The sixth in-port race day of the Volvo Ocean Race is scheduled for Saturday afternoon on Galway Bay and it promises to be among the more memorable events of the 2008-09 race. If the welcome the fleet received last weekend at the conclusion of the leg from Boston is any indication, the local crowds will be large, loud, and very enthusiastic.
The Sparring has already begun for the skippers at the skippers meeting today.
“We have a Danish guy, eight and a half feet tall and 250 kilos strong,” grinned Magnus Olsson, the inimitable 60-year-old skipper of Ericsson 3. “Ken Read has an extra pit winch because his crew is not strong enough.”
“The reason they need a 250-kilo guy is because they have such an old and decrepit skipper,” replied Read, Olsson’s counterpart on PUMA.
The pair’s light hearted sparring sessions have become something of a regular feature at the pre-race gatherings, but the real battle for Read was sitting a few seats away to his right.
Iker Martinez, the inshore skipper of Telefonica Blue, has something that Read wants: second place.
He would also appear to hold a good share of the aces ahead of tomorrow’s in-port race. The forecasts are suggesting yet another battle in reasonably light breezes – between nine and 12 knots for the first race and five to 10 in the second, according to Read – and it is accepted wisdom that Blue has a boat speed advantage in such conditions.
They proved as much by winning the races around the cans in Alicante, Rio de Janeiro and Boston, all of which saw very little wind. They also scooped second in the light in Qingdao and claimed third in the strong breeze of Singapore. It amounts to an inshore tally of 18.5 points, a full two clear of Ericsson 4, the next best.
“I don’t know how they do it, but Telefonica have some kind of connection to the wind gods for these in-port races,” Read said. “We get a lot of light breeze.”
The weather forecast is for sunshine and light to moderate breezes, which should offer fair racing conditions and fantastic opportunities for race fans to watch the proceedings. The hometown favourites, Ireland’s Green Dragon, will be among seven teams battling for supremacy on a short, inshore racecourse, located just outside the city on Galway Bay.
The local team received a hero’s welcome last weekend, after securing a podium finish on the leg into Galway and their skipper, Ian Walker, knows the pressure is on for another strong performance during the in-port race.
“Within our team, we have made a really big effort this week,” he said at the skippers’ press conference today. “We’ve done twice as many training days here as we have before. We’ve bolstered the crew. We’re taking it very seriously, we know that all of these people are coming and they want to see Green Dragon do well, and we’re going to do our best.”
The action is sure to be closely contested. On the overall race leaderboard, Ericsson 4 has built a 14.5 point lead over its nearest rivals, Telefónica Blue. But the crew on the Blue boat has shown itself to be a force on the in-port races, having won the last two in-port days in Boston and Rio de Janeiro.
In addition, PUMA is just 1.5 points behind Telefónica Blue on the leaderboard, in the hard-fought battle for second place.
“The question of the week has been about the fight between Telefónica Blue and PUMA,” said Telefónica Blue in-port helmsman Iker Martinez. “But I think the big fight is with ourselves; just to round these marks, get the spinnaker up and down with no problems, that’s already pretty difficult. The goal for us is to have no problems and try to be in the top three.”
“There’s no doubt we’ll know where they are on the race course,” admitted PUMA skipper Ken Read, speaking about the rivalry with Telefónica Blue. “As the regatta gets further along, you start to pinpoint your closest competitors so that’s really a normal thing. One problem is that Telefónica Blue has a really nice way of dialling in the weather because these light air days surely are very good for them. That makes it a little bit harder to really go after them if they potentially have speed on you. If it’s light air tomorrow, they’re certainly the boat to beat.”
The teams are permitted to add two additional sailors to their crew lists for in-port racing and there was some light-hearted banter between Ken Read and Ericsson 3 skipper Magnus Olsson over who was adding the most muscle to their team. After hearing Read detail the two ‘grinders’ who would be added to PUMA for the race, Olsson joked: “We have a Danish guy on our boat, eight and a half feet tall and 250 kilos strong!”
Racing is due to start on Saturday at 1300 local time, 1200 GMT. Two races are scheduled over the course of the afternoon.
The race area is just outside Galway Docks, in the middle of Galway Bay. The racecourse will be visible along the coast from Salthill to Barna. Locally, there will be audio commentary on the water on VHF channel 15 as well as Galway Bay FM. TG4 will be broadcasting the racing live.
