SailingPR - Sailing & Regatas

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (Nov. 2, 2008) - Ericsson Racing Team is expecting Ericsson 3, skippered by Anders Lewander, to arrive in Cape
Town in the early hours tomorrow morning, Monday.

It has been a busy day for Ericsson Racing Team following the arrival of Ericsson 4 this morning. The shore team has already begun its work
and will be taking Ericsson 4 out of the water later today.

Ericsson 3 has had a more than eventful leg, leading the fleet with her stablemate Ericsson 4 through the Straits of Gibraltar. The
Nordic-crewed boat then had a challenging passage through the Doldrums before having to stop briefly at the scoring gate in Brazil
for a spare part.

The past days have seen them in a close tussle for third place with Green Dragon, and this afternoon’s poll shows them some 31 miles
ahead of the Irish/Chinese-flagged boat.

“Everything is getting to its edge now. We are still battling the Green Dragons and the situation feels close and stressful. Not the
least after a few tricky situations today,” said Gustav Morin, media crewman aboard Ericsson 3.

“Yesterday we had a couple of bad sail changes. That was not good from our side. But today we have been purely unlucky,” Morin said.
“First we had a rip in our A4 and had to take it down, repair it and as soon as possible hoist it again.

“A couple of hours later we are getting really frustrated with the boatspeed and it turns out that we have a big plastic bag wrapped
around the fin,” Morin continued.

“We can’t get it of just by swinging the keel, so we have to take the gennaker down, stop the boat and try to go backwards. A risky
maneuver that will cost us a lot of time and distance to our close opponent, but we have to do it.”
Lewander and his crew are unaware that a new keel fin awaits them dockside in Cape Town, which will replace the current keel that was
deemed non-compliant by the Rules Management Group in Alicante and for which Ericsson 3 has been penalized 4 points.

Ericsson Racing Team Managing Director, Richard Brisius, said, “It is a major achievement by the manufacturers, designers and everyone
involved in the logistics.

A lot of people have spent a lot of time and effort making sure that this happens. And all credit to them.”

While the crew of Ericsson 4 begins a much deserved break in Cape Town, Brisius admired the International crew’s win.

“In the early morning light of Table Bay, surrounded by whales and dolphins, two years of preparation all fell into place,” said
Brisius. “The achievement of the whole crew, from Torben in the back of the boat to Blood and Ryan on the bow, is second to none but this
is just leg one and we have some 35,000 miles left to go. It will be a fantastic race!”

Dealing with Jerry Kirby is like dealing with a little kid in the back seat of the family wagon on the way to summer holiday.

Jerry: “How much longer?”
Kenny: “200 miles”
Jerry: “How long will it take?”
Kenny: “I don’t know, about 14 hours?”

5 minutes later

Jerry: “How much longer now?”
Kenny: “”two miles less than the last time you asked”
etc etc

There is some serious angst to get off this family wagon. And it is interesting, for 20 days, I haven’t looked at the date, the time, the distance to finish but, all of a sudden, we all have a time clock that switches on that says–”ok, enough is enough and it is time to go now”. It could be the Block Island Race or the Bermuda Race or the 22-day first leg of the Volvo Race. When you can smell the finish, it is time to get off. I would also like to officially follow up this thought by announcing that by no means does my admitting to wanting to have this leg over with as badly as the next guy, does it mean that I’m not going to punch Kirby hard if he asks one more time “are we there yet?”

In a nutshell, this leg has been fantastic for us. It looks as though, barring any disasters, we will be second. On a tough leg that saw all ranges of conditions. We like our boat, that hasn’t changed. We got faster thanks to a lot of sailing near other boats. We know that there are teams better polished out there and we need to get better to beat them. We understand the rigours of what it will take to win this race better. And our pre-race view that the race will be close and the boats will be pushed harder than ever has rung very true.

Congratulations to E4. They hung around long enough to stretch their legs when they had the chance. They are the proof that “pushing hard” now has an entire new meaning. Many of the Volvo vets from the last race aboard our boat said that we pushed this boat in the rough conditions tons harder than any of the boats were pushed in the last race. Much of that has to do with a bit of trepidation of the unknown and the fact that the keel structures were a new concept and a bit fragile in the last Volvo.

