It was like the end of a school term at the skippers’ press conference in Stockholm today as the Volvo Ocean Race fleet prepares to tackle Leg 10, a final, short, sprint to the overall finish line in St. Petersburg.

With just 400 miles remaining in a race around the world that measures over 37,000 nautical miles, and the leaderboard almost entirely decided, the finish line – the real one – is now in sight.

One leaderboard duel does remain. With a maximum of eight points available to the winner of the leg, PUMA leads Telefonica Blue by 6.5 points in the battle to finish second overall in the race.

The forecast is promising for the start on Thursday afternoon. A light Northeasterly breeze of 8-10 knots is expected. But as the leg progresses, the wind is forecast to ease. It could be a long 400 miles.

“This weather forecast is not perfect for us,” said PUMA skipper Ken Read. “We don’t want it to turn into a light air crap shoot because anything can happen that way. Telefonica can go and win the leg by 100 miles if they want; (but) we just have to beat one boat.”

“I think, realistically, they have sewn it up,” countered Telefonica Blue skipper Bouwe Bekking. “But it’s yacht racing and hopefully they sail the wrong way, come last and we come first. There would be a lot written if that happened. We’ll certainly be pushing hard for a win.”

Also making an appearance at the press conference today was Team Russia skipper Stig Westergaard, who brought the Russian boat, Kosatka, into Stockholm last night. They haven’t competed since Leg 3 and the team is now engaged in a race against time to get rule compliant ahead of the start.

With Ericsson 4 having mathematically won the Volvo Ocean Race on the leg into Stockholm, the rest of the teams are sailing for pride. And, according to Telefonica Black skipper Fernando Echavarri, that will be motivation enough.

“This is the last chance we have to win a leg and we’ll try to do that,” he said. “It’s more about personal pressure and trying to finish with a leg win, rather than pressure on the overall standing. It’s going to be good (weather) conditions for our boats so we’ll try to do our best to arrive in St Petersburg in the top position.”

Ericsson 4 skipper Torben Grael agreed it will be a competitive race: “We all owe it to our sponsors to get a good result and we are all very competitive people. A win is important to us.”

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Team Russia At Sea (Photo by Dave Kneale / Volvo Ocean Race )

A familiar face is on the horizon. Team Russia are on their way to Stockholm with the intention of taking part in the leg 10 sprint to their home port of St Petersburg, Russia.

In what  amounts to a race against time for the team, who are currently at sea en route from Gothenburg and expect to be in Stockholm by Tuesday afternoon or evening. The leg 10 start is on Thursday

The team suspended racing in Singapore after leg three as a consequence of insufficient funds, and have since been trying to source funding to resume.

In the meantime, they have largely changed their management and crew – Stig Westergaard has taken over from Andreas Hanakamp as skipper and, along with founder Oleg Zherebtsov, is the only returning member of the sailing team – and they now face a difficult task in being declared eligible to race.

Race Director Jack Lloyd said  ”We haven’t seen the boat since Christmas time when they left Singapore so we have no idea of the state of the electronics or the measurement condition of the boat. She just has to comply with the rules, like any other boat. All other boats have to maintain the boat in measurement trim and their crew have to qualify. They just have to go through that process.

“Their old crew has disbanded so probably about eight of them – if they want to take a full crew – have to take a safety course. We have got to do medicals and a little bit of other training, plus we have to get the boat back into measurement trim and get all the electronics done.”

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A third place finish in leg nine has been enough for Ericsson 4 to provisionally win the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09.  The team now has a 13-point lead over PUMA, with just 12 points available in the rest of the race.

“We made a few errors on the leg, but we got what we wanted so we’re pretty happy,” said Ericsson 4 skipper Torben Grael.  “We were very close in Marstrand, but now it’s done. It’s finished. We can really enjoy it.”

 

It was a good night for PUMA as well.  After a fearsome catfight with the crew of Stockholm-based Ericsson 3, whose crew wanted a win here in front of their home crowd more than anything, PUMA stole victory on the finish line tonight in Sandhamn (an island in the Stockholm archipelago just east of the capital city), and claimed full points for Volvo Ocean Race leg nine. 

