| At sea. Volvo Ocean Race: Brasil 1 skipper describes what happened to the mast |
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| Friday, 20 January 2006 | |
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ZDL: Brazilian Boat will sail straight for the Australian coast in order to safeguard participation in Melbourne in-port race on February 4th. São Paulo (SP) - Brasil 1 will not cross the last scoring gate of the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race between Cape Town and Melbourne, at Eclipse Island. This Thursday, skipper Torben Grael announced that, to be able to participate in the in-port race in Melbourne on February 4th, the Brazilian boat will head straight for the west coast of Australia, arriving in either Freemantle or Perth. "It would take a lot of time to reach Eclipse to score just one point. If we did that, we'd run the risk of not being prepared for the next two race stages; the in-port race and the third offshore leg, from Melbourne to Wellington. So we felt it was better to not kid ourselves that we could get the point and just make landfall as quickly as possible," said the two-time Olympic champion. On shore, the support crew is already preparing to receive the Brasil 1 on the west coast and move the sailboat to the east coast. The boat will probably be put on a trailer and transported over land to Melbourne, where the repairs will completed. The mast, which is still in London, arrives in Australia next week. Check below for the latest interview with Brasil 1 skipper Torben Grael: What exactly happened at sea? I can't explain it. There was some kind of failure of a part of the mast. The wind wasn't strong. We had our big spinnaker up and the conditions were good. The boat was going fast and we were experiencing excellent weather conditions and expecting to reach Eclipse Island in good time. We even harboured some hope in catching up with the Australian team. That's why this incident was a big disappointment to all of us. Have the problems been dealt with? Despite the circumstances things are well onboard. We were able to recover the three pieces of the mast, all of the sails and almost all of our equipment. The damage to the boat was contained. The problem wasn't that big, mostly restricted to the mast. Onboard everything is organized, the sails have been stored, the mast is tied down on deck and the emergency mast in place. What is the emergency mast like? We are using the upper part of the mast that we recovered, with our storm sails. But we are going very slowly, at about 7 knots. For the time being we will sail as long as the wind stays strong and takes us in the right direction. When conditions change, we will turn on the engine and head for Freemantle or Perth. What is your expectation for the remainder of this trip? The plan is to make landfall as quickly as possible, whichever way we can. We want to have to boat ready for the in-port race (sceduled for February 4th) and finish all of the preparations for the third offshore leg, which starts on February 12th. It will be very tight so that's why we have to do everything as quickly as possible. The only concern is for the last few days. We will have to get some assistance on the home stretch because we only have gas to last us about 400 miles. You cancelled the plan of reaching the Eclipse Island scoring gate? Yes, we will head directly for Freemantle or Perth. To reach Eclipse Island would take too much time to score just one point. If we did that we'd run the risk of not being prepared for the next two race elements, the in-port race and the third leg, from Melbourne to Wellington. We felt it was better to not kid ourselves and to make landfall as quickly as possible. The Brasil 1 is sponsored by VIVO, Motorola, QUALCOMM, HSBC, Embraer, ThyssenKrupp, NIVEA Sun, Ágora Senior Corretora de Valores and the Brazilian Government through Apex (Agency for the Promotion of Brazilian Exports), the Ministry of Industry, Development and Foreign Trade, the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Sports, with special support from Varig. www.brasil1.com.br |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 20 January 2006 ) |
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