Assa Abloy
Nips illbruck
March 27 - Miami, FL
Marin's Mark Rudiger and fellow Americans
Mike Howard of Southern California and Chris Larson of Baltimore
played valuable roles in Assa Abloy's come from behind
victory over John Kostecki's illbruck in the just completed
Rio to Miami leg of the Volvo Around the World Race. illbruck
continues to lead overall, 36 points to 28 points. Rudiger, who
was navigator aboard Paul Cayard's victorious EF Language
in the last race, gave the following interview in Miami:
Q: How were you able to get around illbruck?
A: I think a lot of it had to do with taking care of ourselves
on this trip, and squall management. We didn't break any crucial
sails, we made good sail changes during the squalls, and we actually
ended up getting into a little less current, which made the big
gain on them.
Q: Were you aware that illbruck was having trouble with
their sail?
A: No, We heard that after we passed them, and it was funny because
somebody said they lost their light air genniker, but it was
actually their light air genniker they used to pass us in the
end, so I guess it must have been some middle range spinnaker
that they lost.
Q: How does it feel to win a second time?
A: Third time now, if you count Hobart, we count Hobart! But
the second leg of this race is great, only two boats have won
a leg on this race so far, and we're two legs up so we're looking
for three into Baltimore to even it up with illbruck, and
go on from there.
Q: Are you getting more psyched up as time goes on?
A: Yeah, we're pretty psyched up actually. We've stretched second
place now and put some gap on third, so that feels pretty good.
Now, we can look forward as pretty solid, and not have to look
back so much.
Q: You spent a lot of time on deck, usually you're down below...
A: Because of the heat, and the squalls, and the sail changes
it was a lot of the time not due to navigation, but pure manpower
sailing the boat. I helped a lot with the squalls, looking at
the clouds.
Q: Are the speeds of these boats getting closer?
A: They're pretty close! When conditions are even and we're all
pretty much fighting for millimeters, it's really when the wind
shifts, or there is a sail change, that's when the big gear changes
tend to happen.
John Kostecki, also of Marin, was also
interviewed:
Q: What happened?
A: The last few days were kind of up and down for us. We've been
really close with Assa Abloy - back and forth with them,
really tight race - good racing. And the last few hours, we basically
got caught in real light wind and sucked up to the north with
the Gulf Stream. Assa did a nice job of getting in and
out of the Gulf Stream and was able to win the race.
Q: Was it expected?
 A: Well, this has always been
tight racing and so it's not surprising at all.
Q: What happened to the sail that we heard so much about?
A: We ripped our running spinnaker which we use in fifteen to
twenty knots. We had that up one night, about five nights ago.
A big cloud came up behind us and it just increased the wind,
so we had to jibe right away. In the middle of the jibe, the
spinnaker tore and floated out in the front of the boat. We nearly
ran over it. It all ended up in the water, over the side and
behind us. We had about ten percent of it onboard and we had
to cut the rest away.
Q: Was that the difference?
A: It didn't help us today. Yesterday, Assa did have that
special weapon on us and it didn't help. But I wouldn't say it
was the deciding factor.
Q: There were some real nerve-wracking finishes, Tyco
was coming up, too.
A: Tyco was ahead of us only two hours ago, and that was
quite nerve-wracking. We are quite happy to come in second place
and be leading the Volvo Ocean Race at this point in time.
Q: Do you think, John, that these boats are coming closer and
closer to you in speed and performance?
A: For sure. Sailing side by side with Assa Abloy and
Tyco, it was very noticeable that they were similar in
speed. They really have copied our sails and a lot of things
that we have learned. We thought we had an advantage, but now,
they're catching up. It's going to be a tight race for all the
rest of the way around the world.
Q: The transatlantic notwithstanding, you are facing four relatively
short legs this time around. Is that going to make it harder?
A: For sure. On these longer legs, we've been able to use speed
advantage, crew work and special sails. On the shorter legs,
we are not going to have this special speed advantage, so it's
going to be tight racing. We all are going to have to beef up
our tactical program and sail really well to keep getting podium
finishes.
Q: No time to get conservative?
A: You can't get conservative on these short legs. Everybody's
going for it and everybody's top of the line here.
|
