Pressure On
In Home Strait
Leg 3 Day 9 - 11:41 GMT Sunday, December 21, 2008. |
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Although the Volvo Ocean Race fleet is in the final stages of the 1,950nm leg three from Cochin to Singapore, nothing is certain and a nail-biting finish is in store.
At 10:00 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. |
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Sail stacking just before tacking,
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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| 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. |
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Ericsson 4 watching a storm cloud,
on leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race from India to Singapore.
Photo © Guy Salter / Ericsson 4 / Volvo Ocean Race.
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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." |
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Rob Salthouse eating onboard il mostro,
on leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race from India to Singapore.
Photo © Rick Deppe / PUMA Ocean Racing / Volvo Ocean Race.
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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. |
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Scott Gray trimming, 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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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 04:08 GMT this morning. |
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Telefonica Black, stacking below decks
on leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Cochin, India
to Singapore.
Photo © Mikel Pasabant / Telefonica Black / Volvo Ocean Race.
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"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," added Read. 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 mainsail 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. |
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Before passing through the scoring
gate and in a close battle with Puma.
Magnus Olsson is keeping track of them.
Photo © Gustav Morin / Ericsson 3 / Volvo Ocean Race.
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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. |
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The day after the keel structure broke.
Ed van Lierde is steering the boat with 11 knots upwind
to sumatra, still in the race. sailing J4 and reef
in the main. Steering Gerd-Jan Poortman, next in the
sun Ed van Lierde, Martin Watts, Ryan Houston and Matt
Gregory.
Photo © Sander Pluijm / Team Delta Lloyd / Volvo Ocean Race.
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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 12:00 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 routing software is indicating that the first boat could finish tomorrow around evening GMT. |
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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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Leg 3 Day Nine - 10:00 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
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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