Outimage Australia - VOR 2008-2009 - Ericsson 3 Back On Course - Leg 4

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Outimage Publications ocean yacht racing coverage of the VOR 2008-2009.

Ericsson 3 Back On Course
Leg 4 - 15:02 GMT Thursday, February 12, 2009.

It’s been a race against odds for the past two weeks to get Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson / SWE) repaired, back in the water and to Qingdao in time for the start of leg five. The team restarted leg four on 11 February at 23:44 GMT from position 25 51.94N 121 52.97E. The boat will cross the line in Qingdao, repack the boat and then restart leg five as soon as possible.

Ericsson 3 was moved by barge, down the coast of Taiwan from Keelung to Hualien where an 8 metre piece of the bow was replaced before continuing the remaining leg 4 joureny to Qingdao.

Photo © Dave Kneale / Volvo Ocean Race.

Onboard the yacht are seven members of the Nordic crew including skipper Magnus Olsson, navigator Aksel Magdahl, boat captain Jens Dolmer, helmsman Thomas Johanson, Anders Dahlsjö, Martin Krite, Martin Stromberg and media crewman Gustav Morin.

After two weeks of hard work the boat is repaired and now there will be a race against time to reach Qingdao in time for the start of leg five on Saturday.

Skipper Magnus Olsson in Hualien, Taiwan, where an 8 metre piece of the bow was replaced, before continuing the remaining leg 4 joureny to Qingdao.

Photo © Dave Kneale / Volvo Ocean Race.

"We have really worked like maniacs," said Olsson.

"The boat builders and sailors have fought around the clock and now we’re back on track. I really want to give all the guys credit for a fantastic job."

Ericsson 3 in Taiwan with their damaged bow section ready to be cut out, before the new piece is fitted.

Photo © Gustav Morin / Ericsson 3 / Volvo Ocean Race.

Ericsson 3 in Taiwan with their damaged bow section ready to be cut out, before the new piece is fitted. Photo copyright Gustav Morin / Ericsson 3 / Volvo Ocean Race.

The goal is to finish leg four and collect the four points available for being the fifth boat to Qingdao.

Ericsson’s meteorologist Chris Bedford is predicting a relatively fast passage, raising hopes that the crew might finish with enough time to load the boat and begin leg five to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with the other four boats in the fleet.

Ericsson 3’s new bow piece fitted and the team undertake final repairs before the boat was re-launched to continue leg 4 from Taiwan to Qingdao.

Photo © Gustav Morin / Ericsson 3 / Volvo Ocean Race.

At 15:00 GMT today, Ericsson 3 had 445 nautical miles to go to the finish. The boat was doing 24 knots and computer routing software was predicting a finish of 17 February in Qingdao.

Visit www.volvooceanrace.org for all the latest news!

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.

The official website: www.volvooceanrace.org

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