Volvo Ocean Race

It's farewell icebergs, welcome to the tropics for leg five

Chris Larson is back aboard Assa Abloy for leg five

To a great extent, the propensity to change crew for leg five seems proportional to each boat's position in the fleet. illbruck are making no changes while Amer Sports One's crew sheet sees just one substitution with the scheduled return of Dee Smith in place of Paul Cayard. The struggling djuice dragons top the list with four changes while Assa Abloy takes runner up slot with three.

Though djuice's skipper Knut Frostad originally intended to complete the race with the same crew he started with, the changes can only be expected given the boat's lacklustre showing so far. Crew changes for leg five include the return of Espen Guttormsen who missed the last leg due to poisoning in his knee. Franck Proffit (FRA) and Herve Cunningham (FRA) will also join the dragons making the French contingent on the team very potent. Peter 'Spike' Doriean leaves the team and will be replaced by Dave Jarvis who has been part of the sail-making team with djuice for the last year.

"We had a few changes," admits Frostad. "The best thing is that my watch captain Espen Guttormsen came back on the boat after he had an injury in Auckland. We have two French guys on board one of whom is going to stay with us until the end of the race, which is very good, and we have one Australian leaving. The fact that he is leaving was something both him and us wanted, so it was a good change and I'm pretty happy with that. For the future, the people I have on board now is really the crew I dreamed about having. So I'm very happy about it."

Veteran round the world racer Grant 'Fuzz' Spanhake will step onboard Tyco as specialist trimmer for leg from Rio de Janeiro to Miami. Spanhake is a veteran of three Whitbread races, sailing with the now legendary Sir Peter Blake on Lion New Zealand in 1985-86, Grant Dalton in 1989-90 on Fisher and Paykel and finally, in 1997-98, on George Collins' Chessie Racing. He will replace Australian crewmember Jim Close for this leg.

"Grant is a hugely experienced trimmer and as the sail designer for Team Tyco, he's been heavily involved with sail development from the start of the project," explained skipper Kevin Shoebridge. "He is also a good racer and helmsman, and his expertise will be useful during this very technical leg. Having Grant onboard is a good way to keep our sail programme progressing. This is a real boat speed leg, and we feel that we've got to be as strong as possible in that area. He'll have the advantage of seeing first hand how the sails are performing against the competition and will be able to better develop the sail programme accordingly."

In a move that must be regarded as unusual in professional sailing, Jon Gunderson, will join Gurra Krantz and his team on SEB. Gunderson, known more usually as 'Gundy' was formerly a crewmember onboard the Australian entry, News Corp, with whom he sailed the first three legs of the Volvo Ocean Race. "It's great being back in the race again, especially with SEB since I know most of SEB's crew " says Jon Gunderson who made it clear that he didn't intend to miss out on racing in the Volvo Ocean Race. "It has always been my goal to do the race and to be back is fantastic." Gundy has been spotted for the past couple of days sporting his new Team SEB gear and wearing an ear-to-ear smile. Gunderson, who arrived in Rio de Janeiro last week, explained, "I'm very thankful to Gurra for giving me a chance to come and join SEB, I'm very happy to be a member of the team."

In a similarly unusual move, Matt Humphries ( pictured left) has joined News Corp. Humphries was previously a watch leader on SEB.

Assa Abloy had planned only one crew change, bringing back Chris Larson from the USA, who sailed with the team on their victorious leg from Sydney to Auckland, winning the CYCA Sydney Hobart race enroute. In an unscheduled move, they must replace their Spanish crewmember, Guillermo Altadill, who returns home for family reasons. In his place, the team has brought on Mikey Howard, or Big Mike as many people know him. Skipper Neal McDonald says Big Mike is a very experienced sailor, as well as being good fun and very fit, and he is confident that Mikey will be a great addition to the team.

"Chris Larson was not able to do the last leg, he had commitments in America for sailing" explains McDonald. "His return is much looked forward to. Guillermo has had more family problems. He really hasn't had an easy race and certainly for this leg he won't be able to come with us, which means we have to do an unplanned change."

McDonald will miss the wealth of experience provided by Guillermo. "He was a huge asset for us in the Southern Ocean this time, he's done an awful lot of sailing down there and I've been down there with him myself a few times. He's been with the campaign a long time, he's helped develop the sail programme. He's a good guy so he will be sadly missed. We are keeping an open mind and hoping that things will allow him to come back."

Page three.... the overall picture
Page four.... full crew lists