Today’s win was PUMA’s first leg victory in this 10-leg race, although they have had a good showing during the in-port racing.  Their score of 95 points so far strengthens their second place overall at this stage of the event. 

 

 

 

“It feels fantastic and it’s wonderful to be here in Stockholm. We feel a little sad to spoil Ericsson 3′s homecoming, but it’s a great win, and a hard-earned win,” said American skipper Kenny Read.

 

“Man do we know how to make it hard. I don’t think it has to be this hard, but somehow that’s the only way we seem to have success.  We let them [Ericsson 3] go, on a little squall by lighthouse, and they went from half a mile behind, to overtake us.  We had to battle back, but none of these guys quit. They sailed a great race and it was quite a drag race.

 

“When we let them get ahead of us at the lighthouse, I think most teams would have quit right there, but adversity seems to be our friend and we got a little break when they got their jib hung up on the radar dome. It’s a great relief to get our first leg win out of the way,” Read said.

Fighting PUMA for second place overall is Telefónica Blue/Bouwe Bekking, who had the terrible misfortune of being grounded on a rock outside Marstrand shortly after the start. The crew expects to complete this leg and be in Stockholm in time to contest the in-port race on Sunday and thereby pile the pressure back on PUMA.

The largely Nordic crew of Ericsson 3, skippered by the hugely popular, Magnus Olsson, and winners of leg five, the longest leg of the race, had to settle for second place tonight, bringing their overall score to 71.5 points.

“It was very close. That was enough tacks for a lifetime. We wanted so badly to win and now Ken Read has destroyed my party. How mad do you think I am? From now on, I’m really going to pick on him,” joked skipper Swedish Magnus Olsson, when he stepped ashore.

The final podium spot went to Ericsson 4, which ensures her overall victory in the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09.  Although there is still one leg left to complete before the team crosses the finish for the final time in St Petersburg on 27 June, it is now not possible for them to be beaten. 

Skipper Torben Grael said, “We are finishing Ericsson 4′s circumnavigation. The boat was built here and left here nearly a year ago, so she’s back after sailing around the world and winning the race. It couldn’t be any better.

“We have a wonderful crew. A lot of experience. They have been fantastic on the whole leg, the whole race around the world. It’s a pleasure to sail with them and get back to Stockholm in this position,” he said.  Read Ericsson 4’s full race statistics here: http://press.volvooceanrace.org/?p=3030#more-3030  

Fourth, fifth and six spots were filled by Telefónica Black, Green Dragon and Delta Lloyd. 

Leg Nine Finishing Order Stockholm
1. PUMA
2. Ericsson 3
3. Ericsson 4
4. Telefónica Black
5. Green Dragon
6. Delta Lloyd
7. Telefónica Blue SUSPENDED RACING
8. Team Russia DNS

Overall Leaderboard
1. Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA): 108 points
2. PUMA (Ken Read/USA):  95.0 points
3. Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED): SUSPENDED RACING 86.0 points
4. Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE): 71.5 points
5. Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR): 63.0 points
6. Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri/ESP): 47.0
7. Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez/ESP): 38.0 points
8. Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT): 10.5 points

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 And it’s the gun for PUMA as they take their first leg win here in Sandhamn, Stockholm. Ericsson 3 is about 10 boat lengths behind, but the wind dropped away.   It was a duel to the finish with PUMA taking the lead over Ericsson 3 and holding them off in a tacking race to the finish.

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Drama today in Marstrand as Telefónica Blue/Bouwe Bekking became wedged on a rock and suspended racing at 1231GMT while leading the fleet at the start of leg nine to Stockholm. 

The boat hit the rock while racing at around 14 knots of boatspeed and is hard aground in one-metre swells. The team immediately dropped the sails, but the boat’s keel is firmly wedged within the rocks whilst the rest of the fleet is sailing away.  A pilot boat and the coastguards are standing by and attempting to tow the boat clear.  All the crew are unhurt. 

