Ericsson 4 is back in her familiar position, leading the fleet by 13 nm as they scream towards Galway. But, the last 24 hours have not been without incident. The red sky yesterday morning heralded a warning, and, as the wind increased as forecast late yesterday afternoon, PUMA was in trouble, having just sailed into the lead.
Around 1800 GMT in an awkward sea state, the black cat broached. There was a bang and the boat was on her side, the sails flapping wildly. The crew could do nothing to get her to back down away from the wind and it was clear that the leeward rudder had snapped off.
“We quickly got the boat going downwind again by using the sails to steer, and finally heeled the boat to windward so the weather rudder would control the boat while we assessed the damage,” explained skipper Ken Read. “Then, we had to literally stop the boat and take down the sails to fit our emergency rudder,” he said. “We’ll race as best we can. Our emergency rudder system is pretty slick. Time will tell if we have more rudder problems. We are all certainly a bit concerned right now,” he added.
The dreaded downwind battle has also brought disappointment for the crew of Telefónica Black, who led the fleet for part of this 2,550 nm leg. “We got into harder running conditions last night and had to accept that our boat speed was not matching the others,” wrote a despondent navigator, Roger Nilson.
Ericsson 4 slipped effortlessly past and then to add to their humiliation, the Telefónica Black crew could only watch as PUMA flew past, sailing more than a knot faster and a few degrees lower and, much to the annoyance of the Black boat’s crew, flying her biggest masthead gennaker in 25 knots of cold air. Telefónica Black had been nose diving and had become unmanageable with the large masthead gennaker in the building breeze, and consequently, the crew was only able to fly a furling fractional gennaker.
“The Blue boat embarrassed us the same way as PUMA, but it was a bit more painful with PUMA as she was so close when she passed us – just a few hundred metres away,” said Nilson.
To make matters worse, flying up behind was Delta Lloyd. “She was a dot on the horizon to the south, and a few hours later, she had disappeared straight in front of us. She totally out-sailed us with 1.5 knots more speed and going as much as five degrees lower. What to do?” questioned Nilson. Their Achilles heel was hurting and there was no medicine. They are now in sixth place.
Wouter Verbraak, the Dutch navigator onboard third-placed Delta Lloyd described the conditions as wild. “Tons and tons of water are crashing over the bow as we accelerate down the waves and spear through the next one.”
Throughout the night, Delta Lloyd opted for the relatively ‘safe’ set up of a fractional code zero headsail and a reefed mainsail, but when daylight came, it became clear that several boats in the fleet were putting the hammer down again.
The Delta Lloyd crew faced a dilemma. Would they be able to handle the boat with the A6 fractional spinnaker and be faster and lower, or was the sea state still too bad? Would they be better to continue with their current set up? Verbraak said they would be patient and wait to see how the sea state developed, but it is hard to hold back when the fleet is putting the throttle down. “Pitch-poling [a scary wipe-out when the boat does a cartwheel] is expensive…,” noted Verbraak.
Last night was an expensive time in terms of miles lost for the Green Dragon Team who, at 3am and on the edge of control in winds gusting to 42 knots, lost all their electronic instruments. “What do you do next?” asked skipper Ian Walker. Was this a question that he expected answering by gaming community?
Walker knew the answer: “You pray the helmsman somehow manages to keep steering that fine line between success and failure. The reality is that he will only succeed for a short while before a wave or gust catches him out, and sure enough, that’s what happened.”
All hands were called to shorten sail. Down below was a mass of sleepy bodies trying to get dressed as the boat lay on her side. On deck, the crew fought to regain control, while navigator Ian Moore went below to set about fixing the electrical problem. “Why do these things always happen at night and in the biggest gust of the day?” asked Ian Walker.
Walker confirmed that minutes later the team was up and running again with no damage to the boat or sails. This happened twice more during the night and contributed to a loss of miles after good gains before nightfall. The team is now in fifth place, 38 miles behind Ericsson 4.
Even this morning, Walker was ankle-deep in water as he sat typing his daily report to the race office and nobody was on deck without being harnessed to the boat. “You need little reminder of why, as time and time again, people are washed down the decks. On deck is no fun at night, but has turned into fantastic sailing by day,” Walker said.
The fleet maybe divided by 108 nm north to south, but on the leaderboard, the differences are minimal and only 50 nm separate Ericsson 4 in first place and Ericsson 3 in last place. Twenty-four hour runs are approaching the 550 mark. Ericsson 4 is currently logging 538 in the last 24-hour period.
“This leg is setting up for an amazingly close finish into Galway, but wherever we finish, the memory of this leg will live with me. What we do in these boats is quite extraordinary,” Green Dragon’s skipper said.
Scoring Gate Order
1. Telefónica Blue at 03:11.24 GMT
2. PUMA at 03:12.04 GMT
3. Ericsson 4 at 03:33.05 GMT
4. Ericsson 3 at 04:06.02 GMT
5. Telefónica Black at 04:36.54 GMT
6. Delta Lloyd at 06:16.00 GMT
Leg Seven Day 7: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)
1. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) DTL 702 nm
2. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +13
3. Delta Lloyd NED (Roberto Bermúdez/ESP) +19
4. PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +25
5. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +38
6. Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) + 42
7. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +50
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS