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Volvo, MovieStar Reports San Xenxo, Spain. Venue: Volvo Ocean Race, Team Movistar We are absolutely pumped to be getting what will hopefully be daily reports from Bouwe Bekking from Movistar as they blast around the globe of the Volvo Ocean Race. Here is the latest from Bouwe - as they get ready to go. Enjoy.
The last 3 months the two ABN boats have been our neighbours. There have been no real secrets between us, as the concepts of their boats and ours are very far apart. Our design is optimized for the light to medium conditions, as we think that crucial breaks will be made there. It looks like they have optimized for medium to heavy air., with a bigger beam and a very wide stern section. Even that we have been here for such a long time, we never really lined up. ABN might have had good reasons for this. They have a two boat team, so they obviously have learned a lot from two boat testing , especially sailing different angles and comparing the real outcome. The polars say one thing, but real life can always be different . But I think the main reason for not sailing against us, must have been their judgment of the eventual negative psychological aspects. Imagine, Movistar would have shown a speed edge, not very good for the minds of crew. Not to forget what pressure this would put on their the management, who have sold this concept to their sponsor. Of course the same could have happened to us, but in our case it would have been "easier". We had a plan ready in case of a negative speed difference. We could have bumped up our beam waterline to create an even more powerful boat. But these plans stay in the draw, we are happy with our design we have chosen. The future will learn which team has come up with the right concept. One thing for sure: our prediction that the majority of the fleet would have come the boards of the Farr office has been correct. If we might believe the press releases, all the other three boats are exactly the same design, the standard Farr package. The most obvious difference in hull shape is that Movistar has chine in the hull, the hull shape look all similar, although difficult to judge are the beam waterline differences. Brasil One has the smallest bulb, with the bulb relative further forward on the fin. Also the Pirates have a visual smaller bulb. Even that their boat was built in a female mould, you could see of the building pictures that they had to add filler to the hull, maybe one explanation of the weight difference. Ericsson size bulb looks similar to ours. Of course the sizes differences can also come from that teams have chosen a different displacement, but I doubt that any of the others have not followed up on Farr's advice. One big difference is the rig concepts.The manufactures are Southern (Movistar & Brasil 1, ABN), Formula spars( Ericsson) and Hall Spars (Pirates). Movistar has a custom tube, with a bigger taper than Brasil 1 & ABN. All have 4 spreaders and conventional jumpers. ABN & Brasil 1 are having no headstay foil, so only bareheaded changes for them, as well Brasil has opted for a 2:1 halyard. Further teams have different opinions on the attachment points for runners and checkstays. Ericsson has as the only team opted for a three spreader rig , with jumpers, and a cathedral capshroud layout. Very good for windage, but not so good for sheeting angles of the overlapping jibs. It will be interesting to see how high they can point with an overlapping jib on. The Pirates have chosen a Hall spar. Same spreaderlay-out as Movistar, but thinner capshrouds, maybe an indication for less righting moment? Because of measurement obligations, most boats spend a fair amount on the dock. We have ticked of most of these requirements, so we are in good shape and can't wait to get going. Still there a few non boat things to do like the media training, sea survival course etc., etc. The first inshore will be relative straight forward, as it is an up-down course. All the competitors have sail-designers who work for Americas Cup teams as well, so the sails, shape and size wise should be very similar for everybody. Boathandling & tactics will be the most important aspects of winning this historic in-port race. Keep
you posted, 10/26/05 Top
San Xenxo, Volvo start, Movistar What an opening day we had!!!!! Very good for the spectators on the water, as they could circle us for nearly three hours, because of lack of breeze, Several crashes amongst the spectators boats, but amazingly no angry faces, as nobody could ruin this day.
But the day was not so good for movistar, as we didn't finish on the podium. It was maybe the classic example of having to much local knowledge. The wind was setting up like a normal textbook day. The land breeze dropped completely at 1300 local time, and we knew that a soft seabreeze would kick in at around 1430, with a start possible most likely around 1500. We had the plan to protect the right side of the course, as normally further up the track a 25 degree right shift would occur. Well, you can guess the outcome.............This was probably the only day of the year that the breeze went further left. Ericsson was gone, and Brasil made a huge gain as well, jumping in 2nd place, so much for local knowledge!!!!! On the triangle not a lot happened , as expected just follow the leader. On the next beat we decided to hoist our fractional code 0, (set on the bowsprit, and hoisted with the fractional halyard) but as it showed we lost to much ground in the tacks, as you have to roll the sail all the way in to get it around the headstay. In the ocean a glamour fast sail, but at least learned a good lesson for the rest of the inshore races to come. In the last tack around the topmark , this resulted that the could Pirates roll us. No problem, was our first thinking, still 5 legs to get back to them. But then the announcement came to shorten the course...f'*k. What to tell regarding the differences in boatspeed, not so much. As expected the Farr boats looked very similar in these conditions. We felt very comfortable as soon the breeze was up to 7 knots, and the stability start kicking in. As expected the ABN boats were a bit sticky in these conditions, but their time will come when we have a day with 25 knots. Tomorrow morning back in the gym, another brief with the team to go over the inshore, and then sailing for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Bouwe
Bekking 11/07/05 Top
Disaster So what happened? We were reaching along in 30-40, wind angle 140 staysail, reacher jib and mainsail, boatspeed average around 23-24 knots. Smoking fast, heaps of water on and over the deck and a bit uncomfy downstairs, and we were happy how we were going We just had received a position report, and saw that all the others ere nicely tucked behind us. Ericsson nearly 30 miles, ouch that must have been hurting them. We have been sailing pretty loose to the ABN, so happy we could hang on with them, as we expected them to have a big edge. Suddenly we leaped of a big wave, and we could hear the a loud bang, different opinions, some thought it came from the back , some from the middle of the bus. Two teams checking simultaneous, and very quick the yell came fro the front: SLOW DOWN, WE HAVE CRACKED ONE OF THE RAM SHELVES. F*#K, my instant thought, we are out of this leg. First we dropped the main, and secured that on the boom, still doing around 18 knots, so took the reacher down as well, and hoisted a stormjib to keep the boat stable in case we would lose the rams completely Further inspection learned that the main bulkhead had buckled as well, not a nice view. Made some quick phone calls & informed the other Farr boats through race headquarters what had happened. About 10 minutes later we heard that the Pirates had problems as well, but apparently not so bad, as it seems that their keel wedges have fallen off. A relative easy fix, assume they have spares sitting in the container. So for us: we are looking in all kind of options to get the boat in Capetown, and of course how we can fix this properly. The last has to get done by our designers. There will be plenty of scratching on their heads going on and their computer models will be running red-hot. Boys, bring grinders & gloves, because there will be plenty of carbon dust flying around, this is not just a tickle job, this is major. So we are stopping in Porti Moa, a holiday resort on the south tip of Portugal. We were always planning to do a yacht race, and to stay away from the beach as far as passable, but how quickly things can change. Now we will enter another race: the one again start the clock. Better wish us luck. Cheers, A very grumpy Bouwe Bekking 11/14/05 Top
Madrid, November 30, 2005. Eighteen days after the start of the Volvo Ocean Race in Vigo – and 17 since the “movistar” suffered the accident that forced her to abandon the leg when she was leading the race – the Spanish boat is already repaired and ready to resume the race. Two weeks of repairs at the Portuguese port of Portimao have been necessary to put the yacht back in shape. “These have been two really hectic weeks - says Pedro Campos, “movistar”’s general manager–. In just 15 days we started the race in Vigo, managed to be leaders of the race, suffered a collision, went back to land, reached Portimao and carried out repairs on the boat”. This has been a busy time for repair work in port, and for strategic work at the team’s offices, says Campos. “While our land crew, supported by the Desafío Español 2007 America’s Cup specialists, strived to repair the boat, we gauged the pros and cons of every option at headquarters. The repairs have not been easy; the decision was hard to make too, but in both cases we have made a great effort”. After contemplating all options, the team decided to send the Volvo Open 70 “movistar” on a freighter directly to Cape Town, the port for the start of the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, and the location for the second inshore race of this year’s edition, on December 26. Repaired
in record time Once he checked the result of the repair work undertaken, Skipper Bouwe Bekking assessed the situation of the Volvo Open 70 “movistar”: “We knew the boat had suffered severe damages that would take a while to repair, but thanks to the work of our land crew and the support of the Desafío Español 2007, we have been able to complete repairs in record time. I feel very confident about the repair work done; the boat is in perfect condition”. Xabi Fernández, “movistar”’s trimmer and one of the crew members who helped with repairs, comments on the assistance from the Desafío Español 2007. “Without heir help it would have taken us much longer to have everything ready. They are great professionals; thanks to them, we will reach Cape Town ready to sail”. Ready