Telefónica Blue was first across the start line, but PUMA quickly established a lead of around 10 boat lengths and Ken Read tacked a few metres away from the rocks, where the spectators enjoyed a grandstand view. 

Ian Walker took Green Dragon in to a very light patch of breeze immediately after the start and the crew unfurled their enormous code zero fleet as they headed towards the spectator fleet on the right hand side of the course.

 Out on the left, PUMA and Delta Lloyd had plenty of wind and for the first 20 minutes of this inshore lap, the left side of the course continued to pay very well, but the breeze was dying all the way across the racecourse. 

A big lumpy swell made it difficult for the teams drive the boats in just five to six knots of wind and it was painful to watch as the boats came to a shuddering halt on every wave. The new breeze, when it came, filled in on the right hand side of the course and Green Dragon with the luck of the Irish, and had the first taster of the eight or nine knots of breeze, giving them the advantage in the approach to the first turning mark. 

They took the lead followed one boat length behind by Telefónica Blue. PUMA and Ericsson 3 made up the top four, while Telefónica Black, Delta Lloyd and, unusually, Torben Grael and Ericsson 4 were the second string.

Racing downwind, the top three boats hoisted spinnakers, while the chasing pack stayed with their massive code zero headsails.  Enthusiastic race goers invaded the racecourse and PUMA sailed downwind escorted by a big spectator fleet.

By the time the leading four had reached the final turning mark, the order had changed again and there was action and drama aplenty.  Green Dragon had stayed out to the left of the course, nearest the spectator fleet, but the wind filled in from the right, causing them to lose their lead and allowing Telefónica Blue, Ericsson 3 and PUMA all to reach the mark ahead. 

 

 

Rounding the mark, Telefónica Blue showed a clean set of heels, while Ericsson 3 caught their spinnaker on their spreaders, which rendered them dead in the water.  PUMA powered in and quickly took the opportunity to nip between Ericsson 3 and the mark, as Ericsson 3 wallowed and the crew tried to sort out the mess. 

Meanwhile, Green Dragon approached at speed, and sailed inside both Ericsson 3 and PUMA.  They were not able to establish their position and it was Telefónica Blue, who led the fleet out into the Kattegat from archrival PUMA, Ericsson 3 and Green Dragon, until disaster struck and the boat struck the rock.

This is the second time that such a disaster has befallen Telefónica Blue.  The team struck a rock in Qingdao just before the start of leg five and the boat had to return to Qingdao to be hauled out for damage inspection.

As this press release is closed efforts continue to tow the yacht free from the rocks before the more serious damage is done.

Telefónica Black sailed a solid race to hold off Delta Lloyd, while Ericsson 4 remained mysteriously at the back of the fleet having also had a poor spinnaker drop at the leeward mark.

The 525 leg nine is expected to finish in Stockholm on Tuesday.

Overall Leaderboard
1. Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA): 102 points
2. PUMA (Ken Read/USA): 87.0 points
3. Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED): 86.0 points
4. Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE): 64.5 points
5. Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR): 59.0 points
6. Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri/ESP): 42.0
7. Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez/ESP): 35.0 points
8. Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT): 10.5 points

 

 

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Ericsson 4 Crossing The Finish Line In Marstrand (Photo by Rick Tomlinson / Volvo Ocean Race)

 

In one of the closest finishes in the race to date, Ericsson 4 held off the recently resurgent PUMA and Green Dragon teams to win Leg 8, and claim their third consecutive leg win and fifth in the race so far. The victory puts Ericsson 4 in an all but unassailable position on the leaderboard.

“We’re very close to winning the race,” admitted Ericsson 4 skipper Torben Grael. “But we’re not there yet.”

His team now holds a 15-point lead with just three scoring opportunities left (for a maximum 20 points) before the finish in St. Petersburg.

This may have been one of the shorter legs of the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race, but the intense sprint from Galway to Marstrand was no less testing for its short duration. The leg threw a bit of everything at the crews, who were exhausted beyond all sensibility by the time they reached the finish off the small island of Marstrand.

