Guy Salter/Ericsson 4/Volvo Ocean Race
By Cameron Kelleher
In the Dover Strait it’s about strategy and you have to be willing to take risks ... There will be many options on how to get to Mastrand first from here ...
Monday, 8 June 2009, 16:30 GMT
First it was Backgammon, now it's Battleships. Having solved the riddle of the fickle airs and thorny tides of the Channel Islands, the fleet is faced with shipping lanes, and an exclusion zone in the Dover Strait.
The tussle between Telefonica Black and Green Dragon at the head of the fleet over the past 24 hours has been intense.
On the approach to the Scilly Isles, on the south-western tip of the Cornwall peninsula, Telefonica Black had taken the lead when her choice to stay south of Bishop Rock paid off.
Green Dragon followed suit but after the Scillies, Ian Walker's men veered north. When their paths collided again, the Black boat was ahead. As the duo continued to head south towards France, the rest of the fleet followed.
The Dragon, with the benefit of local knowledge, courtesy of Ian Walker and Ian Moore, rolled the dice and took on the Alderney Race. To appreciate the enormity of that gamble, we need the following geography lesson, supplied by my colleague Lizzie Ward ...
Alderney Race is a notorious strait of water between Alderney and Cap de la Hague in France and includes the strongest tidal streams in Europe.
These are caused by the tidal surge from the Atlantic building up in the cul de sac of the Gulf of St Malo. Water flows through at speed at high tide and is sucked back down as the tide recedes. An uneven seabed adds to the turbulence, with a number of hazardous rocks located within a few miles of the Alderney Lighthouse.
“Every time we went south, we got more wind and gained on those around us,” Walker wrote. “The problem was that it was pushing us towards the Channel Islands, where the strongest tides in the Channel exist, and where we were due to arrive at the worst possible time.
“It was because of this that the fleet stayed north of Alderney in less foul current, but the wind was too good for us to give up and we stayed south and took on the Alderney Race.” And won, he might have added.
Despite the brutal current, the Dragon reached the French coast and gybed down the rocks to eke out a two-mile gain.
“It was a highlight of the race, rock-hopping at night in a fierce current, trying to steal every boat length we could on the fleet,” Walker added.
Telefonica Black has relished the joust with the Dragon, according to navigator Roger Nilson. The Channel Islands, he says, were challenging. “We made gains but at times we had six knots of current against us so it was tough.”
The tide will play a major hand in tactics and ultimately the positions on the leaderboard over the next few days. Given the closeness of the racing, a game of strategic chess is likely, a point underlined in this audio interview with Ericsson 3 skipper Magnus Olsson. “After two days of sailing we are still very close together. The first 12 hours was fantastic going round the Fastnet with lots of wind and at high speed.
"Now the wind has dropped and it’s flat water sailing in light air. Now it’s about fine tuning, gaining a millimetre here and a millimetre there. Into the Dover Strait it’s about strategy and you have to be willing to take risks. There will be many options on how to get to Mastrand first from here.”
Delta Lloyd navigator Wouter Verbraak agrees. ”We are up with the bunch and with the fight. It was a challenging night with very light winds and a lot of current around the Channel Islands. It’s pretty risky in between the rocks but we came out of it OK.
"The only boats we can’t see are Telefonica Black and Green Dragon which are further to windward but we can see all the other boats are in sight and it’s a drag race to the Dover Strait.
"At the moment there are limited options with the exclusion zone in the Strait. The big challenge is to find favourable current. Things will open up a bit more when we get spat out the other side because we get the front from the second low and there are some more options. It’s all speed, speed, speed for now.”
With 600 nautical miles remaining to Marstrand, the fleet is split by just 16 miles. The seven boats are short-tacking in 10 knots. By the 16:00 GMT Position Report, Telefonica Black held a two-mile advantage over Green Dragon. Ericsson 4 (+6) led the second string of Delta Lloyd (+9), Ericsson 3 (+9), PUMA (+10) and Telefonica Blue (+16).
