SailingPR - Sailing & Regatas

No one that was watching the Cape Town start from a boat will never ever forget it. It was like experiencing the whole first leg in one hour. We had everything from 25 knots to almost no wind at all. The fleet was a bit separated after 25 minutes, but then we went into a big light spot, just outside the harbour, in the wind shadow from Table Mountain. It felt like a mini Doldrums where anything could happen.

And things were really happening. But mostly before the ‘Doldrums’. From our perspective, not everything went very smoothly. Our jib got caught on the radar in one of the first tacks and got a small rip. The sail was not the most irritating part, but the fact that the radar was hanging on a thread. It was about to get even worse.

In the third tack, the sail got caught again and ripped badly. At the same time, the radar fell down in the cockpit. Not a very nice feeling when you are heading for the Southern Ocean and later up to India, passing the equator where big squalls are very common and the radar can guide you through them.

Well, on the lucky side is that no one was hit and that we managed to stay in the race. Hopefully we can fix it. According to Jens Dolmer, our hard working handyman, it is possible.

The sail has already been fixed. Skipper Anders Lewander and Martin Stromberg started repairing straight away and finished a couple of hours later. It was quite a big rip and the sail will never be as good as it was, but pretty close to it, the guys did a great job.

Now I’m sitting in the darkness beside the media desk. It is very hard to stay awake before you get use to rhythm onboard. I don’t know how many times I have fallen asleep during the time I’ve been writing. I always wake up in a few seconds with the screen full of letters, which I have pushed in my sleep.

Over and out from Ericsson 3, meet you soon again.

Gustav Morin - MCM

What a fantastic send off from Cape Town. The course around the bay was great fun. The spectator boats were everywhere, several getting in the way but we knew it didn’t matter as the race was bound to restart under Table Mountain. Something I shall remember for along time to come.

We are now settled into a routine and Ian (Moore) has put us in a good spot. Conditions are very comfortable with a building westerly breeze.

Ian Walker - skipper

A typical Cape Town departure, bright sunshine and thousands of people on the docks and not to forget the enthusiastic people on the water. The start was ok, not pushing it too hard, as we knew a park-up would happen.

The first leg we were dog slow, we had big piece of weed on the rudder, but once that was cleared, we were off. Had a good beat up the Cape, and lots of tacking, so very little sleep for the guys. We got stuck together with Ericsson 3 in a light patch this morning, which nobody else seemed to sail through, that was expensive. But, now we are on our way again, and have three boats in sight. The boys are now, for the first time, in their sleeping bag and catching some well-deserved sleep. The breeze will slowly build, and we will keep that for a couple of day getting some good daily miles under our belt.

Cheers,

Bouwe Bekking - skipper

At 1300 GMT today, there are still three boats out on the race track. The finish of Andreas Hankamp’s Team Russia is imminent, around 1500 GMT today, and looking sure to claim sixth place, but still racing are Team Delta Lloyd (Ger O’Rourke/IRL) in seventh place and the injured Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) in eighth.

Team Russia has 33 nm still to go before reaching Cape Town, and they are averaging around 11.8 knots. Telefónica Black, on the other hand, is trapped in high pressure now, which has slowed their progress down. They are down to 7.3 knots and not expected to finish until 1600 GMT tomorrow.

Team Delta Lloyd has 116 nm to go to the finish and will arrive later tonight.

Leg One Finishing Order into Cape Town
1. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA)
2. PUMA USA (Ken Read/USA)
3. Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE)
4. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR)
5. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED)

Overall Leaderboard (Provisional)
1. Ericsson 4: 14 points (FINISHED)
2. PUMA: 13 points (FINISHED)
3. Green Dragon: 11 points (FINISHED)
4. Telefónica Blue: 10 points (FINISHED)
5. Telefónica Black: 6 points (RACING)
6. Ericsson 3: 5 points (FINISHED)
7. Team Russia: 1 point (RACING)
8. Delta Lloyd: 2 points (RACING)

Leg One Day 24: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to leader)

Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DTF 33
Delta Lloyd IRL (Ger O’Rourke/IRL) +83
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) +220

The next position report will be issued at 1300 GMT or as soon as the next boat finishes, whichever is the sooner. Positions are available every three hours on www.volvooceanrace.org . Click on RESULTS at the top of the page to go straight to the points table and onboard data.

And last but not least!!! Here we go the Blackies!!

As if it couldn’t be in any other way, hard beating in 25 knots to the finish line!!

