| At Sea. Volvo Ocean Race: 1600 Day 4 positions and update |
|
|
|
|
; "Positions Day 4 1600")
| Thursday, 05 January 2006 | |
|
Lizzie Green This afternoon has seen the Volvo Ocean Race fleet streak off once again downwind at pace, ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) has taken the lead from movistar (Bouwe Bekking), and Ericsson (Neal McDonald) has made the decision to ship the boat to Melbourne. In an interview today, Mike Sanderson (ABN AMRO ONE) told Race Headquarters, “The wind has now increased to around 28 knots and our priority now is to keep the boat in one piece, as we are reaching speeds of 26/27 knots again downwind. We are playing a reasonably conservative game. You could push and break something now and in three days time the fleet could be in light airs again and you don’t know if it was necessary. I am very conscious of this leg as I promised the boys and myself that we would tone it back.” Bouwe Bekking said last night that he knew the rest of the fleet would catch them up in the next few days as a depression, that was forming behind the whole fleet to the west of them, would start moving quickly to the east. He was resigned to this but was more worried about his own keel rams after the misfortune of Ericsson and with the memory of having to retire from the first leg still fresh in his mind. “Of course we have checked our hydraulic cylinders as well, but since we have a different way of controlling the functioning of the cylinders, I feel ok. Amazingly the guys on deck don't seem to be bothered that much, a big difference between being the skipper or being one of the crew. They just go on with their job, trimming the sails and doing their best of keeping us in first place.” Crucial decisions have now been made by Ericsson Racing Team and the decision has been taken to ship the boat to Melbourne from Port Elizabeth. Neal McDonald said, “We will now clearly have to think of this race as a whole, and focus on the long term objective. This is why we have decided to ship Ericsson to Melbourne, where we can try to work out a solution that we are all confident with." Jason Carrington, the bowman and boat builder on board added, “You have to soldier on but it’s particularly hard. It is hard for everyone. It is a huge disappointment as we have put so much energy into this particular area of the boat. We have also told the other teams of the problems and they are running exactly the same rams as us. We have all sailed 15 000 miles before this and then it happens. We have to fight on and we will.” Brasil 1 (Torben Grael), also with damage, suspended racing at 15.17 GMT this afternoon and is currently motoring into Port Elizabeth in South Africa with their shore crew waiting to assess the damage and options. Back out on the race track, Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) has moved into second place ahead of ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse). ING Real Estate Brunel (Grant Wharington) is 45 nautical miles behind the second Dutch boat, and has 15 knots of west north-west breeze. |
|
| Last Updated ( Thursday, 05 January 2006 ) |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|