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November 20 2008

Fantastic Fourth

Team Russia, skippered by Andreas Hanakamp, crossed the scoring gate at longitudinal 58 degrees east on the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 in fourth position this morning at 09.36 GMT to pick up 2.5 points.

Crashing though huge waves and taking everything the roaring fourties had to throw at them, Andreas and his men, battled on overcoming a massive broach and unbearable conditions to race ahead to a fanatastic fourth place at the scoring gate. Now across, Kosatka will point her bow north for the 3,000-mile home stretch to Cochin. 

Andreas reports from the boat, “We are very happy with the 2.5 points we just picked up at the scoring longitude of 58E with boat, sails and crew all in one piece. We had a lot of discussion during the preparation period about the concept of the boat and to be honest, it feels very good to sit on a solid boat in the midst of the Southern Ocean.

“I would be surprised if we were the only boat that broached heavily and certainly not the last. Of course there is a certain luck factor not to break anything, but a solid boat helps as well. Also during some of the bigger leaps with the A6 and the Q9 in the bigger waves there were no scary noises from the structure of the boat, just the big bangs when you slam on the water with 30knots, which is scary and deafening by itself.

Andreas continues, “Everybody is glad we are pointed the bow north as this promises warmer and finally drier weather. Being constantly wet and cold is tiring, I must admit. Already the northwest wind we are sailing in feels less chilly then the southwest we had for the last few days.”
The next days will be quite interesting from a strategic point of view. Kosatka not only managed to pick up points at the gate, but have also set themselves up in a position to skirt around the high pressure system in the north. “Having the right wind speed and angle is critical even though the fleet will be compressed later on. This could still well change but at the moment there is no holding back and relaxing, we’ve got our foot to the floor,” promises Hanakamp.

Ericsson 4 was the first to cross the line at 03:45 GMT today, Ericsson 3 followed her sister ship and crossed the waypoint at 06:51 to pick up 3.5 points.  Next it was Green Dragon with 3 points closely followed by Team Russia.

According to Race Meteorologist, Jennifer Lilly, as the fleet heads north-east ovet the 24-48 hours “they will be looking forward to a few days of trade wind sailing”.
A blessed relief from the mauling they have taken in the Roaring Forties.