to race again The “movistar” will resume the race on December 26, in South African waters. “The inshore regatta in Cape Town will take place on December 26, and we must be ready by then –Pedro Campos warns -. If we chose to resume sailing with such a short time margin, we would run the risk of not making it on time for the inshore race. In that case, we would lose the chance of winning 3.5 points just to secure 3 points”. The second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race is one of the toughest ones, and it is absolutely essential to start in good shape to keep the chances for a good result. “If we arrived late in Cape Town, the crew would not have time to recover for the second leg – continues Bekking -. This is a crucial leg and we must be in perfect shape to face it: from the inshore race to the arrival in Australia there are 17.5 points at stake, so we must keep a cool head and assess every risk. Even if we limit ourselves to sailing the boat from Portimao, a 6,400 mile course represents considerable physical wear that takes some three weeks to recover”. The “movistar” will resume her regular training schedule in South Africa. “We are leaving for Cape Town on December 4 to continue our training. The boat will take around two weeks to get there, but meanwhile we will keep training hard. The crew did a wonderful job during the first night of the race, we were leaders of the race, and I am very satisfied with the performance of the boat and the sails. There are many points at stake still, this is a very long race, and the whole team is aware of our possibilities”. 12/01/05 Top
Movistar skipper Bouwe Bekking gets you up to speed on their status. This is a continuing series of articles from Bouwe that should get very exciting over the coming months. Enjoy. The shore crew have achieved priority number one: movistar has undergone the repairs, and it all looks good. Remember this was all done in the town of Portimao in Portugal. A nice holiday resort, a beautiful marina and very helpful people, but no boatyard. We were lucky that we were able to reroute our containers (who were on their way to Australia), so the boys had their mobile workshops available. But still then there are plenty of problems to overcome, like lack of electrical power, getting materials etc., etc. and one you can't control ....... the weather. The installations of the ramshelves is a very tricky job. The position and alignment of the ramshelves has to be very accurate, otherwise you will run in trouble, when extending the hydraulic cylinders. After some very long days, all the the jobs have been done . As you all know we decided to ship the boat, as we were running out of time to sail the boat on its own keel. Of course it was tempting to sail and to score two extra points. But we had to keep the big picture in mind. In case of a slow trip, the risk of missing the in-port race in Capetown was there, and for sure we wouldn't be good prepared for the 2nd leg. As we are shipping from Cadiz ,Spain, we had to deliver the boat over there It is only 120 miles from Portimao, but decided that we placed the stick back in boat, that way no concerns in case of engine failure( a Volvo never stops!!!!). Unfortunately no wind, so the donkey on for 14 hours, and no real testing of the shelves, besides canting from side to side. Anyway it was nice to be back on the boat. We have chosen to use a cargo ship for the transport of movistar, this for several reasons over flying. The keel could stay on . If taking off, a very time consuming job, especially with the sliding plate keel arrangement our boat is having. All in all it would take about 10 days, to get the boat back on the water, so not real time saver over shipping. Then no risk of damage for transport over the road to and from airports. A nice bonus is that shipping is about half the price of flying. Wallenius, a partner/sponsor of the race & our logistics manager did a marvelous job . They managed to divert a cargo ship, who was on route to Port Elisabeth in South Africa, to make a stop in Cadiz and than drop us off in Capetown. So that part has all worked out well. The shore crew although ,had a bit of fright today, as it was blowing 30 knots plus. A couple of fingernails less, but the loading of their baby went well. As soon we arrive in Capetown, we will give the boat a good shakedown and of course will follow up with reports. Cheers, 12/05/05 Top
Movistar Skipper Bouwe Bekking provides his exclusive SA commentary as they get ready for the start of the gnarly leg into the Southern Ocean. His daily reports to us ought to be fascinating. Enjoy. The last couple of weeks here in Capetown have brought us some good things. The mishap of the first leg, first of all, bonded the entire team into an even stronger unit. The sailing crew liked the way the shore guys had repaired movistar, and from the time the boat arrived over here, everything has run like clock work. We maximized the days on the water before the in-port race. The first couple of days we sailed in big waves to give the structure a good workout. But as well we ran three days of crew practice, emphasis on starts and crew work. Time and distance with the starts are crucial, as the boats move so quickly. You look at the distance you are away from the line and you think, no way we are in time, but ....you get there in a whisker, because of the speed you are doing. The in-port race was exciting, I assume everybody has seen some pictures or footage. We had one hick-up in our 2nd gybe, keel still on the wrong ooops, which costs us dearly, but after that we sailed a good race, and passed 4 boats and extended on them. One thing that gives us a lot of confidence was the last two legs of the course. On the run we gained 1.5 minute on ABN One, and the final beat 35 seconds. Did they slow down on purpose? Hard to know, one thing for sure, up to that moment we didn't know that the course was shortened. So we're pretty happy, the bad thing is we lost .5 of a point to ABN ,who sailed by the way a flawless race.The good news is that this result has taken us away from the so much hated last place on the scoreboard. The 2nd leg has changed dramatically with the introduction of the two ice waypoints. Little less stress for me, no threats of having icebergs dodging up in front of us. As well I packed another pair of Bermuda's shorts, as it won't be getting that cold. The weather: Just had another weather briefing with our team , no holiday on the 1st of January!!!!! By the way, nearly forgot: to all Anarchist readers, have a good 2006! The weather looks very interesting and tricky heading out of Capetown. Try to predict from your armchair which way the fleet will go, and which way you would have gone if you were racing. You might be up for some big surprises. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 01/02/06 Top
Meanwhile, here is our exclusive SA onboard report from race leader movistar. Hopefully your year has started as good as ours, any late hangovers? The last two days for us is all about being back in the world of upwind sailing. The trip so far has been very good, we are showing good pace, but of course keeping an eye on the opposition in the south. We have chosen a bit more conservative route, so that we can keep the options open for sailing either through the ridge or to sail around it. It would have been a no-brainer if the ice way point was not there,but we have to round that imaginary spot. We actually have made our choice, won't tell you, just follow us on the web. Is it Fun? Not really, upwind sailing should be forbidden , you crash and bang like crazy through the waves, and this has caused already huge problems for two of the competitors. So taken it "easy", sailed last night with two reefs and #4 and we backed the keel pressure off, so it will release if we fall of a big greeny. So the next 40 hours will be tricky, the team who reaches the Westerlies first will be in good shape to pick up the first points at the scoring waypoint. Keep you posted Bouwe Bekking
Albatross,
the Metaphor The albatross is about the only good thing to report from onboard, as we f*#$%d up badly. Should have stuck a little closer to the fleet, paying the price right now. But still a long way to go. The good news as well is that it is not cold, not a real southern ocean leg as such, the water is still 15 degrees. Bouwe Bekking 01/06/06 Top
The latest from Bouwe Bekking and movistar. Enjoy. Even with super weather models available, sometime things change so rapidly, that big adjustment happen with in a couple of hours. Like right now, movistar thought we would get a nice breeze to ride on just before the front. But a change in the weather has happened. A tricky secondary low is developing, very close to the ice waypoint we have to cross, that may result that the front will slow down, when this new low is developing. If we are fast enough to get to the other side of the area were the low is developing than we are ok , and can ride nice nortwesterlies for a couple of days longer. If we are not going to make it, and the three boats in front do, than it will be a hopeless situation for us. Losing DAYS, as the other do 480-500 miles per day, and we will sail slowly upwind. A bit , no very, stressy right now!!!! The last sched was good again, gained on the leaders, and nearly 13 miles on the pirates. Still very pissed off with myself, for the conservative route we took leaving Capetown, or maybe be better said stick to the fleet when you know you are doing just fine against them. We are all missing the Anarchy webside. Would love to read some of the comments: we must have gotten our fair share of bashing up as well, that 's life. But unfortunately the Volvo rules doesn't allow to receive any sailing related information , so all this has to wait to the finish. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking,
First of all well done to the nippers by breaking the 24 hour world record of their colleagues. The kids must laughing their heads off, and showing the older generation a bit of a sailing lesson. Only in the last sched of 6 hours movistar had a similar run, as we finally have the same pressure. Movistar is jumping and bouncing over the waves,and masses of grey water over the deck. A matter of being clipped on very well otherwise you get washed away, or smashed into things. Xabi, our 49' golden boy, was a bit unlucky, and got smashed in the steering wheel protector bar, luckily only a small bruise. Investors should have a good look at this sport, it would be the wildest attraction in themeparks, who said sailing was boring? It is still 2000 miles to Eclipse island on the southern tip of Aussie, and for sure there things will happen. 100 miles can fade away in a whisker, it is next to nothing in these fast boats. Cheers, 01/11/06 Top
Movistar skipper Bouwe Bekking provides us another exclusive onboard report.
