The seven yachts taking part in the Volvo Ocean Race around the world left the heat of Rio de Janeiro on Saturday for Boston where they will once again find colder weather and will have to watch out for whales along the way.
The teams departed on the sixth stage of the world's most gruelling offshore yacht race, a distance of 4,900 nautical miles, which is expected to last 15 days, at 3:00 pm (1800 GMT), aided by the moderate winds blowing in Rio's Guanabara Bay.
"Watch out, it's a whale breathing zone and there is a lot of stuff in the water. Also, it's possibly very cold up there," said the skipper of US team Puma, Ken Read, before the departure as the fleet was blessed to guard against "stormy waves".
Sweden's Ericsson 4, the winner of the first two stages, will be looking to defend its comfortable lead in the overall classification against its nearest rivals Puma and Telefonica Blue of Spain.
"Will we have a defensive strategy? No, we can't be too conservative if we want to win the race," Ericsson 4's Brazilian skipper Torben Grael before the sixth stage departed.
The yachts will go around the island of Fernando de Noronha located some 350 kilometres (220 miles) northeast of Brazil, with the first to arrive to collect four points.
After that it is virtually a straight line towards Boston, with the first to arrive to pick up eight points.
"We have to arrive first, both in Boston and at the scoring gate (at Fernando de Noronha) otherwise we will not make up for our delay," Telefonica Blue's Dutch skipper Bouwe Bekking said Friday.
As they close in on the finish line of the sixth stage, they will have to deal with low pressure systems sweeping across North America on their own trip across the Atlantic.
From Boston, the race, which is looking to reduce costs to attract more entrants for its next edition in 2011, will head to Ireland.
The event began in Alicante in Spain in October and involves a total of 10 stages covering over 37,000 nautical miles.
Standings at the start of the sixth stage
1. Ericsson 4 (SWE)/Torben Grael (BRA) 66 points
2. Puma Ocean Racing (USA)/Ken Read (USA) 56.5 points
3. Telefonica Blue (ESP)/Bouwe Bekking/NED) 54.5 points
4. Ericsson 3 (SWE)/Magnus Olsson (SWE) 44.5 points
5. Green Dragon (CHN/IRL)/Ian Walker (GBR) 41 points
6. Telefonica Black (ESP)/Fernando Echavarri (ESP) 23 points
7. Delta Lloyd (NED)/Roberto Bermdez (ESP) 15 points
8. Team Russia (RUS)/Andreas Hanakamp (AUT) 10.5 points (Has withdrawn for the time being from the race)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ghTKg-1t9Hp386DbraSwxOZ0Z9Gw
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment