Profit-sharing

Tuesday, 19 May 2009, 16:30 GMT

By Cameron Kelleher

Telefonica Blue breasted the tape first in the sprint to the Newfoundland scoring waypoint – now for the tactical marathon to the finish in Galway.

The fleet has a lateral separation of 10 miles, east to west, and is skirting the ice exclusion zone heading due south. The challenge now is to negotiate the 175 nautical miles along the bottom of the zone, before they can swing north again. The north-east corner of the box has today been extended to latitude 40 degrees west, due to ice sightings in the region.

The leading pack’s preoccupation with maximum points at the gate has handed the advantage to the hitherto backmarkers on the leg 7 leaderboard. More of that later.

For Bouwe Bekking’s men, the 800-mile dash for a half a point advantage over PUMA (second at the gate), was one helluva scrap. But given the intense rivalry between the pair on the overall standings – now 72.5 points to 69 in favour of the Blue boat – it was one well worth having.

With the holy grail of a race win still mathematically possible, a one point gain for Telefonica Blue over Ericsson 4 (third) was welcome as was putting 1.5 points on Ericsson 3 (fourth) since the Nordics should thrive in the heavier airs to come. Telefonica Blue, like PUMA, needs all the points it can muster on this final ocean stage.

So, “mission accomplished”, according to Bekking. "Another four points in the bag, although this time it wasn’t over until the end. It was a real nail-biter,” he said in an email once the dust had settled.

Yesterday afternoon Telefonica Blue's chance of first prize at the gate looked remote. She was lying fourth, a couple of miles behind the leaders and inexplicably losing ground. A back-up to clean the keel and the battle was joined. Bekking and his men proceeded to pick off the protagonists one by one.

"Slowly but surely we reeled in the boats ahead,” Bekking said. "First Ericsson 3, then Ericsson 4, and finally PUMA – we sailed for four hours nearly in reach of other. We could just see them in the fog. We were in full inshore mode, giving the helmsman the speed numbers to sail to match PUMA. They could have nailed us about two hours before reaching the gate, by reaching hard over us, as we had a little less pressure, but they didn’t.

"We clawed back and edged a length ahead. The last six miles, we put the bow a bit more down and slowly stretched on them, and reached the gate about 35 seconds in front of them. No cheers, just a quick well done, as we had to tack to avoid the ice box. Of course we lost miles against the others, but that was the call, still we are close, and it looks likely that the high pressure system will slow everybody down, so a small re-start ahead.”

PUMA’s Media Crew Member Rick Deppe concurred with Bekking’s version of events in the closing stages of the lunge for the line. And this video clip provides supporting evidence. “It looked as though we would be able to roll over Telefonica Blue and lead into the mark but then a slight header allowed them to stick their bow out on us and allowed them to wriggle out of trouble,” he wrote.

"After the gate there was no time for recriminations as we had to tack almost immediately due to the orientation of the scoring gate and the ice exclusion zone.

"Another frustrating outcome to our two-boat match race to the gate was that upon tacking and heading south around the exclusion zone, the two boats effectively went from leading the race to being well down the pack.

"Hopefully because the fleet is still fairly tight this will not have a negative effect on the outcome once we break free of the ice exclusion zone and point our bow at Galway – currently about 1800 miles away.”

Deppe switched from his description of the monumental battle with Telefonica Blue to a titanic struggle from yesteryear. “We are sailing in thick fog and will shortly pass right by the place where the most famous marine disaster in history took place. I'm talking of course about the Titanic which in its day was the largest ocean liner ever built and was thought to be unsinkable. That boat struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage in April 1912 and sank. Incidentally, it struck an iceberg in a location outside of the ice exclusion zone. A sobering thought.”

As for Ericsson 3, navigator Aksel Magdahl cited damage in a collision with a whale as the reason for the Nordics’ slide down the rankings at the gate. They had been in the mix with PUMA and Telefonica Blue in the final approach. “Everything lined up perfectly for full points at the scoring gate until early yesterday morning,” he said. “We managed to avoid the first whale, but we only saw the tail of the next one as it dived just in front of us.

