Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009

The Volvo Ocean Race 2008–2009 was held from October 4, 2008 to June 27, 2009 with Volvo Open 70 boats. After 10 stages around the world, the Ericsson 4 team won .

Attendees

Team & boat name	Sail no.	flag	design	constructor	Skipper
Ericsson Racing Team Ericsson 3 - Nordic Crew	SWE 3	Sweden	Juan Kouyoumdjian	Killian Bushe	Magnus Olsson (stages 4–10) Anders Lewander (stages 1–3)
Ericsson Racing Team Ericsson 4 - International Crew	SWE 4	Sweden	Juan Kouyoumdjian	Killian Bushe	Torben Grael
Green Dragon Racing Team Green Dragon	IRL 888	Ireland People's Republic of China	Reichel / Pugh	McConaghy Boats	Ian Walker
Puma Ocean Racing Team Il Mostro	USA 1948	United States	Messenger Carkeek	Goetz Custom Boats & Customline Yachts	Ken Read
Team Delta Lloyd Black Betty	NED 1	Netherlands	Juan Kouyoumdjian	Killian Bushe	Roberto Bermudez (stages 2–10) Ger O'Rourke (stage 1)
Team Russia (Sponsor: WDCS ) Kosatka	RUS 1	Russia	Humphreys Yacht Design	Green Marine	Andreas Hanakamp
Telefónica Blue H.RM Elena	ESP 12	Spain	Farr Yacht Design	King Marine	Bouwe Bekking
Telefónica Black H.RM Cristina	ESP 11	Spain	Farr Yacht Design	Southern Ocean Marine	Fernando Echávarri

Budgets

The combined budget of the Ericsson Racing Team was 50 million euros, while Puma's budget was around 20 million euros. For comparison, the Irish-Chinese team, Green Dragon, received € 8 million from the Irish authorities and € 4 million from China.

Overall rating

placement	team	nation	Skipper	Points	comment
1	Ericsson 4	Sweden	Torben Grael	114.5
2	Puma Ocean Racing	United States	Ken Read	105.5
3	Telefonica Blue	Spain	Bouwe Bekking	98.0
4th	Ericsson 3	Sweden	Magnus Olsson	78.5
5	Green Dragon team	Ireland	Ian Walker	67.0
6th	Telefonica Black	Spain	Fernando Echávarri	58.0	missed the 5th stage due to Damage to the boat
7th	Delta Lloyd	Netherlands	Ger O'Rourke	41.5	missed the 5th stage due to Damage to the boat
8th	Team Russia	Russia	Andreas Hanakamp	10.5	Task December 28, 2008 (3rd stage)

Stages

Overview

begin	stage	place	Winner / First
October 4, 2008	Prologue: In-port-race	Alicante (Spain)	Telefonica Blue
October 11, 2008	Stage 1	Intermediate ranking Fernando de Noronha	Green Dragon team
		Alicante - Cape Town	Ericsson 4
November 15, 2008	Stage 2	Intermediate ranking Mauritius	Ericsson 4
		Cape Town - Kochi (India)	Ericsson 4
December 13, 2008	Stage 3	Intermediate ranking Pulau Weh (Indonesia)	Ericsson 4
		Kochi - Singapore	Telefonica Blue
	In-port-race	Singapore	Ericsson 4
January 18, 2009	Stage 4	Singapore - Qingdao (China)	Telefonica Blue
	In-port-race	Qingdao	Ericsson 4
February 14, 2009	Stage 5	Intermediate evaluation 36 ° south latitude	Ericsson 4
		Intermediate ranking Cape Horn	Ericsson 3
		Qingdao - Rio de Janeiro	Ericsson 3
	In-port-race	Rio de Janeiro	Telefonica Blue
April 11, 2009	Stage 6	Intermediate ranking Fernando de Noronha	Telefonica Blue
		Rio de Janeiro - Boston	Ericsson 4
	In-port-race	Boston	Telefonica Blue
May 16, 2009	Stage 7	Intermediate ranking St. John's (Newfoundland)	Telefonica Blue
		Boston - Galway	Ericsson 4
	In-port-race	Galway	Puma Ocean Racing
June 6, 2009	Stage 8	Galway - Marstrand	Ericsson 4
June 14, 2009	Stage 9	Marstrand - Stockholm	Puma Ocean Racing
	In-port-race	Stockholm	Telefonica Blue
June 25-27, 2009	Stage 10	Stockholm - Saint Petersburg	Telefonica Black