Looking at the wind reading of the other boats around us, in the last 36 hours we been sailing in similar pressure, and we slowly nibbled away the miles, seems like we have the right sail combimation for this angle. Still we have to look what we can do in heavy breeze, at tight angles, probably just missing stability to keep up with the ABN boats. We managed "only" one run of 141 miles in 6 hours, so we will also look into the sails we are having for these conditions Paul is getting a bit more confident now that his damage is not too bad, slowly increasing his speed. I know the feeling he is having right now, getting water inside of the boat is not fun, especially not when you are still over 1000 miles away from the nearest land. Cross fingers it doesn't get worse for them. We are running our normal watch system, but as we are only so few on the movistar, every sail change means waking up people. Some of the guys are unlucky, and it happens that all the sail changes are in their off-watch, so they are getting tired. Tricky for the watch captains to make the right call. Especially now when sailing at high speeds, the stress levels are high. Like last night for example, the breeze died down a bit, and we were automatically looking for more horse power, but the forecast was the breeze to build at anytime, so the golden 10 minutes rule came in action. Hold on a bit longer to the sail you have up. It worked, maybe a tiny loss for a short period, but changing the sails would have cost us likely more, and the crew would have been f":*ed. Packing a 500 metre sail is not easy, and when you have to do this twice, then you can expect really dark faces. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 01/13/06 Top
From our VOR on the water corrrespondent, movistar skipper Bouwe Bekking. This race is getting good. Enjoy. Onboard movistar we have been ripping of the miles in the last couple of days, but the end of the fun is getting very close - the breeze will drop quickly over the next couple of hours. What a change that will be, no water over deck, putting on dry gear for a change, no holding on anymore..........and we will be sleeping like babies. No that the sleeping has seen bad, I am actually amazed how well everybody has coped with the conditions. Trust in your buddies on deck takes a lot of stress away. About an hour ago, we blew the hydraulc vang seals, oil pissing everywhere. We disconnected the hoses, but still have the vang in place. Traveller all the way down, and sheeting a bit tighter, we can just manage to keep the right mainsail shape. We have a ready to roll cascade system, for this purpose, but the seas are still too big to take the entire vang off - too risky to lose bits and pieces. The two boats in front of us are getting closer and closer, and it looks like that the black boat might have cut the corner a bit too close, as they only showed 6 knots of windspeed, But we also have to remember that Stan Honey has put them up to now in all the right spots. The youngsters on the white boat seem not to have gone so well as we expected - they sail nearly in the same waters as us and when looking at previous data from them in these conditions, they should be quicker, maybe they have damaged something? So it will be an interesting 30 hours, as the fleet will have to cross the ridge of high pressure. We have seen it before, it is a good possiblity that we might get an reversed order at scoring gate! Paul seems to have the confidence back, and is having the hammer down again, so we don't count them out, maybe tomorrow the four of us are all in sight of each other - remember this happened in the last race. Finally: I made a commitment to write every day, but to be honest it has been bloody hard to keep it up, so forgive me for slipping some days. Cheers, Bouwe Bekkng 01/14/05 Top
What I predicted yesterday has become true, movistar is very close to the leaders, who are respectively 6 & 13 miles ahead, so a lot can happen in the next 24 hours. Paul is nicely tucked away behind us, so this shouldn't be a problem, but then I have seen strange things happen before in Ocean racing. The problem what we face is that we have to make a pit stop, after one of our hydraulic rams failed yesterday. We need to pick up replacements bolts, which have sheared of, plus some extra hydraulic fluid, since we lost most of that. It will cost us a two hour penalty, but that's the only way we will make it safely to Melbourne. Gambling a bit is OK, playing Russian roulette is not one of my favourites. With some smart thinking, we will have the "broken" ram working again, but still losing oil & pressure. If worse comes to worse, we will isolate this ram again, and continue to sail with one ram, but it means a big loss in performance, as we can't cant to 40 degrees. It makes me wonder although , what the Einsteins of force calculations have to say. I am getting tired of worrying regarding this. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking
The last 48 hours have been heinous for movistar. The pitstop was easy, you can read more details on the VOR site, but since we left that Bay, it has been the most uncomfortable sailing of this trip. The Southern Ocean has been in general very gentle to us, but before letting us out of its grip, a final farewell gift. We have been sailing in 25 knots upwind, with the breeze slowly lifting, meaning bouncing in the old wave direction. Some huge bangs every couple of minutes, sleeping impossible and just praying nothing will burst. Sailing with 3 reefs in the main, plus a small jib, still making amazing headway. The leaders pushing it harder than us, they shouldn't know we are only sailing on one ram, and therefore have to take more precautions. Weather looks very tricky ahead, another parking lot will come up. We set ourselves up to the south east of the leaders, in case they run out of breeze , there is chance to do the buffalo girl on them. The next 24 hours will learn us more.(Did they ever - see below - Ed) Cheers, Movistar had apparently solved her hydraulic failure, but it has reappeared again in the last hours. “Back to where we were on movistar. The replaced O-ring in the port hydraulic ram has spat the dummy. Consequence, the keel is back to a max of 20 degree, this way not much force on the cylinders and less loss of hydraulic fluid. We can go of course to a single ram, but after what happened last evening to the Pirates, want to use that as the last option” Bouwe 01/18/06 Top
The conditions are way better than 24 hours ago, and movistar is slipping nicely along under spinnaker. We are dead flat running, and as the wind is very shifty - (30 degree shifts) - we have to gybe regularly. It is actually my off time, but for every gybe we need at least 9 guys on deck, as it not only gybing the sails, but as well to move the entire stack. Normally we can use of course the keel to level out the boat, but since the keel is in the middle (we are still nursing our system), we have to be aggressive with the stack as that is the only way of gaining stability. So this is the reason to have another mail to the readers, call it laziness. When I would go to my bunk, it is most likely I get woken up in a couple of minutes. So instead spending time in the navstation, monitoring the wind direction, and catching up on mails to be answered. At least it is dry on deck, so the off guys just have to put a jacket on, gybe the boat, quickly re-stack and jump back in their bunks. As always, some time has gone without gybing, and my eyes are getting tired, I have to make a lot of corrections while typing. I am going to use the navstation seat to have a little nap, the alarm will wake me up if the wind goes whacky again. Cheers, Bouwe 01/20/06 Top
G'day, Australia Day: a national holiday over here, but not for the movistar shore team. Since our arrival we have been flat out. Not only the shore team, but as well the sailing team. The shore team have plenty of work with exchanging the titanium rams for our stainless rams, which of course brings us out of measurement trim. For the sailing team: we have just finished our 4 day recovery schedule with a small fitness test this morning. The schedule has been pretty tough since we arrived, and very different comparing to previous races. First it was amazing to see that the guys didn't drink any alcohol, as they knew that 12 hours after arrival the recovery program would begin. A one hour workout early in the morning, followed by technical meetings. Early afternoon, massage for everybody and a late afternoon gym session. The weight loss during the leg has been minimal and as well the results for blood and urine were OK. We found one guy had a tiny infection, so this could be quickly treated. The results for today's testing of movistar's crew has gone beyond our expectations, when using the Cape Town test as our base line. Now the crew takes four days off, and the shore crew keeps going. We'll be sailing on Tuesday, the 31st. More soon! Bouwe Bekking 01/26/06 Top
