Volvo Ocean Race - Stacey Jackson shares her stories ahead of Leg 4

by Tracey Johnstone on 7 Feb 2015 Volvo Ocean Race - Australia’s Stacey Jackson is more than ready to get back into the Volvo Ocean Race aboard Team SCA after enjoying a short lay-over in Sanya, China, at the end of Leg 3.

Ahead of tomorrow’s start of 5264 nautical mile Leg 4 from Sanya to Auckland, New Zealand, Jackson shares her thoughts on Leg 3 and what she expects of the road ahead.

Patience a lesson from Leg 3

After 25 days at sea Team SCA finished last in the demanding 4,670 mile Leg 3 from Abu Dhabi to Sanya.

'Patience was a big part of Leg 3. There was always going to be another chance that everyone was going to stop and we were going to catch up. If we had a shift to chase we had to be patient and chase it. That was a big part of it.

'We still lack a little bit of boat speed. We found a little bit of it, but we need a little bit more to match the guys. It’s the equivalent of racing an Etchells and being slightly slower than everyone else; it’s really hard to keep up. It feels massively like we are jumping hurdles big time right now,' Jackson said.

Fields of rubbish

As the only Australian on board for Leg 3, Jackson had previously joked about having to take a swimming costume with her on the last leg as she was most likely going to be the one to be called to jump over the side to clear an obstruction. Luckily for her no swimming was required.

'We had some close moments. We sailed through a couple of nets last minute. We saw them at night and luckily for us, but not so luckily for the fishermen, we had enough boat speed to just break through the net. A couple of others we found the nervous way. Sometimes the nets are sunken. The buoys are there, but the nets are quite a way under the water so we could actually sail over them.

'We also had to do two or three back downs where we stopped the boat and then got it going in reverse to sail off all the rubbish that we had sailed into. We also had a couple of moments where we did some flossing where we dragged the sheet under the bow and sort of flossed back and forth in front of the keel to get a plastic bag off.

'It’s amazing, but sad, how much man-made rubbish is in the water.

'It was at a point, probably off Sri Lanka, there was a lot of plastic bottles. We thought the rubbish was feeding out of the Malacca Strait. But then it all cleared up again. Then we knew we were in the Malacca Strait as there were fields of rubbish to get through. It all sits in tide lines so we had to pick where the narrower bit of the rubbish was so we could get through. There wasn’t a clear spot so we had to find the spot where it didn’t look as thick as others.

'What’s nice in the sailing world is that almost everyone is very protective of the water. You wouldn’t let anyone throw anything overboard. We don’t and it’s a rule of the race. When you see how bad it is and like ninety per cent of the bottles are Coca-Cola bottles, it makes you want to scoop it all up as we sail past.'

Sanya Stopover

The stopover in Sanya has given Jackson a brief introduction to Chinese culture and cuisine. Team SCA have engaged in several local community activities as they experience life in a domestic tourism destination which differs greatly from the other stopovers of the race and where English is rarely spoken.

While the women have been having a break the shore team have been working on Team SCA ensuring it is ready for the next leg. 'They even took the boat out and did the system tests without us so we could have an extra day off.'

Jackson admitted the team needed the extra rest day. 'We were about 13 hours behind the first boat, but we were still close enough that all the guys were still at the pub when we got in. We managed to get to the pub and have a beer with them. We took advantage of that and so needed a dose of rest the next day.'

Crew changes for Leg 4

Team SCA have made two crew changes for Leg 4. On Board Reporter (OBR) USA’s Corinna Halloran has stepped off to make way for reserve OBR, Sweden’s Anna-Lena Elled.

Australia’s Liz Wardley steps back on board replacing American Sara Hastreiter in the role of mid-bow.

'We haven’t trained together on the bow before, but we have done a lot of sailing together as me as a bowman and Liz as a trimmer or with a role more in the middle of the boat.

'We have talked through a few things we have changed as she wasn’t on board for the last leg.

'She is born to be a bowman so she’ll have no issues with catching up. It will just be working out how we are going to work together as a team and how things will be handled when things start to go wrong.'

The road ahead in Leg 4

The word is the road is going to be rough, full of pot holes and plenty of islands to avoid on the planned 22 day beat to Auckland.

'We are potentially going into some real weather now. We keep joking we are not actually doing the Volvo Ocean Race yet because we haven’t had any real, proper weather. But, now we will face some pretty strong, rough weather.

'Leaving Sanya we should have quite a strong upwind leg for five or seven days, beating up past the Philippine islands. We could see up to 40 knots. That will be a test for us as a lot of the girls haven’t been in that weather and they get a bit seasick. That will be a new challenge they haven’t faced yet.

'It’s going to be a massive navigation race. There is a lot of weather systems to go through, a lot of islands to sail around. Choosing the right course will be a massive part of it.

'At this stage I am not sure, but we did have to leave the Solomon Islands to starboard, but Volvo are talking about cutting that out which will shorten the course a fair bit for us. They are nervous we are going to get in too late into Auckland. At this point there is some big decisions about how we will go past Papua New Guinea.

'I think it’s a little bit about them overestimating the boats. So far we have come in at least a day late on schedule. The weather systems are looking normal for this leg, not particularly light. In the last legs there has been a really rushed stopover. As part of the stopover, it’s a full on re-fit. Every boat has to come off its keel and the mast come out. They need the time for all of that.'

Avoiding making the same mistake twice

Jackson’s final word before she gets back to preparing for the start of Leg 4 is about remembering to take a second pair of shoes with her. In the last leg she lost her left shoe during a sail change manoeuvre. The team went on to cross three oceans racing at times in exceptionally hot conditions with Jackson wearing one right shoe and one left sea boot.

On arrival into Sanya she made a point of securing a new pair of shoes. 'Yes! That was painful. I had to wear a boot that whole time and it was so hot. This will be a better leg to not need shoes. I don’t think I will make that mistake twice,' Jackson happily stated.

Leg 4 starts on Sunday at 0600 UTC / 1400 local time.