Advantage Ericsson
Leg 2 Day 12 - 15:02 GMT Wednesday, November 26, 2008. |
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| The advantage, at 13:00 GMT today, belonged to Ericsson 4, who had made a massive gain thanks to a well-positioned rain shower. She disappeared as if in ‘stealth’ mode earlier this morning and when she emerged from her early bath, she had made a gain of around 45 nautical miles. |
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Ericsson 4 before the Doldrums at 28
knots, earlier on leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race from
Cape Town, South Africa to Cochin, India.
Photo © Guy Salter / Ericsson 4 / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Torben Grael / BRA and his men are now sailing almost twice as fast as their nearest opponents who are clumped together in the middle group of the fleet as they race towards the finish of leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race in Cochin, India.
But this is the Doldrums and to play poker with them is at your peril and the serious contenders in the leg have not placed any bets. They are sticking firmly in a formation, which will ensure they will all benefit from, roughly, the same weather. |
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Joao Signorini helming with Ryan Godfrey
trimming onboard Ericsson 4, on leg 2 of the Volvo
Ocean Race, from Cape Town, South Africa to Cochin,
India.
Photo © Guy Salter / Ericsson 4 / Volvo Ocean Race.
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At daybreak this morning, the group of Ericsson 4, Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander / SWE), PUMA (Ken Read / USA) and Green Dragon (Ian Walker / GBR) were all close together. Ericsson 4 was just a few miles ahead of Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander / SWE) and PUMA (Ken Read).
Now, with Ericsson 4 long gone, Ericsson 3 reports being at almost a standstill. The sea temperature is 31 degrees and the wind speed is 1.3 knots from every direction. The chasing pack wallows helplessly in the wake of Ericsson 4.
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Ericsson 3 in the Doldrums, on leg
2 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Cape Town, South Africa
to Cochin, India.
Photo © Gustav Morin / Ericsson 3 / Volvo Ocean Race.
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On the outer flanks of the group are the two Telefónica boats 68 nm to the west of PUMA and Kosatka Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT) 60 nm east of Green Dragon.
Onboard Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri / ESP), MCM Mikel Pasabant says that the constant stream of breakages is wearing thin. "The breakages are so many that we spend too much of our energy solving them, instead of proper sailing," he said. |
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The crew of Telefonica Black rest
below decks, 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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In the last 24 hours, the order of the fleet has changed. Green Dragon moves up to third place and Team Russia and Telefónica Black have swapped places. All the boats in the fleet except Delta Lloyd and Team Russia have lost miles to the leader in the past three hours.
Leg 2 Day 12 - 13:00 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(Boat name / country / skipper / nationality / distance to finish)
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael / BRA) DTF 821 nm
Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander / SWE) +48
Green Dragon IRL / CHN (Ian Walker / GBR) +58
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read / USA) +60
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking / NED) +64
Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez / ESP) +75
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT) +114
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) +122
Visit www.volvooceanrace.org for
all the latest news! |
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The Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 will be the 10th
running of this ocean marathon. Starting from Alicante in Spain,
on 4 October 2008 with in-port racing, it will, for the first
time, take in Cochin, India, Singapore and Qingdao, China before
finishing in St Petersburg, Russia for the first time in the
history of the race.
Spanning some 37,000 nautical miles, stopping
at 11 ports and taking nine months to complete,
the Volvo Ocean Race is the world's premier
yacht race for professional racing crews. |
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| The official website: www.volvooceanrace.org |
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