Fourth home

Ericsson drifts into Cape Town

Neal McDonald's Ericsson breezed into Cape Town at 0547GMT this morning, fourth boat in on leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race. After their decisive win in the Sanxenxo in-port racing fourth place in leg one was a disappointment to the Swedish team.

“The leg did not go according to plan for us, we had a few problems and we are really quite relieved to be here," commented Neal McDonald on his arrival. "Of course we are disappointed, but it could have been worse, and we are just pleased to be here in one piece without too much damage to the boat.”

In the early hours of 29 November while lying in fourth place there was a loud bang down below on Ericsson. This was subsequently discovered to have eminated from her canting keel mechanism which had gone into 'free' cant mode. The crew managed to get the keel canted up to weather again, but uncertain of the integrity of the system were reluctant to push the system.

“We don’t really know the extent of it," admitted McDonald. "It will all come out in the wash when we get the boat out of the water. I obviously hope we resolve the issue for sure, but it is just one of those things that you have to deal with. Other than that we are in good shape."

Ericsson spent much of the first leg locked in close combat with ABN AMRO Two and Brasil 1 but had managed to get ahead of her two rivals at the scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha, to pick up three points. However she seemed to lack pace sailing south to round the St Helena high and was overhauled to leeward by ABN AMRO Two, which the crew at the time attributed to the loss of their fractional reaching spinnaker on the first night of the race.

As the Volvo Ocean Race is scored on finish positions rather than elapsed time and with the only threat to their fourth place being Sunergy 1,200 miles astern of them so following their keel troubles, Ericsson cruised towards Cape Town. She arrived at breakfast time this morning crossing the line in a very light breeze at around 5 knots.

“We thought last night that the leg was done and dusted but we then had a very windy night and we were not set up for it," commented navigator Steve Hayles. "We had to put reefs in the mainsail and then this morning it had all changed and it was a very light.”

“It is a fantastic welcome that everyone has put on for us here," Hayles continued. "People are aware that we have some damage. The boat went through a tough time on the first night, as did everyone else, but we really won’t know the extent of the damage until we haul the boat out. But when we do pull the boat out, we won’t be surprised if we see damage to the rudder as well. We are very comfortable with the boat and we are sure very quickly we will be back up to 100% racing trim and we are already looking forward to the next leg.”