Who will win leg 2?

James Boyd looks at the form for the Volvo Ocean Race's first Southern Ocean leg

SEB

The green Swedish boat is another one which given her resources - she is rumoured to have the highest budget of all the campaigns at $22 million - should be doing considerably better than her sixth place on the first leg. Like djuice, SEB suffered from a headboard car breakage on leg one. This was replaced and broke again much to the fury of her skipper Gunnar Krantz.

SEB is quite a change from Swedish Match, the boat Krantz sailed four years ago. Swedish Match was the widest boat in the fleet in the last race while this time SEB is the narrowest. The reason maybe that the boat is optimised more for the Atlantic legs and for lighter weather work which should put them in good stead for the latter part of the Volvo Ocean Race. In the short term it would seem SEB has the least suitable hull for the Southern Ocean legs.

Then there is the van Triest element. Navigator Marcel van Triest is widely regarded as something of a maverick in the fleet and this was amply demonstrated on the first leg from the dramatic fliers SEB was seen to be taking. While this could work out big time if SEB finds herself down the rankings half way through this race, in an event where consistent performance on every leg is what counts van Triest's high risk navigation strategy may not be appropriate.

Krantz generally seems happy with his crew - with the only substitution being 28 year old Kiwi Rodney Keenan for Santiago Lange.

Crew:
Rodney Arden, Scott Beavis, Tom Braidwood, Gareth Cook, Matt Humphries, Rodney Keenan, Glen Kessels, Gunnar Krantz, Tony Mutter, David Rolfe, Marcel van Triest, Magnus Woxen.