The battle for second place, between PUMA, who made a late pass, and Green Dragon, was particularly close (less than a minute separated the pair), as was the fight for fifth, where Delta Lloyd stole past Telefonica Black just metres before the finish line for a 19-second margin of victory. All seven teams finished within one hour and 19 minutes.

 

PUMA is on a roll after a disappointing performance in their hometown in Boston. The team made some crew changes ahead of the leg to Galway, and has since posted two second place finishes in the offshore legs, as well as their first win of the race at the Galway in-port race. Their finish position on this leg was particularly sweet as the team appeared to be in danger of finishing in last place 24 hours ago.

 

“The ‘no-quit’ in this team is beyond imagination,” said skipper Ken Read, dockside in Marstrand. “We had every reason to quit and I think we’re kind of stunned to be honest. 24-hours ago we were sailing with a triple reef and a number four jib, upwind in a gale, while the other guys were running down the coast. I give (navigator) Andrew Cape a lot of credit. We got ourselves in a tough spot and he got us out of it. He could have said ‘let’s just follow them in’ and he didn’t. He deserves a ton of credit.”

PUMA was forced to split from the fleet after ‘blowing up’ one of their spinnakers. At the time, Read said they were “hoping beyond hope” that the tactic would work. PUMA sailed to the opposite side of a low pressure system, forced into that position by not having the sail required to sail the same angle as the fleet. They soon tumbled to the nether regions of the leaderboard.

But by yesterday afternoon, it looked like their tactic of punching through the low just might work. Still a long way back, PUMA were sailing in much stronger wind than the opposition, and pulling back the miles. But they wouldn’t get past Green Dragon until both had reached the tip of Denmark and made their final turn for Marstrand.

 

“I almost feel bad a little bit for Green Dragon,” Read said. “They sailed a great race. They were right at the front pretty much the whole time. That’s their best effort yet. We got them going around the corner at the end. We had a little pace on them in reaching conditions and we just got by them.”

 

But Ian Walker, skipper of the Irish team, was in no mood to accept anyone’s pity. It’s the second consecutive podium finish for the Dragons and Walker and his men were happy with the result.

“We sailed pretty much a perfect leg, so there’s no point in being upset,” Walker said. “This leg, there were a lot of big tactical gains. We sailed a very different route to everyone else in the race. It clearly paid. It was only at the end when we were all straight-line reaching that they all came smoking past us.”

In the end, the Ericsson 4, PUMA, Green Dragon, podium placing was the same as in the leg to Galway. And PUMA and Green Dragon finished with a couple of hundred metres of each other.

In fourth place was a disappointed Telefonica Blue. Combined with PUMA’s second place finish, the result sees Bouwe Bekking’s team surrender second place on the overall leaderboard to the American team. Bekking wasn’t happy with the result.

“In the areas where we are normally very strong we just sailed badly,” he said. “Fourth place…well for a big part of the race were seventh, so in that sense, it was a good effort, but it’s always disappointing when you don’t win.”

This fight for second is likely to last all the way to the finish in St. Petersburg, with PUMA and Telefonica Blue battling down to the bitter end.

 

Further back, Delta Lloyd stole a point from Telefonica Black just ahead of the finish line, the boats nearly overlapped as they crossed the line.

 

“We had only one possibility, which was to go through an impossible gap full of rocks, so that’s what we did,” was the way navigator Wouter Verbraak explained the passing move. “It was tight, but we made it. Fantastic. We took them 10 lengths before the finish. Really, really cool.”

Ericsson 3 completed the leg in a disappointing seventh place.

The results for leg 8 set up an interesting leaderboard with just three scoring opportunities left.

Ericsson 4 is in a very strong position to lock up the race on the next leg, the short Swedish sprint to Stockholm. Meanwhile, PUMA and Telefonica Blue appear destined to fight for second place until the very end.

After two poor legs, Ericsson 3 will need to start looking over their shoulders at Green Dragon, now just 5.5 points behind. Similarly, Telefonica Black is suddenly less comfortable with Delta Lloyd lurking just 7 behind.

