SailingPR - Sailing & Regatas

Estocolmo, Suecia,(23 de octubre, 2008) - Ericsson 4 añadió hoy 3,5 puntos a su casillero en la Volvo Ocean Race al ser el segundo barco en cruzar la puerta puntuable de Fernando de Noronha.

Sumados a los puntos de la regata In-Port de Alicante, el patrón Torben Grael y su tripulación internacional tienen 6 puntos, y están en el liderato en un empate a cinco sin precedentes.

Green Dragon (primero en la puerta puntuable) y Puma (tercero) también tienen 6 puntos. Telefónica Negro (predeciblemente cuarto) y Telefónica Azul (predeciblemente quinto) también se esperaba que sumaran 6 puntos tras pasar la puerta puntuable. (En el momento de escribir estas líneas los dos barcos de Telefónica aún tenían que pasar la puerta, pero sus posiciones parecían establecidas.)

Ericsson 4 cruzó la puerta puntuable al oeste del archipiélago brasileño a las 13:59 GMT. La tripulación internacional superó a su principal rival, el Puma, aguantando su posición a barlovento del barco americano, que tuvo que virar para pasar por el extremo oeste de la puerta puntuable. Esto dio a la tripulación de Grael la oportunidad que necesitaban para saltar al segundo puesto y hacerse con medio punto extra. Green Dragon lideró a la flota a su paso por la puerta a las 12:24, unas 13 ó 14 millas por delante de Ericsson 4.

“Ha sido un trabajo realmente duro ya que hemos navegado en un mar muy picado con entre 20 y 25 nudos de viento. Todo cuesta tres veces más esfuerzo cuando el barco golpea las olas”, dijo el tripulante de medios de Ericsson 4, Guy Salter. “La presión de ser un hombre menos se está presentando además en las condiciones más duras pero parece que nos las estamos apañando, aunque si Tony estuviera aquí probablemente tendríamos esa marcha extra que él nos suele dar”.

Más atrás en la flota, Ericsson 3 continúa recuperándose de sus pérdidas tras una enloquecedora travesía a través de los Doldrums (calmas tropicales). A las 13:00 GMT de hoy, el patrón Anders Lewander y la tripulación nórdica estaban a 153 millas detrás del líder, habiendo reducido su desventaja en 30 millas durante las pasadas 24 horas.

La tripulació nórdica se vio atrapada en los Doldrums durante 15 horas más que el Ericsson 4 y perdió una distancia significativa en una situación incontrolable. Algunos de los tripulantes estaban tan enloquecidos por los vientos débiles que hubieran preferido estar en la silla del dentista. Desafortunadamente para el danés Stefan Myralf, él tendrá que pasar por ambas situaciones.

Myralf (48 años, de Hellerup, Dinamarca) se rompió un diente ayer mientras desayunaba. Su plato: un bol de muesli. El culpable: un trozo duro de muesli. El incidente requirió la atención del jefe de guardia Richard Mason, quien a veces es trimmer, a veces timonel y a veces médico de a bordo. Así de versátil es la vida de un tripulante en un VO 70.

Una vez cruzada la puerta puntuable, quedan aproximadamente 3.300 millas náuticas para el final de etapa en Ciudad del Cabo. El último gran obstáculo que enfrentar es el anticiclón de Santa Helena, el sistema de altas presiones del Atlántico Sur. Este gran sistema que se mueve en el sentido contrario a las agujas del reloj se extiende virtualmente desde Sudamérica a África.

Una regata increíblemente reñida se puso incluso más disputada hoy con el paso de la puerta puntuable. Ahora que las cinco primeras tripulaciones están empatadas, será un loco esprint hacia Ciudad del Cabo para apropiarse del liderazgo en la regata de circunnavegación global.

