Volvo Ocean Race - Team Brunel readjusts its objectives

by Team Brunel - Robbert-Jan Metselaar on 9 May 2015 Team Brunel will remember the sixth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race for its annoying fields of seaweed, a speared fish and a well-deserved place on the winners’ podium. Here, three Team Brunel sailors look back on this quiet leg to the American port of Newport.

“We didn’t get off to a good start in Itajaí and in the first couple of days we had to fight our way between a lot of rainclouds with no wind. The strategy of our navigator Andrew Cape was to be the most easterly of the boats for the longest time possible. This turned out well because we took over the lead off the Brazilian port of Recife. After we’d crossed the Equator and had reached the trade winds, we sailed straight into seaweed. There were entire islands of seaweed floating in the ocean. Fortunately, all of the boats were similarly affected. We had difficulty getting these mats of weed off our rudders and keel. And luck was again not on our side when we collided with a big fish. After a short inspection, it turned out that the fish had been speared on one of the two rudder blades. We managed to push the creature off the rudder with a spare batten and by sailing backwards a couple of times. Unfortunately, the fish did not survive the collision.”

“We didn’t lose the race there,” adds Gerd-Jan Poortman. “After we’d caught up with the leaders, we had to cope with two transition zones. These are areas where two prevailing winds meet and precisely at that point there is hardly any wind at all.

'We passed the first zone without any problems, but things went wrong at the next passage. At a certain point, we were sailing one knot slower than the other boats. Nobody could understand what the matter was. We tried everything to make the boat sail faster, but it just didn’t work. That was frustrating. We lost 15 miles on Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing in 24 hours. Not long after that, the wind subsided and we could slowly creep up on the leaders. With still 24 hours to go to the finish in Newport, we were two miles behind Abu Dhabi and three miles behind the lead boat Dongfeng Race Team. It’s a great pity that we never caught up with the two leaders, but I’m still satisfied with a place on the winners’ podium.”

Skipper Bouwe Bekking thinks that his lads sailed a great race. “It feels good to stand on the winners’ podium again. Of course, we would have liked to have beaten Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing. Given the present rankings, it’s almost impossible to win the race. Our objectives are now to secure a place on the winners’ podium; we want to win the in-port race series and winning one or more legs would be more than welcome. During the debriefing, I also said that from now on, all our brakes will be off. We’re going to sail to Europe at full throttle. If you broke something now it would be very annoying but it would no longer cost you the race.”