Puma leads Volvo Ocean Race fleet on Day 1 of Leg 4 to Qingdao

by Volvo Ocean Race media on 19 Jan 2009 Volvo Ocean Race Leg 4, Day 1 update.

Wind and boat speeds are just about 10 knots as the fleet races away from Singapore and puts some good miles under their keels over the first 24 hours.

If you follow the race on the 2D tracker, you'll see the seven boat fleet is lined up in a procession, with Ken Read's Puma slowly eking out a tenuous lead over Ericsson 4. While Puma has been in front for hours, it is only on the 04:00 GMT report that the lead registers as a full mile.

Telefonica Blue, after a terrible start, has recovered to third place. The poor start wasn't all that skipper Bouwe Bekking had to content with. As he writes this morning, a plastic bag wrapped around a daggerboard caused the boat to slow significantly overnight.

'We had a nice night of sailing, and I am very happy with our speed,' Bouwe wrote. 'Last night we closed in on the leading boats and stretched away from the others, when all of sudden we slowed down by nearly three knots, while we still had the same wind.

'We used the torches to shine on the keel, but couldn't see anything, then we had a look at the daggerboard and a huge piece of plastic was hanging on it. We thought that is going to be easy, we just lift the board up and the plastic will dissapear. But while grinding the board up, the plastic got stuck between the board and the hull. We tried everything and only slowing the boat down completly to zero did we get rid of it...

'But we lost a lot of distance, ERT 3 passed us and the black boat was right on our stern. So we had a re-start. I said it before but in the hours of darkness we are always going well, and quickly we passed ERT 3 again and stretched away from our friends on the black boat. All the guys are well and getting back in the routine, all happy faces.'

Ericsson 3 is now just behind the Blue boat, with Telefonica Black also stalking closely. Delta Lloyd is solid in sixth place, while Green Dragon is struggling to hold on the fleet, dropping miles on nearly every position report.

Volvo Ocean Race boat news from Day 1 of Leg 4 to Qingdao, China.

ERICSSON 3 LEG FOUR DAY ONE QFB: RECEIVED 18.01.09 1631 GMT
Everybody is top focused. Grinding 100 percent and working thumbs and nails off with sail changes, helming and trimming, just to get that extra metre ahead.

It doesn’t matter what’s going to happen tomorrow or the day after that. When you are racing, you’re living in the moment, trying to catch every shift and taking care of every opportunity to go faster.

We have started our pounding way upwind to Qingdao. But so far so good. The temperature is still nice, the seas are ok and we still haven’t seen more than 20 knots.

It’s going to get worse. For sure. The question is only how much worse.
Before the race started, everyone was saying that this leg is all about bringing the boat to China in one piece, preferably in ok shape to do the in-port race and then, with short notice, continue on the long leg to Rio. It will be interesting, yet a bit gut crumbling, to see how hard it will get. I’m sure everyone is at bit worried.

Our new skipper though, the legend Magnus Olsson, doesn’t seem to be that bothered. It’s going to take quite a lot before he tells the crew to step off the throttle.

Our meteorologist, Chris Bedford, actually suggested that maybe we should stop and wait when the really big wind arrives. Magnus thought that sounded like a totally crazy idea.

'If you can still do as little as 3 knots, it will simply mean that you’re going to gain 30 miles in 10 hours, and that is a lot.'

At this moment 30 miles really feels like a lot. It has been close racing from the start and we can still sea all the boats in the fleet, even though we are starting to spread out.

Gustav Morin – MCM
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TELEFONICA BLUE LEG FOUR DAY 1 QFB: received 0627 GMT 18.01.09
And we are off again. We had a shocker start. I asked for starting close to the start boat, but we ended up at the pin, and we were last over the line. Not nice to go away with a start like that, as the first 60 miles is a procession, which means follow the leader. But no angry faces, we picked up two boats on the beat, so that was ok.

Singapore has been nice for us all, but it is good to be back on the water. I hadn't had time to say goodbye to our shore crew, who have, like always, done a marvellous job. They know as well how important this leg is. Not only for the scoring, but as well for us keeping the boat in one piece. The conditions in Qingdao will not be good to carryout major repairs, plus the time there is very short, it can turn easy into a nightmare for them. I promise you all to take care of your Blue baby.

Cheers,

Bouwe Bekking - skipper
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