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57th CYCA
SYDNEY - HOBART YACHT RACE 2001
and
Volvo Ocean Race Leg 3
Complete Race Report
The crews of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet left
the dock in Darling Harbour early on Boxing morning, amongst the smoke
from the still-burning bush fires, for their start at 0200 GMT for the
start of the Sydney to Hobart race The teams spent a pleasant Christmas
Day celebrating with families and friends; some experienced a traditional
Australian barbeque by the pool. Others visited friends, but nevertheless
they were all minus the snow skiing and a long way from the cold that
many of the crews are more used to at this time of the year.
The team of ASSA ABLOY, however, had celebrated
with a traditional Swedish Christmas dinner and SEB shipped in some real
‘snow’ from the local ice rink, to play a very limited game of snowballs,
before the snow melted, to make their Swedish crew feel more at home.
On the way to the start, the fleet formed a semi circle in front of the
Pyrmont Bridge to pay their respects to Sir Peter Blake by throwing wreaths
onto the water in his memory; a man who had meant so much to so many of
Volvo Ocean Race competitors as a sailing colleague and friend.
The boats then headed out to the start of
the 57th Sydney Hobart race and leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race to Auckland.
Leg 3 in total is 2,050 nautical miles to Auckland, via the fleet’s short
‘pit-stop’ in Hobart. The boats needed a mixture of tactics, strategy
and coastal navigation for the initial stretch to Hobart, before heading
on to Auckland and navigators had to allow for the local prevailing conditions
and any coastal or current factors, which might give them just that extra
edge.
The start of the Sydney to Hobart saw the
fleet struggling in the light air. Fires burning in the areas surrounding
Sydney affected spectator visibility and the predicted race breeze. The
Volvo fleet started slowly. Team News Corp were first to pick up the sea
breeze and jump free from the rest of the fleet to establish a break on
the Volvo fleet in the race to the heads. At the first turning mark at
North Head, News Corp was awarded a prize of $10,000 Australian for being
the first boat at the buoy, which they were later to announce would be
donated to the Australian Bush Fires Appeal. The breeze was fickle as
the Volvo yachts tried to reach their first mark. Team News Corp rounded
the mark, followed by illbruck, Team Seb, Tyko, Amer Sports one, Amer
Sports Two. Assa Abloy did not enjoy a good start and trailed the Volvo
fleet.
 Back
in the Maxi fleet, Grundig, Nicorette and Brindabella struggled to fill
their spinnakers in one of the slowest starts on record. Bumblebee 5 with
Iain Murray at the helm, established an early lead. She was the most southerly
yacht at the start and the first to get the breeze. In a good tactical
display, she steadily closed on the Volvo fleet and was second yacht (to
Team News Corp) out through the heads.
Grouped together were Ragamuffin, Line 7,
Grundig, Brindabella and Australian Skandia. Grundig broke away once she
cleared the heads. The Swedish entry, the Sydney 40 Rush, was amongst
the 60 footers at the start and was travelling well towards the Heads.
As the first yachts rounded the Heads, they were greeted by a very large
fleet of spectator boats and their accompanying wash. with breeze from
the North East at about 10 knots.
Weather conditions can prove changeable,
and often without prior warning, leaving the crew of the boats to change
sails quickly. After a slow start a severe thunderstorm caused damage
to some of the leading boats forcing them to retire, including Wild Thing,
Sting, Simply Red and Cadibarr. Ausmaid and Secret Men's Business were
dismasted.
Ross Field, Navigator on News Corp commented
on seeing an amazing waterspout (twister) between the boats not long after
the start, “Unbelievable sight and nothing like anyone has experienced
before. A waterspout - tornado - came thru illbruck, ASSA ABLOY and ourselves
giving us wind up to 58 knots. Really scary, to see this long vertical
round spinning cloud charge towards us, with the bottom of it sucking
up water. There was nowhere to go. We dropped our mainsail and left up
a small headsail and in the meantime broke battens, blocks etc. Better
go, I’ll update more later. We have a little on.”
 Nicorette,
the Swedish maxi, was hit by a twister or water spout, with the crew dropping
her sails as hail the size of golf balls pounded the boat. Ludde Ingvall
said the yacht was knocked flat on its beam ends. The mainsail was torn
and replaced, costing them the lead. ASSA ABLOY reported winds of 68 knots
and that "this crazy thing was completely filled with smoke from the bush
fires around Sydney, with bugs, particles, mosquitoes and ash". illbruck
seemed to be chased by the mini tornado which formed very quickly and
picked up speed immediately.
