Podium complete

As Ericsson 3 makes it home, while just 16 miles separates four boats fighting for fourth place

Monday December 1st 2008, Author: James Boyd, Location: United Kingdom

Positions at 0955

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Lat	Long	24 hr	DTF	DTL
1	Ericsson 4	Torben Grael	finished
2	Telefonica Blue	Bouwe Bekking	finished
3	Ericsson 3	Anders Lewander	finished
4	Telefonica Black	Fernando Echavarri	09,28.70N	076,15.44E		29.9
5	Delta Lloyd	Ger O'Rourke	09,21.69N	076,13.19E	109	36.4	6.5
6	Puma	Ken Read	09,21.17N	076,12.33E	103	36.8	6.9
7	Green Dragon	Ian Walker	09,13.82N	076,09.16E		44	14.1
8	Team Russia	Andreas Hanakamp	02,22.50N	077,48.49E	111	465.1	435.2

Anders Lewander and his Nordic crew on Ericsson 3 reached Cochin at 0736 GMT this morning (1306 local time) completing the 4,450 mile leg from Cape Town in 15 days, 20 hours, 16 minutes and 45 seconds. They collected 9.5 points on the leg, 6 points for third place and 3.5 points for second at the scoring gate, and have 14.5 points total, likely good for fifth place on the leaderboard.

The final 24 hours were frustrating in the extreme - almost drifting, and choosing to activate their StealthPlay in order to keep their position secret and prevent the chasing pack from sailing round them while they were becalmed. The wind filled in for the final miles allowing the team to pick up speed to cross the finish line.

This is the second time Ericsson 3 has crossed the finish line in third place, however, in Cape Town, the team was docked two points for racing with a non-compliant keel. A new, rule-compliant keel was subsequently fitted and this time the team will be able to celebrate third place properly. The podium finish comes after crossing the scoring gate in second place, which gained the team a further 3.5 points.

On stepping ashore, skipper Anders Lewander said: “A podium position is extraordinary. This race is worth fighting to be involved in. We have spent a lot of time developing and learning and each leg has its achievements, and on this leg, we have been though all sorts of weather. We now know how we can go forward. I have great confidence in the team.”

Watch captain and six-race veteran Magnus Olsson said, “It’s very good to be here in third. We had great boatspeed and we can get better, we just need to be more aggressive in our tactics. We think we deserve third place and would like to congratulate Ericsson 4 and Telefónica Blue. I already love India it is fantastic exotic place.”

Richard Mason added: "The all-around seamanship was important," Mason said. "The Southern Ocean was tough with sail changes and cold weather, it was important for this crew to sail the boat in those conditions."

Mason, however, said it was the ending that proved most challenging. The crew, like the two finishers ahead of them, had to battle light winds to the finish line after what had been a windy leg. "The biggest thing we learned was how to sail in light conditions," Mason said. "We had no more than 7 knots the last few days. To figure out how to make the boat go in light winds is good because it's going to be light for a few legs."

Meanwhile the four-way battle for fourth is expected to be decided later on today where just 16 miles separates the boats. This has all turned around over the weekend with Ian Walker's Green Dragon plummeting from fourth to seventh while Fernando Echavarri on Telefonica Black has risen from seventh on Saturday to hold fourth place. The Spanish boat has done well thanks to taking an inshore route up the coast of India.

Mikel Pasabant reports from Telefonica Black :

Here we are in the middle of a huge swamp, with no wind at all and as far as 170 miles from the finish. Things are not very good as we approach Cochin, the forecast does not show a major change in the conditions, so the only thing we can do is keep calm and try to sail the Demonio as we know, or at least as we can.

We are pretty close to the pack, but very difficult to get in, as the wind is so light. There is a big deal on board, shall we go to land or stay offshore? We do not trust the weather forecasts so much, as they have proved to be wrong many times before, so it is difficult to know. Night is coming, and we do not know what may happen in these waters...
Congratulations to Ericsson International from the TELEFÓNICA BLACK! Bravo, guys! But we will see next time! Ha ha!
The BLACKIES

Ian Walker reports from Green Dragon :

It was a very close run thing, but we finally managed to escape from the clutches of the doldrums ahead of the impending calm in the weather files. My heart goes out to Team Russia who seems to have befallen the fate that I feared yesterday - possibly up to another week of light winds.

A smart tactical decision by Ian Moore last night to drive low into the right-hander has saved us some miles and kept a slender lead for us over Delta Lloyd. We have now hooked into this North Easterly and we have just tacked alongside Puma.

We had relinquished our position to them after a 2-day fight, but through the night under code zero, they sailed from 2 miles behind to 2 miles in front in a straight line. This is hard to take after 15 days at sea but, hopefully, we will get a shot at them before the end as we approach the land.

The only other point of note today is that the rancid fish smell in the cockpit that we thought we had got rid of when we found a flying fish in the halyard tunnel did not go away and thank God today we found a week old squid that was the culprit - it got washed out of the tunnel in a big wave and the smell has now gone. One unlucky flying fish also managed to leap out of the sea today and land in one of our cockpit bags - Phil heard him flapping around and returned him to the sea. Fortunately, Phil is not scared of fish like one of our crew!

News of the terrorist attacks in our next arrival country, India, has reached us by e-mail and we are all both saddened and concerned. This helps put losing a position in a sailing race into perspective and our thoughts go out to all those who have suffered losses. Personally, I am looking forward to my first visit to India although the news that December 1st, when we are now scheduled to arrive, is 'national no drinking day' may come as a shock to a few lads onboard who deserve a beer.