Team Russia’s Kosatka sixth into Cape Town

by Volvo media on 4 Nov 2008
Unshaven, exhausted and five places behind the leader, Andreas Hanakamp stepped off Team Russia entry Kosatka at the end of the first leg this evening and declared: 'I loved it.'

It had been a trial for his team, having exploded a spinnaker a few hours into the race before seeing a third-place become dead last upon exiting the Doldrums.

The positions stayed that way until the Fernando de Noronha scoring gate, but having taken the scalp of Delta Lloyd and profiting from the damage of Telefonica Black their performance has filled the two-time Olympic sailor with confidence ahead of the coming legs.

'That was unbelievable,' he said. 'It was such an intense leg. I don’t believe that in ocean racing a fleet has been so close together over such a long distance and fighting it out so hard. It was awesome sailing.

'I think it will take us quite a while to find our potential and learn how to sail this boat, but we are capable of some results I am sure.'

One target is the forthcoming leg to Cochin, India, starting on Saturday, 15 November. Watch captain, Stig Westergaard, said:

'Some of the things we have done so far are very promising and we have learnt that this boat is very good reaching in heavy winds. The leg coming up, hopefully we can get an upwind scenario or a reaching scenario and we can do well.'

Helmsman Guillermo Altadill added: 'It has been designed for power reaching and we hope that will help us in the next leg. But there are a lot of things we need to improve to help the performance.'

This team, backed by St Petersburg businessman, Oleg Zherebtov, is the first Russian entry in the race since 1993.

It is Andreas Hanakamp’s first stab at a Volvo Ocean Race, but flanking him in the afterguard, he has two Volvo veterans as watch captains: Guillermo Altadill/ESP and Stig Westergaard/DEN, as well as and Wouter Verbraak/NED as navigator. In the crew, he has Mike Joubert, who is on his fourth race.

Leg one has been a big test and the crew will undoubtedly be disappointed with their finishing result. They suffered a problem with the seals around the canting keel that separate the sea from the inside of the boat and although they had thought the problem had been solved before the start, by day three it was clear that it had not and a temporary repair was made.

The next boat to finish will be Team Delta Lloyd later tonight.

Leg One Finishing Order into Cape Town

1. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA)
2. PUMA USA (Ken Read/USA)
3. Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE)
4. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR)
5. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED)
6. Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT)

Overall Leaderboard (Provisional)

1. Ericsson 4: 14 points (FINISHED)
2. PUMA: 13 points (FINISHED)
3. Green Dragon: 11 points (FINISHED)
4. Telefónica Blue: 10 points (FINISHED)
5. Telefónica Black: 6 points (RACING)
6. Ericsson 3: 5 points (FINISHED)
7. Team Russia: 4 points (FINISHED)
8. Delta Lloyd: 2 points (RACING)