MARINE RACING - MotorSM.com

JAN 23, 2006

DUTCH DO DOUBLE (ABN AMRO BOATS FINISH 1 & 2 AGAIN)

Who would have thought last March that in the ten months between emailing an application form and standing on the dock here in Melbourne today, that the handful of amateur sailors given their chance to sail around the world would celebrate being the fastest monohull crew on the planet?
Probably Hollywood, not a Dutch bank, but regardless where the script came from, the story of ABN AMRO TWO has been the stuff of fairytales.

The clocks showed it to be 23 seconds past 1320GMT – not quite half past midnight local time - when ABN AMRO TWO crossed the finishing line.

They have finished second to their elders on ABN AMRO ONE for the second time in two legs, repeatedly crushing the challenge of crews packed with world champions; they sit second on the overall leaderboard and in sailing 563 miles in a day have broken a world record. Not bad for a crew with an average age of 26, or “the kids” as they are known around the block.

“Given where we all were when this projected started this was a dream come true,” Andrew Lewis, 23, said. “To be getting these results is absolutely incredible.”

It seems to have come so easily. What is the secret, why have crews of professionals who have sailed this race so many times before been forced to limp home with breakages, while a crew of so-called novices escaped unscathed to dance on the podium?

Lewis added, “We are not scared to take a chance and that will worry the other boats. In this leg we got in the right pressure system, we have a solid boat, everything was working well. It was a good sea state, the breeze was in the right direction and we have a lot of good helmsmen onboard so we can put a fresh guy on every half an hour. We have a very close team and we all know we are fighting for our reputations, we are going to go the extra mile to get things done. But in saying that there were a couple of times we just pushed too hard and broke bits of the boat! We will learn in time.”

Everything that has been thrown at them has just been taken in their stride. Even when a fire broke out onboard with the leg nearing its conclusion, it was only worthy of a passing comment by Simon Fisher during a radio interview. You get the feeling that these young sailors are completely fearless. Indeed, where the other crews, notably Ericsson, strongly supported the addition of ice waypoints to steer the fleet away from the icebergs, this team threw their toys out of the pram and said “but that’s taking the excitement out of the Southern Ocean.” Fisher doesn’t necessarily continue to hold that view now with the benefit of hindsight.

“It was a lot more demanding than the first leg,” he said. “We had a lot more demanding conditions. A lot of the time the weather didn’t agree with what we were saying it would be. You can’t plan for that and the frustration when something happens is tough, like when the black boat rolled over us in the high pressure system coming out of Cape Town, but it's all part of the learning.

“It was the fastest sailing we’ve ever done. I changed my mind about the ice gates when we were down there, kind of figured it was better to sail home than walk home.”

Amazingly, while the rest of the crews mulled on the lows of getting stuck in the low pressure systems found along the track, the crew of ABN AMRO TWO didn’t report a dull moment.

In fact they found time to party. In addition to singing “happy birthday” to their yacht last week to celebrate her first year out of the boat shed, Nick Bice, Fisher and Simeon Tienpont all celebrated another year on the clock.

Tienpont recalled, “If you had told me a year ago that I would celebrate my birthday in the Southern Ocean I would probably look at you strangely. But it was my birthday and life goes on as normally as it can. But this wasn’t very normal, the boys had a little song, which was normal, but made up a special energy bar with shaving foam as a cake. That wasn’t very normal. Not sure I’d do it again.”

Now more celebrations will begin. The Australians onboard have another thing to laugh about in that they are the first home out of the entire fleet and the huge crowd, especially given the time of night, made the occasion more special for those from Down Under.

Luke Molloy was among them. “This is absolutely fantastic, look at the crowd. To think this time last year I’d be doing this. To be doing this sailing alone is fantastic, never mind being the first Aussie back. This is a moment, seeing all these people, that will stay with me a long time.”

There was even a heady point in the race, before they passed the second scoring gate - a gate they rounded in second place as they did at both gates - that they briefly held the lead in the leg.

As they are fond of saying, “who would have thought last year…” One man who really didn’t know what to expect was Hans Horrevoets, who in addition to sailing the boat was also one of the 'Pop Idol' style judges selecting the members of this record-breaking crew.

“Let’s be honest, when we left Vigo I wondered if we would be competitive or not, that was my biggest concern. The first leg we showed we are competitive, and this leg we showed we can be up there.

“We almost had the black boat. We are very happy and very proud. Of course I had my doubts (about his own well-being onboard with non-professional sailors). I have sailed a lot with young crews. To find talent is easy, there are a lot of very good sailors out there, but we set up a good structure because young crews are often very horizontal and don’t stand up and make decisions, but you need that in offshore sailing. I think in this crew we have the guys making the decisions and that makes a team. A great team with these guys.”

The crazy thing is these guys want more. This script could have been penned by Steven Spielberg himself yet the crew have as good as thrown it back in his face. They almost unanimously believe they can challenge for the whole title.

