Volvo Ocean Race - Leg 1 wrap up

A lot has happened since the last update. A shattered boat for one team, a shattered record for another.

At the close of the last update, the fleet was heading south along the South American coast, waiting for a low pressure system to materialize and take them across the pond to Cape Town, South Africa. That low came, and provided an exciting ride for all. Green Dragon led the fleet south, hoping to find increased pressure as they got closer to the center of the low. Ericcson 4 and Puma cut the corner a bit, and made gains by doing this emerging as the lead two boats. Then it got exciting.

Puma and Ericsson 4 battled a bit, and then Torben Grael and his Ericsson team showed they had a gear no-one else possessed. They broke the 24 hour monohull distance record several times, finally maxing out at just over the 600 mile barrier. The previous record was 563 miles held by ABN AMRO 2 from the last edition of the Volvo. Ericsson 4 continued their fast sailing and led the fleet, relatively unchallenged, into South Africa.

While Ericsson and Puma were extending on the fleet, several of the chasing boats had some serious issues. Countless sails were blown up, and teams will now likely replace them with new ones for the next leg. Teams need to be careful as their sail inventory for the whole race is limited, so they don't want to use up all of their slots too early. Delta LLoyd had some spreader issues that lingered since the doldrums and couldn't push the boat hard enough to keep in fear of bringing down the rig. Telefonica Black had the biggest problems of the fleet. During Ericsson 4's historic run, the Black team had a severe wipe out after losing control in one of their rudders. The boat wiped out, destroyed their rudder, destroyed their spinnaker, and ripped the bow sprit off of the boat. This all but sealed their last place position for the leg, as they simply couldn't sail fast enough to keep up with the fleet for the remainder of the leg. Nobody was hurt in this mishap, and they were able to put on an emergency rudder and continue.

The arrivals to Cape Town were in the following order:
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)
6. Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT)
7. Delta Lloyd IRL (Ger O’Rourke/IRL)
8. Telefonica Black (Fernando Echavarri/ESP)

Several teams used their stealth play, where they are left off of position reports to other teams and are untrackable for 12 hours, as they approached the destination, though no major place changes occurred as a result.

The current standings for the overall are as follows:
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: 7 points (FINISHED)
6. Ericsson 3: 5 points (FINISHED)
7. Delta Lloyd: 4 points (FINISHED)
8. Team Russia: 4 points (FINISHED)

Upon arrival, several boats were pulled from the water to undergo repairs. Upon inspection, it looks like an underwater collision is what caused the black teams wipe out. Both Farr designed Telefonica boats had some problems in the high wind running conditions, and the teams are contemplating how to improve performance in those conditions. The good news for these two teams is that the next leg will likely have no running, and will be in lighter winds where these boats appear very quick. Ericsson 3 had a new keel waiting for them in Cape Town, and will no longer recieve penalties on each leg for having an illegal appendage. Good news for them.

The next leg, from Cape Town to India starts on November 15, so there is not much time off for the teams. Notable crew shake ups are already occurring, with Ericcson 4 regaining the injured Martin Stromberg, and Puma replacing Jerry Kirby and Jonathan McKee with Shannon Falcone and former race winner Robbie Naismith. They are hoping to keep the crew fresh for the late stages of this long endurace race. As if one doldrums crossing wasn't enough, the teams will be taken up the east coast of Africa, through notoriously rough waters, into the dreadfully painful doldrums, and then into the fickle winds off the coast of India. This will certainly be a tacticians race to win, as those who pick the best path consistenly will make huge gains.

In other news, my boat finally finished leg 1 of the Virtual Volvo Ocean Race (in 5439th place). This fleet continues to grow and is now well over 30,000. While leg one started with only a small portion of this number, leg 2 should have a lot more boats starting at the same time and likely some closer racing. The virtual boats will be sharing the starting line with the real boats and taking off on Leg 2 on NOvember 15th as well.

pictures from http://www.volvooceanrace.org