After a month in Cape Town, mainly spent training, mending bruises and
recuperating from leg one, the seven teams competing in the Volvo Ocean
Race are ready to set sail again. Leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race is one
of the toughest of the eight month event, with over 6,000 miles to sail
between Cape Town (RSA) and Melbourne (AUS).
"We are as ready as can be", comments Ericsson Racing Team skipper Neal
McDonald. "Our number one priority is crew safety, so during the stopover
we have been literally tearing the boat apart, checking every single
element - particularly the keel movement system - reinforcing it and
putting it back together. This gives us the confidence we need to sail in
the roaring forties."
Leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race starts on Monday 2 January at 11:00 GMT,
just north of Grainger Bay. The winds should be quite light at the time
of the start, but rough seas and strong winds are expected a few hours
into the race, as the boats near Cape of Good Hope.
As a result of ice reports, the race organisers have added two ice
waypoint gates which will force the boats north and lengthen the course.
The first ice gate will be in the region of the Crozet Islands and will
be a line 400 miles long that will have to be crossed at some point. The
second will be in the region of the Kerguelen Islands and will be 500
miles long; again the boats will have to sail north of this at some
stage.
The fleet will also pass two scoring gates at the longitude of the
Kerguelen Islands, about halfway to Australia, and again at Eclipse
Island on the south west tip of the continent. The finish is in Hobson's
Bay, Melbourne, just north of the junction of the Williamstown and Port
Melbourne Channels. The winner of the leg will be awarded 7 points,
whilst the boat that crosses the scoring gates first will receive 3.5
points.
Even though one month long, the Cape Town stopover has been extremely
busy for the sailors and the shore crew. "We have been checking and
updating the entire boat, and testing new sails", comments technical
Director and Volvo Ocean Race veteran Magnus Olsson. Ericsson also
competed in the in-port race on Boxing Day, finishing sixth in an
exhilarating race competed in winds exceeding 40 knots. Finally, the
Ericsson Racing Team has welcomed the arrival of Irish sailor Damian
Foxall, a highly experience sailor and veteran of five round-the-world
events, as a substitute to Tony Kolb who recently left the team.
The Ericsson Racing Team wishes you a very happy New Year.
Quotes:
Neal McDonald (GBR): "Sitting here in Cape Town in
the sweltering heat, it is strange to think that within half a day you
will go from being too hot to very cold. These boats are more tactical,
more complicated, faster, more powerful and lighter than in the past, so
I think we need to go into the Southern Ocean with a degree of caution."
Steve Hayles (GBR): "During this stopover, we have
concentrated mainly on our boat safety and sail program for the future of
the race. It has been very fruitful. One of the most important factors
when you head to the Southern Oceans is to have around you a team of
people that you can trust, and whom you know will look after you."
Tom Braidwood (AUS): "It is beautiful in the
Southern Ocean. When you sail there, you realize how far away and
vulnerable you are. You see dolphins and albatrosses going along with
their daily life and you feel like a fish out of water - you know you are
not supposed to be there.
Richard Mason (NZL): "We have been working on our
sail inventory and we will go into the Southern Ocean with new sails that
will give us more speed and stability in the strong breeze. With no
landmass restraining the energy of the sea, it's brutal down there. The
south Indian Ocean is vicious and has been nicknamed 'The Liquid
Himalayas'. It's very, very cold!"