Ericsson 4 goes two for two

Sunday 30 November 2008 02:00 GMT

By Riath Al-Samarrai

Torben Grael and his crew arrived in darkness at the end of another dominant leg for Ericsson 4 but he was quick to offer some rays of hope to his rivals.

"This race is a long way from over," he said. "I do not see ourselves as the team to beat at all."

His challengers and most observers would probably disagree. His team, which broke the world 24-hour record en route to winning the opening leg, picked up where they left off by first picking up a maximum four points at the scoring gate and then cruising to overall victory in 14 days, 11 hours and 32 minutes.

It leaves Ericsson 4 on a whopping 26 points from a possible 28, giving them a leaderboard advantage of at least six points assuming Green Dragon or PUMA finish third and Telefonica Blue hold onto second.

Despite the apparent hold they have on the event, Grael, characteristically, is talking down his team's superiority. "The second leg is the beginning of the race and there is a lot of racing to go. We have worked very hard to get where we are, but the other teams are all capable of getting results."

His cautious tone was echoed by watch captains Brad Jackson and Stu Bannatyne, but the former failed to identify any conditions or points of sail where their rivals had an edge.

A strong all-rounder

Jackson said: "We have a good boat in all the conditions I'd say. I wouldn't say we were weaker in any, but we didn't spend enough on visual to really be able to tell.

"Then again we aren't exceptional compared to anyone else, but we are always pretty good. We had a good preparation and we know our boat well enough to push it. That makes a big difference, but the other guys who didn't have as long to get to know their boats are closing the gap."

Bannatyne added: "Every time we are next to another boat we are fighting tooth and nail for half a mile here and there.

"It helps that the boat was very reliable. We were able to push it hard all the time and our navigation team did a really nice job putting us in the right place. We always felt we were pretty competitive at all angles and not seeing any real weak points."

Dave Endean, the team's boat captain, revealed the team only sustained minor damages in the leg, but he does believe some of their rivals do have an edge in certain conditions.

"Going downwind in waves this thing is a little bit of a handful," he said. "Looking at PUMA sail they don't seem to nosedive nearly as much as us so they can probably push their boat a bit harder downwind than us."

Jules Salter, the navigator, added: "In light air we struggle a bit. And in the sea state in the south we weren't quicker than anyone else. It might have looked that way in leg one but we were no better than Green Dragon or PUMA. What makes a difference is that the guys feel comfortable pushing the boat hard all the time because the shore crew and designers did such a good job on it."

Having been first to the gate at 58 degrees east, the team jostled for the lead with Ericsson 3 until November 24 - they left Cape Town on November 15 - but thereafter never looked back.

Salter identified two turning points in the leg. He said: "When we entered the first layer of Doldrums we went pretty hard east and it was a key moment because it gave us a big lead. Also taking the southern road to the scoring gate enabled us to get there first."

Irrespective, Salter and his crewmates attributed much of their win to good fortune. He said: "So much of this leg was luck. And the last one. You get lucky avoiding a cloud or whatever while someone else gets caught. There's some judgement involved, but luck is a big part."

Ericsson's rivals can take some comfort.