"The boat came to a complete stop with some bad noises from our appendages. We could see that the keel fin fairings were damaged. We hope the whale got away only with some bruises, we did what we could to avoid it.

"We lost our lead and slowly went to the back of the bunch with terrible performance numbers for the next 24 hours. When we tacked this morning, Anders (Dahlsjo) went down to take a look at the daggerboard and it became apparent that had also been damaged in the impact. Actually, a piece of it was missing.”

While the hand-to-hand combat occupied the minds and the muscles of those at the head of the fleet, there were juggling acts taking place behind them. The conundrum ... go for the short-term gain of scoring gate points or invest in the future and aim for the quickest routing around the ice box? My colleague Mark Chisnell told you all you need to know and more about the ice box at TEN ZULU this morning.

Telefonica Black, plumped for the latter long ago and were fifth across the waypoint, 30 minutes behind Ericsson 3 and 90 minutes behind the leaders. Navigator Roger Nilson explained their thinking. “We decided yesterday not to focus on the scoring gate, instead focus on the southwest corner of the ice box at 43N and 50W,” he wrote.

"If the wind direction does not change too much, it is a possibility that the four leading boats to the north of us, could be behind us after we are forced to tack into a southwesterly direction. Delta Lloyd would be close to us if we tack as she is SW of us.

"After the ice box it looks like the high is moving off to the SE and that we will be picked up by a new low that should bring us almost all the way to Galway. The low will offer fast running conditions, which is not our favorite conditions. We certainly need to be ahead at the ice box.”

Nilson’s prediction proved correct. Once clear of the gate, the leaderboard was turned on its head. Telefonica Black did assume the leadership of the leg with Delta Lloyd second. On the Dutch entry, Nilson’s counterpart Wouter Verbraak, is similarly focused on the exclusion zone. “Crossing the scoring gate in sixth is not what we hoped for, but we are with the pack and ahead of us lies a tricky bit of sailing through more fog, light winds and variable currents,” he said.

"There are big gains and losses to be made ahead. Later today and tomorrow we will be entering the zone where the cold water from the north meets the much warmer waters from the Gulf Stream. Hit it right and you get a 3-4 knot boost for a few hours. So it's to play for to get to the first corner of the ice exclusion zone.”

Meanwhile, Green Dragon gave up the chase for points long ago. Ian Walker’s men rounded last of the seven-boat fleet at 11:47 GMT, over eight hours behind the leading trio. Walker figured that the push for points at the sharp end would enable the Dragon to make a blind-side move. A damaged daggerboard soon after the start, which has hampered their boat speed, also shaped their thinking.

"We are hoping that the leaders get distracted by their battle for the scoring gate and allow us to gain some precious miles towards the waypoint (ice box),” Walker wrote yesterday. “The next few days look like they will be made up of much of the same before the downwind ride to Ireland begins.”

By the 16:00 GMT Position Report, Telefonica Black, the most southerly boat, held a six-mile lead over Green Dragon, who has entered the fray for the first time on this leg.

PUMA (+8) and Telefonica Blue (+9) were locked together in the middle of the course along with Ericsson 4 (+9), Delta Lloyd (+9) and Ericsson 3 (+10).

Green Dragon’s sudden upturn in fortunes has lifted spirits on board. "Today is a very good day,” Walker said. “First and foremost we are out of last place and are less than an hour behind all the other boats after making big gains to the south.

"The sea is flat and the boat is dry inside and out. We have just opened a huge block of Award Winning Irish Farmhouse Cheese. Sadly we don't have any red wine to wash it down with but we did find some spicy sausage to accompany it.”

Cheesy grins on Green Dragon it seems.

Read Cameron Kelleher’s blog at Funny Peculiar English.

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