Puma leading Volvo Ocean Race fleet to St Petersburg

by Puma Ocean Racing Team on 26 Jun 2009
Latest news from Puma as the Volvo Ocean Race fleet heads towards their final destination in St Petersburg, Russia.

Posted: 25 Jun 2009 01:36 PM PDT

Apparently the hammering taken by Telefonica Blue the other week on the rocks outside Marstrand seems to have had very little effect on the boat. They do not have a speed problem at the moment. I'm sure they might see it differently because they just failed to get by us after coming at us hard since trailing in second from the start. A big effort by the PUMA crew and a bit of a header to 54 degrees has meant that il mostro keeps the lead for now. However, despite our nice half mile lead the chasing pack of Tele Blue and the E's look particularly menacing right now. Capey is in the hot seat monitoring this expected right hander and at some point he will be making the call to tack onto starboard. In anticipation of the tack all the crew is on deck and as I write I can hear the guys trimming the runner winch. I'm not going to miss the noise it makes when they ease it.

It’s quite a bit chillier out here than it was in the waters around Stockholm- not surprising really at such a northern latitude. Thankfully there is very little water coming over the decks. The current 14C water temperature and our upwind sailing, waves would be a bad thing..

Things are very quiet on the boat, I had been hoping for some type of raucous Baltic Beer cruise which would give me something to get my teeth into as a final video contribution to the race, but right now the guys seem hyper focused and no one is even saying very interesting. Maybe tomorrow when the wind dies they will relax a bit.

Next report at midnight.

Rick

Get This Done!

Posted: 25 Jun 2009 08:24 AM PDT

We just have to finish this leg to get second overall. This leg, the pressure is off. We just have to get points for finishing so that we get second overall, and be really, really proud of that. If we come in to St Petersburg in seventh place, we’ll get two points for finishing the leg. If Telefonica Blue win the leg, they’ll get eight points. That’s a differential of six points. But we already have a 6.5 point lead on them. We get to go sailing, have fun, enjoy being with our buddies for the last time and go try to win a boat race.

Of course we would like to win the leg. If we were playing checkers here on the dock it would be a blood match. With all of these sailors on these boats, it’s all about the competition. Whether second overall is at stake or not anymore - which it isn’t, for all practical purposes - we still wanna go win the leg. That’s what we do; it’s what we’re trained to do.

It’s shocking that this is the last leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. It seems like only two weeks ago we were in Alicante, Spain, with this enormous thing ahead of us, and it was really difficult to comprehend. Here we are now at the end, almost 37,000 miles later. I can’t believe it, it’s actually stunning. I don’t think it’ll hit us until well after the finish. We’re excited to get this over with but it will be emotional. You start looking around at your team mates thinking ‘this is the last time the team will be together…’ As we’re constituted right now, this is the last send off we will have as a group. Stockholm has been spectacular, the PUMA team have had a great stopover here, but we’re ready to get this done.

Ken Read

Posted: 25 Jun 2009 06:36 AM PDT

The start for Puma couldn't have been better! il mostro led from the gun and extended almost immediately after rounding the inshore 'sausage' and last mark before heading out to sea. Reaching starts are always fun as they come with the danger of coming in too fast and being over. Jerry Kirby is back on the team for the last leg was on the bow and he had a few anxious moments as he slowed Kenny down in the final few boat lengths before the start line. His quote walking back from the bow, 'that was too close'!!!

Kenny gave a pep talk before the race. He told us that treating this like any other leg of the race was our best strategy and to not get sidetracked by the points issue and the re-emergence of Team Russia, who we just found out are not actually in the race.

The guys are pumped and looking forward to the leg and the finish in a few days.

Rick Deppe

www.pumaoceanracing.com