Volvo - movistar thinking the unthinkable

by Volvo on 10 Mar 2006 Movistar have gained 45 miles on the leader in six hours and are sailing in 45 knots of wind from dead astern. They are obviously taking it easy, sailing at 13 knots only, but if they did crack on with it, in two 500 mile days they might be within striking distance of the leaders if the wind obligingly went north with them. It probably won’t, so taking it easy is the sensible option, but if it went their way, it would be yet another twist to a fascinating story.

At the 16:00 GMT position report today, the order is ABN AMRO ONE leading from Pirates by 65 miles, down from 74 miles at the last poll. Third is ABN AMRO TWO, just two miles ahead of Brasil 1, the homecoming boys have halved the lead of the kids in the last six hours and will be well in sight of their quarry now – will they make the podium? Then Ericsson bring up the rear of the leading bunch 56 miles back from Brasil 1.

Now is the time that the navigators and skippers will be running the routing software until it overheats to try all the what-ifs and maybes. It will soon be decision time and the ones with the toughest decisions to make will be Mike Sanderson and Stan Honey as they look at what is happening with the wind ahead and what the boats behind them are doing, and try to defend.

It has to be said that, so far, they have been caught out at just about every finish. At Cape Town ABN AMRO TWO shut them down to a few miles; at Melbourne the same happened; at Wellington movistar took their lead and turned it into a nine second deficit – and people say that ABN AMRO ONE are dominating? Doesn’t seen like that to Mike, it seems that they have been winning – and losing - by the skin of their teeth.