Volvo Ocean Race, condizioni al limite, tanto per cambiare

[singlepic=806,250,170,,left]Volvo Ocean Race – Oceano Indiano – E’ iniziata la volata verso il cancello di Mauritius e la flotta protagonista della Volvo Ocean Race si presenta ancora separata in due. A guidare il gruppo che ha scelto una rotta settentrionale è sempre Il Mostro, al momento leader indiscusso della graduatoria generale. Per tutti, velocità del vento e sull’acqua superiori ai venti nodi, mare formato e freddo che comincia a farsi intenso. 
Il VOR 70 di Ken Read, al comando dei giochi sin dalla partenza da Cape Town, ha aumentato il vantaggio su Telefonica Blue di Bouwe Bekking, lontano ora nove miglia, e su Telefonica Black di Fernando Echavarri; ciò nonostanten l’episodio che, notte tempo, ha visto lo scafo del Puma Racing Team salire su un onda e, spinto dal vento e dal frangente stesso, decollare letteralmente, sino a impattare con l’acqua diverse decine di metri più avanti: “Abbiamo sentito un crack orrendo e abbiamo trovato delle crepe sulle paratie prodiere. Ci abbiamo messo sette ore, ma alla fine la riparazione è andata a buon fine e siamo potuti ripartire a tutta velocità”.
In coda al terzetto nordista segue Team Delta Lloyd che, pagando agli avversari qualcosa in fatto di prestazioni, si vede al momento anticipato anche da Green Dragon ed Ericsson 3, localizzati più a sud.
Proprio dalla barca di Ian Walker è giunta oggi notizia che, in seguito alla strapoggia di ieri, il boma ha riportato danni piuttosto seri, tali da obbligare l’equipaggio a un tentativo di riparazione d’emergenza, effettuato mentre la barca navigava sotto armo di fortuna.
Tanto lavoro anche per i velai, alle prese con le rotture tipiche dell’usura o dei colpi di vento più intenti. Ne sa qualcosa Bouwe Bekking: il suo equipaggio, per rimettere in sesto uno spi finito a brandelli, ci ha messo più di dieci ore.

Leg 2, day 4, 13.00 GMT, rankings
1 – Puma Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) DTF 3474 nm
2 – Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +2 nm
3 – Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE) +9 nm
4 – Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) +20 nm
5 – Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +22 nm
6 – Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +37 nm
7 – Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) +79 nm
8 – Team Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) +82 nm

Per seguire la regata sul Race Tracker clicca qui.

Per accedere alla galleria video clicca qui.

GREEN DRAGON BREAKS BOOM AS CONDITIONS TURN WILD
[singlepic=804,250,170,,left][Volvo Ocean Race Press Release] The past 24-hours have been the most testing in the Volvo Ocean Race so far, as the fleet battled high winds and a confused sea on leg two to Cochin in India. The worst effected was the Green Dragon team (Ian Walker/GBR), who broke their boom shortly before 11.00 GMT this morning. This came after they survived a spectacular Chinese gybe yesterday.
In a short email, skipper Ian Walker/GBR said, “I am sorry to report that we have just broken our boom in a 50-knot squall. We are in the process of recovering the parts. The situation is under control with no harm or risk to anyone. We are carrying on downwind.”
The crew is all safe and unhurt and in contact with their shore team. They are currently 1.500 nautical miles from Mauritius (9,41.17S, 40,28.73E ) and are sailing under jury rig.
Ian Walker says that the notorious Agulhas Current snakes around like a giant serpent, and with every twist, it throws up either a good or bad current and an ever-changing sea state. Throughout the fleet, destruction has been rife.

Puma, Ken Read’s red and black boat, has been another casualty. He says wryly that last night would have been great if you were a sailmaker or a boatbuilder looking for work. After blowing their asymmetric spinnaker into pieces, an hour later the boat took off.
“We found another beauty of a wave, except this one had no face in front of it and… whoosh… take off! The inevitable silence of a boat that feels like it is literally flying was followed by a massive smash into the not very soft Indian Ocean. But this one was different from the other 10,872 smashes that have occurred over the past 48 hours or so. This one had a horrid crack along with it. I ran to the bow to quickly find several cracks in our longitudinal frames in the bow section. Essentially, these frames are the spine of the boat, which doesn’t allow it to fold in half. And they also don’t allow the boat to cave in when we hit waves. Kind of important piece to the puzzle,” Read said.
Seven hours later, and the bow has been repaired onboard, and the spinnaker has been patched back together. “Big effort and a feeling of complete exhaustion as well as satisfaction that we are back in the game and going full speed again,” Read said.

Further back in the fleet, Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) blew out a spinnaker. Not unusual in itself but the crew is suffering from sickness onboard and repairing the damaged sail down below in huge seas was a big challenge; Daryl Wislang/NZL and Jordi Calafat/ESP needed one hand for the spinnaker and the other hand for the bucket they were throwing up into. “Shows how strong a character they have,” Bouwe Bekking said. Today, the spinnaker was still in bits and will take another 10 hours to fix.

Onboard Team Russia, the crew suffered their first ‘real, heavy, full-on massive flat-out broach’. “The boat slowed down almost to a standstill, up to the mast in solid green water. Then, everything went into slow motion. Not a violent knock down, but the boat slowly turning, heeling more and more to wrong side, the boom high up in the air until coming over, and the kite flying around the forestay to the new leeward side and flapping in the 35 knots of breeze. Fate was inexorable, nothing left to be done, but wait for the inevitable,” describes skipper Andreas Hanakamp.
The stack of sails on the after starboard corner of the boat was under water, the starboard spreader camera as well as the keel, and the sails were holding the boat on 90 degrees to its designed flotation. Hanakamp climbed the vertical deck, as you would normally climb a rock, to free the runner. Wouter (Verbraak/NED navigator) handed him a knife to cut free the lashing. Cameron Wills/RSA pulled the runner tail with Oleg (Zherebtsov/RUS) grinding it. Meanwhile, Jeremy Elliott/IRL and Mikey Joubert/RSA managed to get the keel moving to the other side to right the boat. Luckily, none of the crew was hurt and only the pulpit was bent. There was no other damage.

In spite of the confused sea state, boat speeds hover around the 20-knot mark, with Ericsson 4 achieving 490 nm, the highest 24-hour run.
The fleet is effectively split in two, 115 nm across a north/south divide, with Telefónica Blue and Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri/ESP), Puma and Team Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) in the north, and Team Russia, Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander/SWE), Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA) and Green Dragon in the south.

Leg 2, day 3, 19.00 GMT, rankings
1 – Puma Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) DTF 3474 nm
2 – Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +2 nm
3 – Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE) +9 nm
4 – Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) +20 nm
5 – Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +22 nm
6 – Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +37 nm
7 – Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) +79 nm
8 – Team Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) +82 nm

To follow the race on Race Tracker click here.

To visit the official video gallery click here.

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