Skipper Sebastien Josse, drenched in champagne and sporting a knowing smile, said, “Six months ago I knew I arrived in a really big team because they had all this money and two boats, and I expected this would be a good campaign. This good? Oh no. when you see the other teams, people like Paul Cayard and Torben Grael. They have Olympic medals and I am just a sailor from France. I have my feet on the ground, this is a long race, but we have started very good and I am excited about what we can do. Why can’t we do better?” Not many people are challenging that suggestion these days.

JAN 20, 2006

IN THE HANDS OF AEOLUS

Throughout last night the wind slowly freed the leading three boats so that they could come round to port from a virtually easterly course to sail directly north and close on the coast. In fact the wind changed direction from about 230 degrees to about 140 degrees in a six hourly poll schedule. At 0545GM ABN AMRO ONE gybed onto starboard and is sailing parallel to the coast some 26 miles offshore. At 0645 ABN AMRO TWO copied their big brothers and gybed to follow.
One hundred miles astern of the leading pair, Bouwe Bekking’s movistar is following in their wakes as the options for any different tactics become more and more limited. The forecast for the wind over the next 12 hours isn’t going to help any of the boats and for the leader, it could bring the most hated scenario: the parking lot.

Once ABN AMRO ONE gets round Cape Otway, some 26 miles from the entrance to Port Phillip Bay, it looks as though there will be a period of no gradient wind, the wind formed by the interaction between weather systems. By staying close to the shore the strategy is clearly to take advantage of the sea and land breeze effect which might give them some motive power.

In times when there is no gradient wind, and if the sun is hot – as it is in this part of Australia – sea breeze conditions often occur close to land. As the sun heats the land, the air above heats too, hot air rises and causes a low pressure area inland. Cooler air rushes in from the sea to fill the space left by the rising hot air and, hey presto, where there was no wind, you have wind blowing from the sea. In cases where the sea temperature is markedly different to the land temperature, as is the case here, the sea breeze can sometimes get up to as high as Force three to Force four, as much as 16 knots. Its direction is usually at right angles to the coastline.

At night, the reverse happens. Land cools quicker than the sea and the air descends over the land and flows back towards the sea – which is of course now warmer and the air above it is rising. This wind off the land is sometimes called the drain effect, or more commonly the land breeze. In areas where there the countryside inland is reasonably mountainous, the drain effect is increased by gravity, with the cool air gaining speed as is falls downhill.

However it happens, whatever it is called, Mike Sanderson on ABN AMRO ONE will be hoping that it will get him out of the likely wind hole he will sail into in the next few hours. Our position poll frequency has gone from six to three hours so you will be able to see even more accurately the situation as it unfolds.

Mike is clearly nervous of what might happen, as his email shows. “At this stage of the race in to Cape Town we were faced with a scary forecast and so that took a lot of the fun out of it. Once again we have wind speeds on our expected forecast down as low as 1.5 knots, and even though we have got a 56 mile lead on ABN AMRO TWO, the fat lady hasn't sung on this leg yet. In fact, relatively speaking, she hasn't probably even got out of bed yet on the day of the Opera!

“What do we hope for with such a grim forecast? Well Port Philip Bay is famous for its sea breezes, and even though we will be approaching land at the evening the most we can hope for is a "land drainage” effect where the land cools down quickly at night and basically instead of a sea breeze that blows onshore, drainage would be offshore and will be hard in on the coast. Then we need to hope to be lucky with the tides at the entrance to Port Philip as it can be up to four knots there.”

Further back across the Great Australian Bight, the Pirates have been gybing downwind in light breezes and the easy time they are having has allowed that philosopher of the ocean race, Justin ‘Juggy’ Clougher to put his thoughts in an email. This is just a brief extract, the full text is available under Latest Emails. “There are many aspects to this race. It's a high level grand prix and associated with that, goes the stress and demand of competition.

“Due to the length and physical demands of the event, and each leg within it, human personalities cycle up and down, randomly and often. Being able to keep a grip on these cycles is a helpful thing, over the many months mingled with multicultural crews and destinations....smoothes out the peaks and fills in the valleys!! Emotive adjustments come in many shades and reasons, and defy logic sometimes.

“You are out here busting your chops, absolutely smoking along, everything hunky dory, and the boat alight, nobody could be sailing better, you're in a solid groove and the numbers are sensational, yet, the sched comes through and you lost 10 miles to boat X and 12 miles to boat Y. How the hell could that be? How could they be going THAT much better......VALLEY downer?

“Conversely, you are tripping over everything, having a shocker in shift management, and just hopelessly missing sail selection, you've torn sails, broken the pole, filled your boots with water, and everything is a mess, YET you manage to put 2 miles on the whole fleet... Blimey, what are THEY doing??...COOL, lift.

