TEAM RUSSIA EMAIL: 'Opportunities to gain and lose'

Monday 15th December 2008 04:57

Team Russia - Andreas Hanakamp (Skipper)

The first two days haven’t been as feared in our worst nightmares, of no wind areas, just a few hours of very light but the breeze never died away completely. The whole stretch to the western end of the Sri Lanka exclusion zone was very tactical and offered lots of opportunities to gain and lose, we had both. While getting off the start under A1 got us into second place, we lost the good position when we reached off too far from land in the land breeze off Quilon. While we sailed into a light area there, the fleet benefitted from the stronger outflow close inshore.

Once in the strait between mainland India and Sri Lanka it paid to sail low initially and we made good gains on the fleet, overtaking Ericsson 3. We were able to lay the mark while they had to gybe.

Now we are settling in for the 1000 mile beat to Sumatra against the northeast Monsoon, where upwind speed will count most. Not a lot of windshifts ahead, just the constant flow of wind coming from the wintery high pressure that covers most of northern Asia. The early seafarers did it the other way around, they followed the Monsoon, giving them an easy ride west in winter and back the other way the following summer.

It is great to race in sight of each other as it allows us for the first time to compare boat speed. Even though Kosatka is regarded as being a heavy weather boat, we were able to keep the pace in the light conditions. During the reach to the first waypoint we felt slightly weak due to the lighter bulb and the light mode we are sailing in currently, even though we previously regarded it as a strength of the boat.

Received: 04:57 GMT