TABLA DE POSICIONES DE LA VOLVO OCEAN RACE
(23 Oct., 2008, 13:00 GMT)
1. Green Dragon a 3.354 millas náuticas del fin de etapa
2. Ericsson 4, a 13 mn del líder
3. Puma, a 16 nm del líder
4. Telefónica Black, a 31 nm del líder
5. Telefónica Blue, a 96 nm del líder
6. Ericsson 3, a 153 nm del líder
7. Delta Lloyd, a 174 nm del líder
8. Kosatka, a 197 nm del líder

The exertion of pushing an Open 60 through the Southern Ocean is becoming clear as the race leaders battle through near 40-knot winds and towering seas. Paprec-Virbac 2, with a lead of some 100 miles, has been pushing the boat hard, en-route to a 472-mile day. It’s a fierce pace, but skipper Jean-Pierre Dick insists they’re managing the boat well, and not pressing too hard.

“We’ve had very strong winds, 40 knots, high seas, clouds, very dense, black clouds, it is really very impressive,” he said on the afternoon video conference. “We are trying to make sure that everything is under control and in a few hours we hope to be out of this because it really is quite hard on the boat.”

They can’t let up, because behind them, Veolia Environnement is pushing nearly as hard with a 443-mile day. “We’re still in the depression with 25 to 35 knots,” said skipper Roland Jourdain. “We are trying to limit our speed. It’s easy to get going too fast – say 24 or 25 knots. That’s when we back off in order to manage the boat as well as possible…there is always someone on deck to take a reef in or ease the sheet.”
Image
Niagara Falls on Delta Dore
© Delta Dore

Where the race leaders are sailing it is cold, windy and relentless. Hugo Boss, for example, is reporting sea water temperatures of 4-degrees, which is when ice becomes a possibility. But to this point, none of the boats have reported problems with icebergs or growlers.

Further back boats like Temenos II and Mutua Madrileña face a different set of problems. The different weather circumstances are most starkly illustrated by the mileage made in the past 24 hours by these two, compared to the race leaders; Temenos II has made 299, and Mutua Madrileña 267. So despite heroic efforts, they’re dropping significant miles to the top pack.

“We started sailing upwind yesterday afternoon at around 18:00 and since then we have been close-hauled at 11 knots with winds of between 25 and 34 knots - now we are using the starboard water ballast and the leeward rudder, the keel at 100% to windward the mast at 55 degrees, two reefs and the solent jib,” wrote Mutua Madrileña skipper Javier Sansó in an email to race headquarters this morning.

“We have to go down to 45 south to find downwind conditions again because further north there are only attacking easterlies. And all the while the boat is slamming around so much it could shake the fillings from your teeth. I don’t know if you can imagine what a southerly wind in this part of the planet really means; the Southerly comes straight from the Antarctic; the outside air temperature is 9 degrees and the water 12, which rains down like piercing needles on our faces. The option of becoming a shepherd and having my little herd of sheep under the olive trees is becoming stronger by the day.”

Meanwhile, PRB is drawing closer to making landfall at Cape Town. The French team is out of the race, as it will not be able to effect repairs in time to continue. Behind them, Estrella Damm is also heading to Cape Town – with an ETA of Wednesday evening – where its shore team is preparing to make repairs in an effort to get the boat back onto the race course as quickly as possible.

Day 30 – December 10, 16:00 GMT – Position report with distance to leader

1. PAPREC-VIRBAC 2 - Jean Pierre DICK / Damian FOXALL – 0
2. VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT - Roland JOURDAIN / Jean Luc NELIAS - 110
3. HUGO BOSS - Alex THOMSON / Andrew CAPE - 197
4. DELTA DORE - Jérémie BEYOU / Sidney GAVIGNET - 409
5. TEMENOS 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele PARET- 819
6. MUTUA MADRILENA - Javier SANSO / Pachi RIVERO - 1194
7. PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien JOSSE – 1203
8. ESTRELLA DAMM - Guillermo ALTADILL / Jonathan MCKEE - 1430
9. EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS - Servane ESCOFFIER / Albert BARGUES - 1934

In Quotes – Dominique Wavre, Temenos II: “The sea is choppy, tough on the boats and we are slamming our way through it. It bangs around terribly. The new wind is cold, and any gybe or change to the sail is done under torrents of freezing water, which soaks us from head to toe. We have to quickly change of clothing afterwards or the cold is just too much to bear…There is only one way out for Temenos II and so we have to take it full on, against the waves. Ahead of us the guys will continue to move forward with good wind from behind which is what we have just missed out on.”