Today we will back on the racetrack with movistar. Everybody has seen that we we have changed our titanium rams for the stainless ones, and of course that meant some weight modifications had to be made, read: weight has been taken out of movistar's bulb. All the work has been done in a nice time frame, and we were the first team back on the water after the the haul out. Not only tweaking the hydraulics, but as well looking at re-cuts made on sails, checking out some new sails, plus small adjustments on the rig. Besides that, everyday we did some starting practice and than 3 ups and downs, to keep the crew work sharp. Tomorrow's race will be different from the previous in-port races, for the first time we'll sail a up-down course. With the shifty conditions experienced in the last couple of days, a matter of keeping the eyes open, as there will be plenty of opportunities for passing lanes. Brasil one is still onshore and we hope that they will make it in time, but I can imagine that they don't need any further setbacks, as time is getting very tight for them. We have loaned one of our titanium piston rods, an end cap and a clevis head to the Pirates, as they otherwise wouldn't have been able to race, as they didn't had any replacements parts in time. Some people asked me why as there is of course a chance they will beat us in this in port race. But so be it, we believe in our team and rather beat them fair and square. It is of course a bit ironic that we are helping out the hydraulic company in who have lost our fate, so assume they will make it up to us in some way! Keep you posted, Bouwe Bekking,
02/03/06 Top
Relax! No issue with our rams or any other things, so no need to take the two hour penalty, although it is very tempting to get the shore crew onboard to clean up! 400 miles to go to the top, with this speed arriving somewhere late afternoon, and then the interesting part will start - it looks like really light and fluky air in the Cook Strait, so a compression of the fleet will happen. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 02/14/06 Top
How movistar won leg 3, courtesy of skipper Bouwe bekking. A good read and enjoy. Already 400 miles out we knew that the breeze would drop dramatically and a possible restart would happen. But we had one big worry at that stage, as there were loud noises coming from underneath the boat. The entire boat was vibrating,and horrible air bubbles appeared behind the transom and the rudder was shaking violently. We didn't exactly know what was wrong, but assumed damage to the keel wedges. As this is not structural, we made to decision to push on full throttle. Up 'til then we were 20 miles behind the black boat, so understandably we lost a couple in the next 24 hours. At the top of southern Island, the breeze dropped as expected, so we gybed out every time the breeze dropped under 12 knots, a winning move. Early afternoon we saw the ABN on the horizon, and slowly kept reeling them in as we had a tad more pressure. Still we were struggling badly, and were nearly half a knot under our targets, but seemed to able to hang in with them as soon we were together. We positioned ourselves very well during the entire night, and made some gains, which vanished again, as the black boat was just a tad quicker upwind as soon the wind was over 12 knots. Then the breeze died and they worked the transition from the southerly into the northerly better than us, and were right back. Once the spinnakers were up the battle was really on. The speeds were very similar, it just seemed we made gains in every gybe and as well positioning ourselves good at every corner. With 12 miles to go, we were nearly 3 miles ahead by just doing a better job reading the breeze. It seemed like it might become an easy sail in, but all of sudden we parked! From then on it was a heartrate of 200, all the way up to the finish, being neck on neck. It doesn't matter that we only pipped them by 9 seconds, a win is win, and finishes like these are good for our sport. For example in Spain every news channel opened the news with our victory, before going on with other topics. Who said sailing is boring and not good for TV? Of course happy, and it shows we have a great sailing & shore team who can bounce back out of difficult situations. A bit disappointed that we have to take the two hour penalty for the repairs we have to carry out , but more than happy to see that with some much damage underneath the waterline, we managed to beat the black boat. They will probably scratch their head, after their initial euphoria of their light air performance. One thing for sure, they are the boat to beat in this race, but we have shown that we can hang in in the big breeze, and still a long wayto go ......... Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 02/17/06 Top
Even with
their late start, movistar has moved right in to the thick
of things. Oh yeah, they have also filed a couple of protests, one
against Pirates of the Caribbean and ABN Here is Bouwe Bekking's pre-start report.. Well in time, the movistar shoreteam has done all the repairs. Following sound a bite like to Oscar's, but personally I'd like to thank Britty, Tom F, Fred, Wado, Andy, Daryl, Linton sails, Fraser B, Jillian & Gordon, the boys from Hakes Marine, Henry, Kim,Dave , Harry, Jessie, Elly. & Maria. They did the "impossible" job of getting us back in the race. THANKS GUYS & GIRLS!!! We know we got a two-hour penalty for outside assistance, which we think will be an advantage in the end. Everything got serviced by people who know their job, if we the sailors would have done this, we would have made shortcuts or maybe not even able to fix things. And just as important our crew has been focussing on the recovery programme (thanks Sam & Ruth): A little fitness in the morning, eat, then resting, eating, followed by the daily massages and individual treatments, eating and then resting again. It is nice to be treated like kings! I always thought (and still think) two hours was a a very cheap option to use outside assistance, and thought a higher time penalty would be OK for this assistance, but the rules are the rules, so we got off the hook cheaply in my mind. One thing I learned from the Americans over the years, is to use the rules in an optimum way. Like Ericsson, for example, this was a brilliant move in my opinion. Of course it will be hard to start two hours after the others, but the weather forecast doesn't look too bad, and as long the distance doesn't grow we will be fine. The crew is fired up and ready to go around the Horn again. It is very special for us, when you think that within 11 months most of us sailing for the 2nd time around this magnificient landmark . Will keep you posted, Bouwe Bekking 02/18/06 Top
Nearly 36 hours underway, and the sailing has been smooth, wind is ranging from 15-20 knots, and coming from 130 TWA, so slipping along nicely. Yesterday we were a bit surprised to see how far all the boats ahead dove south. Our routing programme had a more more northerly course to our first ice waypoint at 48 south and 144 east. At one stage we were in the lead, but having the entire fleet south of us, so we made small course adjustmenta to get closer to the fleet. In the 2nd leg we learned our lesson, it was nearly impossible to get south once committed, so we took a calculated loss and set ourselves up to the south of the fleet, with only Brasil a click further south. The VMC changes a lot, when a boat sails 10 degrees closer to the course, that is the reason why there are so many differences in the position reports. We look more at the distance run in 6 hours, and sofar ABN 1 is always slightly quicker, but we are most of the time having the 2nd best run, so that feels good. As well we are keeping a close eye on our relative bearings compare to the other boats, as a gain in bearing is very often more important than the distance run. Movistar is already at 50 South and the temperature starts dropping, sea temperature 11 degrees. The forecast is for building breeze over the next day up to 25 knots from the west, then slowly heading and softening, eventually we have to go on the wind (AARGH) then tacking. The winds will be light, around 10 knots, so it looks like to be a restart. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 02/21/06 Top
