Terrific performance for Telefónica Black at leg six start
Leg 6 Day 1 - 20:04 GMT Saturday, April 11, 2009. |
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| After a short stopover of just two weeks in Rio de Janeiro and even less for some teams, it was back out on the race track again today for the start of Leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race. Leg 6 is 4,900 nautical miles to Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Boston is also another new port that was introduced for this, the 10th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race. |
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The start of Leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean
Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston.
Photo © Sally Collison / PUMA Ocean Racing / Volvo Ocean Race.
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| In 30 degrees of heat, a marching band playing bagpipes heralded the departure of the seven teams who were accompanied by Samba dancers as they made their way down the dock and onboard their race boats which will be their home for another two weeks. |
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The start of Leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean
Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston.
Photo © Sally Collison / PUMA Ocean Racing / Volvo Ocean Race.
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A light southwesterly
sea breeze of 5 - 10 knots allowed the fleet to make a clean
start on time in the Guanabara Bay at 15:00 local time.
PUMA (Ken Read / USA) and Green Dragon (Ian Walker / GBR) chose the committee boat end of the line, with Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) starting from the pin end.
Ericsson 4 made a very late and slow start, but skipper Torben Grael was determined to ‘own’ the right hand side of the course, where there was more breeze and less current. |
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The start of Leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean
Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston.
Photo © Dave Kneale / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Practically rock-hopping so close in to the shore they went and at one point, heading towards a rather alarmed spectator fleet, Torben Grael displayed his expert local knowledge to make some steady gains up through the fleet with Ericsson 4.
However, Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) led the fleet to the first mark, set off the famous Copacabana beach and continued to hold that position to lead the fleet past the famous Sugar Loaf mountain and out into open waters. |
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Ericsson 4, skippered by Torben Grael
(BRA), chasing Telefonica Black, at the start of leg
6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston.
Photo © Dave Kneale / Volvo Ocean Race.
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PUMA rounded the mark in second place, but under huge pressure from Ericsson 4, made a mistake and Torben Grael quickly swiped back second place.
Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking / NED) was fourth followed by Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson / SWE), Green Dragon and Delta Lloyd. |
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Bowman Casey Smith (AUS), onboard PUMA
Ocean Racing, skippered by Ken Read (USA) at the start
of leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro
to Boston.
Photo © Rick Tomlinson / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Heading back in a loop towards the start line, Telefónica Black continued to sail impressively and opened up a big lead on the rest of the fleet.
At the second mark Ericsson 3 came out of nowhere to arrive at almost the same time as Ericsson 4. Both were looking to take an easy second place, until the crew on Ericsson 3 had a problem and could not drop their spinnaker. The fix the problem, one of the crew had to climb the mast to free the sail. At this point almost all of the fleet had passed them, execpt Delta Lloyd. |
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Green Dragon, skippered by Ian Walker
(GBR) at the start of leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race,
from Rio de Janeiro to Boston.
Photo © Rick Tomlinson / Volvo Ocean Race.
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On the second upwind leg, Torben Grael repeated his first leg tactics and once again headed towards the Rio shore.
Fernando Echávarri made some good decisions early on in today‘s race which enabled Telefónica Black to get clear air and build on a substantial lead. As the fleet headed out to sea, Fernando Echávarri‘s Telefónica Black was the clear leader. |
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Fernando's Echavarri's Telefonica Black
will sail the leg to Boston one man short.
Bowman Michael Pammenter had injured his foot and
was taken back to the Marina da Gloria by a support
boat. Under the race rules, the team cannot replace
him during the leg. Upon arrival at the marina, Pammenter
was transferred to hospital to have his leg and foot
examined.
Photo © Rick Tomlinson / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Ericsson 4 was safely in second place from PUMA in third who, in turn was just ahead of Telefónica Blue, fourth, and Green Dragon fifth. Ericsson 3 was not far behind with Delta Lloyd was trailing.
There is one mid-leg scoring gate opportunity on this leg, set at Fernando de Noronha, before the fleet arrives in Boston on or around 27 April. |
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Telefonica Black, skippered by Fernando
Echavarri (ESP) leads the fleet, at the start of
leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro
to Boston.
Photo © Dave Kneale / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Overall Leaderboard
1. Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael / BRA): 66 points
2. PUMA (Ken Read / USA): 56.5 points
3. Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking / NED): 54.5 points
4. Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson / SWE): 44.5 points
5. Green Dragon (Ian Walker / GBR): 41 points
6. Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri / ESP): 23 points
7. Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez / ESP): 15 points
8. Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT): 10.5 points
Visit www.volvooceanrace.org for
all the latest news! |
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