Hydraulic pressure issues for movistar in VOR

by Lizzie Green, Volvo OR Media on 15 Jan 2006 Spanish Volvo Open 70 movistar (Bouwe Bekking) has reported a fault with the keel hydraulics on their boat. The fault seems not to have affected their performance today and they continue to close on the leading two ABN AMRO boats. They are still sailing at 11 knots towards the south western corner of Australia, sailing a course of about 68 degrees.

The text of the release from the team is as follows: ‘movistar has reported a fault with the port-hand hydraulic ram - one of the two rams that operates the canting keel system. The crew and the rest of the boat are fine, and they are maintaining optimal speeds as they near the coast of Australia and close in on the leaders of leg two. They are considering different options, including a stop at the southwest of Australia to evaluate the damage and to make a quick repair before rejoining the race to finish in Melbourne.’

The port of Albany is very close to the scoring gate at Eclipse Island and the boat would be able to score points at the gate, then take a short stop to repair the fault before continuing the 1,300 nautical miles or so to the finish at Melbourne. Given the weather conditions that look likely to prevail for the rest of the 480 nautical mile run to the scoring gate – five to seven knots of wind from initially the northwest, then going easterly – it might be a gentle passage not only for movistar, but also for all the boats in the leading pack.

Volvo Ocean Race Chief Executive, Glenn Bourke, said, ‘As with every iteration of the Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Race, particularly in the early legs of the race, boats have broken components and this is no change. But allowing for a mandatory minimum repair window of two-hours for outside assistance to affect the repairs has proven to be a beneficial change in the racing rules, allowing the teams to compete right to the end for a podium position.

‘Mike Sanderson’s comments of two days ago where interesting when he said, ‘We have to overbuild things and in doing so, bury the gremlin, and we have to find the limits gently as to how hard we can push these new boats. Both of which are possible.’ ‘

‘These boats will evolve very quickly as the race progresses,’ continued Mr Bourke. ‘We never envisaged that they would be anything other than world-class cutting-edge racing machines and they are proving to be just that. ‘

LEG TWO DAY 13 2200 GMT POSITION REPORT
YACHT LAT LONG DTF SMG 24 Hour Run 24 Hour Speed DTL DTLC SGPTS LPTS TLPTS RPTD ETA OVERALL
1 ABN1 39 52.83S 111 44.67E 01755 06.2 193 08.0 00000 +00000 3.5 7.0 10.5 25.5 19/01/06 __:__:__ 1
2 ABN2 40 53.70S 112 18.87E 01781 11.8 349 14.6 00026 +00031 3 6.0 9.0 21.0 20/01/06 __:__:__ 2
3 MOVI 41 27.51S 112 02.51E 01815 12.4 404 16.8 00060 +00032 2 5.0 7.0 13.0 20/01/06 __:__:__ 4
4 POTC 42 39.24S 110 39.14E 01910 18.6 466 19.4 00155 +00049 2.5 4.0 6.5 11.5 20/01/06 __:__:__ 6
5 AUS1 43 09.20S 088 21.60E 02794 12.6 397 16.5 01039 +00040 1.5 3.0 4.5 9.5 25/01/06 __:__:__ 7
6 BRA1 42 11.72S 063 05.59E 03909 20.0 504 21.0 02154 +00084 0 2.0 2.0 14.5 31/01/06 __:__:__ 3
7 ERIC 33 57.56S 025 37.90E - - - - - - - - - - - -

ABN1 ABN AMRO ONE
ABN2 ABN AMRO TWO
AUS1 ING Real Estate Brunel
BRA1 Brasil 1
ERIC Ericsson Racing Team
MOVI movistar
POTC Pirates of the Caribbean

DTF: distance to finish, SMG: Speed made good, DTL: distance to leader,
DTLC: distance to leader change; the difference between the distance from the boat to the leader taken at the time of the last six hour poll, and the distance from the boat to the leader at the previous poll

SGPTS: points scored at scoring gates on this leg to date
LPTS: projected leg points
TLPTS: projected overall leg points including actual points from scoring gates
RPTD: projected overall points including actual points from scoring gates
OVERALL: projected position in race overall if yacht maintains current position

Race website: www.volvooceanrace.com