The tornado was to cause more chaos for the
Volvo Ocean Race fleet with Amer Sports One also reporting that they had
seen the ‘twister’ giving them winds of up to 60 knots and leaving them
with a destroyed sail. Many of the crews were unable to eat any meals,
partly through the conditions not allowing them to prepare hot food, but
also through seasickness, and Amer Sports One continued, “In nasty sea
conditions like the last 20+ hours, chances are too big that boiling water
jumps out from the pot right into your face or onto some other unprotected
part of the body.”
djuice were also suffering similar problems,
as Knut Frostad, their skipper put it, “Pretty hard to eat these days,
so half the dinner is left for the future. It will probably be more popular
among the fish in the Tasman Sea.” Earlier djuice had nearly become the
first casualty of Leg 3, when two of their bow compartments started to
fill with water, after a hatch sprung a leak. The water had even managed
to reach the second watertight compartment, which houses some communications
equipment.
 Grundig
radioed a Pan Pan distress message after she launched off a giant wave
into the air and came crashing down, suffering major structural damage
and taking water rapidly. When the water flow was slowed sufficiently
by stuffing slabs of foam bunk cushions into the cracks in the hull, the
Pan Pan was withdrawn and the boat proceeded slowly under motor to Eden.
Amer Sports Too ended up under jury rig to
Hobart, having suffered a broken forestay in the middle of the Bass Strait,
where the crews were still experiencing rough seas. The crew lowered the
sails and worked to save the rig, after the eye end of the stay failed
at deck level. They later decided to go into Triabunna on the east coast
of Tasmania, to pick up spares to repair the forestay. Lisa McDonald was
extremely grateful to their shore crew and reported back, “In the wee
small hours of the morning Ruff and Will from our shore team (no two names
more fitting for the mission) were commandeering a cray fishing boat and
two great Aussies named Andy and Rod to help in the mercy run. How do
you get a couple of guys to do this instead of catching crays? With the
simple words of, “Why don’t you come and meet our friends?” The dash,
drop and transfer was successful and we were able to carry on our way
to Hobart with a working headstay again, thanks to our crazy and brilliant
shore team.”
Tyco suffered some problems, but this time
over the compulsory reporting for the CYCA (Cruising Yacht Club of Australia)
Sydney to Hobart Race at Green Cape. The requirement demanded that each
boat should confirm its HF radio was working at the right signal strength,
that the required number of life rafts were on board, engine and batteries
worked, the boat and its crew were able to continue and that the skipper
had comprehensively considered the most current weather forecasts and
considered that the boat and crew were fully prepared for the conditions
forecast. The V.O.60s were eligible for the line honours prizes in the
Sydney Hobart Race, but not for the overall handicap trophies, and this
decision from the CYCA Committee would preclude Tyco from winning any
prizes in this race. It does not, however, affect her result in the Volvo
Ocean Race.
 SEB
was forced to retire from Leg 3, having lost the use of her rudder 70
miles to the north of Tasmania. The crew fitted the emergency rudder as
fast as they could, but still had to take the agonising decision to turn
the boat around and head north towards Eden, in Australia, to carry out
the necessary repairs. Skipper, Gurra Krantz confirmed this, “What has
happened is very sad for us, but most important in a situation of this
magnitude is ensuring the crew and the boat are safe. In the prevailing
conditions here, we would not venture to carry on racing with an emergency
rudder." It was more important for SEB to be ready for the start of Leg
4 from Auckland to Rio de Janeiro, starting on 27th January and the back
up support ashore rallied to make the necessary arrangements. "We are
now organizing our shore crew to carry out the necessary repairs and getting
the boat to full racing shape in good time for leg 4 out of Auckland"
said Pelle Norberg, Managing Director for the syndicate company running
Team SEB, at the time of the incident.
The fleet headed on for the pit stop in Hobart,
and Mark Rudiger from ASSA ABLOY wrote back in anticipation of their three
and a half hour stopover, “Having finished two Hobart races, it is going
to feel strange turning right around and heading out again. I've never
raced with a pit stop like this before so it will be interesting to see
how it goes. It will be especially strange if it all happens in the middle
of the night, which is the way it's looking now. In any case, we're looking
forward to briefly seeing one of the prettier places on earth, even if
only for a few hours.” For Neal McDonald on ASSA ABLOY and his wife, Lisa
on Amer Sports Too, Hobart was to bring very different results.