Not sure how many extra miles movistar sailed so far to get around the high pressure system, but they must be plenty by now. It is interesting to see the difference in opinions of what all the boats think. On movistar both computers are red hot, as we are running all kind of options for our routes to the ice waypoint. Brasil still looks good on paper, but whenever we are trying to favour her position, we always get them roughly 5 hours behind us at the ice waypoint, which of course is nice for us. It is just as hard to look at the map/screen and see yourself sailing away from where you want to go and your first thought is: what we are doing is wrong! You can easily see why solo-sailors very often make the mistake to sail direcly to a waypoint, as they have nobody to bounce questions off of. One thing for sure we were happy to see that the black boat made such a drastic decision yesterday, and took a huge loss by coming south. The Juan Alphabet boat is quick in these conditions, so it is a smart move to stick with the opposition, as they have a small edge. The Pirates and ourself are very similar in speed, and Ericcson for some reason a bit of the pace, but that said I realise that they are still ahead of us. So far the two hour penalty hasn't been to bad. The conditions are marvellous, flat water 18-22 knots of wind and similar boatspeed. We can imagine this would be perfect conditions for a maxi-cat to do some monster mileage. Sailors are always dreaming of speed: our sport has come a long way, and I remember my first round the world race in 1985, where we did a 300 miler in 24 hours, we thought that was the limit. A reommendation for you who like to hear "old good" stories. John Jourdane has recently written a book, Sailing with Scoundrels and Kings. Easy to read, and for me it brought back a lot of good memories, and as well I realise how much our sport has changed in the last 20 years! Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 02/22/06 Top
Movistar is back in the breeze, the first ice-waypoint roughly 120 miles behind us. Capey, our navigator cut it very close, a bit to close in my opinion, but he stayed cool, took the picture of the GPS as proof, and went back to bed! The forecast looks for a building breeze during the night, so a quick but uncomfortable ride to next ice-waypoint which is now only 340 miles away. Blast-reaching, these boats are amazingly fast. Our prediction regarding Brasil's northerly route has fallen even better than expected - we thought around 5 hours ahead, but it looks like to be nearly double that. The ABN will love this tight reaching, no way we can hold on, they are nearly 5%!!!!!! faster in this stuff. Oracle might start thinking to give Juan K the free hand for their 2nd boat if it is windy in Valencia.... But it will
be tricky again at the 2nd ice-waypoint, a big call has to be made. Either
make a deep dive south to nearly 62 South, The penguin route will take
you nearly 90 degrees off course for a day, so it will be a couple of
painful scheds, but then it looks like you stay in good pressure and.......very
low temperatures. Or take a more conservative route which will look very
good in the beginning as you sail close to the mark in reasonable breeze.......and
not so cold. But then.... Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 02/24/06 Top
date time TWD TWS TWA HDG BS
The above is a small example for what we can expect over the next 7 hours on movistar. On our displays we have them all in beautiful colours and can see as well which sail code we should fly, in this case a masthead A-sail, plus some graphs for a quick overlook. .We normally have an outlook for 48 hours, from two different models. So the watch captains check this out before going on deck, as it will be easier for him to make a call on either reefing, sailchanges, gybes etc, etc. When you are shorthanded, you better think twice before making a sailchange, as it means everybody on deck, and you aren't very popular if you have to change 15 mnutes later again back to the old sail. It is amazing how acurate the models are in this area regarding windspeed and direction, so it is a very helpful tool. It is 1600 miles to the Horn, and by looking at the forecast we will round in just over 3 days time, at early daybreak. It has been a slow trip, without the ice waypoints we would have been there,but at least we still have warm feet and hands and no icebergs spotted. This is a bit of a dissapointment for Xabi, the only ice he has ever seen was in his rum & coke.He wil lbe back in four years time, maybe more lucky then. It will be my sixth time to sail around this famous landmark,and it makes me wonder how many times more will follow, it could well be the last time. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 03/26/06 Top
Can we hold we the inside overlap on the Pirates, as we are setting up for gybe set at the ice waypoint? That was how close we were together half an hour ago. They must be shocked to see that even with movistar's stack downstairs we are still a tad quicker, we took 24 miles out of them in the last 24 hours. Maybe it is the chine in the back of our bus, or more likely it comes down to the sails, ours a little better for the current angle. But then for sure with the same combination they might be quicker in more breeze., although last night sailed in 25-28 knots and still took miles out of them, so that makes us feel comfortable for the ride to the Horn. So we are heading straight south , even a bit west of south, to hook onto a small low pressure, who will give us better pressure. Timing the gybe will be crucial, as we will most likely be on port tack all the way from there on. Bouwe Bekking 03/27/06 Top
An unheard thing is happening right now which never will occur in the real world. The poor get richer quickly as movistar is a little less than two Fastnets away from the Horn. "Man, don't you like ocean racing, probably the only sport were quick changes can happen, for the worse or good." We're reaching along in 20 knots rights now, the boats behind us have 2 knots more breeze, so normally they should go 2 knots faster, but we managed to keep the difference at 1.5 knots. Pirate Paul has done a better job positioning themselves, and also benefits form picking up the breeze earlier than us. (I hate myself). At the rate that the poor have eaten the miles up, it might be a close bunch up as we round the Horn. It will be an important rounding as it is also a scoring waypoint. It makes you feel we have only 60 miles to go, but as well I know in 1150 miles everything can happen. The breeze will pick up over the next 48 hours up to 35 knots, so we'll have guaranteed fast sailing. I am trying to use the night watches to catch up on paper work, like writing articles, answering media request, interviews etc., etc. and will sneak down (to be honest it is warmer down here) if I am not really needed. But always fully kitted, so that I can jump on deck if required. That is one big difference from all the previous races, now I have to find the right balance between boat performance and media, before as a crew member you only cared about the performance. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 02/28/06 Top
Movitsar is slipping along nicely in the good breeze of the last 24 hours here in the VOR. The last couple of hours it seems like we sail more under water than above, but we are fast ................and sorry for the American readers, we have passed the Pirates, now roughly 4 miles astern and clearly visible. They have 1 reef and a kite, we sail with two reefs, small staysail and a spinnaker. In 24 hours we have taken 15 miles of them, not bad. We are holding on to ABN in mileage runs, but they still have a comfortable lead, currently sailing 15 degrees under the mark (VMC, at only 92%), the Horn, so the question is if we put up a small reacher up and sail closer to course, but have decided to hang a little longer and stay with the opposition. We don't want to give away that .5 point. Forecast for tonight is building breeze up to 35 knots, but this can easy reach 40+ when approaching the land. Just hoping we reach it before the front comes through, to avoid gybing twice, which will be a "nightmare" especially since the generator is still down. It will mean moving the keel with the electric DC pump, which takes a long time. Just crossing fingers. Last 24 hours 533 miles and that number is still going up, but a record is not in it for us , as the waves are too confused and are actually slowing movistar down. One more day, and we are out of here, I can tell you we won't be the only ones happy to leave his place, the families back home probably even more. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 03/01/06 Top
This
Looks Familiar... Bekking describes the situation: “As we had suspected, fairing between the keel and the hull had broken off, and this had led to our taking on water. Once the boat was out of the water, we could see that there was also some light damage to the rudder and the hull, which was almost certainly caused by the fairing breaking off. We’ve performed repairs that will allow us to sail to Rio, where more rigorous investigation and repair will be done to get the boat back into optimum condition for the next leg. Although Movistar is technically returning to the competition, in practice their journey will be focussed on reaching their destination, Brazil, and as such, they will be sailing at a very different pace to the rest of the fleet. “We will be sailing with the keel halfway so as not to exert to much pressure around the area until we are able to perform more in-depth repairs.” Says Bekking. “Obviously, in these kind of conditions our speed will be a lot slower than the rest of the fleet, but we should be in Rio by the 13th.”