“On the Black Pearl we are already coping with larger than normal moral testing issues this early in the race, which have required large amounts of physical and mental attention. Add to this lives can be at stake, even your own, as you put it blindly in someone else’s hands, and they in turn accept this responsibility. Across the fleet we can see a few of our brothers are doing the same. All sorts of technical and human challenges have appeared and we feel their pain.”

Another one with time on his hands is Knut Frostad aboard Brasil 1, doing their level best to get to Eclipse Island and the remaining waypoint points, then in to Albany for repairs. Knut has a long email for you to read, here is a brief extract, “Life is too short. The famous four words from our "Presidentsch" onboard, Marcello, could not have been more appropriate. Life is really to short to be stuck out here on a racing boat without a mast, about one week from shore. Being without a mast is like cutting the wings of a bird, you just can't fly however hard you try. It is heartbreaking, and we are seriously heartbroken. Every single one of us.

“We did not deserve this. Why did this happen? Why did the turnbuckle fail? Why now? Why step on someone who is already down? It feels like ever since we had to return to South Africa for the deck repair, we have been fighting with a knife against an enemy who had a gun pointing at our head, and now he decided to fire. We managed to build so much hope and dug so deep for the last motivation after repairing the boat. We were going to finish this leg whatever happened, and we were going to do it with pride and give any chance of getting back the miles lost our best shot. And then, bang! Something completely beyond our control cuts our wings off, and we are left with no hope of scoring any more points on this leg. Now our only hope is to make it in time for the inshore race in Melbourne.”

JAN 18, 2006

BRAZIL 1 Dismasted

Brasil 1 is attempting to create a jury rig before heading for Western Australia after it was dismasted in calm weather, 1,300 miles from Eclipse Island this morning at 0630GMT. Torben Grael has issued the following statement directly from the boat, “At 06.30GMT Brasil 1 dismasted in position: 40,47.61S, 89,18.36E. At the time Brasil 1 was sailing downwind in a WNW breeze of about 18 knots under clear sunny skies.
“The mast broke in three pieces after what seems to be a fitting failure at the lower end of the port V1 (vertical shroud). The turnbuckle eye broke horizontally across with half of the fitting remaining on the boat and half on the shroud. No other signs of failure have been found so far. “All the crew is safe and sound and we're still in the process of cleaning up and salvaging as much material as possible. Due to the clement weather conditions we are trying to salvage the final top section of the mast from spreader four to the top. If we're successful this would mean that all pieces have been salvaged. “Once this has been completed we will rig up a jury rig and sail in the direction of Eclipse Island which also happens to be our nearest landfall. “No decision about retiring from the leg has been taken.

The nearest ship, ironically enough, is carrying Ericsson, in transit to Australia after suffering a keel failure two days into the leg and being shipped from Port Elizabeth, South Africa. As no lives are threatened and the ship, which was 300 miles away at the time of the diamasting, doesn’t have a crane big enough to hoist the Volvo Open 70 onboard, this option was dismissed.

Paradoxically, Knut Frostad’s email from the boat just hours before the dismasting made fun of the proximity of the Wallenius Wilhelmsen ship, “But we have other competitors. We must not forget the Swedes on Ericsson.

“As they got a jump start on us in Port Elisabeth, leaving a day and a half before us, no one at the dock left us any chance of catching the huge orange ship on the way to Melbourne. According to Wallenius Wilhelmsen, who are now claiming three points in the race after having done both legs in the Volvo Ocean Race so far, they should arrive on the 26th, and we are giving everything we have to beat them to the finish line.

“Knowing Torben’s intensity during close inshore tactics, everything is in place for the duel of the century, should Wallenius Wilhelmsen decide to also join the inshore race in Melbourne, and try to lee bow us at the start – overlap?”

So far it appears that Brasil will build a jury rig and sail to the nearest port, probably Albany, though Fremantle might be an eventual haven should they decide to ship the boat on. The blue and yellow boat will, however, struggle to top speeds of five to eight knots, meaning it could be up to a week before she reaches land.

In a Sat C conversation with the duty officer, Marcel Van Triest explained they had full stocks of food available and the fuel tank was nearly full, but motoring to land would be expected to take somewhere close to ten days so that option was dismissed in favour of the jury rig.

All the crew’s families have been informed of the developments in the Southern Ocean.

UPDATE, 1100GMT

Alan Adler, Brasil 1's Director, commented from Melbourne today, “We got a message from the boat and the crew is safe and are recovering the rig. They have recovered the mainsail and they are now trying to recover the spinnaker. They will now sail to Eclipse Island and decide whether they go by ship or however to Australia.

“We now need to discuss this (the finances required) and need to look at our insurance and see what can be done to make this happen. I think we will have the support we need. We doing a really good project and we have a lot of people behind us who believe in us and want us to do well. Our sponsors have always been very happy with this project and I’m fairly sure we can rely on people to help us.