 After
being becalmed in Storm Bay ASSA ABLOY beat Nicorette for line honours
by 15 minutes on the 57th Sydney to Hobart race over the water while Lisa
was to finally leave Hobart around 30 hours behind the rest of the fleet.
The crew of Assa Abloy was presented with the Illingworth Trophy for their
line honours win by Mr Jim Bacon, the Premier of Tasmania, who also presented
a them with a beautiful half model of a V.O.60 crafted from Tasmanian
timber for being the first V.O.60 to cross the finishing line. Each crewmember
was presented with a medallion. Magnus Olsson, was taken off the boat
before she entered the harbour, with suspected internal injuries but was
on board 8 minutes before the restart to Auckland after their compulsory
3.5 hour pit stop. Grant Dalton's Amer Sports One arrived next followed
almost immediately by Tyco, Djuice, News Corp and illbruck. 47 minutes
separated the first seven boats.
Illbruck Challenge was the team who were
presented with the Livingstone Trophy for being the first boat south of
Tasman Island and it was Robert (Biddy) Badenach, the Commodore of the
Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, who presented this trophy. Hans Sommer,
Commodore of The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) presented their
local boat, News Corp, with the Jack Rokklyn trophy for being the first
boat out of The Sydney Heads. This team also collected AUS$10,000 in prize
money for being the first boat round the seaward mark, a fund of which
they have decided to donate to the NSW Bush Fire Relief Fund.
Six of the eight V.O.60s contending leg three
of the Volvo Ocean Race filled the top seven places of the CYCA Sydney
Hobart Yacht Race, with just the maxi yacht, Nicorette, splitting the
fleet and finishing second. Followers of the Sydney Hobart say that this
is the closest contest in the history of the race, with just 47 minutes
covering the first seven boats.
Amer Sports Too had hit a shark when they
were sailing down the east coast of Tasmania and skipper, Lisa McDonald
confirmed, that they had managed to assess the damage during the pit stop
and decided that the rudder would require some emergency repair work before
the yacht could finally head for Auckland. To keep within the race schedule,
they restarted and then returned to the dock to carry out the work with
the back up of their shore team, to ensure that the stop was short and
effective. Lisa commented at the time, “You have to take on each situation
as it arises. We knew that there was a potential for damage. We had been
monitoring it over the last day or two. We haven’t noticed any significant
problems at sea to date, but it has also been quite light conditions and
so I am not sure I would want to take the boat, and the crew, out in heavy
conditions with the rudder as it is. This is for the safety of everyone
and the boat.”
Meanwhile, victorious on the dock in Hobart,
Neal McDonald, skipper of ASSA ABLOY said of the line honours, “Oh, terrific,
fantastic. It’s one of THE races I’ve always enjoyed doing and to get
over the line first is a real bonus. It was a walk in the park. It was
very frustrating and more light wind than heavy. We had one heavy gust
with the water spout that we didn’t come out too well on, other than that
it was pretty light.
As my mum would say, it’s better to be lucky
than good. I have to say it was a bit of luck involved in it. Coming into
Storm Bay around Tasman Island, we were all bunched together it was light.
It was actually quite good fun. At one stage we were first, at one stage
we were last, there were place changes every three or four minutes. And
later on, it got all light. Chris Larson was steering and took a little
risk, went away from some of the guys around us and never looked back.”
Illbruck’s skipper, John Kostecki, viewed
the situation from a slightly different stance, having led the race most
of the way up until Tasman Island, he said “We got caught in a hole with
the rest of the fleet. Everyone else got out. This was about 20 miles
from the finish. It was a little frustrating seeing everyone sailing away,
but that’s yacht racing. The pit stop is a little aggravating; it is a
little nerve-wracking for everybody. We’ll see how it goes after three
hours. It will be frustrating seeing the others sailing away but we have
a long way to go and there is a lot more racecourse to catch up on. The
weather is quite variable. When you get to the North Cape, the wind lightens
up. We’ve always known there is a lot a competition – that’s never been
our problem. This race isn’t over and hopefully we can do better in the
rest of the leg.”