Stage 1

The yacht Ericsson 4 won the first leg from Alicante to Cape Town in a time of 21 days, 17 hours and 54 minutes. Ericsson 4 set a new sailing record for monohull boats. On October 29, 2008 at 18:45 GMT, she was the first yacht to break the sound barrier of sailed 600 nautical miles within 24 hours with a sailing distance of 602.66 nautical miles (= 1,116.126 kilometers ). The average speed of the Ericsson 4 was therefore 25.11 knots (= 46.5 kilometers per hour) during the record run .

Stage 2

On the second stage, which began on November 15, 2008, the sailors had to avoid areas of increased piracy off the coast of Somalia on their way to India . Ericsson 4 won the stage.

Stage 3

Telefonica Blue won the third stage from Kochi in India to Singapore . Puma Ocean Racing reached the stage finish in second place, with Ericsson 3 and Ericsson 4 in third and fourth place. The race was extremely close, with the first four boats reaching the finish line 20 minutes apart.

After the third stage, Team Russia had to give up because the team had not found another sponsor due to the financial crisis after some sponsors had left.

Stage 4

On the fourth leg to Qingdao , the fleet was overwhelmed by a storm with a wind of up to 50 knots and 14 meter high, steep waves in the Luzon Strait between the Philippines island of Luzon and Taiwan . Some of the yachts suffered such severe damage that Telefonica Black had to turn back with a broken hull in order to save the yacht. Since the damage could not be repaired at short notice, the team later gave up the stage. Also, Delta Lloyd had to turn in the Luzon Strait and sail under the protective Coast to repair a broken rudder, a torn mainsail and a damaged mast track. The team also gave up the stage. Green Dragon had a break in the front ring bulkhead that had partially detached from the fuselage, weakening its structure and threatening to break. The Ericsson 3 had interrupted the fourth stage to repair the damaged yacht in Keelung on the northern tip of Taiwan. She had resumed the race on February 11, 2009 and arrived in Qingdao on February 14 at 10:01 GMT to secure four points for fifth place. The Telefonica Blue team, which had been in second place so far , had voluntarily taken a three-point penalty to replace the oars in Singapore , just like the second team boat, Telefonica Black , who was eliminated .

Stage 5

When the stage started again on February 14th, the Ericsson 3, which was delayed due to the repair work in Taiwan, met the starting boats in order to receive the points for the successfully completed stage 4. She moored for a few hours for provisions and then followed the competitors on the fifth stage. In addition, the previous Watch Captain Magnus Olsson , a six-time participant in the Volvo Ocean Race, replaced the injured Anders Lewander as skipper.

In a very close race, Ericsson 4 was the first yacht to pass the gate "36 ° south latitude" at the north-east tip of New Zealand, only 32 minutes later Ericsson 3 followed . In third place, Puma passed the gate just 42 minutes behind Ericsson 4 . To be the first yacht to pass the so-called “scoring gates” means half the points earned from a stage win.

Just minutes after the scoring gate, Ericsson 3 took a completely different course to the northeast. The yacht successfully attempted to set itself on the back of a high pressure area far from the field by a cross lay to the northeast. The Ericsson 3's tactic worked and at Cape Horn it was 44 nautical miles ahead of Ericsson 4 . This was followed by Puma and Green Dragon . A forestay break on Telefonica Blue could be makeshiftly repaired without losing the mast. The yacht fell from first to last place and was no longer fully resilient. While the field rounded Cape Horn, it was 500 nautical miles behind.

Stage 6

The boats reached Boston at the end of April with Ericsson 4 as the winner of the stage at 21:05 UTC on April 26, 2009. Ericsson 4 needed 15 days, 10 hours and 31 minutes for the stage.

