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Volvo Ocean Race continues Asia journey

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-15 09:44

The third leg of the Volvo Ocean Race began in a northwesterly breeze of 7 knots as the fleet bade farewell to Cochin on Saturday and thousands of spectators who clogged up roads to wave it off after a fortnight in India.

Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009 yachts Delta Lloyd (R), Ericsson 4 and Green Dragon (L) depart from Cochin for their third leg to Singapore in the southern Indian city of Cochin December 13, 2008. [Agencies]

With 1,950 nautical miles to cover before the next Asian stop of Singapore, it was PUMA who eked out an early advantage soon after the start gun sounded.

At the favored pin end, Green Dragon got off to the best start with Telefonica Black and Team Russia close on her heels.

PUMA, Telefonica Blue and Ericsson 4 crossed the start line at the committee boat end and made their way to the middle of the course. Within 10 minutes they had overhauled the quick starters and formed the leading group.

Behind them a two-boat race was already developing between Delta Lloyd and Ericsson 3 while Team Russia dropped back as it failed to cope with the light conditions.

Skippers were left scratching their heads when asked to predict who would arrive in Singapore first, especially as many had to recalibrate their early plans in consideration of the route, with its new Asian stopover and numerous quirks.

"This is three races in one, I think," said PUMA skipper Ken Read. "This is a race to the end of Sri Lanka, a race across, and a race up the Strait (of Malacca). There could be restarts all over the place based on the weather information we have so far. It is a very tricky leg ahead and it's pretty tough to try and figure out how it will go."

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Green Dragon skipper Ian Walker said it was as-yet unclear who had the quickest boat in the light, upwind conditions, which had come to many as an unexpected shock.

"I don't think we have seen the fleet racing upwind in light air yet," he said.

New milestones are waiting to be set in the fiercely competitive regatta, which has never sailed the long eastward journey from Cochin to Singapore before.

Crew changes

Team Russia was closest inshore and Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) the closest offshore as of 1110 GMT on Saturday, yet only two miles separated the fleet from first to last.

Oleg Zherebtsov will have to trust in fate however as the Team Russia owner will not be onboard for the third leg of the race to Singapore due to business commitments.

The Russian, who owns LENTA, the largest hypermarket chain in Russia, will now be replaced on the bow by Scotland's Scott Gray.

Earlier this week the team also announced that media crewmember Mark Covell would stand down for the current leg, with Sergey Bogdanov stepping in to fill the breach.

This brings the total number of crew changes during the latest stopover to seven.

Tom Addis stepped onboard Telefonica Blue in place of the injured Laurent Pages, while the Black boat's Maciel Cicchetti, who hurt his back in the second leg, is replaced by Pablo Iglesias.

PUMA's rotation policy has continued with Rob Greenhalgh taking over from Robbie Naismith, while Steve Hayles and James Carroll join Green Dragon in place of Ian Moore and Tom Braidwood respectively.

Overall, there have now been 18 changes made to the offshore crews since the eight teams arrived in Alicante ahead of the start of the race.

China Daily

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