Results
Bumblebee 5, John Kahlbetzer's custom built Sydney 62 skippered by Iain
Murray, was overall winner in the IMS handicap division.
IMS Division B went to the Beneteau 40.7, Shipping Central, owned by Ashley
Reed and Michael Spies.
Epsilon, a van de Stadt 38 built in 31-year-old Michael Tromp's spare
time won IMS Division C.
Polaris of Belmont, a Cole 43 built in 1970 and owned and skippered by
John Quinn, was Overall Winner of the IRC handicap division.
The Polish entry, Lodka Bols, a former Whitbread Race 80-footer, won IRC
Division A from the American cruiser/racer, Icon, skippered by Brian Roser,
and Ian Treleaven's Line 7.
Valtair, a Lyons 66 owned by Sydney yachtsman Matt Allen, won the PHS
Division.
18 yachts retired.
The NSW team of Ragamuffin, Sting and Loki won the 18th Southern Cross
Cup teams series, beating the Cruising Yacht Club by 10 points after nine
races.
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As the boats left Tasmania, Amer Sports Too
was heading for the dock to be lifted out of the water to repair their
rudder. The crew immediately got to work with the shore team. They had
a tight time deadline, as skipper, Lisa McDonald was anxious that the
repairs should be tested in daylight in the Derwent River before the boat
headed on out into the Tasman Sea and on for Auckland. The repairs left
the crew 368 nautical miles behind the race leader, ASSA ABLOY. Their
gratitude to their shore support team was once again very evident, “Our
awesome shore team is here and how nice is that, as we all dig deep on
this one. I can hear a hive of activity around me, as the slick plans
are starting to be put into action. I had better go as the boat is about
to be lifted,” wrote Lisa earlier.
The leading V.O.60s all restarted after their
pit stop in Hobart almost together, with very little time separating the
boats, as they made their way down the Derwent River. The crews were pleased
to have slightly easier conditions, as they headed out into the Tasman
Sea. The News Corp crew could get three comfortable hours’ sleep, rather
than one wet and uncomfortable hour and were back to a more normal food
routine, “The crew are real tired after the Sydney to Hobart race and
as you can imagine, a little stressed. They are grateful that the normal
watch system is up and running in which they get three hours sleep (in
a sleeping bag) in one go, instead of the one hour (in their wet weather
gear) during the race. They are also, to my surprise, enjoying the freeze-dry
food, but I am thinking it may be to do with them having to eat three-day
old bread rolls during the Hobart leg,” wrote Ross Field.
On Amer Sports One Grant Dalton wrote that
the crew were also enjoying slightly easier sailing in some sunshine,
“Finally the team has been able to get some sleep since leaving Hobart
yesterday afternoon. As with all restarts it was full on with a tight
beat for the first few hours, a fast wet reach then an unexpected wind
swing. But today the sun is out and the sailing is nice and easy for the
first time in I cant remember.”
Not plain sailing for all the fleet, and
Ross Halcrow on illbruck reported a spectacular broach, “The wind went
from 25 knots to 35 knots and also lifted about 40 degrees all in about
two seconds. We put the bow down and accelerated into left turn. This
was what I would call the biggest wipe out of I have ever been apart of.
We laid the boat over. The movement was so violent. I was on top of the
sail stack trimming the sail at the time, I was thrown off, sending me
into a front flip towards the leeward side of the boat (and the ocean),
on my way down I hit the mainsheet winch with the backside of my hip bone
(fully swollen now, and I am now hobbling around the boat). We blew out
the sail, and yes it was a real good blow out, to say the least. I guess
that it took us a good 20 minutes to get it all under control, and get
going again with another spinnaker up and back on course. We had a blown
out spinnaker on our hands, every full-length batten in the main was broken,
and a few bruises. Hence today has been a day of repair.”