All of sudden I woke up, and thought, I have forgotten my SA articles! The guys have made me the promise to write the dailies for the Volvo site, so I could relax a bit...........but a promise is a promise, and besides we all like SA! We are feeling like Kimi Raikkonen with his Formula 1 car last year. Bloody fast, but struggling to reach the finish line in one piece, very frustrating. Of course the crew could have walked as soon we were in Ushuaia, but everybody knows we are having a fantastic and a fast boat, an we want to prove ourselves. We have set ourselves some new personal goals, so that we can walk away with pride when this campaign is over. The most important thing is right now what repairs to do. We have decided to stick to the same system, but way more beefed up. One of the disadvantages to being first on the water, we realise now. Russ Bowler and his team have looked at a lot of options, but we can come only to one conclusion: Stick with what we have. Logistically it will be a nightmare, some spare parts we had still at Boatspeed, but need some new wedges (Bomb doors) as well. Green Marine is building them for us. Making them shouldn't be the problem, but getting them in Rio could be an obstacle. But we have the right people on the job so we are just crossing fingers. Movistar started racing again 36 hours ago, in heinous conditions - 30-40 knots, ice cold winds from the Northwest blowing right from the snowy mountain tops. Storm jib and 3 reefs in the main, no fun. Easy watches, only two on deck, so at least the guys will rest well. The repairs are holding up nicely, not even a drip of water in the wetbox. We have centered the keel, basically we closed all the gaps besides the fin, and put a big rubber seals around the fin to allow for some movement. Electronics are still a problem around both engines. Control panels are dead, and we have to "shortcut" to get them going. Amazingly the altenators are going now better than ever before, 20 amps more output.The good saltwater bath must have done them well, but how to explain that to an electrician! Winds have lighten up,12 knots and the Malvinas are in sight, full main and our biggest kite up, sailing a little lower than normally, as we can't move the keel for stability, but still making 12 knots to the mark. Next two days light breeze, before filling in from the Southwest. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 03/08/06 Top
Not much progress in the last 24 hours for movistar, wind on the nose. That will change tonight. A low pressure system is building right on top of us, and over the next 12 hours the breeze will steadily increase to ........45 knots. At least from the right direction, a shame the keel is locked in the middle, because conditions will be there for a record run. Just before we broke down at the Horn, we had 552 miles on the clock in 24 hours and that was increasing by roughly 3 miles an hour, until the bomb doors came off. As you probably have seen, we withdrew our protests against ABN 2 and the Pirates. During our stop in Ushuaia we spoke to some international judges, and they all agreed that most likely the outcome will be: yes the rule has been broken, but it will end up with a slap on the wrist, as it was not intended. Of course we could have gone on with it, but the penalty would have never been so big that we would have gained a place. I am still totally against the pit stop rule, as policing this rule is impossible. And I (we) think it is ridiculous that the race crew has to fix and prepare the boat with the experts, the shore crew, standing on the dock. 1650 miles to go, can't wait to finish our "delivery" and get the boat fixed, so we finally can sail a leg without troubles. In all the races I have done I am still amazed at the finish positions on this leg: 3rd, 4th, 5th, 5th. I'm not sure what I have done wrong somewhere in life to upset Neptune so much. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 03/09/06 Top
Only now you really start appreciating the canting keel on these boats. Currently having a steady 45 knots, with puffs up to 50 knots, and the water is just smoking the tops off. Just dropped the main, which had already 3 reefs in. But still averaging 21 knots with just the #4 jib and the stormjib staysail. movistar us difficult to drive with the keel in the center, the only advantage is that it seems that bow is popping higher out of the water as usual. Last night we were just on the edge of a low pressure. Easterly breeze, but monster waves coming straight on the bow. We had to sail 50 degrees of course to prevent breaking the boat. Then the breeze clocked slowly around, and started to increase. We had already decided not to set a spinnaker,a s most likely the wind would increase rapidly. The barometer plummeted in one hour from 988 to 975, so we were guaranteed for some sting. The big gust just hit us like a hammer, a bit like the Southerly buster in the Hobart, and the first couple of hours were crazy, the sea state like a washing machine, waves coming from all directions, but we managed to get through it without damage. Finally decided to take the main down, as we started to slam pretty hard, and even that I have confidence in the repair we did, it is not worth it to take any risks. Relaxed right now, you can feel the boat is behaving better with less sail. A good time to catch up on some sleep. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 03/10/06 Top Movistar got a very nice letter from our friends at FYD, written by Russ Bowler and actually for the attention of all Volvo competitors. Not sure if this letter has been made public,as we don't have access to either SA or any other sailing sites. If this has not been published, the SA editor should ask for a copy, because it is interesting and honest stuff to read and it explains a lot of areas in understandable language. (We think this is it, but we'll see if Farr has something more. -Ed) The highlight of our day was that our Spanish boys onboard finally decided to cut up the cured ham, which we got in Ushuaia from our friends on the Spanish icebreaker Las Palmas. The ham was orginally planned to be a gift for the authorities in Rio, where the Las Palmas will bunker fuel after their last trip to Antartica on their way back home to Spain. But the captain thought the skinny boys on movistar would be better of with some rich and good food. We must have looked like a pack of wolves, waiting for a feed, as Pepe slowly started the cut..........and the taste was delicious! Of course we have been following the progress of the fleet, but it is a torture every time again to look at the results. Should have been there, but can't change it. It is also very strange to "cruise" to Rio, I think none of us have done so many miles without having to push a boat for so many days in a row. Winds have dropped down to a gentle 12 knots, but coming right from behind, so not a very good VMC. Just shrugging my shoulders, there is not much we can do about it, more important is that we have to stay out of the claws of a building high pressure zone. It looks ok, but...........other bad things have happened on this trip . And in a worse case scenario, we will overcome that setback as well. We never give up!!!!! Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 03/11/06 Top
We have been counting how many metres of rope we have (are we bored yet?) onboard movistar, but still missing about 400 metres to anchor successful. Yes, you are right, we are currently going backwards,at a rate of nearly 2 knots, as we have zip for breeze. We have been trying to get around this huge black cloud for a couple of hours, but no way, it just seems to keep building. The forecast still has a soft southeasterly 6-8 knots, so just let's hope the clouds get burned off by the sun. Some of the guys are getting a bit dark (darker then the cloud above us), while others just laugh it off, making the dark ones even darker. One person who is happy with the heat and the slow pace is Xabi. He has to lose about 8 kg before the end of the month, as he then starts racing again in the 49' together with Iker. Their first goal is to become No.1 in the world ranking again, and of course looking at the long run,they want to defend their olympic title. Xabi, thanks mate, for all the good (and bad) we went through over the last 23 months, you have been a great asset to the movistar team,an we will miss you. Good luck in the 49, and I am sure our paths will cross soon again. Only 310 miles to go. At current speed rate, how many years, will it take to drift backwards around the world towards Rio? For sure one of the guys will come up with the answer, as we have nothing else to do than listening to the sound of flapping sails. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 03/15/06 Top
Did a new low record today, in 6 hours only 3 miles!!!! Absolutely zip breeze, not very often you see this kind of conditions. The water colour magnificent deep blue, and not a single ripple on the surface. You can see we are closing into land, as the amount of rubbish floating by is increasing dramatically, as well there was a thin layer of dust floating on the surface. The boys have been bronzing up, and I think we don't look at all like a team who has just been 26 days on the water and through the Southern Ocean. Looks like no weight loss, so that is plus. The trip from Ushuaia has taken a bit longer than expected, flights have been changed already a couple of times for the boys who are going home. We all know the feeling, normally you are in the situation when having a slow offshore race, that you can't make your next regatta. Now it is even worse, a chance of one day less with the family. 4 days back home is not a lot before returning to Rio again. There is a lot at stake for us for the remainder of the race, as we want to finish on the podium. It would be nice to finally sail a leg without any mayors and to show the real potential of the crew & boat. We did 552 miles in 24 hours before the wedges came off, most likely the conditions are to light in the next leg, but breaking that world record again is well possible for us during the transatlantic, and that will be another goal we want to achieve. That's it for this leg, as it looks like we will finish tomorrow. Cheers, Bouwe