“I was very happy about this attitude (that of the team in choosing to sail the whole course). I think this is the right attitude for a round the world race. When we broke down earlier in the race we knew we had the ability to be fixed and get back out there and get the points and so we chose to do it. It was the team philosophy. Now we are disappointed but this is round the world sailing and it is part of it.”

Brasil 1's spare mast is in Southampton, England, and the team is trying to see what will be the best way to get it to the boat, to fly it Melbourne or fly it to Perth. In an audio interview available through the link at the top of this page, Team Director Adler refers to the team wanting to collect the Eclipse Island points available to them and then go to Albany. In Albany they will see if they can continue to Melbourne.

Options available to the team include sending the spare mast to Albany, though it might be difficult to get it there in the absence of a major airport, attempting to rig an alternative mast, or making better repairs to the salvaged rig. The final option would be to withdraw from the leg and proceed to Freemantle, from where they could catch a ship to Melbourne or even to Rio de Janiero.

Among the alternatives, history recalls the aluminium pipe mast that was welded together for Heath's Condor in 1977, but that might not be the best option for a Volvo Open 70.

Given the time frame, there is the possibility that replacement sections for the splintered carbon and reinforcing sleeves could be manufactured by the mast makers and flown to Albany where the team could re-assemble the carbon spar to a semblance of its former glory with the facilities at hand.

If Brasil 1 was to get to Albany by the 24th of January, fix the mast and then sail to Melbourne by the 4th of February, she could start the In Port race with the repaired rig, gather what points she could, then go straight ashore for maintenance, step the new mast and be on the line for the start of Leg 3 to Wellington.

Given the competitive spirit that the Brazillian team have shown so far, it is not beyond the realms of possibility.

UPDATE 1755GMT

An understandably upset Torben Grael sent the following email at 1645GMT, giving the latest status of the boat.

"Dear friends, after the problems we had at the start of this leg, we were all feeling so well and so proud about the way things were progressing to us. This new accident has shattered the crew.

"Unfortunatly, as the start of next leg is not too far away, we won't be able to finish this one, and the dream of many of us to sail effectively around the world will not come true.

"We feel even stronger about our decision in Port Elisabeth, and it was better to have this second blow here on this same leg than on a future one, specially from Wellington to Rio.

"It will take a enourmous effort from our team to regroup and be ready for the start of the next leg, with all the constrains we have. But we do have a really strong will and I can only garantee that I'm sure that every single member of the team will do it very best.

"Fortunately nobody was hurt and we managed to minimize the damage the best that we could, with everyone working realy hard, including Andre going for a long swim and doing a great job clearing the mess and allowing us to rescue sails, mast and other equipment. Now we are back sailing under jury rig, the speed is not great, but it's what we can get under this circumstances.

"The boat movement is hard and unconfortable, everyone is tired and disapointed, but already thinking about the future."

JAN 16, 2006

Mark roundings and madness

At 0545GMT on Monday 16 January ABN AMRO ONE passed the Eclipse Island scoring waypoint to notch up the 3.5 points for the leader and then, exactly 63 minutes later, team sister ABN AMRO TWO passed the waypoint to take the next three points. At the 1000GMT position poll, movistar was set to be next around at about 1010GMT for 2.5 points, followed by Pirates who should get to the island at about 1500GMT.
ING Real Estate Brunel is 932 miles from the waypoint, but looks like carrying a decent breeze all the way, closing the distance between them and the others ahead. She was doing 16 knots in 18 knots of wind, and might even improve on that in the next few hours as she sails into stronger wind. Brasil 1 has passed the second Ice Gate, as well as the first scoring waypoint at 70 degrees east, and is now only 1,085 miles behind ING Real Estate Brunel.

So far the crew on movistar haven’t announced their intention to take on spares or to go for a pit-stop repair, but it is likely, as all their emails confirm, that they need replacement bolts, hydraulic oil and probably ram seals to ensure that they can take on the remaining 1,300 nautical miles to the finish in safety.
Bouwe Bekking had this to say. “Everything has been set up for a short stop at Eclipse Island. The shore crew is already there, and have replacement bolts, O-rings, hydraulic oil etc, etc with them. They have been very effective as always, thanks guys, for what you are doing for us. The stop shouldn't take too long, and a lot will depend on the sea state around Eclipse island and of course if there will be any hiccups with the repairs. If the sea state is too rough then we will sail to Albany, where movistar can hide behind a big headland.”
The Sailing Instructions state that boat can suspend racing for such repairs, but there is a minimum period of two hours that has to be taken. That will allow Pirates to close up, but if all goes well for movistar, not overtake.