As November turns to December, the entire Barcelona World Race fleet has passed the third scoring gate at Fernando de Nornoha and is settling in for a quick reach south to the ‘Roaring Forties’.

PRB with skippers Vincent Riou and Seb Josse were first to the gate, but it didn’t take long for Paprec-Virbac 2 to fight back and reclaim the race lead. In fact, on Day 20 of the Barcelona World Race, there are still three very close ‘races within the race’ being contested.

At the head of the fleet, Paprec-Virbac 2 is holding a narrow lead over PRB. Behind them, the surging Veolia Environnement is established with a firm grip on third place. Then, another very close race for fourth place is taking place between Hugo Boss and Delta Dore. And don’t think that because this is a 25 000 mile marathon around the planet, that the crews aren’t concerned about each place they gain.

“(It) gives you motivation just sailing straight past somebody when there is nothing they can do about it,” were the comments from a very pleased Alex Thomson moments after his Hugo Boss passed Delta Dore. “This boat has a tremendous amount of righting momentum, the conditions in the race so far haven’t allowed us to prove what she can do. I had always hoped she would be fast in these conditions, we expected her to be fast in these conditions. I can tell you it is a massive, massive pleasure to be able to sail past someone like that!”

The third close match-up is between Dominique Wavre’s Temenos II and the surprisingly resilient Mutua Madrileña. The Spanish boat is of a 2003 vintage, so the fact that skippers Javier Sansó and Pachi Rivero were able to post the third fastest elapsed time for stage three is impressive.

“We know we have a fast boat downwind and we’re pushing really hard – I don’t think we could push harder – and we’ve been under spinnaker for most of the stage, so we have really been trying,” explained Sansó. “But when we get into the reaching conditions, we suffer a bit compared to the newer boats.”

In contrast, Estrella Damm has had a tough week, falling further behind the fleet as a variety of challenges conspired to see them drop further behind the leaders. Their crossing of the doldrums was particularly painful as this email from Jonathan McKee illustrates.

“All last night there was basically no wind. It’s pretty unusual to be going so slowly for so long, even in the Doldrums. It just all seems a bit surreal to be honest. At the moment we’re just watching everyone else sail away and we’re just sitting here and there’s almost nothing we can do. We thought we were through it yesterday morning and then we thought we were through it again this morning but now it looks like we’re going to be stuck here even longer…We’re not through it yet.”

But eventually, Estrella Damm did break free and is now making good speed, along with the rest of the fleet, on the sprint to the south. The fourth stage of the race is the descent to the southern ocean and the ‘Roaring Forties’ where the low pressure systems rumble around the bottom of the planet.

But before getting there, they’ll have to tackle the St. Helena High, an area of notoriously light winds that typically blocks the direct route to Cape Town, forcing the teams to stay further west, closer to South America. The first teams to get south and into the Roaring Forties will enjoy their first taste of Southern Ocean conditions – strong winds from behind, big swells to surf and high mileage days. The race is on!

Stage 3 (Canaries to Fernando de Noronha) ranking and elapsed time

1. PRB – 8D 07H 14M
2. Veolia Environnement – 8D 09H 24M
3. Mutua Madrileña - 8D 10H 06M
4. Paprec-Virbac 2 – 8D 13H 03M
5. Temenos II - 8D 15H 50M
6. Hugo Boss – 8D 16H 03M
7. Delta Dore - 8D 16H 56M
8. Educación Sin Fronteras – 8D 16H 58M
9. Estrella Damm - 9D 07H 29M

Day 20 – November 20, 15:45 GMT – Position report with distance to leader

1. PAPREC-VIRBAC 2 - Jean Pierre DICK / Damian FOXALL - 0.0
2. PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien JOSSE - 8.7
3. VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT - Roland JOURDAIN / Jean Luc NELIAS - 170.6
4. HUGO BOSS - Alex THOMSON / Andrew CAPE - 307.6
5. DELTA DORE - Jérémie BEYOU / Sidney GAVIGNET - 330.2
6. TEMENOS 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele PARET- 413.0
7. MUTUA MADRILENA - Javier SANSO / Pachi RIVERO - 448.4
8. ESTRELLA DAMM - Guillermo ALTADILL / Jonathan MCKEE - 607.6
9. EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS - Servane ESCOFFIER / Albert BARGUES - 842.9

Sao Paolo, November 13 2007 - After Torben Grael stepped onboard last
month as the skipper of Ericsson’s international crew for the next
Volvo Ocean Race, the team now announces Brazilians João Signorini
and Horacio Carabelli as new crewmembers.