The teams are on a restricted regime now in Marstrand due to the ‘pit-stop’ designation here. In general, all repairs have to be made by the crews, and no new sails, or food, or other material is permitted to be brought on board. Crew substitutions are allowed however and Telefonica Blue have previously announced Tom Addis will step down for Simon Fisher.

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Newport is eagerly anticipating the arrival of the winner of OSTAR 2009. At the 1200UT tracker report this morning,, Dutchman JanKes Lampe, had 201 miles left to reach the finish line and was steaming along at 8.6 Knots giving an ETA of sometime on Thursday afternoon.

JanKes has a comfortable lead of some 250 miles and has favourable winds to sweep him into the finish line which is located at the entrance to Newport and is between Castle Hill Light and Kettle Bottom Rock Buoy. He will be met by the OSTAR Race Office Team in a rib, plus many other spectator boats filled with sailing enthusiasts from the Newport sailing community.

Providing there are no hitches for La Promesse between now and the finish line,JanKes threatens to score a number of notable records.
He will be the first Dutchman to win OSTAR.
He will in all probability beat the record for the 40ft class by a considerable margin.
He will be the first mono hull to win since Eric Tabarly’s famous victory in 1976.

On corrected time however Rob Craigie in Jbellino is currently holding his own in IRC 1 with La Promesse lying in second place. The first four into Newport currently look like being La Promesse, Jbellino, Italian Roberto Westerman on Spinning Wheel and the first lady to finish looks like being Hannah White in Pure Solo. However the following trio have over 450 miles to go and anything can happen during this time. It’s not over until it’s over!

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The shadow boxing of the past few days has descended into a brutal street brawl as the elements take cheap shots in the closing stages of Leg 8. Both Ericsson 3 and Telefonica Blue have sustained heavy psychological blows. Today it was PUMA’s turn.

Slamming upwind and hot footing it through a minefield of tidal shifts, in the waters off the Hook of Holland, can take its toll. And forget tip-toeing through the tulips found in this part of the world, try threading your way round tankers in a Volvo Open 70. Rows of them.

For Ericsson 3, the mood is dark and the pain acute. A tactical decision to continue north overnight, against the run of play, resulted in a massive hemorrhaging of miles. At midday yesterday, the Nordics were in third place on the leaderboard, just seven miles off the leaders, Telefonica Black and Green Dragon.

By 10 ZULU today, that deficit had ballooned to 55 miles and their ignominious slide to the foot of the rankings continued unchecked. Setting the fastest time in the Rotterdam Gate Race was scant consolation.

Media Crew Member Gustav Morin revealed that Ericsson 3 was far from a happy ship. “There is everything but happy days on Ericsson 3 for the moment,” he wrote. “We have been stuck behind the other boats on the wrong side of a low pressure.

“They have been sailing downwind in a lot of wind, while we have more or less been lying still.

“In other sports you can throw your racket, scream at the referee, pick a fight with your opponents or get changed for another player. Here you are left alone with 10 other guys who have the exact feelings as you, and there is absolutely no point of doing anything than just cheer each other up and try to recover the losses and make up a new game plan. There are no opponents to fight with, no referee to blame and no one waiting for you on the bench.”

Telefonica Blue were badly caught out by the constant tide and wind shifts near the exclusion zone in the Dover Strait. Skipper Bouwe Bekking was not amused.

“We had an absolutely shocking last 24 hours, were just nothing worked out and losing a lot of miles,” he said.

“We have been battling hard, but no gains to be made. We came very close to PUMA and Delta Lloyd near the Dover Strait, but they got a puff first and extended again. This morning the wind swung from the NE into the SW, meaning we sailed right into the old swell, doing about 15-20 knots of boat speed. Boat breaking stuff.”

For long periods, the Blue boat has appeared to be without a prayer in this leg, and Media Crew Member Gabri Olivo has looked to the heavens for an explanation for their position in economy class on the leaderboard.
“Probably someone didn’t go to church last Sunday,” he reasoned. “This morning we were just in front of Ericsson 4, Delta Lloyd and PUMA, catching up with Ericsson 3 and quite happy about the battle that we had during the night to keep our position.