Well, I think that all participants and sponsors alike are pleased with what we have seen so far. These boats are tough and can get pushed harder than most of us ever realised. Will make for a fascinating race I hope. Sure, we all have our snags aboard, but hopefully the trend for the entire fleet remains that the boats are dependable. Go ahead and race hard.

Finally, as all the crews get ready for their families and friends and relatives, a good meal, warm shower and cold beer- it is time to begin concentrating on leg two and what it takes to step up to the next level. Long race this is, but it is nice to have this long first leg under our belt.

Hello Cape Town. But we can’t get too relaxed by your hospitality because in two weeks we will be saying “India- here we come”.

Kenny Read - skipper

Everything is getting to its edge now. We are still battling The Green Dragons and the situation feels close and stressful. Not the least after a few tricky situations today.

Yesterday we had a couple of bad sail changes. That was not good from our side. But today we have been purely unlucky. First, we had a rip in our A4, had to take it down, repair it, and as soon as possible hoist it again.

A couple of hours later we are getting really frustrated with the boat speed. It just doesn’t feel good. That feeling has been bugging us for a few hours and now someone thought we might look in the stethoscope, from where you can se the keel.

It turns out that we have a big plastic bag wrapped around the fin. We can’t get it of just by swinging the keel, so we have to take the gennaker down, stop the boat and try to go backwards. A risky manoeuvre that will cost us a lot of time and distance to our close opponent. But, we have to do it.

Anders Dahlsjö prepared for a swim to get the bag of, but we managed to solve the problem just by backing the boat.

The guys did a great job and everything went smoothly. But it is extremely frustrating that something like that happened now. Like it wasn’t exciting and nerve-racking enough from before.

We have also made a few gybes today, which take quite an effort on these boats. You can really start to see tendencies of tiredness now. The big psychological part of the game has reached its peak.

Some of the guys are tired and it’s easier to make mistakes and to get grumpy about things you wouldn’t even think of if you were rested. Add to that the big stress level it is to be racing closely for days and days and when you are only one day from finish. The game is still close and you can’t afford to do anything wrong.

Now we are in good pace again and hoping that the next position-report will be good. In any case, we will fight to the end. Keeping the mood and pace up.

Gustav Morin - MCM

The Green Dragon has 260 miles and a couple of gybes to go before arriving in Cape Town. We are now moving OK but still 10% slow due to whatever damage is under our boat. This should be enough to hold off Telefónica Blue who is 100 miles back, but you can never be sure of anything I am told approaching Cape Town.

Things have calmed right down on board and attention is now focused on getting job lists sorted out for Cape Town and on looking forward to some days off. Our shore crew on the other hand will go from having had some time off to working every hour that God sends.

It has been an amazing leg with something for everyone. Four or five boats have held the lead, we have had tight tactical battles and then, of course, a week of battering by strong winds including a record 24 hour run (or several I suspect).

The strangest thing for us is not actually knowing half of what has gone on. We are not allowed news of the race so we have no idea why Telefónica Blue stopped in Gibraltar, or why Telefónica Black is so slow now. Others must be wondering why we are so slow now. Without our collision, we would be comfortably holding 3rd place.

I hope there have been no serious injuries but I am sure there will have been some bumps. Guo Chuan’s nose is nice and swollen and bruised now and we have told him to tell everyone that Tom Braidwood punched him.

There is only one thing for it in Cape Town and that is to get in the bar and trade some war stories as sailors love to do. My story will be of our nighttime collision and the ensuing panic-stricken thoughts and of a multitude of nosedives from which I saw no escape. Somehow, we did escape and the rig is still up.

The last thing our sponsor said to me in Alicante was to ‘not sink the boat’ and I have a feeling we came closer than we intended but so far so good. If we can get 4th with the stage win at Fernando, this will have been a very good leg for us. It has certainly been an amazing experience and makes me wonder what lies ahead. If anybody reading this is already in Cape Town, I’m the tired looking, balding bloke with a beard and mine’s a pint of lager please.

Ian Walker - skipper

Hi everybody
We are 600 miles away and back to the penguin’s land. As we get closer south, it gets chilly. Hope in the next hours we head up north - it is a little bit warmer up there! Still going fast, under the circumstances, so everything depends upon what might be waiting for us off Cape Town, weather slowing us down or not. Incognita? Weather changes so abruptly down here that you never know.