The 2008-2009 race will be the second time around for Signorini and
Carabelli. The sailors finished third in the latest edition of the
race under Torben Grael’s command. João Signorini, in Brazil known as
Joca, spent most part of his career competing in the Laser class
before moving to Finn in 2002. Only a few months later he was
qualified to the Athens Olympics and ended up in the 10th place at
the Games. A doctor’s son, Signorini was also the medic onboard
Brazil 1 during the last race.

“It is an honor to join the Ericsson Racing Team for the next Volvo
Ocean Race. I have had a chance to see the great structure they put
together for the race and I look forward to facing this new
challenge. It is great to have another chance of racing with Torben”,
said the 30-year old sailor.

Born in Uruguay, Horacio Carabelli has been living in Brazil for more
than 20 years now. The naval constructor was the technical director
of the Brazilian project boat for the last Volvo Ocean Race and
earned his spot in the crew due to his solid sailing background.
Carabelli is two-time Snipe world junior champion, competed in Seoul
Olympic Games in 1988 and last year added an America’s Cup campaign
to his career.

“I am very happy to be a part of such a strong team. I would not go
for another shot at this competition in any other way. I want to
collaborate as much as I can and help the team achieving its goal”,
said Carabelli.

Announced as the skipper of the international boat last month, Torben
celebrates the arrival of two countrymen onboard.

“It is a great joy to welcome two great sailors like Joca and Horacio
on the team. They are both extremely talented and my good friends. We
worked together in the last race and I am sure they will do a good
job again. I believe they will fit very well with the strong team
already in place”, commented Torben.

The Ericsson Racing Team is currently based at their training base in
Puerto Calero, Lanzarote, Spain. The team will participate with two
boats in the next Volvo Ocean Race. One will have an international
crew and the other will be all Nordic. The two crews will compete on
an equal basis. Both boats are being built by Killian Bushe next to
Ericsson’s headquarters in Kista, Stockholm. Two competitive crews
will allow Ericsson Racing Team to train efficiently before the start
of Volvo Ocean Race in Alicante, Spain, in October, 2008.

Ericsson’s participation in the Volvo Ocean Race is a platform for
driving sales. The race gives the company an unrivalled opportunity
to reach customers around the world, spend quality time discussing
joint opportunities and challenges, as well as showcasing how
Ericsson’s solutions can help them develop relationships with
enterprises and consumers.

With the new race course taking the fleet to stops in the Middle
East, India and China, Ericsson will be able to reach further into
these important growth regions.

Notes to Editors
For updates and pictures on the Ericsson Racing Team’s participation
in the Volvo Ocean Race, please visit www.ericssonracingteam.com.
Broadcast material with interviews and the latest footage of the team
sailing is available for download on:
www.thenewsmarket.com/volvooceanrace

Ericsson is shaping the future of Mobile and Broadband Internet
communications through its continuous technology leadership.
Providing innovative solutions in more than 140 countries, Ericsson
is helping to create the most powerful communication companies in the
world.

Read more at http://www.ericsson.com/press

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Ola Rembe
VP Communications, Ericsson Racing Team
Phone: SE SE +46 730244873 Call
Email: ola.rembe@ericsson.com

Mats Olsson
Ericsson Racing Team
Phone: SE +46 706336130 Call
Email: mats.olsson@ericssonracingteam.com

This press release was brought to you by Ericsson Racing Team.

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22 November 2007

The first week of the Barcelona World Race was a challenging one for the teams, but perhaps not for the reasons they may have anticipated. Instead of facing tough conditions in a late autumn Atlantic, the teams were plagued by light winds in the Mediterranean and unusually benign winds after the Gibraltar gate.

Following an extraordinary start off the city of Barcelona, where over 600 boats paid tribute to the fleet by lining the borders of the race course, the nine-boat fleet settled into its first night at sea, where extremely light conditions posed innumerable problems.

