Weekly Roundup: Fast Boats From China
Leg 5 Week 1 - 16:02 GMT Saturday, February 21, 2009. |
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After two days of postponement, the Qingdao in-port race was finally held. Completing the in-port race resulted in Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael / BRA) scoring the top points that were on offer, followed by Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking / NED), PUMA (Ken Read / USA) and Green Dragon Ian Walker / GBR.
While the top four boats were busy, earning points from in-port racing, Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson / SWE) was back at sea and racing towards the finish of leg four after an unscheduled stop in Taiwan to repair the boat. The team finally finished the leg, collected four points for fifth place, restocked the boat and started leg five just seven hours after the rest of the fleet with a turn round time of under two hours. |
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Ericsson 3 arrives a few hours after the start of Leg 5 in the Volvo Ocean Race from Qingdao, China to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Photo © Oskar Kihlborg / Ericsson Racing Team / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Earlier in the day of the start of leg five from Qingdao to Rio - at 12,300 nm it is the longest leg ever to be set in the history of the race - there was high drama when Telefónica Blue hit a rock minutes before the start gun fired and had to suspend racing in order to fix a crack to their keel.
So, three boats left Qingdao together, heading for the Southern Ocean and Cape Horn. Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT) did not start the leg due to lack of funding, but is expected to return to the track later in the race. Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bérmudez / ESP) and Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) both did not finish leg four due to damage and are currently onboard ships bound for Rio, where they will be repaired and re-join the race. |
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In a dramatic opening to leg five of the Volvo Ocean Race, minutes before the start gun fired, Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking / NED) dropped her sails and returned to port, leaving a fleet reduced to three boats to contest the start in Qingdao.
Photo © Rick Tomlinson / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Telefónica Blue, who also took a three-point penalty for changing their rudders for this leg, resumed racing, 19 hours later, the following day at 07:42 local time. But by then, the leader PUMA, was already 169 nm ahead.
By day two, 15 February, the fleet was being catapulted towards the southern tip of Japan at breakneck speed. Light airs in the initial stages of the leg had helped Ericsson 3 to catch the leaders, but by 13:00 GMT on day two, Ericsson 4 had taken the lead from PUMA and was 202 nm ahead of Telefónica Blue. Ericsson 3 had chosen Green Dragon as its first victim and was closing quickly. Temperatures plummeted as the wind arrived on schedule and the first three boats in the fleet were up, up and away. |
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Ericsson 4, on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro.
Photo © Guy Salter / Ericsson 4 / Volvo Ocean Race.
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With the islands of Japan now safely behind, the fleet plunged into the Pacific Ocean sailing in a direction towards New Zealand, which is a mark of the course. It was a tough 36 hours, with the winds in the 20s and 30s (knots). "The decks have been awash and it has been survival suits, lifejackets and harnesses all round, day and night," wrote Ian Walker.
Walker was missing the helming skills of his former Olympic partner, John Merricks, who was tragically killed in 1997. "Today would have been John’s birthday," wrote Walker on 16 February, day three. "How he would have loved to have been doing what I am now. He was one of the best heavy-air sailors I ever sailed with or against," remembered Walker. |
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Phil Harmer at the helm of Green Dragon in full foul weather gear and helmet during Leg 5 from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro.
Photo © Guo Chuan / Green Dragon Racing / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Ericsson 4 had pulled out a lead over PUMA of 16 nm, who had snapped a steering wheel in half when ploughing into the bottom of a big wave, and Ericsson 3 had swept past the Dragons to take third place. Meanwhile, Telefónica Blue was still chipping away at the fleet and was 10 hours, or 197 nm behind.
On day four, February 17, the fleet was still blast-reaching with very little in the way of tactical opportunities. It was a drag race where speed was king. Walker and his new navigator, Wouter Verbraak - the former navigator of Team Russia - made a break to the north, a move that was later shown to be a bad one. The wind dropped and temperatures started to improve.
