A REALLY LONG TUNING SESSION
(Oct. 15, 2008; Day 5) - Kimo Worthington, General Manager for the PUMA team, was wondering how their Volvo Ocean Race entry would match up with the others in light air. "Our training boat, the Juan K designed Avante (ex ABN Amro Two in 05/06 race), seemed really good in lighter winds, and the team on PUMA had to work hard to match her in those conditions." It must have been a relief then on Monday, for after a long day of light air running, PUMA appeared to have some legs. However, there was still much to learn, but after PUMA caught up with Torben Grael's Ericsson 4, the two teams have been inseparable on Tuesday and Wednesday, resulting in a valuable offwind tuning session. "We couldn't have planned this any better," said Worthington.

As they approached the Canary Islands, PUMA skipper Ken Read noted, "I was just told that the TP 52 Worlds are going on (next week) here at Lanzarote.  Not only did we just sail right past that island, but did so in the middle of a jibing duel with E4 - with about 2 lengths at times between us. No matter how close the TP 52 event is, my guess is that there won't be any tighter racing than E4 and we are having right now. As they zig-zagged all over the lot trying to prevent us from passing on the high or low side, I was watching them with very cool night vision bino's. Very fun though doesn't make for much sleep."

While E4 and PUMA jibed their way down the 60+nm channel between the Canary Islands and Africa, Telefonica Black, Ericsson 3, and Green Dragon began early Wednesday facing their reality of having to find a route through the islands. There were many variables, with TBlack at first looking like they were heating up on starboard to sail to windward of the islands, then jibing to port for a way through, and finally jibing back to starboard to sail over them - the Wall Street equivalent of buy high-sell low. E3 and GD were close enough to each other that the later became the first to use the StealthPlay tool, which allows an entrant's position reports to be hidden for 12 hours.

The fleet is still enjoying downwind sailing in +/- 20 knots of wind and speed, and while getting through the Canary Islands has provided the kind of tactical entertainment usually found on only inland lakes, the real moment comes when the teams make their move off the African continent, jibing to starboard for their approach to the doldrums, and toward the scoring gate off Brazil. The next 24 hours should reveal a lot. standing by.

The length of Leg One is 6500nm, with teams expected to finish by the first
week in November. Current standings (as of Oct. 16, 1:00am GMT):
1. Puma, Ken Read, 5268 nm distance to finish
2. Ericsson 4, Torben Grael, 8 nm distance to lead
3. Ericsson 3, Anders Lewander, 13 nm DTL
4. Green Dragon, Ian Walker, 75 nm DTL
5. Delta Lloyd, Ger O'Rourke, 77 nm DTL
6. Team Russia, Andreas Hanakamp, 82 nm DTL
7. Telefonica Blue, Bouwe Bekking, 115 nm DTL
8. Telefonica Black, Fernando Echavarri, 146 nm DTL
Race website: http://www.volvooceanrace.org

* Correction: In Scuttlebutt 2704, we noted that the teams were carrying the true wind direction at at +/- 218 degrees. Forgive our bad math, as it is more like 140 degrees, and we suspect with boat speed and wind speed being near equal, the apparent wind is well forward of the beam.

* New Zealand helmsman/trimmer Tony Mutter onboard Ericsson 4 provides an audio interview on their battle royale with the PUMA team: http://tinyurl.com/3u5f6q