Go south

The Volvo Ocean Race fleet are enjoying fast sailing

After an all too brief sleigh ride in the north east trades, squalls and rain are once again plaguing the fleet. The good news however is that the wind remains reasonably strong if not true in either strength of direction for long.

For the first time in the race, boats have covered more than 300 miles in a day. illbruck is leading the contest with 310 miles on the clock ahead of News Corp and Amer Sports One with 304 miles each. The record for a V.O.60 is 449.4 miles, set by Silk Cut in the previous race.

The stronger winds have not come without a cost and both Amer Sports boats are hard at work on sail repairs. Amer Sports Too is once again rebuilding their Code 3 kite after fixing the damage sustained at the start where it blew out the moment it filled on the starting line. The repair is very time consuming and is expected to keep the sail maker busy for some time. Like all the boats in the fleet the Amer Sports crews are carrying sewing machines and repair material onboard.

On Amer Sports One, equipment is also an issue, although of a different nature, as Grant Dalton reported. "Firstly an unnamed Australian managed to throw most of the spoons over the side when he was doing the dishes. You may think that this is not a problem, use the forks, problem is there are no forks, just spoons, or 3 left anyway so we now need to find an imaginative way of eating otherwise the meals are going to take an awfully long time to complete. The other thing that happened is that the handle fell off the kettle while Roger was making coffee, sending hot water over his feet. Luckily just a few small blisters and being a doctor he can also look after himself. But we will need to fix the kettle at some stage."

Little was Dalton to know when he wrote this that his troubles had hardly begun.

"This morning at 1000 the sked news looked really good with big gains for our grey boat," wrote Roger Nilson. "But then it all started. The second, and only remaining spinnaker lock at the masthead became history. It just simply gave in. We were about to change sail as the backside of the easterly wave [weather system] hit us, with strong southeasterly gusts and rain. But the spinnaker was stuck at the mast head and we had to struggle downwind, with Jeff Brock at the masthead. For a while we could not even get him down. After 6 sail changes in 2,5 hours, as the wind shifted a lot in direction and strength, we settled down with our fast code 3 reaching spinnaker." By then the Amer Sports One team felt they were back in the game. "Suddenly the sail exploded and we have a vulnerable gap in our sail wardrobe. Our onboard sail makers Phil and Dee will be very busy with code 3, till it is ready to go again. Patched up but hopefully strong enough."

For the navigators, the Doldrums are looking more difficult to predict even as the fleet draw closer. "We have located the doldrums on weather maps and satellite pictures and are monitoring the movement, via the Internet, so we can move through without losing wind," explained Team News Corp Navigator Ross Field.

Nilson adds his analysis. "It will be important to escape south, on the backside of this easterly wave, before a big hole appears and stop the northern and eastern boats," he says. Nilson reckons that the leading boats could get through the doldrums with little or no pain, and adds that he, "hope we can do the same."

For the westerly yachts illbruck, ASSA ABLOY, Tyco, News Corp and Amer Sports One and Too, the wind has gone from east to southeast and losing strength. This has meant a lot of work for the crews, changing sails constantly to get the optimum performance for different wind angles and wind strength.

Team SEB are experiencing a slightly different pattern with the wind oscillating between northeast and southeast. They have closed the straight-line distance to 160 miles, but have lost another place and are currently sixth.

Sailing with 20 knots of true wind from abeam and 13 knots of boat speed, the apparent wind is way forward - 40 degrees off the bow and increasing to almost 30 knots in strength. Conditions on board are becoming wet as the bow of the yachts pick up the waves and the wind carries the water all over the deck. In the heat of the tropics this can be far from unwelcome.

Page two.... Steve Hayles
Page Three.... Mark Rudiger
Page Four.... Position reports