Two in a row

Ericsson 4 takes first place into Cochin

Slightly later than was anticipated, Ericsson 4 finally crossed the finish line off Cochin, India at 22:52GMT Saturday (04:22am local time) to score her second consecutive win in the Volvo Ocean Race.

The 4,450 nm leg, starting from Cape Town, South Africa on 15 November, took skipper Torben Grael and his crew 14 days, 11 hours, 32 minutes and 30 seconds (elapsed time 14:11:32:30). Adding to the four points the team collected for passing through the leg two scoring gate and to the eight points for a leg win, boosts the team’s overall score to 26 points.

On stepping ashore in Cochin, skipper Grael said: “I am very happy to be here. The trip had a lot of very difficult conditions, cold and wet and the light Doldrums. We had many breakdowns, but we got to the gate in a good position and of course, we are very happy to be here in first place after a hard few days and to get a good result.”

"We're very happy to be here. Very relieved and very satisfied. Relief is a common emotion after how light it got at the end," said watch captain Stu Bannatyne. "There's always a risk to get overtaken when you park up. The others can see where you're parked and it can all disappear very quickly. Fortunately we had enough."

British navigator, Jules Salter, described this leg as beginning like a lion and ending like a lamb: “It’s a relief that we are here. Light airs prove to be more trouble than heavy, and it was hard trying to work out what was going on, but it came good in the end. This afternoon was very difficult to work out where the land breeze was coming from but, luckily, it came and it’s great to be here.”

It was a dramatic first week to this leg, when the fleet headed south from Cape Town into the Southern Ocean to pick up the strong westerly winds, which would propel the boats quickly towards the scoring gate. Many of the eight-strong fleet suffered damage in the big and confused seas caused by the Algulhas current, a notoriously rough stretch of water.

Ericsson 4 had their fair share of broaches, blown out sails, downtime and bad luck, and for most of week one, Grael was happy to keep Ericsson 4 rumbling along in the middle of the pack, often behind sistership, Ericsson 3.

It was on day eight, 22 November, once the fleet had passed through the gate and started to point north, that Ericsson 4 moved into the top position. There were still 2239 miles to the finish, and Ericsson 3 was just three miles behind.

On day nine, the 1300 GMT position report showed Ericsson 4 seven miles behind Ericsson 3 again. 24 hours later Grael again had a tenuous lead, but the breeze ahead had slowed and the fleet was starting to compress.

Ericsson 4’s big move came on day 12. The group of four boats - Ericsson 4, Ericsson 3, Puma (Ken Read/USA) and Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR), who had all chosen the middle lane through the Doldrums, were still tightly packed when Ericsson 4 disappeared into a well-positioned rain shower. She emerged 48 nm ahead of Ericsson 3 and sailing at twice the speed of anyone else. The rest of the group could only watch, as they sat, practically becalmed.

The only challenger to Ericsson 4’s lead from that moment was a late attack by Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED), who was forced, by damage to their daggerboard, to choose the westerly route to pass through the Doldrums. On day 14, Telefónica Blue had closed the gap, but was still a comfortable 111 nautical miles behind Ericsson 4. Still closing today, the Spanish team finally ran out of runway, and Ericsson 4 claimed a second and momentous victory. Telefónica Blue is expected to arrive in Cochin tomorrow morning.

The last hours were frustrating. In contrast to what the forecast had indicated earlier, Ericsson 4 was made to wait painfully for this victory. It took nearly nine hours to complete the final 65 nautical miles, a snail's pace for the speedy VO70s. While they were drifting to the finish, the fleet was closing up from behind.

Guy Salter reported: "We are currently approaching Cochin in very light winds, 2 miles offshore of the sub-continent, trying to find some night breeze to get us to the finish line.

"The air smells damp, earthy and of wood smoke which is generally a good sign that we may get a few zephyrs to move us on our way. The day has been frustrating and we have been slowed by clouds rain and a peak of 5.6 knots of wind speed.

"This leg has ended like the lamb rather than the first week of lion-like conditions. We have seen the fleet strung out over 600 miles yet still to me, the final outcome is unsure as the weather is so variable and light, and the factor that these boats are capable of such high speeds.

"This time last night I couldn't type as the boat was bouncing around sitting on 26 knots in 30 knots of wind and I was watching us take 40nm a 3 hour sched out of boats...tonight we are doing 3 knots and losing 40nm a sched.

"The tension is mounting amongst the crew that all our hard work on the leg will end with us being overtaken at the finishing post, so some hard night hours ahead, trimming the sails and the boat."

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