The crew is in good condition and spirit, and the comment is the size of the meat loaf each of us is eating in Cape Town! And about the dressing and wine! It seems we don’t like very much the delicious and tasty food on board! I do not understand it! Such delicious food! Eaten in doggy’s plates! Yummy…

Well. Just 600 miles to go.

Kind regards and tomorrow more
Mikel Pasabant - MCM

First of all congratulations to Torben and his boys. They sailed a blinder of a race from the scoring waypoint to the finish. Well done.

Yesterday we just managed to sail officially in the southern ocean, but luckily the wind direction changed and we could gybe, to bring us back into warmer waters. It will show if our tactics will pay against the ruskies, who have been gaining slowly but steadily against us.

If our predictions are right, we will gain a couple of miles back again, by taking advantage of the wind shift to come over the next couple of hours. The only thing what we don’t know, is if this will work out since they have gone into their invisible (stealth) mode. Time will tell.

The breeze will slowly drop on our way to Cape Town and not having our big spinnaker anymore will be a disadvantage in these conditions, since it blew apart again. And we have run out of repair material, so we have to use smaller sails.

For the rest, the boat is in good shape, of course we have a job list for our shore crew, but we could have easily carried on for another leg. The other good news is that we will just manage with our fuel. We have gone through a massive power reduction, switching even things off like the GPS and as well a minimum usage of the media equipment. We have 135 litres of emergency fuel onboard, but any usage of that and it means the hassle of explaining that to the jury. So better this way. But the best news is that none of the guys are injured, and that we all learned a heck of lot more about our boat.

Cheers,

Bouwe Bekking - skipper

Ciudad del Cabo, Sudáfrica (2 de noviembre, 2008) - Poco después del amanecer en una tranquila Bahía Table en Ciudad del Cabo, Sudáfrica, el patrón Torben Grael y la tripuación Internacional de Ericsson Racing Team a bordo de Ericsson 4 se convirtieron esta mañana en los líderes de la Volvo Ocean Race al ganar la primera etapa a las 05:54 GMT (06:54 hora española).

Ericsson 4 ganó 8 puntos por la victoria de etapa, tras un terminarla en un tiempo de 21 días, 17 horas y 54 minutos, y lidera la
clasificación general con 14 puntos. Ericsson 4 cruzó la línea de llegada bajo la Table Mountain a toda vela sobre un mar en calma.

“Nos sentimos muy bien”, dijo el brasileño Torben Grael. “Pero hay mucha regata por delante. Esto es sólo el principio”.

La tripulación de Ericsson 4 está formada por el patrón Torben Grael, el navegante Jules Salter, los jefes de guardia Stu Bannatyne y Brad Jackson, los trimmers Horacio Carabelli, Tony Mutter y João “Joca” Signorini, el piano Dave Endean, los proas Ryan Godfrey y Phil “Blood” Jameson, y el tripulante de medios de comunicación Guy Salter.

En una etapa muy emocionante y plagada de incidentes, con 6.500 millas de recorrido desde Alicante, la tripulación de Ericsson 4
vivió alibajos que sólo se encuentran en la Volvo Ocean Race.

Los buenos momentos incluyeron el liderazgo de la flota a través del estrecho de Gibraltar junto al compañero de equipo Ericsson 3, llegar segundo a la puerta puntuable en Fernando de Noronha y establecer un nuevo record de velocidad en 24 horas de 602.66 millas náuticas (pendiente de ratificación).

“Estuvo lleno de incidentes,pasaron muchas cosas: el desembarco de Tony, los continuos cambios de líder. Fue muy mocionante,” dijo Bannatine, jefe de guardia, que está disputando su quinta Volvo.

Hubo también momentos no tan buenos, como la evacuación del tripulante Tony Mutter en las Islas de Cabo Verde a causa de una infección en una rodilla, que supuso la pérdida de un importante hombre a bordo para las rotaciones, y dejó a la tripulación menguada con nueve miembros activos. La travesía subsiguiente a través de los Doldrums (calmas ecuatoriales) fue más larga de lo planeado y forzó a la tripulación a “jugar a pillar”.