We are a little concerned about the mental state of the crew aboard Pirates. Usually their emails are written by skipper Paul Cayard, but it seems that an anonymous writer has got to the keyboard. This, edited, email came in this morning, “The Black Pearl had a wildlife rendezvous this afternoon with a well-known predator of the sea, as a shark got caught on their rudder, whilst 'smoking' along nicely at 20-25 knots.
“Helmsman Craig Satterthwaite reported, ‘I felt a sharp thump on the rudder and then vibration through the steering, so I alerted the crew’.
“Rapid Action Teams (RATS) quickly searched all areas of the vessel, and according to Team Chief Ardern soon found the sit-chee-ation on the rudder. This meant that the RATS took command of the boat and undertook a carefully planned manoeuvre which involved dropping the headsail jib thingy, and doing a partial backdown of the boat. The four to five foot shark was freed from his trap relatively quickly and we are optimistic that he made it back to prowl around the briny.
“The RATS on Black Pearl have been in a heightened state of alert due to other issues, so this was an excellent run to showcase their effectiveness.
“TECHNICAL PAGE: Huge win in this area with the technical team comprising of nine chiefs and no Indians (navigator Salter maintained Stiff Upper Lip and respectfully, and wisely, declined to participate) managed to repair the mangled and mutilated vang lug and reinstall the vang today, with no dramas.

“There were no injuries, and all personal prides remain intact. We all had a group hug and cheered as Director Satterthwaite slammed the top pin home and split the split pin."
There is more, but mindful of the family audience we have here on the Volvo Ocean Race web site, the unexpurgated version is only available under a plain brown wrapper on the Latest Emails page.

A little further back on the ocean, the team aboard ING Real Estate Brunel have eyes firmly fixed over the bow. Grant Wharington explains, “The Great Southern Land is just over the horizon now. The boys have always said, ‘when it’s under 1,000 miles away we are home’. We now have 980 miles until we round Eclipse Island and head east for the last 1280 miles to Melbourne. In total only another 3.5 Sydney/Hobarts to go!
“Although difficult to keep the intensity up with your opposition nearly three days in front, the guys are doing a fantastic job and attacking each sail change as if it was their last! In fact the last one, Hawk and Marky had the stopwatch on them as they were on the off watch, happily lying with their sleeping bags zipped up over their heads cocoon style. When they got the call the total time from in the bag to back in the bag was 26 min 20 sec. A new record!!”

JAN 12, 2006

Pirates slow down

As the scheds rolled in through the night it became apparent something was happening to Paul Cayard’s Volvo Open 70. The Pirates were slowing. Between the 1600GMT and 2200GMT scheds something had caused Paul Cayard’s crew to slow from 22 knots to 16 knots; then at 0400GMT this morning movistar had taken third place from The Black Pearl, who by this stage was at 14.5 knots.
With The Black Pearl 1,775 nautical miles south west of Freemantle, Australia, Cayard reported that they had reduced sail and the cant of her keel to zero degrees, after discovering what they believed to be serious damage to the structural support of the keel.
Here’s Cayard’s account of their night. “Last evening at 1845GMT the crew of the Black Pearl noticed cracks in the area of its keel support structure. Water was coming into the boat from those cracks and still is. The rate of water flow is manageable at this time.
“Sail was immediately reduced. Photos and video of the cracks were recorded and sent to the designer of the boat.
“Several hours were spent discussing this issue with the designers of the boat. A certain level of comfort was achieved and we proceeded, with reduced sail, east at 12 knots through the night.
“This morning we have reviewed the drawings of how this area was designed. It is not clear to us if this is structural damage or superficial. The fact that water is coming into the boat is not reassuring. We have a made a new video and photos in the daylight, and sent them off to the designers.
“We have run tests with zero, 20 and 40 degrees of cant while inspecting the area. Forty degrees is definitely alarming. The cracks open and close as the loads change and the water flow is more and less accordingly. Twenty degrees seems tolerable.
“It is not clear to us, and probably will never be clear to us or anyone, how serious this damage is until we reach land. We simply can't properly inspect the area out here.
“On the weather side, the best winds to help us make the progress toward Australia are during the next 30 hours. We currently have winds from the northwest. Eventually, we will fall of the back of this system and be hit with less favourable winds from southeast. There is danger in being out here for long time.
“Therefore, considering all of the above, I have decided to run the boat up to 80 percent of full speed at this time, with a maximum of 20 degrees of cant, to make as much progress as reasonably possible in these conditions.
“Naturally we are taking all precautions necessary for any eventuality.
“In general, all is well and stable onboard the Black Pearl.”
The Pirates held a 16 mile lead on Bouwe Bekking’s movistar at the 2200GMT sched last night, but are now 49 miles astern of the Spanish yacht.
Brasil 1 are now comfortably up and running again, and despite the 2,529 miles between them and Mike Sanderson’s pace setters onboard ABN AMRO ONE, they are charging on at 19 knots.
Knut Frostad reports from the tail end of the fleet. “Brasil 1 is in great shape after our little pit stop. Thanks again to our shore crew who did a fantastic job of putting our little ‘stock car’ back together again. Now I know how it feels for a Nascar driver to stand in the pits and watch while the others keep racing while the car is being fixed. It feels good to get back out on the track again trying to score some points. With some good luck we might even catch someone, although it would be the same type of luck needed to win the lottery!
“There is little else to report on today as things onboard continue to run smoothly, although there is rumoured to be a time change later which always creates some confusion in the watch system. I could report on the talk on deck, but then again that would be suicide.”
ABN AMRO TWO have failed to smash any world records today, but are still the fastest boat in the fleet at 21.7 knots.
Current positions are ABN AMRO ONE leading by 226 miles from ABN AMRO TWO, movistar a further 111 miles behind. Then it’s Pirates at 361 miles from the leader and ING Real Estate Brunel 1,118 miles behind ABN AMRO ONE and still struggling with their broken mast track and consequent inability to hoist their mainsail all the way up the mast.