After leaving Hobart, the fleet split in
a north south divide, with ASSA ABLOY heading north and djuice becoming
the furthest south. This has caused some concern and comment from some
of the boats and some discussion between the navigators. Knut Frostad
wrote from djuice’s perspective, “After we left Tasmania, we positioned
ourselves close to the fleet, but as the southern boat. All our information
pointed towards keeping the wind longer in the south, but we have been
wrong so far. ASSA ABLOY gaining big time in the north, is a bit worrying…”
McDonald from ASSA ABLOY was pleased that
they were leading the fleet, but stressed, “We all realise it’s a long
leg and an awful lot of changes are going to come. The weather is not
looking rosy for any of us; it’s going to be light and variable for all
of us as we approach New Zealand. You sail with the wind you are in and
it appears we took a different approach to the other guys. Discussion
ensued amongst the navigators. To some, it might be perceived as a gamble,
to others a tactical gamble or luck and to the rest just good strategy
and tactics. As of today, ASSA ABLOY’s early separation from the fleet
to the north has begun to pay off well for them and Amer Sports One is
in second place, also reaping the benefits of splitting north from the
fleet.
Mark Rudiger from ASSA ABLOY had some comments
to make about the accusation of gambling their way into the lead with
a ‘confession’, “After reading the latest article on the Volvo Ocean Race
Web site, I realize it is out in the open now...” “Hi, my name is Rudi...
and uh...I’m a chronic gambler. I guess I have been in denial for some
time but now it is obvious, after our move out of Hobart and previous
legs that I must confront the issue head on. Additionally, last night
I was busted playing poker on the computer again.”
Roger Nilson on Amer Sports One had a succinct
view on the outcome, “We are lucky to be in second place and hope we will
be able to keep this place across the finish line in Auckland. ASSA ABLOY
has sailed a perfect leg from Hobart and will be hard to beat with the
expected weather.” On the ‘gamble’ Nilson candidly wrote, “As we felt
we did not really know which side was going to pay, why not stay in the
middle? As it has turned out so far it was the second best and at the
time a fairly safe option.
Compare it with buying shares on the stock
market from Volvo rather then from a brand new, unknown IT company.” From
News Corp’s perspective, Ross Field had a fairly philosophical approach
with an eye towards the rest of the race into Auckland, “ASSA ABLOY has
gone, a brave and risky move has paid off - good on them. But, yacht racing
is a strange game, anything can happen and we definitely haven't given
up. It’s really going to be a battle to the finish between Tyco / illbruck
and ourselves.” Field continued, “Our main objective at the moment is
to secure third place and continue to chase the front two boats.” Navigators
and tacticians constantly assess the gains and losses on each leg of the
Volvo Ocean Race, and he went on, “We monitor both boats on radar and
can work out the boat’s length gains or losses each ten minutes. Right
now we've lost 1.5 boat lengths to illbruck in 30 minutes - that is 90
feet and made a gain of four lengths on Tyco - 240 feet. Close racing.”
Tyco was also reflecting on the outcome of
ASSA ABLOY’s northern route, and having a close battle with illbruck and
News Corp in tricky conditions, “A tough day out here in the Tasman Sea
with changeable weather and constant pressure from the closeness of the
racing. ASSA ABLOY had committed to a move north early in the leg which
is paying back nicely for them now and Amer Sports One managed to slip
north on the rest of us.”
Amer Sports Too joined the race again, after
completing their repairs in Hobart. Lisa McDonald wrote, “We are now racing
again - approx 30 hours behind the fleet we are watching them battle it
out up front and looking over our shoulder at the weather coming across
the Tasman Sea.” The Volvo Ocean Race fleet are all making their way east
across the Tasman Sea, including SEB who is not racing having retired
with a broken rudder, but she will join them in Auckland for the start
of leg 4.
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January 5, 2002
Week 2
Battles into Auckland
To every New Zealander on the Volvo Ocean
Race fleet, to be the first Kiwi into Auckland rates extremely high in
their list of achievements for this leg. Grant Dalton from Amer Sports
One when asked how important for him personally to lead into Auckland,
said in Hobart, "As important as any other Kiwi in this race, won the
last two and I would like to win this one." Richard Mason from ASSA ABLOY
having just achieved line honours for the Sydney to Hobart race said,
"Let's see if we can win into Auckland as well, I would be the happiest
man in the World!" He was.
With a total of 28 New Zealanders on this
leg in the fleet, not all of them could win this accolade, but Richard
Mason and Stu Wilson the two kiwis on board ASSA ABLOY along with the
rest of the crew entered Viaduct Basin after they had crossed the finish
line, to a heroes' welcome from the early morning cheering crowd. For
McDonald and crew, this had been a great leg, having also led the fleet
into Hobart for the pit stop. On leaving Tasmania they took a more northerly
route across the Tasman Sea and had only lost the lead once, when they
had had a problem with their spinnaker.