“A great start but a painful awakening,” was the comment from Sidney Gavignet on Delta Dore on the first morning at sea. ” This weather is quite testing. I can’t say we feel at home on the boat just yet, it is going to take a while, and we will probably have to wait until we get past Gibraltar.We are waiting for a little more wind but it’s still doubtful.”

The first to get caught in the light conditions was Educación sin Fronteras who fell off the back of the fleet after being stuck in a win dless patch for much of the night. By the time the first position report was issued the next morning, skippers Albert Bargués and Servanne Escoffier were already dozens of miles off the pace.

Through the Mediterranean, the positions were shuffled time and again, but by the first scoring the gate - the Estrella Damm gate - near Gibraltar, it was Jean-Pierre Dick and Damian Foxall on Paprec-Virbac 2 who would sneak past PRB to claim the first stage of the race and the 60 cases of Estrella Damm beer. (No doubt their shore crew was as happy as they were!)

“Yesterday, upwind in the last stretch of the Alboran sea, we were following PRB and positioned ourselves right behind them for the last tack off Malaga - trying to catch a shift close to shore,” explained Paprec Virbac 2’s Damian Foxall. “That’s where we were able to overtake them…”

Into the Atlantic, the skippers would have been hoping they’d left the light airs behind. But that wasn’t to be the case. F ickle conditions continued and the best route down south towards the Canary Islands was far from obvious.

In third and fourth place into the Atlantic, Estrella Damm and Temenos II would fall victim to the wind gods over the coming days. Sailing a course that was between the two extremes of the west (like Veolia Environnement, Delta Dore and Hugo Boss) and the east, like Mutua Madrileña, the two would see boats race around them on both sides on the way to the Canary Islands gate.

By the time the fleet reached the Canary Islands, Paprec Virbac 2 and PRB still were at the head of t he fleet, but Delta Dore and Veolia Environnement, along with Hugo Boss, had made great strides to get back in the race challenging the leaders. In fact, Delta Dore would win the second stage for having the fastest elapsed time between Gibraltar and the Canary gate - incredibly, they were just one minute faster than Paprec-Virbac 2.

Following the Canary Islands gate, the fleet would have hoped to pick up the Northeast trade winds nearly immediately. Unfortunately for the sailors, this wasn’t the case. For race fans however, the unpredictable conditions provided another few days of tactical drama as the fleet pursued different options to get down south.

“We are sailing along the African coast in some light wind less than 5 knots. We didn’t have too many options from the Canaries,” said PRB skipper Vincent Riou, from his second place position. “Not all of us had the same wind.this is not magic, when you’re in this high pressure area you have to set your own objective which is your way out and you do your best with the conditions you have.”

The big winner in this game appears to be Veolia Environnement who took the most westerly route compared to the fleet. This has allowed them to shoot up to third place, and dramatically close the gap with leaders Paprec Virbac 2 and PRB who, like most of the fleet, sailed close to the African coast.

Finally overnight Wednesday night, the leaders hooked into the trade winds, as a relieved Damian Foxall on Paprec Virbac 2 reported.

“We’ve been fighting through light winds for the past two days to get where we are and more importantly to be the first to get into the trade winds and dive south. We managed, amazingly, with just a slightly different option to PRB, we’ve come out from two days of light and variably winds to come out with almost the same lead we had before. They’re also in the trade winds now and this morning this is now a case of trajectory and speed. We’re sailing in the trade winds now, 20 to 24 knots of wind and we’re doing about 17 or 18 knots of speed.”

The race to the next obstacle - the doldrums - is on. They’ll have to navigate this famed obstacle before reaching the next scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha off the coast Brazil.

Audio, video and still photos from the race are available at www.barcelonaworldrace.org

To sign up to receive daily updates, go to the subscription page here.

Contacto:
Comunicación
Barcelona World Race
media@barcelonaworldrace.org
International Press:
OC Events
Lou Newlands
info@ocevents.org

Day 11: Estrella Damm remains philosophical in the face of bitter-sweet news

On the dawn of Day 11, Estrella Damm was met with both good and bad news when the morning position report came through on her on board computer. While skippers Guillermo Altadill and Jonathan McKee had closed the gap on the leaders they had slid down on the leaderboard into seventh overall, a bitter-sweet result after a hard night of sailing.