Another lovely roller-coaster-like welcome (or farewell, it depends)! It is 0930 UTC and there are still 80 miles to the finish line, and they are going to be long, very long, not only because of the conditions, but also because we are looking forward to being there at last!

We all are expecting to see the mythical Table Mountain in the horizon, and docking in under its protection. So, these are, let’s hope, the last quotes from the boat in this first leg, from Alicante in Spain to Cape Town in South Africa. We have passed by the coast of Brazil, sailed more than 6500 nautical miles and spent 24 days onboard. It has been full of experiences, highs and lows (more highs than lows, isn’t it), difficulties and relaxing moments…But we will keep in touch from land.

Kind regards and thanks for being out there.
Mikel Pasabant - MCM

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (Nov. 3, 2008) - Swedish skipper Anders Lewander led Ericsson Racing Team’s Nordic crew on Ericsson 3 to third place on Leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race. The crew finished this morning at 0408 GMT with an elapsed time of 22 days, 16 hours and 8 minutes.

A VNR of the footage is now available on www.r2prod.net/ERT

Further archive files are also available at the Ericsson Broadcast Room at www.thenewsmarket.com/ericsson

Audio interviews with watch captain Magnus Olsson and navigator Aksel Magdahl are attached.

Images can be found at www.ericssonracingteam.com and at www.volvooceanrace.org

Hi all
As we get close to the finish line, there is a curious mix of relaxation and tension onboard. Relative relaxation, as we still have 250 miles to go and anything might happen. The curiosity is that mix: tension to be on shore and with the family, but also to get everything fixed for the next leg, and relaxed as we know we have done everything we could in this one. We were not very lucky sometimes and that’s all. Think ahead and we will see.

We are trapped in a high pressure now, which has slowed us down a bit, but we think we will limp across the finish line sometime between tomorrow and the next day. This is not bad at all with all the problems we have suffered.
We will see what happens today.

Looking forward to seeing you all.
Kisses
Mikel Pasabant - MCM

TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG ONE DAY 24 QFB: received 03.11.08 0728 GMT

Yes, there are still boats on the water, and Telefónica Blue is one of them, but not for long, as the barn door is only 50 miles away.

So far so good, we have shaken the ruskies again back to a comfortable 60 miles. We sailed tactically well this last couple of days, and played the ’stealth’ card very well. Even though we are sailing for fifth position, the crew has been working as hard as if it had been for a 1st place. This is like winning an extra point and the position reports were followed with great interest.

From a team’s perspective, it is good to see that our mates on the black boat are moving well, and it looks like they will stay out of the grips of the high-pressure system, so gaining valuable time to do the necessary repairs.

I am proud of them. Ok, they had a little mishap, but they showed great pace in some stages of this leg and above all great seamanship to keep ‘racing’. Well done boys.

So, another 3 hours and we are there, everybody looking forward to see their families and loved ones. Holiday…no, not immediately, first all our medical checks and debriefs, then we will find time to relax.

Cheers,

Bouwe Bekking - skipper

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (Nov. 3, 2008) - Swedish skipper Anders Lewander led Ericsson Racing Team’s Nordic crew on Ericsson 3 to third place on Leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race. The crew finished this morning at 0408 GMT with an elapsed time of 22 days, 16 hours and 8 minutes.

Ericsson 3’s finish completed a solid start to the circumnavigation race for Ericsson Racing Team. Yesterday morning skipper Torben Grael and the International crew on Ericsson 4 won the opening leg and became overall race leaders.

Nearly 24 hours later it was Ericsson 3’s turn in the limelight. Skipper Lewander, who turned 45 yesterday, led his crew across the
Table Bay finish line engulfed in an atmosphere warm with heartfelt cheers from teammates, friends, fans and loved ones. Ericsson 3
earned 4 points for the placing and now has 5 points in the overall standings.

“It’s a great moment in life,” said the skipper. “After all this hard, hard work, it’s an amazing team. We have great team spirit.
This is a great birthday present. And a big congrats to Ericsson 4, what an enormous achievement to do 600 miles. It’s amazing how hard they must’ve driven the boat. It’s very impressive to see.”

The Nordic crew is comprised of skipper Lewander, navigator Aksel Magdahl, watch captains Richard Mason and Magnus Olsson, trimmers Anders Dahlsjö, Jens Dolmer, Thomas Johanson and Stefan Myralf, helmsman Eivind Melleby, bowman Martin Krite and media crewman Gustav Morin.

