature rises further so that the glue and resin they have onboard will cure.
"I’m not wildly optimistic, but I think the lads are looking forward to the challenge," says Walker. "I just have to stop them cutting the boat up in the process," he laughed. |
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Ericsson 3 at the start of leg 2 of
the Volvo Ocean Race from Cape Town, South Africa to
Cochin, India.
Photo © Rick Tomlinson / Volvo Ocean Race.
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A good showing from the Russians on Kosatka (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT) who crossed just under an hour after Green Dragon at 09:36 GMT, meant that a much-needed 2.5 points were added to their tally, bringing their overall score up to 6.5. Hanakamp and his team were very happy with their 2.5 points. The boat is as solid as the day is long, although Hanakamp says there is a certain luck factor involved with not breaking anything.
"During the leaps we did in the bigger waves there were no scary noises from the structure of the boat, just the big bangs when you slam onto the water in 30 knots, which is scary and deafening in itself." |
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Ian Walker's Green Dragon sufferers
a broken boom as the fleet continued to wrestle with
strong gusts and treacherous seas as the second leg
of the race to India turned spiteful.
Photo © Guo Chuan / Green Dragon Racing / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Next through the gate was Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking / NED) at 11:40 GMT earning 2 points (total now 12 points). Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) just pipped PUMA (Ken Read / USA) at the post, nine minutes apart.
Telefónica Black earns 1.5 points (total now 8.5), while the limping PUMA
collected just one point (total now 14 points). The last boat to cross was Delta
Lloyd at 13:21 GMT, scoring 0.5 points - total now 4.5 points. |
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Team Russia at the start of leg 2 of
the Volvo Ocean Race from Cape Town, South Africa to
Cochin, India.
Photo © Rick Tomlinson / Volvo Ocean Race.
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The wind has eased into the high teens and now the race focus shifts towards the finish in Cochin, India as the fleet points its bows north.
Tactics for the second half of leg two will be influenced by high pressure, which has been building slowly to the south of Madagascar since Tuesday and which the fleet must skirt.
"Having the right wind speed and angle is critical, even though the fleet will be compressed later on. This could well change and at the end, you want to come out of the compression as much ahead as possible" said Andreas Hanakamp.
So, no holding back now, it is foot to the floor for the fleet. The position of the high will make for at least 12 hours of light winds along the rhumb-line course between the boats’ current positions and Cochin, but then the teams can look forward to a few days of trade wind sailing. |
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Jordi Calafat repairing damaged sails
onboard Telefonica Blue, on leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean
Race, from Cape Town, South Africa to Cochin, India.
Photo © Gabriele Olivo / Telefonica Blue / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Moods have improved as the air temperature gets hotter and the boats begin to dry out. The Southern Ocean is officially left behind; until it makes its reappearance in leg five from Qingdao in China to Rio de Janeiro, which takes the fleet around the infamous Cape Horn.
Scoring Gate (check out the full scoring situation in our race data centre at http://www.volvooceanrace.org/rdc/ - choose the scoreboard tab). |
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Telefonica Black in rough seas, on
leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Cape Town, South
Africa to Cochin, India.
Photo © Mikel Pasabant / Telefonica Black / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Leg 2 Day 6 - 13:00 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name / country / skipper / nationality / distance to finish)
Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander / SWE) DTF 2969 nm
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read / USA) +8
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael / BRA) +23
Green Dragon IRL / CHN (Ian Walker / GBR) +51
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking / NED) +65
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT) +89
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) +95
Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez / ESP) +192
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all the latest news! |
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