“Then we decided to go a little lower than the others and slowly but continuously, we got sucked into a mixture of a header and a less favorable tide that we never got out from.

“Things went from bad to worse when we had to stop the boat three times to clear some weed from the keel. Within four hours we lost sight of all the others. As you can imagine, the darkness came onboard. You can see on everyone’s face how bad the mood is.”

PUMA hit the canvas soon after the Gate Race when they blew out a spinnaker. It meant a course change and an altering of outlook on board.

“We have been in a heavyweight prize fight for days now and fighting off blows to the head and sleep deprivation,” Read said.

“Sailing back into third place today and then amazingly blowing our big spinnaker up sailing downwind just after the Rotterdam loop. Then the chain reaction occurred and the culmination of it all is a complete split from the fleet and hoping beyond hope that this new tactic works.

“The spinnaker just broke, right below the head patch. Absolutely no warning. After the chute exploded we had to put up small sails and in turn we sailed a higher course than the rest of the fleet. So we lost touch. Our best hope is to try and punch through the center of the low and wait for the rest of the group to hit their light air eventually.

“The team is down right now but all realize that we can’t quit and need to press on. Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way. Today may have been one of those days for us as time will only tell.”

By the 16:00 GMT Position Report, and with 295 miles remaining to the finish, PUMA’s mishap had relegated them to the bottom of the pile – 32 miles adrift of leader Ericsson 4.

Green Dragon held second at +4 miles ahead of Delta Lloyd and Telefonica Blue (both +19). Bekking’s men were in an arm wrestle with the sistership, Telefonica Black (+21), while Ericsson 3, who’s travails are well documented earlier, was 27 miles off the lead and just ahead of the wounded PUMA.

Ericsson 4 have not escaped unscathed from the past few days. The first night out of Galway Torben Grael’s men they found themselves having to right the boat after a gybe became a broach in 35+ knots. A broken wheel was the upshot.
Nevertheless, they stepped into the battle that had raged between Green Dragon and Telefonica Black for the past 48 hours and claimed the outright leadership of the leg at 07:00 GMT this morning.

Grael and navigator Jules Salter benefited from a big wind shift as the fleet made its way towards the Rotterdam Gate Race off the Hook of Holland.

“It was a tough night onboard Ericsson 4 as we made our way through the constant changing maze of ships and wind shifts,” reported Media Crew Member, Guy Salter, adding that sleep was at a premium given the constant tacking required in the North Sea. Even for a recovering sleepaholic.

“For this whole race I have won Ericsson 4’s highly-coveted ‘Golden Blanket’ award – it hasn’t been the easiest of feats I can assure you – but dogged determination and perseverance has seen me fight off some very tough competition.

“This leg however I thought I would step aside and allow one of the other chaps onboard to live the glory. So here I am with only three short naps under my belt over the last 30 hours totalling no more than four hours’ sleep and through no fault of my own I am still the leader in the sleep stakes. The rest of the lads are living off less than two hours’ rest for the same time period – such has been conditions for the last day or so.”

Salter also reported that the crew of Ericsson 4 may be in need of dental work such has been the pounding over the past few days.

“It’s extremely choppy, very uncomfortable slamming which is near impossible for the lads to drive through without shaking a few of those old fillings loose.

“I hope the dentists of Marstrand are ready – they may have 77 new customers looking for amalgam replacements.”

This afternoon the fleet was being propelled by a 25-30 knot westerly gale off the coast of northern Holland from where they will make their turn towards Scandinavia. Computer routing software is predicting a finish in Marstrand in the early hours of Thursday this week.

PUMA’s Rick Deppe had more to report on the hazards of being on board a Volvo Open 70 in the busiest shipping lane in the world.

“The amount of shipping traffic is staggering. If they are a danger to us, we must equally be a real pain to them. We seem to change direction for no reason and I’m sure that they are very confused as to how a sailboat can go so fast.

“If Singapore seemed like the parking garage for the world’s shipping fleet then the Straits of Dover would have to be the M25 and DC Beltway combined at rush hour.”

More like bewitching hour on PUMA.

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