Photos: L ©Martin Stockbridge R ©Jon Nash
Printable version 
News feed
Sat, 25 Mar 2006 23:00:00 UTC
Talk on the dockside has persistently suggested the crew sailing ABN AMRO ONE are infallible, that they are too good and only in light
winds will their home on the top of the podium be threatened.
That scant glimmer of hope has now almost vanished. Today the wind sock was virtually as limp as we have seen so far, in fact only Sanxenxo’s gusts had less gusto, but in conditions which peaked at 14 knots and fell at times to a shade more than six, Mike Sanderson’s crew looked equally dominant in either.
Even the runs between the fourth and sixth marks, when the wind gods took a brief break, their advantage over second place grew from 38 seconds to nearly two minutes.
The only time Sanderson’s lead did anything other than grow was in the final two sprints up and down the course, by which point they could almost afford to drop sail and still beat second-placed movistar at a canter.
“They won’t be beaten in any conditions,” conceded John Kostecki, skipper of third placed Ericsson.
Worryingly for the rest of the fleet Sanderson admitted that while the performance was their best so far, and actually the best he has ever been involved in, it wasn’t perfect. “We could still get better. It wasn’t perfect, it was close, but it wasn’t perfect.”
Furthermore the people sailing Sanderson’s boat proved their point today. For a modest crew who only ever speak of their confidence in whispers, their role in the domination is often overlooked as people often attribute the successes to boat speed. Their near-faultless display today spoke volumes about their part in the 16 points they have on their rivals in second place.
“I hope people give the boys some credit for the win,” Sanderson said. “I’d hate to think it was talked about today that the boat was fast. Yes it went well, but I think we were the only ones who rounded all the marks cleanly. The guys deserve all the credit today, they sailed the boat beautifully.
“From the minute we left the dock today we had a cool spirit for what could have been a very doom and gloomy day. The forecast was terrible, we’re not a rocket ship in light airs, but we decided we were going to make the most of today come hell or high water. The boat is not the only thing getting us these results.”
Tommaso Chiefi, sailing as the team’s tactician today, added, “Everyone was expecting us to lose this race which got us well pumped up. The whole crew were eager to win, to prove we could do it even though the conditions were not ideal for us.”
Battle for second
In the same breath which everyone uses to discuss Team Invincible’s control over this event, there is always a mention of the battle for second. That the eventual holder of the silver medal faces a fight was clearly illustrated than today when at some point or other each of the chasing pack held second place.
The honour finally landed in the lap of Bouwe Bekking, whose team performed incredibly well. They enjoyed some good fortune when the Pirates twisted their headsail and parked up just past the fourth mark, but justified their place on the podium with some sleek sailing and fast speeds. They even clocked the fastest downwind lap when it took them a few seconds less than 15 minutes to travel from mark five to six.
“We went well today and I am happy,” Bekking said. “I think we came second because we made less mistakes than the guys behind us, but in patches we were very quick. ABN (AMRO ONE) made very few mistakes which again shows how far ahead they are. They sailed a great race and definitely deserved their win.
“I don’t think their crew work is necessarily any better than ours, we did nice hoists and nice drops, but they are definitely faster going upwind.
“Second place is good, but let’s face it you’re the first loser when you’re second.”
But second is a position Paul Cayard, skipper of the Pirates, would have treasured. He held it at three of the first four rounding buoys before calamity struck and their headsail twisted. They eventually finished last and Cayard was not happy.
He said, “We had a bad day. After the first lap we were in good shape but not a lot went right for us after that. We made a lot of mistakes and finished last. It’s about the worst day we’ve had.
“We missed the lay-line at mark four so we had to do two manoeuvres extra at the leeward mark and we were late taking the kite down and it just snowballed badly there.
“Hard to pinpoint any reason for this result in particular. It was just a really bad day. We didn’t even bother reviewing every mistake we made because there were too many. It’s a shame; we had high hopes for today.”
Another team with high hopes and great expectations were the crew of Brasil 1 sailing their home waters. The crowds greeting their arrival were huge and despite a fourth placed-finish, which until the final lap looked as if it would be sixth, they were delighted. Hundreds of fans mobbed the crew who posed for countless photos despite their skipper Torben Grael admitting their performance, “Let down people who deserved more from us”.
He refused to pinpoint the reason as the late change of crew, in relation to navigator Marcel Van Triest’s withdrawal with a fever this morning. He actually laid blame on himself for trying too hard to please his home fans.
“The crew was perfect, that’s a positive. I made some mistakes tactically. Normally Chuny (Roberto Bermudez) is steering and I’m calling tactics, but today I tried to do both. We thought it would be nice for the home crowd if I could helm, but I couldn’t concentrate on tactics and made mistakes.
“We wish we could salute this public with a better result. It was not a complete disaster, but for a while it was looking very bad. We tried to do too well. We squeezed in at the first mark and got a penalty and we ended up trying catch up the whole race. We were going downwind so the mistake was very expensive as we had to drop the spinnaker or we would risk ripping it.
“I don’t understand why ABN (AMRO) TWO didn’t get a penalty as well, they were squeezing us into the bottom mark. I don’t understand that one.
Knowledge of the waters which half the crew grew up on didn’t offer much reward either.
“Knowledge of the water didn’t really help because the tide was pushing out, so it was quite straightforward. We have some tricks when it is coming in but today there weren’t any real advantages. I’m sorry for the crowd.”
A team with a big smile is Ericsson. Their stay in Rio has been surrounded by the furore caused by Neal McDonald’s replacement as skipper by Kostecki, but a third placed finish has been a welcome conclusion to the issue.
Kostecki said, “I doubt that talking point will go away for a while yet, but we’re happy. When I came in last week I’d definitely have taken third place. It’s going to be near enough to impossible for any of us to catch ABN AMRO (ONE), but this result and performance has been a great lift. I think we can build on it.”
ABN AMRO TWO finished fifth, a result perhaps a little disappointing considering their meteoric rise to stardom in this event so far, but their navigator, Simon Fisher, took positives from today despite sail problems and having to take a penalty turn.
“I enjoyed that more than I thought because we found another gear today and although it wasn’t reflected in our fifth place, we felt the boat was going really well and we had better speed than we did in Melbourne and our tactics were better.
“It was unfortunate about the spinnaker sheet. It cut loose and clipped the mark so we had to take a penalty turn. The guys did well to keep cool because we were red flagged by the jury and rolled into the penalty but still managed to stay ahead of the Pirates which was good.
“We were pretty happy with the result.
“The inshore is our weakest area but at the same time we were in company in the last run of the beat – we had Torben Grael and Paul Cayard there with us and we beat them. These are big names and for us to be up there is pretty positive.”
So, first place has been all but surrendered to ABN AMRO ONE and their grip on the winner’s champagne has never been tighter, but the battle for second rages on. Only 13 points now separates second from sixth on the leaderboard and half the globe awaits. Who will come second? It’s a harder question than who will win overall?
Back to news News Archive