Record breakers finish second in Volvo OR

by Lizzie Green, Volvo OR Media on 22 Jan 2006 After 6,100 nautical miles, ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) finished leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race today in second place, four hours, 11 minutes and 43 seconds behind leg winners ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson). They crossed the finish line at 1320.23 GMT (0030.23 local time), to take six points making a total of 12 from this leg.

This epic adventure for the young and relatively inexperienced crew on ABN AMRO TWO has sky rocketed again in leg two, and they are now the holders of the Gant Time 24-hour run monohull world record (awaiting ratification). After their amazing and slightly surprising second place in leg one and a third in the in-port race in Cape Town, this team is going from strength to strength.

After 19 days, 2 hours, 20 minutes and 23 seconds at sea, French skipper Sebastien Josse said, ‘I am really happy with the crew, sometimes it can be hard with such an international crew, but we all get on really well and this has helped towards our success.’

Simon Fisher, navigator, added, ‘We thought there might be a chance to catch the guys on the black boat towards the end but they are pretty tough customers and we know they have an awesome boat. We also knew we would have to sail through the same patch of water as them and that would make it hard for us to beat them. Each leg we are getting closer and closer to the black boat and one of these days we will beat them.’

Nice Bice, one of two Australians onboard said, ‘It is absolutely wonderful to be home, it’s great to see everyone here on the dock including my family. The wait over the last few days has felt almost as long as the whole leg and I just wanted to get here and now that we are here, it is fantastic.’

Cape Town proved to be a very tricky port to leave, with little breeze helping the fleet out of the bay. But this team surprised all by winning the battle round the first mark, after a slow start.

It was so promising though 24 hours later when ABN AMRO TWO fell back to sixth place and, at times, last. The sea state and upwind conditions also took their toll on the crew. ‘For most people the net result was dinner returning the wrong way – the constant pounding causing most people’s stomachs to be set on spin cycle!’

A fierce battle ensued between Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) and the white Dutch boat, as the two boats raced within a few miles of each other for days through fog, drizzle and wind holes. ‘She may not have black sails and be crewed by the damned, and I’m pretty sure Paul Cayard isn’t so evil that hell itself spat him back out (I’ve seen Pirates of the Caribbean more than a few times!!), but it was still a pretty menacing sight as the skull and cross bones came over the horizon in a building breeze,’ wrote Simon Fisher.

Finally ABN AMRO TWO along with movistar and Pirates of the Caribbean, got back in the groove after being left behind by the strong westerly winds that shot ABN AMRO ONE away.

On Monday January 9, ABN AMRO TWO slipped past the pirates as they sailed into a wind hole, and gained a 30 mile lead for a few small hours.

The kids kept the speeds up and by day 10 they had passed through the first scoring gate of leg two in second place, taking three points away with them and moving the team up to second overall on the leader board.

Just a day later there was even more reason to celebrate when the team pushed themselves and their white boat to world record beating speeds. They snatched the Gant Time 24 hour run record from ABN AMRO ONE and unofficially the world monohull 24 run record (awaiting ratification by the WSSRC) with a massive 563 nautical miles.

A very happy Simon Fisher described the feelings onboard, ‘If the conditions we had yesterday put the smiles back on everyone’s faces then today has sent the grins from ear to ear. What can I say, the boys are ecstatic!’

The next three days saw the boys gaining on the first Dutch boat. They began to worry their fellow team mates as they took the race lead for a brief six hours on day 14, only to lose it again and round the second scoring gate in second place, receiving another three points.

Four birthdays passed during the past month, including the first anniversary of their yacht, nicknamed ‘Street Fighter’, but apart from this, the feelings were sombre as they concentrated on the hard decisions to be made the on final run in.

As land came into sight there was an atmosphere of determination onboard as the crew became se on wrapping up this leg in the best way possible, no matter how much drifting in light wind was involved. Everyone was awake, even on their off watch and little sleeping was done.

Who would have thought these guys could have done so well when the concept of having a young team was first conceived and trial’s for crew started? Could these kids be the future rock stars of the sailing world? As the crew say, ‘Time will tell!’

The next boat to finish will be the Spanish entry, movistar, skippered by Bouwe Bekking from Holland. Her estimated time of arrival is estimated at 0055 tomorrow morning.

LEG TWO DAY 20, 21.12.06, 1330 GMT POSITION REPORT

YACHT SGPTS LPTS TLPTS RPTD FINISH TIME (GMT) ELAPSED TIME OVERALL
1 ABN1 7 7.0 14.0 29.0 21/01/06 09:08:40 018d 22h 08m 40s 1
2 ABN2 6 6 12 24 21/01/06 13:20:23 019d 02h 20m 23s 2

YACHT LAT LONG DTF SMG 24 Hour Run 24 Hour Speed DTL DTLC SGPTS PLPTS PTLPTS POP ETA OVERALL
3 MOVI 38 52.50S 143 34.24E 00104 09.9 179 07.5 00000 +00105 4.5 5.0 9.5 15.5 22/01/06 00:55:59 3
4 POTC 40 52.76S 136 06.92E 00467 12.0 270 11.3 00363 +00104 4.5 4.0 8.5 13.5 23/01/06 03:20:56 5
5 AUS1 37 54.78S 127 10.37E 00875 17.7 389 16.2 00771 +00110 3 3.0 6.0 11.0 24/01/06 18:38:42 7
6 BRA1 35 46.94S 098 59.24E - - - - - - - - - - - -
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
PLPTS: projected leg points
PTLPTS: projected total leg points including actual points from scoring gates
POP: projected overall points including actual points from scoring gates
OVERALL: projected position in race overall if yacht maintains current position

The Volvo Ocean Race

- The Volvo Ocean Race is a round the world yacht race featuring nine offshore legs, over 31,250 nautical miles. The 2005-06 features an inshore race at each of the main stopover ports.

- Four teams from the last race measured the media value of their exposure. The results showed an average of US$50 million, which equates to a 200-300% return on their sponsorship investment.

- The Volvo Ocean Race 2001-02 achieved a cumulative audience of over 800 million viewers ranking it among the top international sporting events.

- Further information can be found at www.volvooceanrace.org .