Two bullets for the Blues

Iker Martinez' crew storms to victory in the Boston In Port race

In a very ‘New England’ day on Broad Sound, off downtown Boston, it was Iker Martinez’ Telefonica Blue that dominated racing, winning both In Port races adding the maximum four points to their scoreline.

As the sun gradually broke through the haze, racing was postponed for 40 minutes before a weak sea breeze developed for the first race. Ericsson 4 and Green Dragon, with Neal McDonald having taken over the helm, at the pin end and looked good initially, but by the top mark, Telefónica Blue and Delta Lloyd had used the right side of the course to their advantage to lead the fleet.



Approaching the top mark, Green Dragon was still holding a good third place position but trouble on their final tack to the mark left the boat floundering on the layline – it later transpired that bowman Justin Slattery had managed to get his foot stuck in the lazy sheet and had been dragged around the forestay foot first. He can thank his lucky leprechaun that he came out of the incidence unscathed. However matters got worst as they were rolled in rapid succession by Ericsson 4 and Puma and then having set up for a gybe set coming around the mark were unable to keep clear of Ericsson 3 that came charging around the mark in their wake virtually running up into the Dragon transom, the Nordic kite touching the Chino-Irish pushpit. There then remains a stale mate with the Dragons still on starboard and unable to gybe with Ericsson 3 locked up.


Green Dragon skipper Ian Walker later explained: “We got fully set up for a gybe set, so we had the spinnaker on the windward side and we had to gybe to set the spinnaker. And Ericsson 3 got down inside us which prevented us from gybing. Then we were stuck because we had the spinnaker inside the forestay and we couldn’t get the spinnaker round or drop it without gybing and we couldn’t gybe because they were there... Until they gybed – and they didn’t gybe - so we just all sat there with everything set the wrong way. In the end we managed to drop the spinnaker and take around.” This was also to shed their penalty.



While Green Dragon trailed for the rest of the race, at the front, Telefónica Blue was never threatened, while Delta Lloyd earned a tremendous second place result with overall Volvo Ocean Race overall leader Ericsson 4 close behind.

The hometown heroes on Puma were fighting with Telefónica Black for most of the race with fourth place as the goal, but in the end, Ken Read’s team was able to hold off the Black boat. Ericsson 3 never recovered from their incident with Green Dragon and limped home in sixth.

In the short delay between races, the sun disappeared behind some impressively low cloud killing the sea breeze, but bringing a marginally stronger gradient wind. Racing started in 10-12 knots.

There was plenty of action on the start line with Telefónica Blue appearing to be danger of starting early just moments before the start gun fired. But helmsman Iker Martinez was able to luff up, slow down, and earn some precious room between himself and the pin mark. In the event, the Blue boat started cleanly with plenty of speed, however this wasn’t the case for Puma and both Ericssons who were called OCS and were forced to restart.

For Telefónica Blue, this early advantage was enough. Iker Martinez and Bouwe Bekking never looked back and stormed away to their second race win on the afternoon.

Behind the blue boat, it wasn’t so simple. Telefónica Black, in clear air after three boats returned to restart, also sailed a strong first leg as was the case for Delta Lloyd. Most impressive was how well Ericsson 4 recovered to round the top mark fully back in contention in fourth place. But Puma and Ericsson 3 remained at the back of the pack for the first lap of the course.

Everything changed on the second beat. A big right-hand shift saw Delta Lloyd stranded on the wrong side of the race course and tumble from third to sixth place. Ericsson 3 moved up to fourth place, while Puma clawed their way past Green Dragon and Delta Lloyd.

On the final run, both Ericsson boats gybed inside Telefónica Black to make a pass and set up some complicated math for the race committee in determining the overall standings on the day.

In the final accounting, Telefónica Blue was the runaway winner. “We had a good day,” commented skipper Bouwe Bekking. “We didn’t make too many mistakes. I think just minimising the mistakes is still the big thing with these boats…and finding the right lanes and you are off. We seem to be going okay in this light stuff. The boat has always going alright, but especially in the flat water is when it excels.”