The exclusion zone in the Dover Strait is set to the north between Peacehaven (East Sussex) and Broadstairs (Kent) to keep the fleet away from the shipping lanes, the subject of an email from PUMA’s Rick Deppe.
"As we approach the straits of Dover and all the major European gateway ports, the amount of ship traffic is starting to build,” he said. “Already this morning we had to bear away dramatically for a couple of ships.
"On the yacht we can adjust course to avoid them with little trouble. The ships always seem to freak out right at the end and alter course dramatically, usually causing us to have to make a drastic course alteration or sit in bad air from the ship for five minutes.
"Capey (navigator Andrew Cape) informs me that we have about another 24 to 30 hours of dodging ships.”
On Ericsson 3, like the rest, finding a way to avoid being swept backwards by the tide, has been the priority at times. ”If we go closer to shore we might get as much as six knots of current straight on the nose but most likely more wind,” reported watch captain Richard Mason (above, left) via a Gustav Morin email.
"If we go out, the wind will drop less but so will the current. It’s a ’damned if you do, damned if you don’t-situation’.
Mason’s opposite number and fellow Kiwi on Ericsson 4, Stu Bannatyne, mused over the transition from light downwind to upwind mode in the Channel. "These transitions are always tricky, trying to find the right balance between gaining leverage for the wind shift and falling into lighter winds if you go too far,” he wrote.
"All the boats were flirting with the edge and we all had turns at making gains and losses. To add to the dilemma, the transition occurred mostly during the hours of darkness and there was also plenty of current to contend with. We saw up to six knots at times as we passed the Channel Islands and the Cherbourg Peninsula.”
With the fleet bunched, errors carry a heavy tariff, reported Verbraak’s team-mate Sander Pluijm after the benefit of a conversation with Delta Lloyd watch captain and five-time Volvo veteran Stu Wilson. “Stu says it is always like this at the end of the race. The final legs are all shorter, so that makes it a lot harder for the boats to get away from the fleet, especially on a coastal leg like this one.
"So that's why we are racing in really close order to Rotterdam. Really close battles are fought and everybody is extremely focused because every mistake costs miles and that could cost you the leg.”
Meanwhile, repair work has been ongoing for the Ericsson duo. In this video, skipper Torben Grael talks through the cause of a broken port wheel. The damage was done, says Grael, on the first night “when the boat broached during a gybe when we were hit by a big puff.”
On Ericsson 3, pitman Jens Dolmer shows how to kick start the boat’s generator. “Same as hot wiring a car,” he explains.
The Nordics have also received some “outside assistance”, according to Morin. “Earlier we got some help with the helming. A bird sat down on the wheel for a couple of minutes and he also tried some trimming on top of the main winch.”
The feathered friend was tagged. So if anyone out there has discovered that S26390 has flown the coup, at least you now know that the escapee has made it as far as the English Channel.
Read Cameron Kelleher's blog at Funny Peculiar English
.................................................................................................................................................
COMMENTS: If you have questions about life on board, send them via our Comments section and we’ll do our best to provide the answers. On occasions, we will get them straight from the crew members themselves. Or simply have your say by clicking on the Comments link.
The Comments section is fully moderated (so bad language, personal abuse, repetition etc won’t be accepted), and sometimes it might take a while for your words to get cleared or for us to gather the answers to your questions – but we’ll get there eventually ...
At 21:19 08 Jun 2009, Kinnikinnick2 wrote
Guy Salter's Dragon and pot of gold photo is an award winning book cover great shot!
At 22:17 08 Jun 2009, aafke bakker wrote
What an amazing photo, Guy Salter! It's worth a crock of gold in it's own rights!
You must be a registered member to leave comments. Please use the form below to register. An email will be sent to you to which will you to confirm your details.
Your name:
Email address:
Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race