Whale of a time but ABN Amro 1 has problems

by Lizzie Green on 15 May 2006 Things often happen in threes, and skipper Mike Sanderson and his team onboard ABN AMRO ONE have had three experiences today, out in the Atlantic, which they are not keen to repeat in a hurry.

'There are three things out here that we fear the most,' said Sanderson in a radio interview today. 'One is having a tactical decision not pan out and we found ourselves in the north with a weather system changing, so we decided that we had to get out of there, and we rocketed from one end of the leaderboard to the other.

'As we were doing that, the adventures continued and suddenly we realised we were losing keel pressure and we got the awful, sinking feeling that you get on a canting keel boat as we found out we had lost all the oil out of keel system and we were losing cant. We battled with that and we are back up and running now.

'These things happen in threes, and about four hours ago we had the misfortune of hitting a whale. It stopped the boat dead and sheered off one of our dagger boards and has done some damage around the case. We have carried a spare dagger board for the whole race and it looks like it might have paid off. We have managed to stop and put the spare board in and we are back up to speed. The big question for us is: what is the extent of the damage in the case. We can see some cracking on the inside but we are not seeing any movement and it all seems fine at the moment. We’re just playing it semi softly at the moment and not pushing the boat to 100 per cent until we get some comfort back that the structural integrity is there.'

As for the whale? The crew are sure it was a whale that they collided with as they saw its tail slide down the side of the boat. It was dark and there was no way that the whale could see the boat coming or the crew to see the whale in the path of Black Betty. Sanderson says that it appeared to swim away after the accident so hopefully, a few aspirin later, it will be fine!

Adventures at sea aside, for the last six hours, the fleet has continued it’s relentless beat up the north east coast and it has been very cold, foggy and generally miserable. Positions have reshuffled as the fleet tack back and forth and set up for a lane to take them around a high pressure system that is building over Newfoundland.

Paul Cayard, skipper of Pirates of the Caribbean, says the choice of which lane to take is not easy. 'The closer you go to the high (inside lane), the shorter course you sail but you have less wind. The further away from the centre (outside lane), the longer the course, but you sail with more wind.'

Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) is set up more to the inside (north in this case), while ABN AMRO ONE and Ericsson (Neal McDonald) are set up on the outside (south), with the rest of the fleet sandwiched in the middle. 'For us it is so far so good,' says Simon Fisher from ABN AMRO TWO. 'We are positioned close to our competitors on the side we want. Hopefully, as the breeze starts to free off over the next 24 hours, we can start to reap the rewards of the last few day’s efforts,' he said.

Movistar (Bouwe Bekking) is the furthest to the inside, and is, perhaps, about to play a very dangerous game. It may be possible for Bekking and his team to punch through the high pressure, lose miles but then gain them back later with a strong northerly position. 'A dangerous game, taking on a high and low percentage option I would have thought,' says Brunel’s navigator, Will Oxley. 'But, with the potential to smoke us all if it works,' he adds.

Will they try it or will the next position report show them having tacked to port to follow the rest of the fleet under the high?

LEG SEVEN  DAY 04,  1600 GMT POSITION REPORT

Leg Position	Yacht	Latitude	Longitude	DTF	SMG	24 Hour Run	24 Hour Speed	DTL	DTL-C	Projected Leg Points	Total Projected Leg Points	ETA	Projected Overall Race Points	Projected Position Overall
1	BRA1	43 23.97N	060 02.10W	02405	10.2	199	08.3	00000	+00000	7.0	7.0	25/05/06 __:__:__	49.0	3
2	POTC	43 10.00N	060 12.19W	02420	10.6	194	08.1	00015	+00000	6.0	6.0	26/05/06 __:__:__	53.5	2
3	ERIC	42 46.66N	059 47.74W	02421	11.4	217	09.0	00016	+00000	5.0	5.0	26/05/06 __:__:__	39.5	6
4	ABN2	43 13.96N	060 19.34W	02421	10.5	204	08.5	00016	+00000	4.0	4.0	26/05/06 __:__:__	46.0	5
5	ABN1	42 29.77N	059 36.41W	02426	11.6	214	08.9	00021	+00010	3.0	3.0	26/05/06 __:__:__	73.5	1
6	AUS1	42 59.17N	060 17.70W	02429	10.8	202	08.4	00024	+00006	2.0	2.0	26/05/06 __:__:__	4.5	7
7	MOVI	43 53.05N	061 10.24W	02431	09.6	190	07.9	00026	-00001	1.0	1.0	26/05/06 __:__:__	48.0	4