The big issue for the crews, particularly in the second race was the huge wind sheer thanks to the low hanging cloud. Simon Fisher, back in the navigator’s spot, with Tom Addis on the Telefonica weather boat, expanded on this: “It was a bit special with the wind sheer, because the water is so cold and then you get the good breeze aloft and there was a real battle with the wind coming around to a sea breeze direction and a southwesterly gradient. It was a bit all over the place. Then going upwind in the second race where the sheer really took hold we were sailing with 20 TWA on the instruments on one tack and 70 or 80 on the other. It was also quite shifty. So it was pretty hard with the computer and the laylines. You had to go back to first principles.”

Bekking agreed: “It was tough. You had to guess the angles, but the hardest thing is to guess the mode you sail in. So you have to look at the other guys and try and match where you think you are going to make a little gain – it is like dinghy sailing, you have to look at the heading. Don’t look at the wind direction, because you’ll get skewed over.”

Behind the blue boat, Ericsson 4 finished clear second and Delta Lloyd holding on for third place. A three-way tie for fourth was decided in favour of the stronger position in the second race; terrible news for the hometown favourites on Puma, who not only failed to make the podium on the last leg into Boston or in either races today, but finished the day with a sixth, behind Ericsson 3 and Telefónica Black. Green Dragon, with two disappointing seventh place finishes, brought up the rear.

“The first race, it was a classic case of when something goes wrong and things start to snowball and by the time you have it back under control everyone has gone past you. We didn’t sail well – from bow to stern we didn’t sail very well,” lamented Ian Walker on his return to Fan Pier. “If I had to summarise it I think we made too many changes on the boat with not enough training. Effectively we changed mainsheet trimmer, traveller, runner, helmsman, tactician - and individually they are all good enough to do all of those roles, but it is not about that, it is about the chemistry and the communication. We changed it because we wanted to see if we could improve things before we got to Galway and I think we proved to ourselves that actually we needed to stay how we trained. Which is what we did in the second race and we sailed well in the second race.” For Ian Walker returned to the helm with Neal McDonald calling tactics.

Meanwhile in the overall leaderboard, her result today has resulted in Telefónica Blue creeping half a point closer to Ericsson 4, but more importantly opens up some margin over Puma in the battle for second place.

So why is Telefonica Blue so strong in the in ports? “I think we go very well in the light, the boat certainly does - and in flat water in any conditions,” reckons Simon Fisher. “We are a little stronger in the light than say the Ericsson boats. It is both hull and sails. The Ericssons have more transom immersion and are a little more draggy in the lighter stuff. I guess are sails are maybe a bit more orientated windward-leeward than Ericsson.”

For several of the teams, they set off on today’s in port race, having only had their inshore gear delivered in the early hours of this morning, after it was severely delayed on the ship coming from Rio. On Telefonica Blue their inshore spinnakers only turned up at 5am while Green Dragon’s inshore sails and halyards and tackle reached Fan Pier at 6am…

Race One Boston In-Port Race Finish Position
1. Telefonica Blue
2. Delta Lloyd
3. Ericsson 4
4. PUMA
5. Telefonica Black
6. Ericsson 3
7. Green Dragon

Race Two Boston In-Port Race Finish Position
1. Telefonica Blue
2. Ericsson 4
3. Ericsson 3
4. Telefonica Black
5. PUMA
6. Delta Lloyd
7. Green Dragon

Boston In-Port Race Results (Provisional)
1. Telefonica Blue: 4 points
2. Ericsson 4: 3.5 points
3. Delta Lloyd: 3 points
4. Ericsson 3: 2.5 points
5. Telefonica Black 2.0 points
6. PUMA: 1.5 points
7. Green Dragon 1.0 points

Overall Leaderboard
1. Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA): 81 points
2. Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED): 68.5 points
3. PUMA (Ken Read/USA): 65.5 points
4. Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE): 55.5 points
5. Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR): 45.0 points
6. Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri/ESP): 31.0 points
7. Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez/ESP): 24.0 points
8. Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT): 10.5 points