Through a challenging leg that tested them, the crew showed a resiliency that belies their lack of Volvo race experience. Only the
two watch captains have completed a leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. Skipper Lewander is the only other crewmember with circumnavigation experience. The other eight are all first-timers, and King Neptune had a busy time at the Equator.

The first half of the 6,500-nautical-mile leg went well for the crew. Alongside their teammates on Ericsson 4, they led the fleet through the Straits of Gibraltar and into the Atlantic Ocean. Over the next eight days the Nordic crew constantly factored in the fleet lead, and on Oct. 18 they were all alone in the top spot approaching the Doldrums.

The passage through the Inter-Tropic Convergence Zone was sooner forgotten. On Oct. 22 Ericsson 3 had plummeted to sixth in the standings, 180 nautical miles behind the leaders.

After clearing the scoring gate down the standings in seventh, the crew found their spirits down as well. Then Olsson, a five-time
veteran of the Volvo race and past champion in 1997-’98, lent his perspective. He convinced them to forget the recent hardships and focus on the remainder of the leg. There’s always a chance for a comeback on a leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, he reasoned.

“What can you do but cheer everyone up,” said Olsson, who has logged more than 150,000 nautical miles in the Volvo race and is never short of joie de vivre. “This third is a victory for the team. It’s one of my most satisfying, by all means. I really appreciate this third place.”

The crew’s chance for redemption swept in on the same storm that propelled Ericsson 4 to the 24-hour speed record. While Ericsson 4 was racking up a run or 602.66 nautical miles (pending ratification), Ericsson 3 put up a 540 run and hit a new top speed of 35 knots.

Drawing from their extensive heavy weather training in the Canary Islands and leaning on helmsman Johanson, Mason, Myralf and Olsson, the Nordic crew surfed up through the fleet, sailed past rivals and landed in third place. From there, they played a solid tactical game to grab the third spot on the podium.

“The whole attitude of wanting to come back and hit the top of fleet, because we knew we could be there, that was the drive,” Lewander said. “It was great for team spirit to recover. I’m very happy with that. It shows we have opportunities for the future, but there’s a lot of racing left.”

Leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race, to Cochin, India, is scheduled to begin Nov. 15.

Ken Read - skipper

I don’t know where to start. I am so proud of our design team and our build team for putting together the boat. Honestly, I think all the guys on our boat have never pushed a boat that hard before.

Hats off to the Ericsson guys. They showed us clearly that there is might be another level that we need to get to. But, that said, I’ve never gone airborne off the waves before and lived to tell the tale. It’s quite a comforting feeling, from here on, knowing how hard you can push. Now we can sit down as a group and figure out where that next speed button is. We are pretty comfortable with where we are at.

I thought we paced ourselves pretty well. It’s pretty rare that we had to get guys completely out of their sleeping patterns. A couple of guys got pretty taxed in the windy stuff, because we were down to a smaller group of drivers. I think right now, most people are pretty refreshed. We are ready to go tomorrow. We’re ready to go.

We had a few little issues. We had our primary water maker go down when we were off Brazil. That was a little nerve-racking. We actually talked about going into Brazil for a while, but Casey Smith put together a new water maker using a bilge pump. We had some hydraulic keel problems, but structurally we think that the boat is in really good shape.

Seeing where we’ve come from - there was no such thing as PUMA ocean Racing a year ago - so second place is great.

I am very proud of our sailors, our team as a whole, from the boat builders to the office staff.

Andrew Cape – navigator

I haven’t sailed into Cape Town for 11 years, it’s a great place to arrive. It was a good leg all-in all. Happiness all round.

There were bad conditions and most people got through it well. It’s a good sign.

We still had a lot of light air in the Med, then the running and then a lot of reaching and then the hard stuff getting here, so it was mixed bag. Because we haven’t two boat tested against a new boat, we were learning all the time. We’ve learnt a lot and I’m very happy with what we have learnt and where we ended up here.

Ericsson 4 did a good job to sail through us when it was windy, but we were finding our own way there, and we were happy with what we were doing. I guess we were second best, but all-in-all, happy.

It was a great race, with a great team. We are still learning, and for us this first leg was a learning experience.

We had a good leg but Ericsson was lucky to ride that front all the way here. They made it look easy.

It was tight out there, but that is what racing is about. No boats were mega fast or slow, it was a great race.

The next position report will be issued at 1300 GMT or as soon as the next boat finishes, whichever is the sooner. Positions are available every three hours on www.volvooceanrace.org. Click on RESULTS at the top of the page to go straight to the points table and onboard data.