VOR: Bouwe Bekking Ready to Face the Longest Leg in the History of the Volvo Ocean Race

Bouwe Bekking. Image copyright Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race.

by Javier Sobrino

The gruelling 12,300 nautical-mile Leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008/09 starts on Saturday, 14 February from the freezing Chinese port of Qingdao taking the fleet to the colourful Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. This is the "monster leg", in the words of Bouwe Bekking, skipper of TELEFONICA BLUE, winner of the two previous legs.

Bouwe arrived in Qingdao with a serious back injury suffered during the atrociously tough Leg 4 with very little time to recover before the restart. Straight after jumping off the boat on 29 January, Bouwe started working on his recovery. The objective was nothing less than 100 per cent readiness by Valentine's Day. The effort has paid off. The relief is written all over his face. "The physio work has been steadily reducing and I'm sitting a lot on the bike. We brought one over to my hotel room and I spend roughly an hour a day sitting on it with a 'view' over the city."

The schedule of the race, always meant the 2 weeks stay in Qingdao would be tight. Tighter still for those teams with the long job lists after the body and boat breaking of Leg 4. The absence of the minimum wind conditions for the in-port race scheduled for last Saturday, which was rescheduled for Sunday and eventually raced on Monday did not help team preparations either. "It was annoying to waste two days just waiting, and I would rather have ticked it off on the scheduled day, but that is sailing", Bouwe says. "We lost one day for the shore crew to work on the boat out of the water, but in reality this has not had a negative effect."

A LONG LEG WITH DOUBLE SCORING
Leg 5 is an extremely important link in the chain of the VOR 2008/09. Apart from being the longest, with including time in the Southern Ocean and rounding Cape Horn, it is the only leg with double scoring. There are two scoring waypoints at Latitude 36ºS and Cape Horn. This makes a big difference in the approach to the leg, according to Bouwe Bekking, "of course the scoring way points are every important. They count as a full leg. If you win the race to first one, there is a big chance you will be first into the westerlies, which will be a good set-up to win the second one as well. We won't be alone in pushing to the max."

Aside from the scoring waypoints, such a big racetrack offers up more key points than previous legs. Rather than explaining his strategy for the leg, Bouwe puts some questions on the table, "how do we cross the first ridge somewhere around Taiwan? Where are we going to cross the doldrums? How far south are we going to dive once past New Zealand? And, last but not necessarily least, inside or outside of the Falkland Islands"? All valid questions that will be answered as the fleet adds considerable miles to their hulls.

Sailing his sixth Round the World race, Bouwe is one of the most experienced sailors in the fleet, yet even he knows very little about sailing the first part of the course. At least this leg means "a return home" to waters with which the fleet are more familiar. A relief in many ways, "once we are around New Zealand we know what to expect, so that makes it a bit easier." But 'easier' doesn't mean 'easy', especially when the Southern Ocean. "This is the leg where we can get everything, from calms to storms in the Southern Ocean is involved. The temperature will play a key part as the yachts move "from freezing to soaring hot and back to the freezing cold before the searing heat again!" And an underlying threat is the possibility of encountering one of the sailors' main enemies: "Ice is always a fear", Bouwe says.

The official ETA in Rio de Janeiro for the fleet is 20 March. Thirty-four (34) days of non-stop, full-on racing. No small feat, and yet Bouwe prefers to be even more conservative, expecting, "anything from 32 to 45 days."

CHANGES ON BOARD TELEFONICA BLUE
Since the start of the race, in October last year, and after four legs and after more than 15,000 nautical miles, we've seen only one crew change on-board TELEFONICA BLUE: Tom Addis replacing the injured Laurent Pages after Leg 2. For Leg 5, two new faces will be jumping on board the Spanish VO70: David Vera and Michael Pammenter, both sailors from sistership Telefonica Black. "David Vera is coming for Pepe (Ribes, the bowman); he can fix everything. Mike is coming for Daryl (Wislang, second bowman); Mike is under 30, which we need to comply with the rules".

