Two down

Structural problems cause the Pirates of the Caribbean and movistar VO70s to head for port

Positions at 1030GMT

Pos	Yacht	Latitude	Longitude	CMG	SMG	DTF	DTL	DTLC
1	ABN AMRO Two	36 53.85N	014 32.22W	227	21.4	6001	0	0
2	ABN AMRO One	36 44.48N	013 35.87W	215	20.5	6013	12	1
3	Brasil 1	37 00.08N	014 00.14W	217	20.9	6018	17	3
4	Ericsson	37 11.86N	013 57.61W	217	20.4	6030	29	-1
5	movistar	37 25.11N	012 47.98W	201	9.9	6067	66	-65
6	The Black Peark	38 13.11N	013 00.11W	178	5.4	6105	104	-96
7	Brunel Sunergy	38 59.93N	012 17.90W	223	10.4	6162	161	-63

Less than a day out from Vigo after the start of the first offshore leg of the Volvo Ocean Race to Cape Town, two boats have suffered severe damage in the gale force winds.

movistar skipper, Bouwe Bekking, reported a sickening loud crack and bang as the one of the ram shelves collapsed.  This is the structure on which the hydraulic ram, used to move the keel from side to side, is mounted. All the load was transferred to the other ram, which kept the keel safely under the boat at the correct angle, but the load must have been huge, as the main bulkhead buckled badly. Bekking said there was no other option than to head to port as it was not safe to carry on. 

“It looks like a major, but we will wait to hear what the experts say,” Bekking said earlier this morning as he pointed the boat towards Cadiz where experts will asses the damage. “All the guys area sitting on deck, staring blankly, a dream has come apart abruptly,” he concluded.

movistar is not the only boat to fall foul of the heavy conditions. Paul Cayard and his Pirates of the Caribbean team have suffered leakage around the keel of The Black Pearl. The damage to the keel box casing is non-structural but it has temporarily prevented the boat from continuing on leg one. The team is now heading to the south of Portugal to assess the damage and begin repairs. All crew members are fine.

Meanwhile out on the race track the wind is easing currently down to 30-35 knots, but is expected to build again in three to four hours time to 40 knots with gusts of up to 50 knots. The wind will veer into the northeast, so the closer the fleet can get into the coast, the more relief they will get from winds and seas.

Overnight Brunel Sunergy (formerly Premier Challenge/Sunergy and Friends) broke her gooseneck and jib halyard overnight and is now sailing under staysail, which has caused to her slip back through the fleet. Conditions are too rough to send a man up the mast to fix the problems at present.

While the focus at present is on the wellfare of the Pirates of the Caribbean and movistar boats, there are some unusual goings-on on the race course where since last night Seb Josse's ABN AMRO Two, with her sub 31 year old crew is leading the race, even ahead of Mike Sanderson's ABN AMRO One. However while this may be true in terms of distance to finish, Sanderson's team are some 45 miles to the west of the nippers and therefore will be first to pick up the shift to the northeast to make the gybe.

The structural problems on both movistar and The Black Pearl are such that it seems most likely they will retire from this leg. The damage on movistar is unusual as having been pushed hard through the Southern Ocean on her delivery trip back from Australia, she is the most throughly tested of all the VO70s.

Brasil 1 report:

Out here on Brasil 1 it’s been a hectic start to Leg 1. Within hours of the start we were in 20-30 knots of wind, harnesses on, all weight aft as the boat started to take off at speeds of up to 30 knots down steep waves. Last night we had a few squalls of up to 40 knots and the sea was very rough 6-7m so sleeping and eating was almost impossible.

These windy but fast conditions continue today but more and more so under a blue sky. We have been working down below to keep bailing out the water from both leaky parts as well as the water brought down by people in their wet weather gear.

We are constantly aware of the wild nature of the boats and are sailing ours accordingly, I am sure the fleet is a little spread out because of this and when the wind decreases over the next few days we will see a new race develop in the more moderate winds. The guys on deck are soaked to the bone and tired but we just have to push through it for another 24 hours towards the Canary Islands and we will be rewarded with some warm trade winds, smooth seas and dry clothes.

Grant Wharington reports on progress on board Brunel Sunergy

Morning all, we had a tough night firstly steering problem not solved yet but we think the tow angle of the rudders needs to be adjusted. It was okay until about high 20s of boat speed the leeward rudder cavitates, pretty sure we have fixed this one but we won’t know until we speed up again. All was going fine until about 11pm our wind speed went from low 30s to 50+ in a squall we had R1, staysail and full main up doing mid-20s we
broke the gooseneck, also broke jib halyard so have been sailing under staysail ever since, the good news was that through all this Scotty (Jeff Scott) was steering and we did not wipeout!!

It’s a bummer knowing that the opposition is sailing 10 to 15 knots faster and nothing we can do about it until daylight, so the deltas in the next sched will be horrific. It was too dangerous to send Benny up the mast to fix the jib halyard, and we were all so knackered from the last week preparing the boat around the clock that we decided to get some rest and attack all problems in daylight.

We are not sure what the fix is on the gooseneck yet but I think Barney (Ian Walker) has a plan. I finally got some sleep at about 0200 and woke up to find my gear bag slopping around in the bilge; I must have kicked it off my bunk in my slumber. The only upside is I still have the clothes I was wearing dry and the others should dry out in a few days w hen the sun comes out.

I can’t thank everyone enough for all their hard work over the last week and I hope you all have a hangover today.

Love to all Grant.