Overnight Estrella Damm took 10 miles off her distance to leading boat Paprec Virbac 2 but lost a position to Veolia Environnement who rocketed into third overall after sailing far west in a successful bid to gain places.

While Estrella Damm has lost a place, she is bunched in a pack and with less than 30 miles separating the fourth to seventh placed boats, any one could gain and loose places in the coming hours. Today has been a day of stop-start sailing with all teams spending time in windless areas, drifting along while the rest of the fleet pushes forward.

Jonathan McKee explains Estrella Damm’s rocky passage through the Canary Islands: “We had nice sailing on Tuesday, upwind in 15 to 20 knots approaching the Canary Islands. It seemed like we were sailing pretty well, but as we got close to the gate the wind went totally crazy, which is no surprise given that we were in the lee of a huge volcano. Somehow our approach wasn’t as good as we thought. Even though we left it really wide, we got stuck in the lee for about 1 1/2 hours. Very frustrating! Finally we got through and suddenly it was blowing 25 knots. We struggled to get the big genoa down, to put a reef in and then a second reef as the wind picked up to over thirty knots. Temenos was right behind us through all this, and eventually passed us this morning. We were trying lots of things to keep ahead, but they slowly pulled away to a two-mile lead by sunset. It has been upwind for nearly three days now, when we normally would be running in trade winds. We are actually quite close to the African coast.

“We are trying to remain philosophical about everything. We are still learning the boat, we are still improving our navigation and so on. The guys we are up against are the best in the business. It was a very pleasant day today, we are a little closer to sailing around the world, and we are learning a lot, with lots of racecourse left to practice in.”

As the nine-boat fleet descends into the Atlantic, a change in the weather is expected tonight with the wind turning from the west to the NW then settling north at 15 knots tomorrow. Further south, a ridge is still present on the route of trade. The ridge should move toward the west during the night, allowing a recovery of the trade winds almost at the same time for the western part of the fleet.

Official positions (16:00 GMT)

1 Paprec Virbac 2 / 23,032
2 PRB / +28
3 Veolia Environnement / +44
4 Delta Dore / +84
5 Hugo Boss / +96
6 Temenos / +101
7 Estrella Damm / + 114
8 Mutua Madrileña / +126
9 Educación Sin Fronteras / +384

For more information about Estrella Damm, Guillermo Altadill and Jonathan McKee please visit http://www.estrelladammsailingteam.com

To view the latest videos, images and to hear the skippers in their own words visit http://www.estrelladammsailingteam.com

For the official event website and to view the current boat standings visit http://www.barcelonaworldrace.com

Three and a half hours after the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race today, Spanish skipper Guillermo Altadill and American co-skipper Jonathan McKee officially announced their retirement from the race, prologue of the Barcelona World Race.

At 1100 BST hours this morning, the Rolex Fastnet Race organisers fired the gun to free the IMOCA Open 60 fleet. For all the Barcelona World Race competitors, including the Estrella Damm Sailing Team, this was the first opportunity to race against each other before the big event that will start from Barcelona on 11th November.

Alex Thomson’s Hugo Boss was first to cross the start line while Estrella Damm along with Véolia Environnement, Mutua Madrilena and PRB chose a northerly option when the rest of the fleet remained closer to the shore . Estrella Damm were first to tack and lying in fifth position at the Needles when problems arose.

A fault in the electronics controlling the keel motors was detected, effectively easing the keel from its canted position. Both men re-started the keel control system without success. With some uncertainty as to the cause of the problem, the duo decided that given the strong weather forecast ahead, there was no other choice than to retire from the Rolex Fastnet Race.

Guillermo Altadill reported: “We are suffering from teething problems which is quite normal when you have a boat as new as ours, and especially with these very technical boats that are the IMOCA Open 60s. We didn’t start the race very well, but gained some of our lost miles very quickly. Estrella Damm was very fast and we were very confident with our strategy.

“We caught up with the second leading group and our performances kept us progressing in the fleet. A few minutes later, the keel went leeward and we couldn’t get the electrical switch that blocks the hydraulic circuit of the canting keel to work.