Apart from these changes to the "human power" of TELEFONICA BLUE, the VO70 is undergoing another important change for this Leg 5: new rudders. The alteration means a penalty of 3 points for the Spanish boat according to the rules, but in words of Bouwe, "it's worth it". Before this modification, TELEFONICA BLUE was 4 points behind Ericsson 4 in the leaderboard, and 4 points in front of Puma. Now, Bouwe Bekking's team stands 7 points behind the leader and only 1 point ahead third, "I'm confident we've made the right call. We really think we will go faster in the coming legs. We think both in heavier downwind conditions and in reaching this will give us benefits."

"This is not a 'last minute' decision", Bouwe continues. "We had in mind to swap them for the second half of the race, especially in view of the expected heavy reaching and running conditions of this long leg. In the next leg to Boston there will also be reaching and then crossing the Atlantic to Europe there will be more reaching and running. Add to this the good feedback received from our team mates on Telefonica Black (who have already made the change), it makes sense to change the rudders now. We are in this race to win and I think this will help us do that."

INTERESTING CHINA
This stopover has been Bouwe's first introduction to China and he is clear when you ask him that it's been a good experience, "I have been pleasantly surprised, you can buy everything over here and I think people are more focused on making money than in the west. Some words from my history teacher at high school have been stuck in my head: 'even the hardest line communists will become the best capitalists over time'. I think China is heading that way."

According to Bouwe, the Volvo Ocean Race visiting Qingdao will help the growth of sailing in the country. "For sure sailing will become more popular. Remember the Chinese won their first Gold medal in this discipline at the Beijing Olympics, plus the Green Dragon in this race is attracting a huge amount of attention. The consequence of this is that more people will want to go sailing." Mission accomplished.

Bouwe Bekking

Volvo Ocean Race

VOR: ERICSSON 3 LEG FOUR QFB: received 13.02.09 1122 GMT

Fog threatened the in-port race in Qingdao, and is now hampering Ericsson 3 from reaching that city for the start of leg 5. Image copyright Dave Kneale/Volvo Ocean Race.

by Gustav Morin

Foggy and cold

It is foggy both outside and inside. One thing is worse than another.

This morning our navigator Aksel Magdahl had to keep his eyes on the radar all the time so we wouldn’t collide with any ships. Visibility was just couple of hundred metres and ships were suddenly appearing a bit too close.

It is pretty crowded with fishing boats here outside Shanghai and since we were doing 20 to 25 knots of boatspeed it was quite exciting there for a while.

The temperature has dropped 20 degrees in 24 hours. We now have around 10 degrees and the wind has shifted from southerly to almost northerly. We are now sailing upwind again. Slamming and bumping. But so far we haven’t seen more than 30 knots and the sea state is not as dramatic as last time.

What is going to be worse than last time is the cold. It will only get worse from now on. At first I thought it would be pretty nice with some cold air. It would feel like home for a while. And when I spent a couple of hours on deck today I actually kept that opinion.

But now, sitting still down below, the cold is not so nice anymore. You can see the air come out from your mouth and it’s so high in humidity that it seems it doesn’t matter how much clothes you put on. The moisture can still sneak in underneath your layers and make you freeze.

Unfortunately the forecast says that the wind will die out when we get closer to Qingdao. Right now it looks like we won’t make the start in time. We will probably meet the other boats on their way out and we will start a couple of hours behind.
But we are still pretty happy and keeping the hope up. Forecasts have been wrong before.

Ericsson Racing Team

Volvo Ocean Race

VOR: The Longest Leg in History

Qingdao: Skippers Press conference prior to leg 5, Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro. Image copyright Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race.

by Volvo Ocean Race media

Five Volvo Ocean Race teams are girding themselves for the longest leg in the history of the race – a 12,300 nautical mile marathon to from Qingdao, China to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The leg starts at 1300 local time (0500 GMT) from a start line positioned just off the Olympic breakwater in Qingdao and will take the fleet into the depths of the iconic Southern Ocean and around Cape Horn before the teams find the relief of the finish line in the tropical conditions of Rio de Janeiro.

