| At sea. Volvo Ocean Race: Hawkins goes into Southern Ocean to free sail, 0400 Day 5 positions |
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| Friday, 06 January 2006 | |
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Lizzie Green: Speeds are back up to a frantic pace as the first four boats race hell for leather towards Melbourne in leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race. There are just 56 nautical miles between ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) in the lead, and movistar (Bouwe Bekking) in fourth place. With two boats already damaged, there has been much talk of the need to throttle back when the breeze is up, although this is hard to do when all around you are pushing hard. “We kept to our promise and changed down to our smaller spinnaker. A hard feeling when you see one of your competition (Pirates of the Caribbean/Paul Cayard) still toughing it out on their full size masthead sail,” reported Mike Sanderson from ABN AMRO ONE tonight. Sanderson concluded his report, “The speed hits 27 knots…. masthead spinnaker, full mainsail, big staysail… pitch black… oh yeah, we know all about backing off..!” All four boats have been in close contact all day, with the racing proving as close as ever. Third placed ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) had an encounter with The Black Pearl this morning, movie-style. “She may not have black sails and be crewed by the damned, and I’m pretty sure Paul Cayard isn’t so evil that hell itself spat him back out (I’ve seen Pirates of the Caribbean more than a few times!!), but it was still a pretty menacing sight as the skull and cross bones came over the horizon in a building breeze,” wrote navigator Simon Fisher. In fifth place, ING Real Estate Brunel (Grant Wharington) dropped their newly rebuilt fractional spinnaker in the water when the clip at the top of the sail opened. They lost over an hour recovering the sail, now in many pieces where it had wrapped around the rudders. To free it, Adam Hawkins launched himself into the icy ocean, wearing a survival suit, and cut it free within about four minutes. The sewing machine is now running flat out. “What an upstoppable team of guys we have onboard,” remarked skipper Grant Wharington, “a fantastic display of guts and seamanship.” Having made a temporary repair, Ericsson (Neal McDonald) is now back at sea, but heading towards Port Elizabeth from where the team is to ship her to Melbourne. A lot of research is currently being done in order to further develop and strengthen the hydraulic keel movement system. The team is in close discussion with designers at Farr Yacht Design, together with engineering consultants Semcon. Greg Waters, a hydraulic expert based in Australia, has also been consulted and has brought valuable help to the team. The second stricken yacht, Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) has now arrived in Port Elizabeth and the shore team will inspect the damage to the deck during the daylight tomorrow. www.volvooceanrace.org |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 06 January 2006 ) |
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