“We will now check the system thoroughly and our plan is to leave on our qualifying sail in 48 hours.”

Jonathan McKee confirmed: “An hour in the race, we were going good with the other guys and had a good pace and good conditions. I think we have a great boat and we are happy with what we’ve got and will aim to set sail again next Wednesday afternoon.”

The Rolex Fastnet Race 42nd edition will see its strongest fleet ever take the start on Monday 13th August with 300 boats on the start lines. Steeped in history, the Rolex Fastnet is ran biennially since the 1930s except for a break in the 1940s, and is a legendary 608 mile long run from Cowes, Isle of Wight to Plymouth via the mythical Fastnet rock, south of Ireland.

For the Open 60 IMOCA class, the Rolex Fastnet this year adds to the challenge by being double-handed rather than crewed and is the prologue of the Barcelona World race, double-handed round the world race that will leave Barcelona on the 11th November.

Spanish skipper Guillermo Altadill onboard Estrella Damm will be joined by American co-skipper Jonathan McKee. Both men have just won the Artemis Challenge on Wednesday and are now looking forward to race against their future competitors in the Barcelona World Race.

“The Rolex Fastnet Race is for us a formality as it is the prologue of the Barcelona World Race. It will be a good opportunity to test the boat and the systems as the boat is still very new. We must keep in mind that our goal is the Barcelona World Race and we have three months left to prepare for it. That is the main thing and we are working very hard to make sure we are in good shape on the start line in Barcelona in November with real chances of winning.” Commented Guillermo Altadill.

“I am very happy to race with Jonathan on our first double-handed race. I respect him, he is a very nice person and a very talented sailor. I can say that we have clicked and are on the same wavelength. The Rolex Fastnet will be very good for us as we need to sail and race together. My thinking is that we will find a multiplier effect, not just an add effect.” He added.

Jonathan Mc Kee has raced in the Fastnet once before and is looking forward to race the boat in double-handed configuration. He stepped onboard Estrella Damm just a few days ago and is very excited about getting started: “It will be our first opportunity to race in real conditions and against the BWR competition. I am very much looking forward to it now that we have seen the potential of the boat, we’re eager to see how she compares to the other new generation Open 60s. It will definitely be one of the most exciting ocean races ever.” Explained Jonathan.

The 16 strong IMOCA Open 60 class will be the first class to start at 11 o’clock on Monday 12th August off the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes, Isle of Wight.

Following a meeting at the Cowes Yacht Club this afternoon, the race committee of the Rolex Fastnet Race that was meant to start today at 10:00 local time has announced the postponement of the start by 25 hours (one day and an hour to suit the tide requirements). A low weather system with 50-knots strong winds in the Atlantic and the Irish sea is forecast and will keep the fleet in harbour until Monday.

An extremely high level of security is required for this legendary race that reached this year its record number of entries with 300 boats expected on the start line. And with the 1979 dramatic edition of the Fastnet where numerous lives were lost, caution is the key word.

Recently launched and still in the testing phase, the Estrella Damm Open 60 will get a bit more time for the final preparations for the race. After the announcement, Guillermo Altadill was optimistic: “I’m optimistic and you must look at the bright side of things. We get more time to finish the preparation and give the continuous attention that a “new born” requires. It would not have been so bad to face a storm as it would have been a good test but I can understand their decision.”

For Guillermo Altadill and Jonathan McKee, the Rolex Fasnet Race is their first chance to sail together offshore and that will give them time to train for the Barcelona World Race. American co-skipper Jonathan McKee commented later today: “This will be our first opportunity to sail together in real racing configurations and against the Barcelona World Race competition. We are anxious and excited to check Estrella Damm’s potential and to compare her to the other new generation Open 60s.”

At the end of the Rolex Fastnet Race, Estrella Damm will continue sailing to complete the necessary 2800 miles to qualify the duo to the Barcelona World Race.

Will Greenwood MBE joined the Estrella Damm crew yesterday to race in the Artemis Challenge. Will has been a professional rubgyman for ten years and has announced his retirement in 2006 after 55 England English rugby union caps and 31 tries.

To read all about his exciting racing experience onboard Estrella Damm and watch the video of his participation, please visit:

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