Four of the race teams have been in Qingdao for nearly three weeks and, after making various repairs, they competed in the in-port race on Monday. They’ve since spent their time this week making final adjustments and tune-ups, as well as provisioning for the long stretch ahead.

The fifth team, Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE), is currently racing towards Qingdao, hoping to finish leg four in the early hours of Saturday morning before joining the start for leg five to Rio.

The 12,300 nm course includes two scoring gates (at latitude 37’00.000S and Cape Horn), and two ice gates to keep the fleet to the north and safe from a drifting iceberg that has now broken up, spewing lethal bergy bits and growlers across the ocean. The Islands of New Zealand (East Cape) is also a mark of the course, which the fleet must leave to starboard. The leg is expected to take around 34 days to complete.

Today, the four skippers in Qingdao met the media and spoke of the challenge ahead. The race leader, Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA), is leaving China with a bigger lead than when they finished. A win in the in-port race, and a decision by second-placed Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) to change its rudders at the cost of a three-point penalty, have seen to that. But Ericsson 4 skipper Torben Grael says he’s still looking over his shoulder, despite holding a seven-point lead.

“Telefónica Blue is a very competitive team and I think they will improve their performance,” Grael said. “They have shown in the last couple of legs that they are a very strong team and we will have to work very hard to beat them. PUMA is also very strong.”

For his part, Telefónica Blue skipper Bouwe Bekking said the decision to take the penalty was easy. Following two consecutive leg wins, his team is confident that the new configuration for this leg will make them more competitive in the high winds and waves they’re sure to encounter in the Southern Ocean.

“We have a lot of confidence in that set-up,” Bekking said. “The first leg (a fifth place finish), we weren’t good as a crew and we’ve learned a lot since then. We’ve been able to start learning our boat as well... and I think the rudders will help us a lot in these conditions.”

Running just one point behind Telefónica Blue is Ken Read’s PUMA, which has yet to win a leg although Read thinks that particular streak may be about to end.

“There is so much to look forward to,” he said. “We have the team and the boat to win a leg and there’s no reason why we can’t win this one.”

The PUMA skipper has never rounded Cape Horn before and admits that reaching the iconic waypoint will be a massive achievement. Similarly, Green Dragon skipper Ian Walker/GBR is looking forward to his first taste of the Southern Ocean. As a relative newcomer to offshore sailing, this will be his longest passage at sea. He says the experience of the Volvo Ocean Race has changed him as a sailor.

“I’m fortunate to have some very experienced sailors on the team so I’ve learned lots of specific skills,” he said. “But if I had to summarise one thing that I’ve developed, I’m maybe a little bit more patient than I was before... a little bit. But I’m still working on that!”

At 0700 GMT this morning Ericsson 3 was 191 miles from Qingdao. Routing software is predicting a finish for the team at approximately 0630 GMT tomorrow. The team suspended racing in leg four due to damage, which has since been fixed in Taiwan.

After resuming racing just before midnight (GMT) on Wednesday night, the Nordic team is in a dash for the finish line in Qingdao, where the team will make a short pit-stop to provision and pick up crew, before starting leg five. If the weather cooperates, they may even be in time to start with the rest of the fleet.

Overall Leaderboard
1. Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA): 49 points
2. Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED): 42 points
3. PUMA (Ken Read/USA): 41 points
4. Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR): 30 points
5. Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE): 24 points
6. Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri/ESP): 21 points
7. Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez/ESP): 12 points
8. Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT): 10.5 points

Volvo Ocean Race

LVPS: Alinghi Wins First Louis Vuitton Pacific Cup Race

by Keith Taylor

The Swiss boat Alinghi got out of jail today at the start of its first race for the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series trophy, and went on to defeat the host team, Emirates Team New Zealand by 22 seconds.