It was a remarkable achievement, considering
that the crew of ASSA ABLOY had been sailing most of this leg with at
least one crew-member sick or injured. Jason Carrington and Guillermo
Altadill, both developed suspected internal infections and Magnus Olsson
took a bad fall not long after the start, and injured his back. Mark Rudiger
had reported worrying news the previous day, "Klas "Klabbe" Nylof, our
senior onboard physician, has been a busy boy. Since departing Hobart,
there have been daily calls for him to treat three onboard patients. First,
Magnus took a bad fall coming into Hobart and injured his back and ribs.
He has been confined to duties below deck, which has been a huge help
for us always having food and hot drinks, as well as helping me in the
Nav station," reported Mark Rudiger, and he continued, "If I had to pick
an outstanding sailor for this leg it would be Dr. Nylof."
On arriving at the dock, in spite of his
injury, for Magnus Olsson, there was a double celebration on this great
victory, his children were holding a banner at the dock saying, "Happy
Birthday Daddy." A further injury occurred to skipper Neal McDonald as
they arrived, when fellow crew-mate Mike Joubert opened a bottle of champagne
and the cork caught Neal in the face! At the dock, Mark Rudiger said about
their win, "We finally got a podium place, which was great. The best part
was coming round the North Cape and still not seeing Dalton - that was
our biggest worry, that he would catch us up." Commenting further on how
the boat managed without three of the crew, he said, "Basically we just
all said that we have to grunt up, and pitch in a little bit more. Fortunately
because of our position we didn't have to go boat-to-boat battling quite
so much. It just goes to show what guys can do; and it helps when you're
the winners; you can just get up and carry the load."
Neal McDonald was delighted over their victory,
"It felt very good to cross the finish line, I could breathe for the first
time in about 28 hours! I was pretty nervous I have to say with Dalts
on our tail, we were very wary of wind changes and light air, so we are
very pleased that it has ended the way it has." The crew made an early
decision to follow a northerly route across the Tasman Sea, which had
been a planned strategy for McDonald, "For days and days our weather guys
in Sydney were telling us that the northerly would win through and if
you try to buckle up in the south you'll lose. We had that in our mind
when we left. By the extent of the advantage, we were surprised. But we
were comfortable as soon as we got north and we knew the gains were going
to keep coming in."
Just under two hours later, Grant Dalton's
Amer Sports One crossed the finish line. McDonald had been looking over
his shoulder at Amer Sports One, after they passed Cape Reinga and said,
"Well it was always a possibility [that they could pass us], he's probably
the worst man in the world to have behind you coming into Auckland, he's
got a good reputation for being a come-back king. We were aware that if
anyone was going to catch us it would have been him."
Grant Dalton and his crew fought as hard
as they could right to the last, "It was a bit tricky, we were going backwards
for a while, but we had enough lead [on the boats behind] not to ever
really feel threatened. The guys behind us have a far harder race on their
hands then us. ASSA ABLOY sailed a really good race, they took it right
out of Hobart, they sailed very hard and they've done a fantastic job
so congratulations to them and to Neal, they really deserved it." On their
strategy to head north with ASSA ABLOY, Dalton said, "It was wet but it
wasn't too bad, ASSA ABLOY has had a couple of bad legs and they broke
to the north and the rest of the fleet broke more south; and we had a
bit of a quandary, which way to go - do we follow the boat out right by
itself or do you stick with the herd. So we split in the middle really!
We felt the north was probably right, and as it turned out it was. It
worked for them and I take my hat off to Mark Rudiger as he has tried
a brave move twice in the last legs and has missed out both times - yet
he was prepared to do it again, and that takes a lot of self-confidence.
A good job by him to have enough confidence to stick by his guns and do
what he thought was right."
From Cape Reinga, both ASSA ABLOY and Amer
Sports One had only been able to watch the fleet close up on them from
behind at speed. Roger Nilson wrote from Amer Sports One, ". we lost the
nice northwesterly wind almost totally, four miles southwest from Cape
Reinga and decided to go close to the corner, as there seemed to be more
wind there then offshore. Had the bad luck to hit foul tide at its worst
moment, full moon and max setting 3,5 kts against us. With only six knots
of wind straight on the nose from northeast it looked bad. Hardly made
any progress over ground, in spite of sailing as close as we dared, right
into the infamous rocks just northwest of Reinga." After Amer Sports One
turned south towards Auckland at the next point, he continued, "As we
hoist the spinnaker right now at North Cape, the northeast corner of New
Zealand, we cannot see ASSA ABLOY ahead or illbruck behind at Cape Reinga.