Bekking 03/16/06 Top
The race to America is on and here is a brief pre-race report from movistar. Enjoy. A short VOR update from movistar here in Rio. As you know we had bit on, especially getting the boat ready in time before the inshore race, but all went smooth. A big thanks to Russ Bowler from FYD, who was there the entire time to overlook the modifications..........and a lot of times with a grinder in his hand to assist the boatbuilders. After the inport race we have taken the boat out again, to finish the job. We didn't had time to put any paint on and to sand it properly, but now the boat is in good nick. We have sailed 4 legs, and unfortunately in all legs we had issues. But we have shown that we are fast. Even that we are narrower than the other Farr boats (read: less from stability), we have shown to be quicker in 15 knots plus. The different bowsection and the chine must work well in these conditions, so the research programme we did is paying off. We hope than we can prove ourselves in the next leg and to get back in a podium position. ABN1 is looking comfortable, but so far they haven't really any pressure on them, besides the leg into Wellington..........and we know the outcome. I think Mike Sanderson is clearly remembering Illbruck in the last race, who had a comfortable lead here in Rio. Although ABN 1 has shown to be the fastest in a lot of conditions, they realise they don't have the race in the bag yet.... Cheers, Bouwe Bekking
Sweat
City Cheers, Bouwe Bekking
Movistar just nipped ABN to the scoring gate off Brazil in this leg of the Volvo Ocean Race by a slim 1 minute 25 second margin. Here is skipper Bouwe Bekking's report just before the points win. The black boat is ripping again, in tight reaching conditions. Not much we can do on movistar, just keep pushing as hard as possible and hope that the wind will drop again a bit. As soon we are fully powered up, ABN is 1 knot quicker. We can jut se them on the horizon, 75 miles to go for us to the scoring waypoint, it should be just enough................. Anyway for sure movistar will beat Paul C. and ABN 2, against ABN1 we will know the official outcome in roughly 5 hours. At the scoring waypoint we bear down 35 degrees, so a big kite will go up and the breeze will slowly drop down until we cross the equator. We have got one victim onboard, and he is clearly not happy about his first crossing. There is already a bucket standing at the stern with leftover food and flying fish in it, nicely smoldering in the sun, ready in time for his celebrations. It is bloody hot downstairs and as well on deck, nearly can't drink enough fluid, we are close to 9 litres a person per day, and still feel thirsty. The sun is cooking us. Ask a sailor what he will bring, for sure sunglasses are on top of the list. It is unbearable to be longer than 1 minute without them on this trip. Keanon has been so kind to supply is with their product, and without making to much advertising, nothing beats it. Bouwe Bekking 04/07/06 Top We are winning the "silver fleet" right now: ABN is in these conditions is just in another league, more like the Volvo 80 class. But just shrugging our shoulders, over the next 5 days they will make a huge gain, but then they will sail in less breeze, so movistar can catch up again. We talk a lot about performances, and we are wondering why the ABN2 is not as quick. We heard that the bulb is substantiality lighter than the black boat, but still they should be very fast as they have a powerful hull. We think the main reason is that they don't have the same sail inventory: it would be interesting to find out. So we just enjoy the fast miles to the barn, just working the main grinder with two persons all the time, and the helmsman does the rest. He is steering to his optimum AP wind angle, so only now and then a small adjustment is necessary for the reacher and staysail and running backstay. Brasil and Pirates are sailing in sight of each other, so they have the advantage of seeing a boat all the time, a bit like two boat testing. We sailed in the morning watch on purpose 10 degrees lower, not an optimum VMC, nearly 30 degrees off course, but at least now we are dead straight in front of them. Just to show how expensive it is to sail 30 off course compared to 20 degrees, movistar covered 103.8 miles in 6 hours and was 30 degrees off course. The Pirates were only 20 degrees off course,and covered 93.7 in 6 hours , so they sailed 10.1 miles less than movistar in 6 hours. But movistar's net gain to the mark was only 1.7 miles . After the sched, we started sailing again optimum VMC. A new sched will come in 10 minutes. I wait until then, and tell you the difference this time hot of the press. Here you go: movistar 103 miles, 20 degrees off course, Pirates 100.3, 26 degrees off course. Net gain movistar 6.6 miles!!!!..........And Basil again 1 mile in front of Pirates. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 04/10/06 Top
The last 3 skeds have been good for the boats behind movistar, especially Pirates have done well. But we did OK against ABN 1. It looks like a complete restart in about three days. Frustrating, but that is ocean racing. Had some big rainsqualls this morning, with heaps of pressure in them. We have a .75 masthead runner up, and normally we change early to a fractional flying kite, but as we didn't bring one for this leg (the prediction was for less than 2% of 25 knots from behind) we had to ride some big gusts out. Short puffs up to 34 knots, made the onboard sailmaker's heart rate go up, as well as mine! Blowing this sail out would be a disaster, especially with the lighter air ahead. The breeze was already well lifted: sailing 20 degrees off course, so changing to a tight luff fractional would have meant 40 degrees off course and a very bad VMC, so the call was to hang on. All the guys are in the back of the bus, to have maximum weight aft, and keeping the water tank empty, to assure the minimum of AP wind on the kite. We survived three of these squalls, so hoping for a good report in the next sked, as we have sailed over 20 knots average in the last 4 hours. I wrote last night on the Volvo report that it was pretty boring sailing, how things can change in 6 hours!!! Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 04/13/06 Top
Movistar has escaped the Caribbean sea, and no Pirates to worry for right now. They have been in the hunt for us forever, especially running - they had a slight edge, so we had to be smarter then them to wiggle them of our tail. The last 24 hours before the small low developed, we started sailing a bit more VMG mode, losing some miles, but a good investment for the future, as it showed. We set ourselves up a path that looked to be solid. We never stopped, and of course a bit lucky that the others came out of it worse off. But there are still two more obstacles to cross: there is ridge of high pressure right in front of us some 350 miles to go to Then, once passed that, good Westerlies until we encounter a similar feature when entering the Bay. We have three programmes; Deckmann, MaxSea & Expedition running constantly new routes and options from the weather data we download from the race headquarters. And then the question is of course, which route is the best. So far we have done a satisfying job, but this leg is far from over, all depending on the park-ups ahead !!! ! Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 04/14/06 Top
It is a bit like bungy jumping right now, you go quickly up and down in the mileage compared to the other boats, until the elastic is settling down. The last 24 hours we were in the up mode, now the inevitable down mode sets in, as movistar approaches the high pressure ridge with still a soft Easterly breeze of around 7 knots.The guys behind us are still reaching in 18 knots, doing about 8 miles per hour more. Luckily the ridge moves from the North towards the Nouth, so theoretically we can drop the sails, go to sleep for a couple of hours until the new Southwsterlies reach us! Just crossing my fingers, that we will go really easy through this ridge, so we can keep a safe distance to the guys behind us. I have seen some amazing losses and gains been made over the years in the Bermuda race, in a very short period of time, and know it is not over yet. The generator is running nearly all the time to work the keel, and one nervous face onboard, Pepe in charge of the fuel economics, has been down for nearly an hour , trying to figure out how much fuel we have left. Not easy as he uses a dipstick, and of course the boat is moving around all the time. He shouldn't be nervous, we know exactly how many litres we used, as we fill up the tank every day. Plus we have taken fuel for 19 days. In the end of his mission he comes up with a smile on deck and says:"We have plenty" . At least he can go now to sleep without having to worry. Bouwe Bekking 04/15/06 Top
Getting close to the real world, channel 16 is a much loved channel overhere, unbelievable so much talk is going on. After exactly 14 days on the water, in absolute "quietness", it makes you realize this leg will be over soon. A little over 200 miles to go to Baltimore, and it is gonna be slow. Last sked had ABN 35 miles in front, it should be enough for them , but I think they clearly have the Wellington leg in mind. For us it is just praying that they will stop. Once in the Bay there are not many tactical opportunities anymore, and the passing lanes will get reduced to near zero.What about behind movistar? Pirates were 140 miles behind, and should keep gaining, but this should be enough for movistar. So what will Baltimore/Annapolis bring us this time? This has always been a popular stop with all the yachties: good facilities, enthusiastic public......and big burgers.Hope you enjoyed the Easter holiday. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 04/17/06