Trapped outside the start line by the Kiwi boat a minute before the starting gun, the Swiss boat with American Ed Baird at the helm was able to recover and pull off an even start against her opponent. Six minutes later a wind shift put the Swiss ahead. New Zealand’s Dean Barker fought for the lead but any hopes of winning went out the window when a halyard let go and the spinnaker flew loose, costing Emirates valuable time.

Racing in the Rangitoto Channel off Auckland’s North Head started in a 17-knot south-westerly breeze that increased in strength throughout the race, building to 28 knots by the time Alinghi finished.

The Race Committee delayed the next start while it waited for conditions to moderate. However, three hours later with the wind gusting over 30 knots, it abandoned racing for the day and said it would shorten the best-of-seven final to a best-of-five. Racing will resume tomorrow.

Dean Barker and his crew dominated the challengers in the pre-start. Barker had the favoured end and used it to advantage, adroitly pinning Alinghi helmsman Ed Baird out above the line during three reaches backwards and forwards, parallel with the line and leaving Baird no escape route.

Barker wanted to start on left side of the line and broke away from Alinghi during a port reach to make a long circling turn below the committee boat and make a high speed start in the middle. The move was an opportunity for Baird to start closer to the committee boat, but with plenty of separation.

The Kiwi boat enjoyed a slight lead for long minutes and was perfectly positioned for an anticipated left shift. It never materialized and the Swiss boat edged ahead on a small right shift to dominate.

“We had them under control,” said Emirates tactician Ray Davies. “And it came to the point when we had to sail away and get a clean start. We went off the line to leeward of them, waiting for a little left shift. It didn’t actually come for us. Any kinda lefty would have let us get rid of them and control the race from there but the breeze stayed in the right.”

Barker kept it close and was on the Swiss heels, only 12 seconds astern at the weather mark. Down the run, Emirates closed and gybed into more wind pressure and a windshift that promised a significant gain. In a rare accident the gennaker halyard let go and the chute flew out to windward, costing valuable time before it the crew reset it.



“We were ready to jump them on the gybe,” Davies said. “We were calling a lot of wind pressure going into the gybe and unfortunately our spinnaker halyard slipped through the jammer and the turns on the cleat. We haven’t had that happen before. They were able to sail away.”

On the last run the breeze was up to 28 knots with the boats on the edge of control. “We recorded 18 knots and we were digging a pretty big hole,” said Davies.”
Baird retorted: “We didn’t like that big hole, so we were only doing 17. It gets pretty hairy on these boats when you’re going that fast!”

Louis Vuitton Pacific Series

Louis Vuitton Pacific Series: Race One of the Finals

by Louis Vuitton Pacific Series media

Race 1: Alinghi beat Emirates Team New Zealand, 22s

Dean Barker and Emirates Team New Zealand dominated the challenging Alinghi team in the pre-start in a nice 17 knot southwest breeze. Barker had the favoured end and used it to advantage, pinning Alinghi helmsman Ed Baird out above the line on three reaches backwards and forewards, parallel with the line and leaving Baird no escape route. Barker wanted the left and broke away from a port reach to make a long circling turn below the committee boat and make a high speed start in the middle of the line, conceding an opportunity for Baird to start closer to the committee boat, but with plenty of separation. The Kiwi boat enjoyed a slight lead for long minutes but any anticipated left shift never materialized and the Swiss boat edged ahead on a small right shift to take control and lead around the rest of the course as the breeze increased to 22 knots.

Deltas
Mark 1 - 0:12 Alinghi
Mark 2 - 0:20 Alinghi
Mark 3 - 0:25 Alinghi
Finish - 0:22 Alinghi

Race Report, 1530 hours, NZ time

With the southwesterly still in the high 20s, Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio abandoned racing for the remainder of the day. The final has been shortened to a best-of-five series. Racing will resume at 1100 hours tomorrow, Saturday.