“El momento más difícil fue entrar en los Doldrums y decidir hacer un poco de kilometraje y pasarlos por más hacia el oeste”, dijo el navegante Jules Salter. “Obviamente siempre está pasando algo en la regata. Hubo un par de momentos en que la flota se juntó y fue como volver a empezar. Eso lo hace difícil.”

A lo largo del recorrido la tripulación aprendió valiosas lecciones. Estuvieron en un contacto tan estrecho con su rival Puma que fueron capaces de hacer pruebas barco contra barco en vivo, cambiando configuraciones de velad o ángulos de trimado para los barcos en vivo para evaluar diferencias de velocidad.

“Parece que nos tuvimos a la vista durante aproximadamente el 80 por ciento de la etapa,” dijo Salter.

Ahora que la etapa ha terminado cada tripulante tiene su propio plan. Jules Salter estaba deseando comer y beber algo bueno, antes de sentarse a planear la próxima etapa”.

Bannatyne, sin embargo, dijo que vivió el mejor momento de de la etapa al final con la sorpresa que le dio su mujer al haber volado
desde Nueva Zelanda a Ciudad del Cabo. Lo que pensaba hacer entonces era desayunar con ellahueos con bacon seguidos con una cerveza fría.

El otro barco de Ericsson Racing Team, Ericsson 3, con su tripulación nórdica, también está peleando por terminar entre lso tres primeros de la etapa. En el informe de posiciones de las 04:00 GMT, la tripulación de Anders Lewander estaba a 347 millas náuticas del final y 28 millas por delante de Green Dragon.

Ayer por la tarde Ericsson 3 se puso en “modo invisible”, ocultando su posición a los rivales durante 12 horas. Mientras estaba en “modo invisible” Ericsson 3 trasluchó para cubrir mejor a Green Dragon.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (Nov. 2, 2008) - With the sun rising in Cape Town, South Africa, over a tranquil Table Bay, skipper Torben Grael and Ericsson Racing Team’s International crew on Ericsson 4 this morning became the overall leaders in the Volvo Ocean Race when they won Leg 1 at 0554 GMT.

Ericsson 4 earned 8 points for the leg victory, which it attained with an elapsed time of 21 days, 17 hours and 54 minutes, and leads the overall standings with 14 points. Ericsson 4 crossed the finish line under Table Mountain flying full sail on a calm sea.

“We feel very good about it,” said Grael, the Brazilian. “But there’s a lot of race to go. This is just the beginning.”

The Ericsson 4 crew included skipper Grael, navigator Jules Salter, watch captains Stu Bannatyne and Brad Jackson, trimmers Horacío
Carabelli, Tony Mutter and João “Joca” Signorini, pitman Dave Endean, bowmen Ryan Godfrey and Phil “Blood” Jameson, and media crewman Guy Salter.

In a thoroughly eventful and entertaining 6,500-nautical-mile leg from Alicante, Spain, the crew of Ericsson 4 experienced highs and
lows only found in the Volvo Ocean Race.

The highs were plentiful and included leading the fleet through the Straits of Gibraltar alongside teammate Ericsson 3, placing second at the scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha, and setting a world 24-hour speed record of 602.66 nautical miles (pending ratification).

“It was pretty eventful, there was a lot going on with Tony getting off and the lead changing so many times. It was pretty exciting,” said Bannatyne, the watch captain competing in his fifth Volvo race.

There were also lows to contend with, such as losing crewman Tony Mutter at the Cape Verde Islands to an infected knee, which took a valuable crewmember out of the rotation and left the crew shorthanded with nine active members. The ensuing passage through the Doldrums was far from planned and forced the crew to play catch-up.

“The hardest moment was entering the Doldrums and deciding to take a hit on mileage to set up for a westerly pass,” said Jules Salter, the navigator. “Obviously, there’s always something gong on in the race. There’s a couple times when the fleet compressed and restarted again. It makes it hard.”

Along the way the crew was learning valuable lessons. They were in such close contact with rival Puma of the U.S. that they were able to do live, two-boat testing, changing sail configurations or trimming angles to gauge speed differences.

“It seemed like they we were in sight of them for maybe 80 percent of the leg,” said Salter.