Stage 7

The remaining seven teams only needed 7 days to travel the 2,550 nautical miles from Boston to Galway. At the finish they were only five hours and four minutes apart. Almost any team could have won this fast Atlantic crossing. With luck, Ericsson won 4 , although it was the third yacht to pass the scoring gate (Eistor).

Stage 8

After very different weather conditions with strong winds after the start, current and calm in the English Channel and changing winds on the North Sea , the finish line after 950 nautical miles in Marstand was again very tight. Ericsson 4 with skipper Thorben Grael won by just 8 minutes and Puma managed to intercept the Irish Green Dragon , who was long ahead, by one minute at the finish. Skipper Ked Read with Puma had every chance of finishing second in the overall ranking.

Stage 9

The short sprint stage from Marstrand to Stockholm was overshadowed by the spectacular accident of the Spanish yacht of skipper Bouwe Bekking Telefonica Blue , which lost all chances of second place in the overall classification. Shortly after take-off, the yacht had rammed an underwater rock marked on the nautical charts at a speed of 16 knots. Bouwe Bekking: “It is clearly our own fault. We thought we were leeward of the rock. ”The impact was so severe that the entire stern came out of the water. Telefonica Blue had to interrupt the stage, but was able to repair the damage to the keel in time for the in-port race in Stockholm. The finish in Stockholm was again very tight: After 525 nautical miles, Ericsson 3 and Puma fought a turning duel in light winds. The Swedes were beaten by Puma with three boat lengths and gave away the possible home win. Ericsson 4 was the overall winner prematurely due to the large point advantage, which all remaining competitors fairly recognized.

Stage 10

The Spanish Telefonica Black with skipper Fernando Echávarri won surprisingly and wafer-thin with two and a half boat lengths in front of the long leading Puma , which botched a turning duel shortly before the finish of the last sprint stage.

Web links

Commons : Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website of the Volvo Ocean Race

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Yacht-online: Segelriss - Volvo Open 70 Accessed on February 16, 2009
2. ^ Walker to set sail in Volvo race . BBC . October 10, 2008. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Missing the boat . Limerick Leader . June 5, 2009. Archived from the original on June 11, 2009. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Ericsson 4 claim Volvo Ocean leg . BBC . November 2, 2008. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
5. ↑ ERICSSON 4 BREAK 600 BARRIER . Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009. October 30, 2008. Retrieved December 27, 2008.
6. ↑ Telefonica Blue wins Volvo stage (Dec 2008) . BBC . December 22, 2008. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
7. ↑ CAN TEAM RUSSIA BE RE-BORN? . Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009. December 27, 2008. Retrieved December 27, 2008.
8. ↑ Yacht-online: A horror weekend with storm, breakage and abandonment. Volvo Ocean Race: Only six teams are in the race, the positions were turned upside down again (January 26, 2009). Accessed on February 16, 2009
9. ↑ Yacht-online: Only four teams left in the Volvo Ocean Race: Delta Lloyd was the third team to give up yesterday evening (January 28, 2009). Accessed February 16, 2009
10. ↑ Yacht-online: Dramatic start to the longest stage , Volvo Ocean Race: Telefonica Blue with damage to the keel, Ericsson 3 delayed (February 16, 2009). Accessed February 16, 2009
11. ↑ yacht-online: “Scoring Gate” reached at 36 degrees south. Accessed March 5, 2009
12. ↑ yacht-online: Cape Horn in the wake (March 18, 2009). Accessed March 18, 2009
13. ↑ yacht-online: foreground break on "Telefonica Blue" (March 8, 2009). Accessed on March 18, 2009
14. ↑ yacht-online: 30 seconds decided (May 19, 2009) Accessed June 21, 2009
15. ↑ yacht-online: Heartbeat finals off Ireland (May 25, 2009). Accessed June 21, 2009
16. ↑ yacht-online: Third stage win in a row. Accessed June 21, 2009
17. ↑ yacht-online: Drama am Start (June 16, 2009) Accessed June 21, 2009
18. ↑ yacht-online: double victory off Stockholm (June 16, 2009). Accessed June 21, 2009
19. ↑ yacht-online: Comeback for “Black” (June 29, 2009). Accessed July 20, 2009