Kostecki on the in-port race

Ericsson's inshore tactician describes Saturday's racing

The racing in Melbourne was by far the most exciting In Port Race to date. It was the perfect day for racing these 70ft machines around the short course race track. The sun was out, it was warm and a nice sea breeze built up to around 15 knots by the start time. We on Ericsson had a simple game plan for the race: Have a good one!

We felt the boat speeds in the race were going to be fairly evenly matched so we needed to have a good start and play the shifts in the building sea breeze. The fleet migrated toward the windward, committee boat end of the line and we approached the fleet on port tack, found a nice hole to windward of ABN AMRO Two and tacked onto starboard tack. With ABN AMRO Two to leeward and the rest of the fleet to windward, we were positioned perfectly for a great start. The start gun went off and ABN AMRO Two immediately turned back to restart. We could not see the committee boat for the X-flag, because of the fleet to windward of us. We also could not hear the VHF radio because of the winch and sheet noises as we ground in the sails for upwind trim. As it turned out, the committee had hailed us on the radio and after sailing for about a minute we heard the recall on the VHF and turned the boat round. It was a disappointing way to start a short course race! We returned to the line as quickly as possible and got on with the race.

Being behind in the short course is not easy, so we opted for more radical tactics to try to get us back in the race. We headed off to the left side of the course on the first windward leg, and gained nicely on the fleet. We rounded the first windward mark behind the fleet, but only just behind Brunel which was motivating after our start. The wind built on the first run downhill and we managed another gain on the fleet and passed Brunel. Our crew work at the first bottom mark was amazing, as we held the spinnaker drop to the last moment then gybed around the bottom mark. After grinding up the runner, I looked up and saw that we gained on all our competitors and passed ABN AMRO Two which had a poor spinnaker drop. We were back in the race!

The second windward leg was pretty uneventful as the fleet played the right side of the track. We went to the right hand corner and ended up laying the windward mark after only tacking once on the beat. The lack of tacks and with some right hand gusts we managed to gain on the leaders again. The wind continued to build and the second run was exciting as we started to hit 18-20 knots of boat speed! We took some risk on this run downhill and only made one gybe, which ended up costing us a little bit of time. We over stood the bottom mark and had to reach in hot. Since we played the favored side, we managed not to loose too much. Movistar sailed by the bottom mark with a poor spinnaker drop and again when we looked up after rounding the bottom mark we were in the hunt!

On the third upwind leg the fleet played more of the middle of course. Brasil 1 held a slim lead over the Pirates and ABN AMRO One, followed by movistar then ourselves. We played the shifts on this leg and ended up rounding the top mark just in front of movistar, in fourth place. Brasil 1 had a poor spinnaker set and appeared to rip their kit. With the wind building now at around 20 knots, ABN Amro One, Pirates, movistar and Ericsson flew by Brasil 1 as they struggled to reset a second spinnaker. Movistar passed us back on the third run downwind, and we rounded the last bottom mark in fourth. Not a whole lot changed after this in the race as on the final beat to windward everyone covered tightly to protect their position for the final run. The Pirates ripped their spinnaker on the last run and had to change, which gave both movistar and ourselves a chance to pass. But they managed to change quickly to another sail and saved their second place at the finish. We finished 30 seconds behind the Pirates and only 15 seconds behind movistar. We were over 2 minutes behind the fleet after restarting so we were happy with our comeback!

Our crew work was very solid and got us back into the race. We also had great upwind speed and Tim Powell our helmsman did a great job, keeping the boat going fast at all times. It was disappointing that we were called back after the start. We all thought we had a safe conservative start but the committee thought otherwise. Still, we had a nice comeback and we can learn a lot from this race to improve for the remainder of the Volvo Ocean Race.

The next In Port Race will be on March 25 in Rio.

Ed: Ericsson's request for redress following their start incident is to be hear in Melbourne tomorrow