Now that the leg’s over, each crewman has his own agenda. Jules Salter was looking forward to something nice to eat and something nice to drink, before sitting down to start planning the next leg.

Bannatyne, however, said he experienced the best moment of the leg at the finish, when his wife surprised him by flying into Cape Town from New Zealand. He was planning to have her join him for a breakfast of eggs and bacon followed by a cold beer.

Ericsson Racing Team’s second entry in the race, the Nordic crew on Ericsson 3, is also gunning for a podium finish. At the 0400 GMT position report, Anders Lewander’s crew was 347 nautical miles from the finish and 28 miles ahead of Green Dragon.

Yesterday afternoon Ericsson 3 went into Stealth mode, where it hides is position from rivals for up to 12 hours. While in Stealth mode Ericsson 3 made a jibe away from Green Dragon to obtain a stronger covering position.

ERICSSON 4 ON THE DOCKSIDE CAPE TOWN

Torben Grael – skipper

We had everything. We had a wonderful journey, very rough weather for a couple of days with a lot of speed. I am very, very happy with everything we achieved.

We had PUMA on visual for 70 per cent of the race. It is amazing. I was very glad we were ahead of them at the scoring gate and here at the finish.

It feels great to win. We are happy that the finish wasn’t very painful. When we arrived here with Brasil1, we were 12 hours waiting outside without any wind. It was very good to have just a little bit of wind at the end and not stop before crossing the finish line.

The teamwork was marvellous, not only onboard, but as a whole team. The shore team too. Onboard it a little harder with one man down, a little bit of extra work for everybody, but everyone gave it best, and here we are.

Jules Salter – navigator

It’s good to be here; it’s always good to be in Cape Town
It was an eventful race, so many things going on; I really can’t remember most of it. We had a good lead after 24 hours, but that disappeared, then we had to evacuate Tony.

It was great to be in the lead from the very beginning.

I can’t wait to kick a football around a field.

Hi There,

I know this race now has a new Asian flavour to it - what with visiting China and Singapore, but I wasn’t expecting a taste of the orient quite so soon in the form of a massive Chinese gybe last night.

The guys on deck were pushing hard to keep the miles up when they got caught by a nasty wave a wham! There we were, over on our side. I was downstairs at the time, having checked the weather and gone a few rounds with an intermittent Sat C. I had just climbed into my sleeping bag and was getting ready for a nice snooze before the next position report was due in.

However aspirations of that were to be short lived when the boat listed one way then the other. I groaned to myself knowing full well what was about to happen, and before I knew it, I was standing on the side of the hull still half in the sleeping bag, the bunk having tipped up as we had gone over. Probably not the nicest way to have to get up!

Inside the boat was relatively tranquil, albeit a little disorienting with the boat being so far over the wrong way. Still standing on the side of the hull I pulled my boots on then literally climbed into the navstation on my way to getting on deck.

The boat was heeled over at 57 degrees I noticed as I looked on the computer to see which way we were pointing. On deck however was a different story - flapping sails and water rushing through the cockpit threatening to sweep the stack away. It was a priority to get the spinnaker down, then out of the water and the boat pointed the right way and sailing again.

Everyone worked hard and this was all sorted relatively quickly, despite a few nervous moments as things moaned and groaned under the load. Luckily, after sorting everything out and giving it a thorough check over, the boat and rig was in good shape so we were back up to a modest pace in very little time. Lesson learnt and quite enough excitement for one night!

That said, things have been a little more relaxed since our little tip out last night. Everyone has been on edge in recent days fearing something like this may happen and after it did it was almost like we had got it out of the way and we could go about business as usual again.

Today we made it briefly down to the roaring 40’s but luckily (for those of us who are from sunnier climbs and those of us who aren’t but are now used to living in Spain) a good wind shift came and has allowed us to gybe back north, so the temperature is steadily rising again and the boat slowly drying out. The risk is that we don’t let the run to the sun bias our tactics at all. I know there are plenty of guys on board who would rather not have to gybe back south again but if it’s the fastest way then so be it….

For the last few days it is all about consolidating our position - I think everyone is looking forward to Cape Town now so with any luck the last 500 miles should pass quite quickly.

Cheers,

Si Fi.

Simon Fisher - navigator