Volvo Ocean Race-LEG FOUR

Concerned by the concertinas
By Andy Rice of Sailing Intelligence


8 March 2006

Mike Sanderson talks about tricky finish in Rio HERE

ABN AMRO ONE continue to look over their shoulder at the chasing pack as they bounce from one weather system to another up the Atlantic. Navigator Stan Honey says their lead over Pirates and the rest of the fleet remains as tenuous as ever. “We’ve got a number of obstacles ahead of us, where we transition from one breeze to the next. The fleet will tend to concertina when that happens, which is always a concern, but that’s what we’ve got to face between now and Rio.”

The ‘concertina’ metaphor has become the cliché of this race. Just a few days ago, Mike Sanderson was wondering what ever happened to that familiar refrain of past races, where more often than not, ‘the rich got richer’. While ABN AMRO ONE has spent more time at the top of the leaderboard (the barometer of wealth in the Volvo Ocean Race) than any other boat, Sanderson has felt the rate of taxation has been unfairly steep in this race. The weather systems can sometimes turn a 20-mile gain into a 200-mile gain in a very short time, but they can do the opposite just as frequently.

Sanderson and Honey have seen too much of the latter for their liking. Just as they squeeze through one weather barrier and make a few miles out the other side, the fleet stretches out a little. But then as they hit the next barrier, the fleet come galloping up behind them – the dreaded concertina effect. Sweet music to the ears of Ericsson and Brasil 1 at the back, but of great concern to ABN AMRO ONE.

All that said, the concertina appears to have expanded this morning, with the leaders now showing a 63-mile gap to second-placed Pirates of the Caribbean. And while this has been a mentally-challenging time for Honey, the sailing itself has been idyllic as the fleet leaves behind the icy cold of the south for good. “The weather is beautiful,” said Stan on Tuesday just after sunset. “Today was gorgeous, blue sky, fast sailing with the kite up. Everyone’s in shorts and T-shirts. It’s one of those two days you get between the cold westerlies and the northerly warm tropics.”

The further they get into the tropics, however, and the flukier the wind will become. With less than 600 miles to Rio, Honey still finds it hard predicting an accurate ETA for ABN AMRO ONE. “I guess I would say early in the morning on the 11th or late at night on the 10th,” he said. “But the whole fleet is looking a threat in conditions this variable, particularly coming in towards Rio. In these boats if you have a park-up, a 50-mile lead can vanish in two hours. It’s nice to have a bit of a lead but we’re as nervous as we can be, because this is one of the most unpredictable, difficult finishes to any of the legs of the race.”



Honey has proved himself a master of the conditions so far, but he’s not sure that smart sailing will have much to do with the outcome in the final approaches to Rio. “I’d rather be lucky than smart, that’s for sure.”

Sandwiched in the middle of the fleet, ABN AMRO TWO’s navigator greets this compression of the fleet as both opportunity and threat. “We know it’s going to concertina,” said Simon Fisher. “Hopefully it will be good for closing up to the guys in front but probably a bit scary watching the guys behind. We’re looking forward and not behind though, generally.

“We’re still in the hunt. The hardest sked was Monday night when we were battling around in no wind, and Pirates and ABN AMRO ONE sailed away from us. That was frustrating, but there’s plenty of yacht racing left before we get to Rio. Today we’ve had 8 to 16 knots, fast downwind sailing. We’ve got some good miles in today. But tonight it gets a bit tricky.”

ABN AMRO web site