JAN 12, 2006

View from John Bertrand

Let’s be clear about a key point, just in case the message has been missed in some quarters; the positioning of the Volvo Ocean Race is to be at the leading edge of ocean racing. That was the intention and that is the reality.
Since the early days of the Whitbread and every four years since, the competition has been pushed to new limits and that is the essence of our sport. It is the same for the single-handed events and even more so for the multihull races; pushing limits involves taking risks which is why we have exclusively professional sailors involved.
The wider benefit for the rest of the sailing world is exemplified by the amateur round the world races that operate in a different sphere of safety limits. This ‘trickle-down’ effect sees these crews emulate the old round the world races of ten or 20 years ago to the extent that these are hugely commercial operations.
Nobody can disguise the dramatic failures we have witnessed over the past two months. These were not unexpected and it would be foolish to expect a trouble-free race. Progress just cannot be made without hitches. Yet any event will have its detractors, many with hidden agendas, along with those who hop easily onto the first passing bandwagon.
Mike Sanderson, skipper of ABN AMRO ONE has stated exactly how the crews regard this issue, “The breakages are all from weight reduction decisions that have been made by either the design team or the racing team. Safety of everyone is at the top of the list no matter how you look at it.” And to prove his point, the fleet leader has been actively looking at ways of avoiding pushing his boat beyond a safe limit. Like a good Formula 1 driver, Sanderson knows that driving at maximum speed round a course will not win races.
Legitimate questions can be asked regarding the damage to date. To date, the Open 50 and 60 foot classes have led the way in development terms. Canting keels are now reasonably well-designed so we must examine the shock loadings that these 70-footers with ten crew, fully-powered up, are producing.
The reality is these new Volvo Open 70s have enormous sail carrying power compared to the weight of the hulls. This high power to weight ratio combined with the non-flexible nature of carbon fibre leads to enormous shock loadings. In the old days with aluminium America's Cup yachts, the aluminium material was elastic in nature. It gave and it absorbed. Safety factors were in the order of perhaps 3:1. That is, if the steady state load was say 1,000 kg, the designer/engineer would design the structure to break at 3,000 kg. This would account for all shock loadings at sea. In the modern era, with these new Volvo Open 70s literally airborne at times with their massive sail areas, high speeds and super light, non-bending carbon structures, the safety factors may have to be 10:1, maybe higher. That is the dilemma. Nobody really knows. It is probably the equivalent of stresses that ocean racing power boats need to absorb.
The balance is if these boats are made totally destruction proof, they’ll simply be too heavy to be competitive.
In sailing terms, we are witnessing a new and very exciting phenomenon. The race crews have to back off from pushing their boats too hard. It is not unlike a Formula 1 driver with his 1,000 hp engine, up from 600 hp only a few years ago. He cannot drive his machine at 100 percent for the entire race; otherwise he'll destroy his car. The tactic for the foreseeable future will be to find the design envelope and sail within it.
The name of the game is to finish the race. These boats revel in winds up to 30 knots, but at 40 knots they’re a handful. Then introduce vertical seas and we're talking about boats becoming semi airborne, the result is massive shock loadings when they finally impact.
This is a new factor that these highly experienced crews must come to terms with. As spectators, we are being treated to an added and, frankly, unexpected topic to add to our expectations of these world-class athletes. It is the extreme we were promised.
No doubt the next generation of Volvo Open 70s will indeed be more solid, but that won’t stop the current generation of boats from being raced around the world successfully and I’m very comfortable that they will do so, and I certainly do not want to see anyone lost in the process.
Ultimately, this event is about the sailors, not the boats. On this issue, it is appropriate that Sanderson should have the last word, “Everyone called for a more exciting boat, both the public and the sailors and guess what? We got it.
“To think that these boats have gone out at just 70 feet long and broken the 24 hr record now three times that was set by Mari Cha IV, a 140 feet long boat very dear to my heart,. I was involved with it from conception, and the conception was it was built for the purpose of beating records. It just blows me away.”

JAN 6, 2006

Look out! Behind you!