Yes the VOR is en route to New York, but here is a look at movistar's recent win from Skipper Bouwe bekking. Enjoy. What a great welcome we had yesterday in Annapolis after finishing the parade of sail. It is amazing so popular sailing is overhere. Already a long time ago, we decided to stay with our family in this great town, what meant a bit commuting every day to Baltimore, but it was worth it, we just love it over here. This stopover has been good for Movistar in a lot of ways. First collecting 9.5 points from Rio to here, and than winning the in-port race. That win was of course special, as it was a tricky day. Besides a shocker start everything went well, and we didn't make a lot of mistakes after that. It was nice as well that we had new sails for that day. The mainsail we used only before in the Rio in-port race, but we had 2 new spinnkaers and a new overlapping jib. Fresh fruit works always well, not only for speed, but as well for the minds of the guys. I think our real break came at the first bottom mark. We decided to come in on starboard and execute a so-called Mexican drop. It looked maybe a bit messy from off the boat, but most important was, that we kept momentum in the boat and actually had good speed leaving the mark and building up a quick gap to the others. From then on it was consolidating the fleet. In the last beat we sailed very conservatively and actually tacked over to cover. We sailed away from the corner who was strongly favoured in the beats before,it reduced our lead a bit, but we were in control, a good example of baking small cookies. The last run was going nicely, dropping breeze and having the right chute for the conditions, we extended our lead, and we enjoyed the last couple of hundred metres to have a look around to see the armada of spectator boats. The turnout was fantastic. As well this stopover has been good for the shorecrew. Of course they still have been working hard to get movistar race-ready, but this was the first stopover without any majors, so they actually got some proper sleep. The leg to NY will be an interesting one. NY is a magic city for the non Americans, and I have a lot of good memories of this town from all the transatlantic races I have done. But one thing I will never forget, and that is 9/11. We were actually doing that day our final measurement on Amer Sports One for the last Volvo race, when we heard the news. You put things quickly in perspective!! It is amazing to see how the city and its people have coped with that day, I think they all deserve a medal. Winning this leg will be like dream come true . It is probably the most important leg in a lot of ways for movistar. 1st Commercially a hit to win, 2nd Can we keep the race alive for first place and close to gap to black betty, 3rd keeping our second place overall and keep all the others behind us. Lots at stake, so looking forward to take on the battle. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 05/06/06
A great departure from Annapolis yesterday, amazing so many boats came out to see us. Thanks to all of you for your support. Very nice sailing for the first 35 miles, but then it became tricky..........and it started to rain. Haven't seen much rain since our arrival, but it has been pouring down last night. As well the breeze started building quickly, but the direction was all over the place, Since we broke our baffle box on the main primary winch pedestal, it meant tophandling all the sails, and as well tricky for hoisting new sails, as only the mainsheet winch could still function. Floating jammers and stopper knots all over the place. Just before the entrance of the bay we changed from a reacher to the J4, heinous change, 30 knots of breeze, boatspeed 22 knots, but someway somehow we managed to get the old sail down, and actually gained a bit on the boats in front,who did a headsail change as well. The entire night it was short tacking in 25-30 knots up the coast. Betty as expected is gone over the horizon, they love that stuff. But all the Farr boats are within sight of each other, and there isn't much boatspeed difference, It will be an interesting finish , and for sure we will fight like hell to get 2nd. Cheers, Bouwe bekking 05/09/06
"Uh...Late?" Not much to report right now from movistar. We tacked 4 hours ago, and will be hard on the wind for a couple of days on this board. Currently 22 knots, which will build over the next 12 hours to 25-30 knots. We lost in the last sched, as we stayed a bit longer on the wrong board, to assure we can lay Nantucket island. The other boats ahead of us, had the old wind direction longer, and therefor a better angle. We just have to patient and don't do any crazy things, especially with this wind direction, the gains and losses will be minimum as all the boats go similar speed . Not much sailing days on the water left, only 16-17 days in total, this race will be over before we know. Hopefully Volvo will soon make an announcement that they will continue as sponsor for this race. This will be crucial, so that we can have more guaranteed entries for the next race, and make it an even bigger spectacle. I think as well that in the US the race it is getting more popular. The well functioning satellite communication equipment onboard the yachts have helped in that sense tremendously, as the quality of footage has been way better than in previous races , so that it is actually interesting to follow a yacht race. SA too! Cheers, Bouwe bekking 05/12/06
Is there anybody who'd like to swap positions and join movistar? I think I'd like to have 10 volunteers over here!! It has been very, very nippy in the last 24 hours. Cold is OK, but banging upwind in these conditions is no fun. These boats are made for downwind sailing and not upwind. Everything is a hassle downstairs, walking, cooking, sleeping and ....typing. Not easy to gain ground in these conditions, the first night we lost out badly because of starting two hours later, but since then we have consolidated relatively well. The outlook is getting better, by late tomorrow we should have a beam reach, and make some good mileage towards Pommes Rock. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 05/15/06
Movistar boxed it's way through the high pressure system, and is heading now on a northeasterly course away from the center and into more breeze. That call we made clearly. We always said we were going to stay close to the Pirates on this leg. Of course I have been asking myself what if, when we would have tacked a little earlier, but that is all history, and we have to get on with this yacht race. Next decision will be challenging to make the call when to gybe. Keep going north into more pressure, but into a heading breeze, or gybe early keep less pressure, but make a gain on the shift. Currently we are opting for the pressure increase, but that call can be changed within half an hour as we are currently downloading new weather info. The high pressure system that swallowed us, has been moving way quicker than expected, so that changes all the routing as well. Of course it is painful to see the boats ahead getting away from us, but I have seen strange things happen on this Transatlantic route. Boats who had an advantage of more than 400 miles got beaten, not saying that will happen, but movistar will never give up until the end. Cheers, Bouwe Bekking 05/16/06
Jules Vernes attempt this coming winter? Do it or stay on the couch? That's the topic onboard movistar right now. It does say something about the atmosphere onboard our boat, even that we are way behind, all the guys still love the ocean and are good friends who want to go around again with the same group. Biggest question is in what boat to do it in, with a monohull or a big cat. I have made my mind up, but the others are still not sure. Talking about this kind of crazy project keeps us going. We are trying to laugh and make jokes as much as possible just to keep thinking positive, and in the mean time keep trimming the sails. It is getting cold on deck again, water temperature is only 7 degrees C . This will hopefully be the last real cold night, as from tomorrow on the wind will shift into the southwest and we will leave the Grand Banks behind us, and sailing into warmer water. It looks like we are in for a wild ride for the last 1800 miles, let's see if we can catch up some of them. Cheers, 05/17/06
Sun, 21 May 2006 10:20:19 UTC Following a night of fighting their keel problems after the aft end of their keel pivot bearing broke away from the hull, Bouwe Bekking and his crew have abandoned their vessel and have safely transferred to ABN AMRO TWO which has been standing by since approximately 2200GMT last night. The crew used the liferaft to transfer safely between the two yachts. Bekking ((NED), and his crew, Andrew Cape (AUS), Chris Nicholson (AUS), Jonathan Swain (USA), Mike Joubert (RSA), Noel Drennan (IRL), Pepe Ribes (ESP), Peter Doriean (AUS), Stuart Bannatyne (NZL) and Fernando Echavarri (ESP) are now all safely aboard ABN AMRO TWO and are heading for land. The transfer was completed in the eye of the low pressure system that is passing over, when winds dropped to seven knots. The forecast is for winds of up to 50 knots to come in from the west imminently, which hastened the decision to abandon movistar. Throughout the night the crew of movistar had worked to stabilise their Volvo Open 70 by securing the 4,500 kg canting with ropes, and had achieved some degree of success. They had managed to keep the water ingress under control and even apply some cant to enable the boat to make progress towards Lands End. At the time the crew transferred to ABN AMRO TWO, they were 307 miles north, north west of the south western extremity of England. Food and personal items were transferred with the crew. movistar has been left with her generator running and her Sat C communications system operational so that she can be tracked for as long as possible. Outside assistance was on its way to the two yachts, the Royal Navy having immediately responded to a request for help by sending the Fisheries Patrol vessel HMS Mersey, a River Class Offshore Patrol vessel from Milford Haven in Wales. HMS Mersey is heading for a rendezvous with ABN AMRO TWO with all possible speed, should be with them in about eight hours and will shepherd then to the nearest coast. Click on The Latest for more. Discuss it in our VOR forum. Read
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