Pitstop for djuice in Volvo Ocean race

by Volvo Event Media on 14 Oct 2001 There was an interesting twist in the tale of the first leg yesterday
evening, Friday October 12th, at the Atlantic island of Fernando de
Noronha. Knut Frostad’s djuice made a brief pitstop for vital spares to
repair her broken headboard car, which had stopped the crew from reefing
the mainsail without sending their bowman to the top of the 26-meter mast
since the first week.

Volvo Ocean Race photographer Rick Tomlinson, who has been on Fernando de
Noronha for the past week photographing the fleet as they passed by, filed
this report late last night.

The djuice rendezvous with their shore team had been planned for over a
week. Shore manager ‘BJ’ Grimholt and Jo Lunde (finance manager) arrived
to Fernando de Noronha a few days ago, complete with a new headboard car
for the mainsail, spare parts to fix the water maker and a few gallons of
diesel.

The rendezvous was to take place within one mile of the shore as stated in
the Volvo Ocean Race rules and a 55-foot ketch (double masted sailing
yacht) was chartered along with a small fishing vessel. The plan was to
anchor the ketch within one-mile of the shore and have djuice tie up to
this boat, but as there was a potential problem of the rigs (masts)
clashing together in the rough swell, it was decided that only a bow line
was to be put aboard the ketch and djuice would lie astern. The small
fishing boat would transfer the gear across.

Communications and position reports were studied all day and it was
looking like a 21.30hrs rendezvous (complete darkness at these latitudes).
We decided to leave the dock at 17.30hrs to get in position and anchor
before dark, we had the latitude and longitude that djuice had been given
and made for the VERY spot. Anchored in 30m of water by 18.00hrs we had a
few hours to kill, rocking and rolling in the Atlantic swell. We all
managed to keep our lunch down.

Communication (with djuice) was by Nera Satellite phone and BJ was able to
speak directly with skipper Knut Frostad onboard. By 21.00hrs they were
within five miles and VHF contact was established. After a bit of
shouting to wake up our local friends on the little boat, the gear was
transferred across as was BJ, Jo, George Johns (TV cameraman) and myself
(to take photographs). It was a bit cramped and the deck of the boat had
as much non-slip as an ice skating rink.

djuice materialized out of the darkness, strong pink graphics and
reflective tapes on the mainsail made her an easy target to spot. They
approached the ketch under full mainsail and staysail and it only took two
attempts to get the bow line across to TV director Steve Anscell on the
ketch and tied off, very professional! Our little boat came along side
and the kit was quickly passed across, hardly a word was spoken, not even
a “hello” or “good to see you”.

In seconds it was done, while a crewman did a quick swim to clear
something from the propeller, film and videotapes were passed back in our
direction and the line was slipped, the pit stop was over, and djiuce was
on her way. A Formula One team would have been impressed.

While this had been going on, Amer Sports Too (the girls), had been
monitoring djuice's progress and called in to Steve Anscell. We also had
some media items for them, but they were not essential, and could be
passed over while still racing under the rules. As our boat was anchored
and unsuitable for a transfer out at sea, the girls had to decide whether
to make the same detour as djuice to our rendezvous point or keep sailing
and pass djuice while she was in the pit lane.

The choice was easy, keep sailing.

Did they pass? Well sitting here in Fernando De Norohana I don’t know, the
next position report will tell. One thing is for sure, it’s going to be a
hell of a race between the two of them, with SEB only a few miles in front
for the next 3,600 miles to Cape Town.

Meanwhile, out on the race track, race leader illbruck is now less than
500 miles to the next waypoint of Ilha Trindade, but lost five miles
overnight to second placed ASSA ABLOY.

Following Trindade, the fleet will turn to port and have to tackle a
stretch across the Atlantic to Cape Town. Grant Dalton, skipper of Amer
Sports One, believes the fleet still has to overcome a major hurdle in the
last few thousand miles that could close up the leading five yachts.

Dalton rates every distance to the leader under 200 miles as insignificant
when approaching the complex weather patterns of the South Atlantic.

Volvo Ocean Race Position Report, Day 21, 10.00 hrs GMT

PS Yacht Latitude Longitude DTF CMG SMG TFHR DTL ROC ETA PO

1 ILBK 12 35.52S 030 58.36W 03132 163 11.9 297 0 00.0 25 OCT 01 8

2 AART 12 14.64S 031 10.92W 03155 167 12.8 283 23 00.9 25 OCT 01 7

3 NEWS 11 51.40S 031 13.44W 03179 162 11.6 284 47 -00.5 25 OCT 01 6

4 TYCO 11 33.72S 031 10.88W 03195 163 11.9 293 63 00.0 25 OCT 01 5

5 AONE 11 20.64S 031 19.44W 03210 169 12.1 291 78 00.2 25 OCT 01 4

6 TSEB 06 06.32S 032 30.72W 03532 181 11.1 265 400 -01.0 27 OCT 01 3

7 DJCE 05 31.92S 032 32.80W 03566 181 10.5 257 434 -01.7 27 OCT 01 2

8 ATOO 05 31.12S 032 34.16W 03567 182 10.5 260 435 -01.6 27 OCT 01 1


PS – Position; DTF – Distance to Finish; CMG – Course made good; SMG –
Speed made good; TFHR – 24 hours run; DTL – Distance to leader; ROC – Rate
of Closure; ETA – Estimated time of arrival; PO - Points