Tough times for ING/Brunel in VO race

by Bindy Lockhart on 10 Jan 2006 Australia's entry into the Volvo Ocean Race 2005 / 2006 Team ING Real Estate Brunel, skippered by Grant Wharington has been hard at it since they left Cape Town a week ago.

The start on Jan 2 brought light winds for the fleet in Table Bay, and carnage for some as protest flags were raised, marks were hit and boats collided. Team ING Real Estate Brunel did a great job, kept themselves out of trouble and took third place as they rounded the first mark.

'The ten man crew has been working overtime to get the boat ready for the Southern Ocean and we could all feel the relief to be underway,' said Matt Humphries, Navigator and Helmsman. 'Grant started the boat off the start line well and we soon found ourselves in the middle of the VO70 fleet, which the boys all relished.'

Hit by a thirty knot headwind, the guys had a bumpy start to the leg, also narrowly missing a whale. The boat launched off wave after wave, and as Ericcson and Brasil 1 became casualties of the heinous conditions, ING Real Estate Brunel took up as the most westerly boat trying to get across the ridge of high pressure into the westerly winds to their south.

'It's been pretty bumpy out here over the last few days,' said Wharington, 'but nothing we aren't used to. These conditions are pretty similar to the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. I guess this year that race was champagne sailing downwind, so now we are getting a full on Hoey! Done some damage, to the boat and the crew, but nothing we can't fix yet! We should be out of this soon and into some downwind Southern Ocean sailing.'

The next few days were eventful for the wrong reasons. Sails falling out of the sky, winches flying across the deck, and the ridge moving away from them tested this crew to the max. 'It is true that everyone in the fleet will have stories like this to tell,' said Wharington, 'and the key is to minimize the number of breakages and the downtime they create, but it's been hard yards for us all. But all's well at the moment and we are in celebration mode having just logged the fastest 24 hour run of any boat in the fleet for this leg, 482 nautical miles at an average speed of 20.9 knots. The guys love it when we get the girl cranked up and over the last 24hours we have been pushing her quite hard. She is a great boat to sail in these conditions, it gives the whole team a lift. I think our designer Don Jones can keep his reputation as one of the fastest reaching boat designers in the world.'

After that amazing run the real test began as life on board the ING Real Estate Brunel became more and more frustrating.

Grant Wharington explained, 'Our ING Real Estate Brunel VO70 is a boat which has strong points of sail relative to the rest of the fleet and minor shortcomings relative to the rest of the fleet, therefore at times we are forced to sail in conditions which suit others and at those times they will make small gains, sometimes large gains which we can do nothing about.

'24 hours ago we had a good approach to the leaders, eating up valuable miles on them as we were sailing in our preferred conditions. When those conditions changed we were forced to take a small gamble as our weather routing was taking us on a more southerly course. The guys ahead were nowhere near as lifted (able to go South) so even though we were sailing closer to the preferred course on the other jibe, our routing was saying that as we headed south the wind would shift further left which would be a gain for us.

'Unfortunately we were sailing under the very easterly end of a ridge of high pressure with a low forming to our south, and the ridge did not move east as quickly as the routing expected and we got stuck in very little wind.

'The guys to our north went through a similar thing and ABN 1 has put big miles into them as well. We expect that we will lose many more miles in the next 48 hours until we break through into the northwesterlies situated to our northeast, when we arrive at them then it will be our turn to take miles back on them! In the last race Dalts was over 500 miles behind the lead pack at this point and rounded Eclipse only 50 miles behind.'

So, ING Real Estate Brunel and her dedicated crew are still very much in the game. The next 48 hours will be critical for them and certainly will test both their physical and mental resolve.

Wharington concluded, 'We are a real team out here and morale is good, with a strong will to regain some of those lost miles. Don't give up on us guys, we are still in the game and looking forward to seeing you all in Melbourne!'