Volvo Race Telefonica Black and stealthy points

by Riath Al-Samarrai Volvo Ocean Race Media on 3 Dec 2008 It redefined the concept of a last-minute dash, but the manner in which Telefonica Black stormed from seventh to fourth in the final few hours of leg two did not surprise navigator Roger Nilson in the slightest. Fernando Echavarri's team were seemingly out of the race, destined to back up their last place arrival into Cape Town with a paltry two points in India after spending almost the entirety of the first 15 days in the bottom three.

But then the tables took a dramatic late turn. By 2200 GMT last night they had clawed back the deficit on fourth place to just five miles - as recently as November 27 the gap was 47 miles - and promptly entered 'StealthPlay'.

With their rivals unable to see their location in the position reports, they reappeared 12 hours later with a seven-mile hold on fourth. In between, Nilson made the call to go within two miles of the beach and was not remotely shocked to see the spectacular result it yielded.

'I wasn't surprised that we came out in a good way,' he said. 'We saw the first three boats go that route and it worked for them so we did the same.'

Unfortunately for the other three boats involved in this fierce mid-fleet battle - PUMA, Team Delta Lloyd and Green Dragon - they chose to differing extents to go further offshore. Those were the decisions that left Nilson scratching his head.

'I was surprised that no one took the option that we did,' he said. 'It looked very obvious. We thought if they go to the beach we would have been forced to go offshore because we would not have had an opportunity to pass them.'

Ultimately, however, the other teams did open the door and Black walked through. Echavarri was ecstatic with a result that puts his team on 13.5 points in sixth. And all with a broken port daggerboard. 'It happened four or five days ago,' said Michael Pammenter. 'I don't know if we hit anything, we didn't seem so. There was a bit of damage like chip marks in the rudder, but we'll never really know if we hit something or if it just snapped off.'

Echavarri added: 'We are really happy to be here after all our issues,' he said. 'It is nice to be with our family and the Volvo family.'

'Have to do better'
PUMA's Ken Read, on the other hand, was clearly disappointed with his team's fifth place finish.

'Fifth is never okay,' he said. 'We had success in the first leg, we think we are better than fifth but we have to prove that. You are what you are. We have to rethink where we are and find a way to get better.'

The nature of the finish, whereby the fourth and seventh boats were just an hour and eight minutes apart surprised Read, but not as much as Black's resurgence. 'What a finish, but Black did exceptional. We couldn't see them anymore, they were behind us on the horizon. Then an hour from the end we get a sched saying they are seven miles ahead. Frustrating.'

It could have been worse, however, and Read revealed the boat was in real danger when it suffered serious structural damage twice in the first week.

'In talking to the engineers, if we had gone one step further and the deck had started to crack we would be using the liferafts,' he said. 'We were one step from catastrophic and we were in the middle of nowhere at the time. Very concerning, but I was never nervous because if it could be fixed I knew we had the guys onboard to fix it.'

Old boat, good result
The mood was better onboard Team Delta Lloyd, a crew that occupied fourth for much of the thrilling finale and bettered their opening leg score by one spot.

'We sailed well this leg but we can get better,' said new skipper Roberto Bermudez. 'It was very interesting as it was my first time as skipper. The whole crew helped me. I think we have a very good crew of young guys and I am very happy.'

Their result could have been better but they lost out in a late drag race with PUMA, while Black's heroics also accounted for a spot. Gerd Jan Poortman explained: 'It was disappointing that we could not hold fourth. We were power reaching with the Code Zero, but because of the old mast we just did not have the horsepower. A jib sheet blew out the tack of our Code Zero. It allowed them to roll over us and that was game over.

'We have improved 100% from the first leg, but we could have done better with the result.'

Next in was Green Dragon, who as recently as this morning held fourth. Struggling from the effects of a boom broken after just four days, their plight was made worse by burning out their DC motor, which meant they had to manually operate the keel for the final 20 hours.

'I have had better days sailing,' said a weary Ian Walker. 'We had a good battle but unfortunately we lost. We just didn't get the right cards in the passage up the coast. Saying that, it was great racing.'

Not surprisingly, everyone on Telefonica Black agreed.

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