Volvo Ocean race 2001-2002 Summary

by Lizzie Green on 11 Jun 2002 The day for the final restart in the Volvo Ocean Race 2001 – 2002 from
Gothenburg to Kiel, dawned fair and clear, and the normally huge crowd
seen in the race village every day since the arrival of the fleet in
Gothenburg on the 29th May was depleted.

The locals headed instead for
the islands of the archipelago or down to their boats, picnic baskets
loaded, and intent on having the time of their lives watching the eight
V.O. 60s line up to do battle for the last time.

The start line was established ¼ mile to the south east of the island of
Alvsborgson, which is approximately two miles from the bridge marking the
entrance to Gothenburg Harbour. The start gun was fired from the ramparts
of the island fort at 1400 local time.

The fleet set starboard pole spinnakers early for a clean downwind start
in a patchy eight to 12-knot easterly breeze, illbruck setting themselves
up directly to windward of ASSA ABLOY. After crossing the line, Amer
Sports One gybed immediately onto port, followed by teammates Amer Sports
Too. The very narrow channel, with banks of spectator boats on both
sides, forced Amer Sports One to gybe back after ten boat lengths.

As the fleet made their way towards the Trubaduren light, at the outer
limit of the archipelago, it was illbruck just over a mile ahead of SEB,
the rest of the fleet bunched together in a tight group, but all
struggling for wind, sails slatting in the hot sun, the crews searching
for whispers, or ‘cat’s paws’ of breeze.

Once clear of Trubaduren light, the fleet will head south-southwest
towards Storebaelt, which is the channel between the Danish island of
Sjaelland, where the city of Copenhagen is located, and the island of
Fyen.

The course of 220 nautical miles was lengthened by a further nine miles at
1100 local time today, although the Race Committee could decide shorten
the course again once the lead boat reaches Kiel light tomorrow.

The fleet got into a tense gibing duel straight after the gun. The dying
easterly wind was slowly replaced by a weak westerly sea breeze, creating
tricky and patchy conditions. Roughly every two minutes the teams had to
gybe to clear the channel, boats with the right of way or to clear the
spectator crafts.

The crew on ASSA ABLOY experienced near disaster when they almost collided
with a spectator boat after the team gybed away into the fleet of sailing
fans to make up some distance. The situation was chaotic. With that move
in to the spectator boats, Neal McDonald and his men made up some
distance. But before reaching ‘Trubaduren light’, at the end of the
shipping lane, ASSA ABLOY was plagued by a number of wind holes and
dropped back to sixth.

After some hours into the race the fleet has split in two groups with
Tyco, SEB, News Corp in the west and illbruck, ASSA ABLOY, djuice, Amer
Sports One and Amer Sports Too in the east. The navigators on the yachts
had to decide on the side they wanted to leave the island of Anholt, by
that time 30 miles to the south of their positions. If the westerly breeze
had staid for the next couple of hours, the westerly route was shorter
towards the entrance into the Great Belt. If the forecast easterlies were
due to set in, the easterly fleet would pick it up first and could gain a
big advantage. As the island of Anholt is very flat, the wind shouldn’t
get changed too heavily.

Djuice passed Langeland, the Danish island just 40 miles from the finish
line in Kiel in just 0.3 nautical mile distance to the shore line in about
10 meters of water under the boat. They picked up a fresh easterly breeze
of around 11 knots, which has accelerated the yacht to 10 knots. In this
stable reaching conditions with the long island of Langeland covering one
side of the course, it was easy for them to hold the lead unchallenged,
bringing them much closer to their first leg victory.

An ocean race of epic proportions reached its final conclusion today,
after 32,700 miles of racing. Winners, losers, glory and defeat, this
race has seen it all. A script for an ending such as this could not have
been written better. Djuice, the boat that struggled all the way around
the planet claimed victory in the leg while illbruck took the race in a
convincing manner.

Starting a race as the clear favourite was a heavy burden, but illbruck
lived up to the highest expectations right from the start. With a
conservative approach illbruck took the early lead in the race even though
disaster struck on the first day of leg two as the bow section filled with
water and for some dramatic hours it was unclear whether the yacht was in
danger of sinking. In an impressive team effort the crew around John
Kostecki got the yacht going again in last place, but it took them just a
few days to sail straight through the whole fleet on a middle course to
reclaim dominance on the fleet. They were rewarded with a spectacular
victory in Sydney end never returned the lead on the overall table.

The extremely well organized and developed sail program allowed illbruck
to save four new sails for the ultimate leg and they went well armed into
the final battle they won against Swedish archrival ASSA ABLOY.

The illbruck Challenge crew finished in Kiel to an enthusiastic reception
from friends, family, illbruck employees and customers and the thousands
of German sailing fans who have been following the team since the
around-the-world race started on September 23, 2001. Sail trimmer and sail
designer Ross Halcrow from New Zealand, the only crew member on board
illbruck who ever won the America’s Cup (1995 with Team NZL) exclaimed
enthusiastically: “This welcome has been huge and double as big as
whatever I have seen in the America’s Cup.”

Illbruck was the first German yacht to secure victory in a leg and in the
overall race, but they were continuing a strong German tradition in this
race. Peter von Danzig sailed the first race in 1973/74 finishing 14th,
followed by Walross III in 1981/82 and Schluessel von Bremen in the
1989/90 race. Inspired from the early competitors, professional sailor
Timmy Kroeger sailed the 1993/94 race on Intrum Justitia (second) and
1997/98 on Swedish Match (third).

The first place on this ultimate leg of the Volvo Ocean Race was a big
reward for the endurance djuice has shown in their difficult sail around
the world. Stricken by gear failure on the first leg and slow boat speed
in spite of endless hours of two boat sail testing in the remaining legs
djuice managed a second place on the fourth leg to Rio as their second top
result. Finally they have overtaken Scandinavian rival SEB, who they put
to seventh place in the eight-strong fleet after the disastrous losses of
their rudder and mast in the Southern Ocean.

Figures about the number of spectators vary from 50000 to 100000 and the
boats on the Kieler Foerde were so tightly packed that one could have
crossed the water on dry feet.

ASSA ABLOY’s performance indicator over the duration of the race showed a
clear direction for the team: straight to the podium. After a
disappointing Fastnet race, in the first and second leg the team showed
great flexibility and the ability to manage change in their approach to
the ultimate goal in the Volvo Ocean Race: to get to the top three.
Bringing short course racing tactician Chris Larson on board and later,
his close sailing friend Mike Howard, looked like the key to success as
they complemented the long-range brilliance of skipper Neal McDonald and
previous race-winning navigator Mark Rudiger.

>From leg three onwards the campaign was under control and going into the
right direction. First, line honours in the Sydney - Hobart race and then
a convincing victory on the leg to Auckland brought them back in
contention with the leading group.

Leg five to Miami and leg eight to Gothenburg showed that the first
victory was not an accident but the beg