Overall Leaderboard
1. Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA): 92.0 points
2. Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED): 77.5 points
3. PUMA (Ken Read/USA): 76.0 points
4. Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE): 60.0 points
5. Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR): 52.0 points
6. Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri/ESP): 36.0
7. Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez/ESP): 29.5 points
8. Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT): 10.5 points
Team Lineups For In-Port Races In Galway
DELTA LLOYD
1. Roberto Bermúdez De Castro/ESP – skipper
2. Wouter Verbraak/NED – navigator
3. Sander Pluijm/NED – MCM
4. Stuart Wilson/NZL – mainsheet
5. Nick Bice/AUS – pit
6. Andre Fonseca/BRA – tactician
7. Ben Costello/NZL – trimmer
8. Ed Van Lierde/NED – grinder
9. David Pella/ESP – pitman
10. Gerd-Jan Poortman/NED – bowman
11. Morgan White/AUS – mid bow
12. Juan Meseguer/ESP – trimmer
13. Marcos Iglesias/ESP – grinder
ERICSSON 4
1. Torben Grael/BRA – skipper
2. Jules Salter/GBR – navigator
3. Guy Salter/GBR – MCM
4. Brad Jackson/NZL – mainsheet
5. Stu Bannatyne/NZL – tactician
6. Dave Endean/NZL – pitman
7. Horacio Carabelli/BRA – trimmer
8. Tony Mutter/NZL – trimmer
9. Joao Signorini/BRA – trimmer
10. Ryan Godfrey/AUS – bowman
11. Phil Jameson/NZL – bowman
12. Brian McInnes/CAN – grinder
13. Carl Williams/NZL – grinder
ERICSSON 3
1. Magnus Olsson/SWE – skipper
2. Aksel Magdahl/NOR – navigator
3. Gustav Morin/SWE MCM
4. Arve Roaas/NOR – mainsheet
5. Richard Mason/NZL – mainsheet
6. Thomas Johanson/FIN – helm
7. Eivind Melleby/NOR – trimmer
8. Martin Strömberg/SWE – trimmer
9. Jens Dolmer/DEN – pitman
10. Anders Dahlsjö/SWE – mastman
11. Martin Krite/SWE – bowman
12. Jann Neergaard/DEN – grinder
13. Rasmus Koster/DEN – tactics
GREEN DRAGON
1. Ian Walker/GBR – skipper/tactician
2. Neal McDonald/GBR – mainsheet
3. Guo Chuan/CHN – MCM
4. Damian Foxall/IRL – strategy
5. Ian Moore – navigator/tactician
6. Anthony Merrington/AUS – trimmer
7. Phil Harmer/AUS – trimmer
8. Andrew Mclean/NZL – pitman
9. James Carroll/IRL – pit assistant
10. Justin Slattery/IRL – bow
11. Freddy Shanks/GBR – mid bow
12. Winston Macfarlane/NZL – grinder
13. Johnny Mordaunt/IRL – grinder
PUMA OCEAN RACING
1. Ken Read/USA – skipper
2. Andrew Cape/AUS – navigator
3. Rick Deppe/GBR MCM
4. Craig Satterthwaite/NZL – trimmer
5. Robert Greenhalgh/GBR – tactician
6. Rob Salthouse/NZL – pit
7. Justin Ferris/NZL – trimmer
8. Shannon Falcone/ANT – trimmer/pit
9. Casey Smith/AUS – bowman
10. Erle Williams/NZL – mainsheet trimmer
11. Francis Tregaskis – mid bow
12. Andrew Taylor/NZL – grinder
13. Michael O’Mullahan/IRE – grinder
TELEFÓNICA BLUE
1. Iker Martinez/ESP – skipper
2. Bouwe Bekking/NED – tactician
3. Simon Fisher/GBR- navigator
4. Gabriele Olivo/ITA – MCM
5. Jonathan Swain/RSA – trim
6. Jordi Calafat /ESP – mainsheet
7. Xabier Fernandez/ESP – trimmer
8. Pablo Arrarte/ESP Spanish – trimmer
9. Laurent Pages/FRA – trimmer
10. Daryl Wislang/NZL – bowman
11. Pepe Ribes/ESP – bowman
12. Federico Giovanelli/ITA – grinder
13. Carlo Castellano/ITA – grinder
TELEFÓNICA BLACK
1. Fernando Echávarri/ESP – skipper
2. Luis Doreste/ESP – Tactician
3. Anton Paz/ESP – MCM
4. Antonio (Ñeti) Cuervas-Mons/ESP – trimmer
5. Gonzalo Araujo/ESP – watch captain
6. Jaime Arbones/ESP – watch captain
7. Pablo Iglesias/ESP – trimmer
8. Javier de la Plaza/ESP – trimmer
9. David Vera/ESP – bow
10. Michael Pammenter/RSA – bow
11. Maciel Cicchetti/ARG – trimmer
12. Iñigo Losada/ESP – grinder
13. Pedro Campos/ESP – helmsman