Still leading and pulling away mile by mile, ABN AMRO ONE is commanding the race at the moment. Pirates and ABM AMROs ONE and TWO are sailing in winds of about 15 knots and are doing between 14 and 15 knots through the water. Pirates are hanging on to the Juan Kouyoumdjian boats and are the meat in the sandwich with ABN AMRO TWO about ten miles north and ABN AMRO ONE ten miles to the south.
A little further back and a little further north, movistar is in more wind than the three leaders, sailing at 16 knots, but coming along behind like a steam train, gaining 24 miles in the past six hours and setting the fastest six hour time of the session are the Aussies in ING Real Estate Brunel. Grant Wharington and the boys are really trucking now and look like they are bringing up the new big winds to the leaders. They do have 211 miles to go, but the weather software and the telemetry shows that they have over 24 knots of wind to play in while the leaders are still only in 15.
Over the weekend the weather will liven up a bit, with all the boats having winds from 20 to 40 or even 45 knots within reach on Saturday. That should make for some big 24 hour runs. So far ABN AMRO ONE has the best run of 468 miles, set up to the 1000GMT schedule today, but with sustained winds of up to 30 knots available and in the longer seas of the open ocean, expect to see the numbers rise. People have been speculating on 600 mile days being achieved on this leg, but given the avowed caution of the skippers that might not happen. We are more likely to see the boats staying very even until a last sprint to the finish line in another few thousand miles.
Positions at 1600GMT were as follows: Leading is ABN AMRO ONE, with Pirates second 16 miles behind, followed by ABN AMRO TWO at 30 miles behind the leader. In six hours Pirates have backed off a little, losing four miles, TWO have gained a mile. Next back, movistar have lost two miles on the leader, but fifth placed ING Real Estate Brunel are on a charge just 211 miles in arrears.
Life aboard has been rather better than the advertisements for holidays in the Southern Ocean usually predict. Simon “SiFi” Fisher of ABN AMRO TWO sent the following email, “While we are waiting for the low to come and get us things couldn't be more tropical! Blue skies, sunshine, flat water... Right now we stand more of a risk of sunburn than frost bite! Bicey (Nick Bice) was forced to bite his lip this morning when speaking to a radio station in Melbourne describing 40 knot gales and freezing temperatures as all the while Junior was upstairs driving the boat with no shirt on!
“I guess we should enjoy it while we can though and patiently wait for this low to catch us up although as sods law would have it with the latest lot of weather data we discovered that it had slowed down so we have to wait a little bit longer for the real fun to begin!”
News of the two damaged boats is that Ericsson is 30 miles from Port Elizabeth, heading for a ship that leaves on Sunday 8 January for Melbourne. They have had a hard and frustrating beat to windward to get there, but should be meeting up with Brasil 1 by about 1900GMT.
Brasil 1’s shore crew have already cut out the damaged skins on the deck starboard side, taken out the damaged core and scarphed in new, then vacuum bagged on new carbon fibre skins top and bottom to complete the reinstatement.
At 1750GMT Brasil 1 issued the following statement concerning their plans for the repaired boat, “As soon as we arrived, Horácio (Carabelli, the technical director of the project) said that the problem could be fixed and that we should be sailing again shortly. This Friday, he was able to confirm that information.Brasil 1 should be ready on Tuesday and we can return to the leg and gain some points in the race. But the most important thing is to get to Melbourne sailing and keeping the team’s spirit as high as possible” said skipper Torben Grael.
Knut Frostad, watch captain and member of the team’s technical committee, added, “It has been devastating to suspend racing when we had worked ourselves to the best possible position for meeting the strong westerly wind first. I have never abandoned any leg in the 12 years I have done this race, and I am really proud of being part of a Brazilian team who has no intention of giving up. We are going back out there to finish the job. We want to sail around the world, and complete the race even though we will have very little time to rest in Melbourne. Mentally, this is probably going to be the toughest leg ever, for all of us”.
The shore crew that is working in Port Elizabeth is made up of six people: technical director Horácio Carabelli, logistics manager Herve le Quilliec, boat builders Alvaro Costa Souza and Tym Linch Blosse, engineer Martin Carter and Ricardo Ermel who is responsible for the logistics. The team has been working since Thursday afternoon, when the yacht arrived in Port Elizabeth. This Saturday, the team will be reinforced with Sergio Santos who is flying in from Brazil to assist with the job.
According to Horácio Carabelli, the damage to Brasil 1’s deck should be repaired in five days. “We are repairing the damaged areas and adding some structural parts to strengthen this region even further. These repairs should be such that when we arrive in Australia we don’t have to work too much on the boat to get it ready for the In Port race in Melbourne and for the leg to Rio de Janeiro.”
The passage to Melbourne should take 15 to 20 days. Brasil 1 should be arriving just in time for the In Port race, which is scheduled for 4 February. “We will have little time in Melbourne.” Said Horácio, “We’ll have approximately four days before the in Port race and then another five days before the start of the third offshore leg to get the Brasil 1 ready.”
One correction from this morning’s report is that Stu Bannatyne’s latest daughter is to be named Felicity and not Amanda as it said in Bouwe Bekking’s email. Amanda is in fact the very proud mummy.

Tactics of a new era
Past Whitbread and Volvo Ocean races were all about complete machismo. Get into the Southern Ocean, go to the Deep South, find the strongest wind you could and then just hang on for dear life and hope you dodge the icebergs. For 2006 the tactics are different.
Today, problems with canting keels and other factors that have bedevilled both legs so far will be at the forefront of the minds of the skippers and navigators as they plan their course through to Melbourne. All the reports from the boats refer to backing off, going easy, changing down early, sailing better angles to the waves to ease the load on the boats. This is a new breed of boat, a new breed of tactics created by a new breed of sailor that is developing from the old. No longer balls out and damn the consequences, but pick your wind speed, pick your wind angle and preserve the boat, preserve the crew.
There is no truer statement than the old saw that goes: To finish first, first you have to finish.
The weather maps for the next day or so show a 50 knot depression building up behind and to the south of the boats. In past races, the boys – and girls – would have been rubbing their hands with glee, heading down south to intercept the whirling dervish and hoping to ride the beast in 40 knots or so. Today the skippers and navigators will be looking for a route that will keep them sailing in a band of wind probably no more than 25 to 30 knots.
We know that the boats can sail at or above wind speed and we know the boats are wet, very wet. At 25 knots of boat speed there is probably half a metre of water on deck for a lot of the time, at 30 knots there is probably a metre. With a metre of water on deck crews are getting washed about, they get bashed into things, they get injured, they are always tired and always wet.
At 30 knots the boat is constantly diving into the backs of waves, decelerating to 20 knots or less and loading up the rig, the keel, the whole structure. At 25 knots of boat speed the decelerations are far less, the loading less and the chance of any failure much less.
So the new tactics are keeping the boats further north, out of the really windy stuff. This, coupled with the positions of the Ice Gates and the Kerguelen Islands scoring waypoint, means that the preferred route at the moment is east rather than south or south east. Possibly the boats will stay above 43 degrees south for the whole leg – unless the wind drops in a major fashion and they have to curve south to up the ante.
Currently, as of 1000GMT the positions haven’t changed since 2200GMT last night. ABN AMRO ONE leads from Pirates, followed by ABN AMRO TWO. Then it’s movistar followed by ING Real Estate Brunel.
ABN AMRO ONE is inching away from Pirates and is now 12 miles in front. Pirates is 19 miles ahead of ABN AMRO TWO, who is turning slightly south to hunt more wind as the conditions where she is, as the northernmost of the three leaders, mean the boat is sailing in lighter breezes.
movistar isthe most northerly of the racing fleet, 56 miles north of ABN AMRO ONE. The crew are celebrating today as Stu Bannatyne became a dad again when Amanda came into the world, but they are also sad as they lost miles overnight on the leaders. As Bouwe Bekking puts it, “Ougghh, being south was king. One sched was very painful, a loss of 80 miles to the leaders. Since we are about a degree further north we have a tad less pressure as well, but we have managed to control the damage, it could have been way worse. In the last report "only" lost eight miles.
“We have some good news to report as well, Stu Bannatyne has become a father again, a new baby girl. Amanda: on behalf of the guys, a big hug and congratulations. Another nice thing is that we have hardly leaks in boat, just a few little drips around the mast.”
ING Real Estate Brunel dropped miles yesterday afternoon and the duty officers went into a flat spin when they only moved a mile between two 15 minute position polls. The email from the boat from Grant Wharington explains the situation. “Early in the afternoon the breeze was building and it was time to peel to the fractional spinnaker. All went fine with the wind building to the mid 20s and boat speed too, we were settling in for what should have been about 24 hours with this nicely rebuilt spinnaker, which we dropped in the water in Leg 1 and lost 20 percent of the sail, when suddenly the Sparcraft clip on top of the sail opened itself and the sail fell to the water. I have never seen one of these clips fail and I can officially tell you that it is not pretty. The VO70 rule only allows 13 replacement sails for the whole race, so rebuilding damaged sails is critical.
“We lost over an hour recovering the sail in many pieces! We quickly realised it was around the rudders and would not free itself. Hawk (Adam Hawkins) said 'Someone needs to dive in the water to cut it free,' then after five seconds of silence and nodding from all, he said 'I guess that will be me then.'
“With that, a minute later he had the survival suit on with all the gear and launched himself off the back of the boat into the icy Southern Ocean water with knife in hand. He was in the water for about three or four minutes and cut it free, a fantastic display of guts and seamanship. Now I sit here telling the story two hours later and he and Marky (Mark Fullerton) have the sewing machine running flat out sewing it all back together again. We really do have an unstoppable team of guys on board!”

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PRESS RELEASE: VOLVO OCEAN RACE 2005 / 2006