Louis Vuitton Pacific Cup Finals board, copyright Louis Vuitton Pacific Series.

Louis Vuitton Pacific Series

LVPS: Alinghi Wins Match 1 of LVPS Finals

Alinghi wins the first match of the LVPS Finals in wet and wild conditions gusting 26knots.

by Daphne Morgan Barnicoat

Alinghi vs. Emirates Team New Zealand
Louis Vuitton Pacific Series Final
Alinghi has port entry
Alinghi races NZL92
Conditions: 20-26knot southerly
Best of five matches

Alinghi had port entry into the box, ETNZ took early control but miss-timed their return to the line. Ed Baird and crew snatched the opportunity, coming back into the committee boat end of the line to windward and with speed. Alinghi clawed back ETNZ’s small advantage, living to windward, and lifting off in a shift to take the lead and stretch it out to a boat length. Sailing the shifts up the beat, Alinghi rounded 12 seconds ahead; still striking distance for ETNZ, but by the gate the Swiss went for the left-hand mark ahead by 18 seconds. Windward mark 2 saw an 8 second extension and by the finish Alinghi was ahead by 22 seconds.

Racing was postponed ashore after the end of race 1 with too much wind forecast and the format was reduced to the best of five rather than seven.

Quote from the race boat – Ed Baird, helmsman, explains what happened in the pre-start today against Emirates Team New Zealand:

EB: “It was a weak pre-start by me. This would be the strongest wind that we have sailed in this regatta and I just didn’t do a good job; I didn’t do a great job of positioning ourselves against the other guys and suddenly we were in trouble. From there we just had to start moving the action, first of all over to the right to be safe and then secondly we just had to keep doing something until there was an opportunity. Ultimately there came an opportunity and we were able to get back into the line and have a clear start. It ended up actually almost being the start we were hoping for in the first place, but it was purely by good fortune and not by our hard work. I’ll give the guys on our team a lot of credit for hanging in there with me through a difficult situation; once we had a chance, they did everything right to get us going.”

Q: A postponement ashore until tomorrow due to the weather – how does this affect the team if at all?

EB: “The guys have to be ready for each race, that’s just the way it is. For now we just have to go away and think about what happened today – we could have done better. We have a continuing tough match tomorrow against a great team and we have to be ready.”

Deltas
Mark 1: 12 seconds
Gate: 20 seconds
Mark 2: 25 seconds
Finish: 22 seconds

Alinghi

LVPS: Strong Winds Interrupt Final

Emirates Team New Zealand during race one of the finals. Image copyright Chris Cameron/Emirates Team New Zealand.

by Warren Douglas

With only one race sailed, officials decided to wait out the strong winds in the safety and relative comfort of the Viaduct Harbour rather than risk damage to the yachts.

With a steady 28 knots from the south and gusts even stronger, the race committee decided to be prudent and delay the start of the second race.

The yachts returned to the dock soon after 1pm and were not expected to leave for at least two hours. But the breeze did not co-operate and the race committee abandoned racing for the day just after 3pm.

The final could now be a best of five races; the team winning three races will take the trophy.

Emirates Team New Zealand tactician Ray Davies said it was a typical Auckland day – the race committee did the right thing to postpone because these yachts were not designed to sail in these conditions.

Ray Davies said: “We were happy with the start going left and to leeward and with a small advantage. Then they got a right-hand shift which gave Alinghi the lead. The breeze never went left.

“We decided to put the squeeze on them, keep tacks to a minimum and stay close to the top mark. We got ourselves into a strong position to attack.

“Then we gybed on a shift we saw coming and the halyard slipped and Alinghi extended its lead. We made some gains and had a really good second run but the undeniable fact was the lead was too great to overcome.”

Margins: first mark 12sec to Alinghi, second mark 18sec, third mark 26sec, finish 22sec.

Tomorrow’s weather: east-south-east 12-18 knots, perhaps shifting to east-north-east when the breeze settles. Rain around noon.

Emirates Team New Zealand