Ericsson 4 Back On Top
Leg 3 Day 7 - 11:49 GMT Friday, December 19, 2008.
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| The Volvo Ocean Race leg three scoring gate is a line that runs directly north from Pulau We, at the northern end of the Malacca Strait. In the tussle to be the first to reach that line, Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael / BRA) has rolled over the top of Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking / NED) and has a slim lead of eight nautical miles. |
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Ericsson 4 with all hands on the pumps,
on leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race from India to Singapore.
Photo © Guy Salter/ Ericsson 4 / Volvo Ocean Race.
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| Telefónica Blue made her move from the south yesterday but had to carry out two short tacks during the night, which gave Ericsson 4 the advantage. Ericsson 4 currently has around 65 nautical miles to run to the gate, which she should pass through later today. |
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Pepe Ribes at the helm while Tom Addis
checks the time for the next weather download, onboard
Telefonica Blue, on leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race from
India to Singapore.
Photo © Gabriele Olivo / Telefonica Blue / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Kosatka Team Russia meanwhile, is laying the line perfectly and as long as the wind doesn’t shift, the team could be on course to make substantial gains from their northerly position. If luck holds for the Kosatka Team, their 88-nautical mile deficit could be easily swallowed up.
"If the fleet has to tack, how close we can come and whether we can overtake any boats depends on speed and the wind direction the fleet will have after tacking. We will keep fighting for every mile until the finish line in Singapore," Andreas Hanakamp said earlier today. |
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Rodion Luka steering the wheel at sunset,
onboard Team Russia, on leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race
from India to Singapore.
Photo © Sergey Bogdanov / Team Russia / Volvo Ocean Race.
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| The battle for third continues to be closely fought. Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander / SWE) currently holds third place and is holding off an attack from PUMA (Ken Read / USA) who is just four miles behind. Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) is fifth is a further 16 nm astern and is being hounded by Green Dragon who is eight miles behind. |
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Skipper Anders Lewander making notes
onboard Ericsson 3, on leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race
from India to Singapore.
Photo © Gustav Morin / Ericsson 3 / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Speeds across the fleet are around the 12 - 13 knot mark and based on this, routing software is predicting that the first boat to finish in Singapore will be on Monday 22 December.
Meanwhile after yesterday’s damage to one of their keel rams, Team Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez / ESP) is making slow progress and it is in the right direction. Bermudez said, "We are all well and the mood onboard is OK. We have the canting keel in the centre and we only have a small sails hoisted because we don’t want to put too much pressure on the only hydraulic ram we have working."
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Green Dragon stacking sail bags as
they tack, on leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race from India
to Singapore.
Photo © Guo Chuan / Green Dragon Racing / Volvo Ocean Race.
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He added that the team did have some problem with the hydraulic rams two days ago. He said that the adjustments the crew made to avoid losing oil, may have contributed to the failure. At this stage, the team is still heading for Singapore.
"We will do our best at the scoring gate and the finish line and we will try to improve our position. My father used to say to me ‘you cannot ever abandon a race.’ We will try our best," Bermudez said. |
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The Dutch / Irish entry in the Volvo
Ocean Race, Team Delta Lloyd has suffered damage
to the port side carbon structure around the keel
ram. The boat was half way across the Bay of Bengal
when the damage occurred at 19:30 local time (12:00
GMT).
Photo © Sander Pluijm / Team Delta Lloyd / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Leg 3 Day 7 - 10:00 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(Boat name / country / skipper / nationality / distance to finish)
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael / BRA) DTF 633 nm
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking / NED) +8
Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander / SWE) +22
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read / USA) +26
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) +42
Green Dragon IRL / CHN (Ian Walker / GBR) +50
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT) +88
Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez / ESP) +162
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all the latest news! |
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