Hopefully illbruck, News Corp and Tyco also will have to pay their duty
getting around that tricky corner [Reinga]."
The previous night had been a wet one for
the V.O. 60s. Jez Fanstone, skipper of News Corp claimed 12 smelly dogs
had invaded the boat, "This has been accompanied by a continual soaking
so that the boat below smells like it is inhabited by 12 wet labradors."
He also reported that sail changes had started to drain the crew's energy,
"This leg seems to have been the hardest physically so far. I don't know
if it is because of the stopover in Hobart and the fact that we haven't
recovered from the trip down there properly but moving the ton of wet
sails around the boat is a daunting task at the moment. We have had a
lot of gear changes in the last few days requiring us to change sails
and move all the gear around in the boat, which has been draining on the
bodies' reserves."
The tightest battle of the leg was fought
most of the way from Hobart, between illbruck, News Corp and Tyco.
Dee Smith from Amer Sports One reflected
on the battle going on behind them, "The race behind is fun to watch.
illbruck just gunned down Tyco and News Corp in a power reach. But the
other two are close enough when the wind gets light to make a pass. We
might have found a kink in illbruck's armour. Four boats passed them in
Storm Bay [Tasmania] in light air."
Steve Hayles from Tyco wrote, "We are doing
all that we can but there are 24 other sailors doing the same. It will
be a nerve wracking few hours to the finish."
The battle lasted right up to a very tight
finish in Auckland, with a thrilling display of tactics boat handling
and crew work, which any one of the three boats could have won. Tyco was
finally to be the winner of the three-boat war, giving her third place
overall, with illbruck next and not long after followed by News Corp.
A delighted Steve Hayles commented on arrival in Auckland, "I think everybody
in the race pushed very, very hard. The boats were very fast, everybody
is pretty evenly matched, so it's been a tough race for 200 miles from
the other side of New Zealand - for two days it has been really tight.
The whole leg has been tight, but those two days were tough and at the
end there we had an opportunity and the cards fell our way. I think if
we had come in fifth we would be saying something else, but in reality
it makes a huge difference, it's a podium place and that's what we need
to be doing now, we need to be in the top three and then we will be back
in the frame for the overall standings."
Kevin Shoebridge, skipper of Tyco, commented
on their decision to split from illbruck and News Corp right at the end,
"Half of it was because we were half out of control and we wanted to do
as little gybes as possible, so we decided to go outside Tiri Island,
as opposed to inside - the other two went inside and we ended up with
a much better angle coming into the finish. It's been a matter of only
500 metres between a great day and a bad day!"
John Kostecki of illbruck was thankful to
finish in fourth place and still be leading on overall points, "We had
some tough breaks, the other teams sailed better than us. We made some
mistakes here and there and we deserved what we got. We are overall leader
at the moment so we're happy. They (Tyco) are great sailors; they are
local here. They know these waters quite well. We were in a tight battle
with News Corp. We gave them the opportunity to make that move and you
take those chances when you are right behind the lead group."
From News Corp's perspective, Jez Fanstone
was disappointed with the result, but certainly not with the crew's performance,
"Everyone put in 110 per cent. I'm a little bit disappointed that we finish
the job and get the third place. We were top three with four hours to
go and we didn't quite get the breaks towards the end. I guess it's disappointing
but we are not disappointed in the performance, just the result."
The crew of djuice dragons were also disappointed
with their result in sixth place and Knut Frostad said, "How do I feel?
I don't feel very good about it no. We are disappointed. It was a hard
leg for us. We started hard, we came well out of Sydney, but our halyard
lock broke, we filled the boat up with water, and did all kinds of things.
It was a struggle to Hobart. We had a speed problem jib reaching and so
we got left behind all the time and that was frustrating."
In pouring rain Amer Sports Too was the last
of the V.O.60 fleet to arrive in Auckland on January 5. They enjoyed a
quick ride through the second half of the Tasman Sea and down the New
Zealand coast. In Auckland the team has to do some work on the boat after
the emergency repair done to the damaged rudder in Hobart.
