Winning streak

illbruck crewman Stu Bannatyne looks back at leg 7 and says they will be faster than ever for leg 8

Leg 8 to Gothenburg is our big opportunity on illbruck to seal an overall race victory. However, as always our tactics will be to sail conservatively with the aim of a podium finish. That's not to say we won't take an opportunity to win the leg if it presents itself but our overall philosophy has not changed.

We raced leg 7 from Annapolis to La Rochelle with a very high level of intensity. It was a very demanding leg physically and mentally and we pushed our crew to the limit to extract every bit of speed from our boat. It was a level we could not have maintained for much longer and would not have been suitable on the longer legs we have raced so far.

The highlight of the leg (apart from winning!) was our world record 24 hour run. The record was always going to be up for grabs in the Gulf Stream if the weather co-operated. It did and we took full advantage, sailing around 10 miles further than any other boat to claim a new record. Special mention must go to our navigator, Juan Vila, who placed us perfectly to take maximum benefit from the current and Noel Drennan, who worked tirelessly almost without sleep putting our sails back together after a couple of unfortunate blowouts. The sailing was fast but not too demanding and the potential for a 500 mile day in the Stream is a distinct possibility.

Now in La Rochelle and after a few days of rest we will be back sailing during the stopover to check new sails. We have four new spinnakers which will need analysis and possible recuts before being considered for race use.

One of the most important aspects of a sail programme for this race is to continually recut the sails to maximize their performance and life. To this end we spend the necessary time in each stopover recutting and rechecking sails. These recuts are based on digital photos we snap during the leg and sometimes a day of sailing early in the stopover. On illbruck we also have the advantage of four remaining slots on our sail card for the Volvo Ocean Race compared to some of our main competitors who are down to one or even none in some cases! In practice this means we will be starting the race to Gothenburg with several brand new sails on board so we hope to be very competitive with our boat speed.

The tactical and strategic preparation for this leg will be as intense as ever. We have our team researching the course and compiling extensive information on local currents and winds. The hours of preparation that go into each leg in this area are many and I think this is one of our major strengths in this Volvo Race.

In addition to this we are planning to sail a short offshore next weekend. The purpose of this is to familiarise ourselves with the race course, especially the first night of sailing. We hope this move will give us a strategic advantage over our opposition. We will also be practicing our sprint leg watch system again so we hope to hit the start line well prepared and in tune with the conditions. If conditions suit we will also be carrying out some sail testing, fine tuning our crossover chart and finalising decisions on our inventory for the remaining two legs.

It has been very interesting to follow the development of the other teams during the race. Some, like ourselves and Amer Sports One started strongly. Assa Abloy started slowly but has been the biggest mover in the fleet and has consistently improved throughout the race. They now deservedly hold a 5 point buffer over third place.

The teams fighting for third overall at this stage have all had their problems with Tyco a DNF leg 2, Amer Sports One some very inconsistent results and News Corp has suffered through some breakage but primarily I think through crew problems. They have made a lot of changes and I'm sure this has been their major downfall. Knut Frostad must be regretting his decision to build two Laurie Davidson boats. Obviously he is a very good designer but his lack of experience with this class has showed. SEB and Amer Sports Too have two legs left to show the potential they certainly both have for improved results.

Our preparation for legs 8 and 9 will hopefully be better than ever before as we continue to strive for improvement. We know there will be a few teams out there gunning for us but we will be ready and our whole team is keen to nail this race!

See the next pages for a full illbruck photography gallery taken on leg 7 by Ray Davies

Below: harsh conditions during illbruck's 24 hour record run