Another lost rudder

Daikin Airco team suffers failure for second season in a row as Roark takes top spot in Vuurschepenrace to Harwich

The changeable sailing conditions caused and interesting Vuurschepenrace 2007. After a promising start the fleet floated for hours during Tuesday night, as the wind dropped to almost zero. This calm made it impossible to break the record of 10 hours and 47 minutes, set in 1993 by Jan van Gelderen with his Lutra 40 Bierkaa iand Mean Machine, the Volvo Open 70 took the line honours.

In the provisional results, Grand Soleil 43 Roark of skipper Kees Kaan lead the IRC 1 class. For most of the race, Roark was in close competition with the Grand Soleil 44 Holmatro of Sander Speet and the Ker 11.3 Daikin Airco of Frans van der Heijden, until Daikin lost her rudder. The unfortunate sailors and boat were towed by Holmatro, which put an end to the battle between the three teams. The last participants finished at about 7.00 pm local time on Wednesday.

The 70-footer of Peter de Ridder was on record schedule in the first 60 miles, as they had an average speed of 14 to 15 knots. According to Dirk de Ridder, Director of Operations for the Volvo Ocean Race campaign of Team Mean Machine, after this first part of the race the wind dropped and they had to start beating. Some sail changes followed. De Ridder: "For about 30 nautical miles we only had 7 to 8 knots boat speed."

Then the breeze picked up to 10-12 knots and they could go upwind towards the finish. "It is a pity that we had those light conditions for a while. Otherwise we could have broken the record," said De Ridder. Mean Machine crossed the line at 06.19 Dutch time, after 10 hours and 59 minutes of sailing. They are in fifteenth position overall in the provisional IRC 1 results, followed by the runner up in real time, VO 60 Pleomax.

Roarkskipper Kees Kaan commented on the day's activity: “ Daikin and Holmatro were fighting each other, when we saw a strange move from Daikin. They dropped their sails immediately and Holmatro followed. Sander Speet informed us about the fact that Daikin had just lost her rudder again."

It is not the first time that this happens to the Dutch crew. Last year, the unfortunate sailors had the same problem with their Sinergia 40, for which they received a special 'bad luck' award from the Royal Netherlands Sailing Federation. Roark was not needed for rescue and could continue. She finished fifth. Kaan said: “It is a pity that our direct competitors had abandon the race. It is not an elegant way to win.” Holmatro skipper Sander Speet has asked for redress. Speet: “Of course it is a disappointment, because we were doing very well. On the other side, we would always assist a team that needs help. We feel happy about the fact that everybody is safe.”
 
Provisional top three results:
IRC 1:
1. Roark, Kees Kaan
2. Stortemelk, Frans de Vries Lentsch
3. Phoenix, Marc Eriks
ORC 1:
1. Phoenix, Mark Eriks
2. Checkmate, Peter de Ridder
3. Samantha, Alfred P. Duin
IRC 2: will follow
ORC 2:
1. Antares, F. Winterswijk
2. Rosetta from the Rocks, Radboud Crul
3. Redan, Hein van Schaik
IRC 3:
1. Jimjams, Paul van der Pol
2. escXape, J.R. de Bruin
3. Pinta-M, Atse Blei
ORC 3:
1. Pinta-M, Atse Blei
2. Jimjams, Paul van der Pol
3. Broersbank, Hendrik Jan Onnes