No other arrival saw as many spectators lined
up as for Amer Sports Too, the docks were crammed and cheers filled the
air. When hitting the dock, skipper Lisa McDonald said: "It is a great
sense of accomplishment that we have managed to overcome each and every
obstacle which we have come up against in this leg and I think it says
a lot for the crew that we have attacked each problem as it has arisen
with great professionalism, the quickness of figuring out what the problem
is and solving it, coming to a conclusion and carrying on with the race
says a great deal for this team and I am very proud of the whole group."
On the much talked about dash from Sydney to Auckland she commented: "I
am not going to call it a sprint ever again."
Sharon Ferris will be celebrating her birthday
at home in New Zealand on the 17th January. She is one of the three kiwis
on the boat, with the other two Bridget Suckling on the bow and Keryn
Henderson. For Lisa McDonald and her crew, it was hard to know that the
boats were already crossing the finish line in Auckland while they were
still making their way towards Cape Reinga, "This is the tough bit, toughing
it out while the others finish. We have suffered the consequence of a
broken forestay and a damaged rudder. We are still racing strong, knowing
we started from Hobart with a deficit of 30+/- hours behind, with a mended
boat."
Restart date Auckland: January 27, 2002
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Overall position after three legs pending
protests.
PS Yacht Leg 3 points Arrival Time Elapsed Time Combined Time PO Overall
Pos.
1 AART 8 03 JAN 02 17:20:42 008d 11h 50m
42s 066d 04h 33m 46s 15 4
2 AONE 7 03 JAN 02 19:09:06 008d 13h 39m 06s 062d 17h 50m 14s 18 2
3 TYCO 6 03 JAN 02 20:18:39 008d 14h 48m 39s - 12 5
4 ILBK 5 03 JAN 02 20:22:41 008d 14h 52m 41s 062d 10h 34m 56s 21 1
5 NEWS 4 03 JAN 02 20:24:54 008d 14h 54m 54s 063d 22h 09m 40s 16 3
6 DJCE 3 03 JAN 02 23:16:49 008d 17h 46m 49s 068d 18h 31m 17s 10 7
7 ATOO 2 05 JAN 02 11:27:52 010d 05h 57m 52s 073d 22h 17m 26s 5 8
8 SEB 1 - - 11 6
Leaderboard
PS Yacht Points
1 illbruck 21
2 Amer Sports One 18
3 News Corporation 16
4 ASSA ABLOY 15
5 Tyco 12
6 SEB 11
7 djuice 10
8 Amer Sports Too 5
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|
Before
we knew it we were into the lead just meters from the start. The
sea breeze continued to fight against the gradient pressure and tacking
with the 'code 0' was the call. As a bowman I score one of the best
jobs on the boat in the light air tacking duels. Sitting on the
top set of spreaders I look for the pressure on the water and then when
we tack I launch off my perch and swing into the mainsail with pace so
the stiff carbon fiber battens will flick over into the right shape.
Some may say that this doesn't really seem like the ideal job but at the
start of Australia's greatest yacht race when Sydney harbour is packed
to capacity it is an incredible place to be sitting and taking in the
view. 
As
we approached a brewing storm the wind started to die and switched directions
throwing the whole fleet into a new pecking order. Off the eastern
side of the cloud bank a small willy-willy [tornado] formed. The
call of 'hey cool, check it out' was made. It rapidly grew and in
the space of a few short minutes it was about 1-1.5 miles wide and moving
towards us. I'm not sure how Dorothy felt on her short journey to
the Land of Oz but I was not big on the idea of finding out. 
The
3-½ hours before the restart flew by as we splinted broken battens, checked
the gear and ate with a healthy appetite. We sailed past several
of the finishing yachts on the way out of Storm Bay and it was then that
it started to dawn on me what a great party I would be missing out on
back at the infamous Custom's House, by the look on a few of the Hobart
Veteran's faces I could see that they were having similar thoughts.
The
Southern Ocean seems to be a survival course for the experienced and we
have excellent crew work so the thought of going forward to peel another
spinnaker in 35 knots doesn’t seem so scary any more. I guess the
greatest dread of the next leg will be the conditions once we round Cape
Horn, we expect light winds for a fair stretch of the South American coast.
The fleet will most likely close up and everybody will purchase their
lottery tickets to see who gets the lead. The light and fluky conditions
are by far the most frustrating.