As the drag race continued on day five, sunglasses and sun cream made its first appearance of the leg. Thermals were exchanged for shorts and boots for shoes. Life onboard settled down into a steady rhythm, with speeds hovering between 16 - 18 knots. PUMA had closed to within four miles on Ericsson 4, but for Ericsson 3 and Green Dragon, there were big losses and they were both over 100 nm behind. Life hadn’t improved too much for the boys on Telefónica Blue, who was now 284 nm astern, with no opportunity in the near future to do anything about it. |
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Ericsson 3 crew working onboard Ericsson 3 en route to Rio De Janeiro on Leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race.
Photo © Gustav Morin / Ericsson 3 / Volvo Ocean Race.
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The rather monotonous port-gybe reach continued on day six. The spray was fierce and onboard Telefónica Blue, various fashion items appeared in order to deal with it. Ranging from a trusty old surf helmet and visor for the majority of the crew, to a very fetching pair of safety goggles chosen by David Vera, and Michael Pammenter was seen sporting a pair of scuba goggles. The miles were clicking off nicely, around 2,000 already consigned to history. But conditions for the fleet were, in the words of Ericsson 4’s watch captain Brad Jackson, "hot, wet and manky." The top boat was still Ericsson 4, with PUMA neatly positioned on her starboard hip, 45 nm to the northwest and only 10 miles astern.
The first change in the order of the fleet after nearly a week came on day seven, February 20, when Telefónica Blue overtook Green Dragon. Skipper Bouwe Bekking was determined to stick to his plan and sail to an imaginary point where he thought would be the best place to cross the Doldrums. Green Dragon meanwhile took either a gamble, or a calculated risk and stayed in the east.
"If it works, of course we will be heroes and if not, we will be the ones who took the gamble and failed," noted Ian Walker. |
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David Vera driving while a wave submerges the whole boat, in rough weather onboard Telefonica Blue, on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race.
Photo © Gabriele Olivo / Telefonica Blue / Volvo Ocean Race.
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On day eight, February 21, Ericsson 4 and PUMA both sailed through the 10,000 nm to the finish marker as they raced between the islands of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. This places them in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Dateline, and still north of the Equator
Navigator of Ericsson 4, Jules Salter / GBR reckoned his team were about 100 nm north of the first light and fickle Doldrum belt on this leg. Due to a major satellite reorganisation and upgrade, weather and other information is limited for a short period on this leg. Ever resourceful and, much to the amusement of the crew onboard Ericsson 4, Salter was using an old school weather fax. |
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Onboard PUMA Ocean Racing, during leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race.
Photo © Rick Deppe / PUMA Ocean Racing / Volvo Ocean Race.
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"With our T&T radio set up, we can get weather maps from the sky," he says. "Reception is not digital, but there is a pleasure in receiving a slightly blurred weather map from the airwaves as you hear the tone come in over the SSB radio. Whether it will help us to maintain our slender lead through the first Doldum area is a moot point," he said, adding that it was good to revisit old technology for a while. "We become too complacent on so much new technology which we, especially me, do not understand."
With 9,842 nm to go to the finish, Ericsson 4 led PUMA by 39 nm, a loss for PUMA of over 37 nm in the last 24 hours. Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson / SWE) also slipped back another 35 nm and had a deficit of 95 miles. Telefónica Blue led the Dragons by 13nm, although both boats sailed without mainsails for a short period overnight. Telefónica Blue slowed the to make good a problem with the propeller box, while Green Dragon also spent an hour with no mainsail while the crew repaired the end of one of the batten sockets. With a big split across the fleet, the danger now for the teams will come when the boats ahead reach new weather systems. |
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Huge spray onboard Green Dragon, on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro.
Photo © Guo Chuan / Green Dragon Racing / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Leg 5 Day 8 - 13:00 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(Boat name / country / skipper / nationality / distance to finish)
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael / BRA) DTF 9,842 nm
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read / USA) +39
Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson / SWE) +95
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking / NED) +260
Green Dragon IRL / CHN (Ian Walker / GBR) +273
Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bérmudez / ESP) DNS
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) DNS
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT) DNS
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