Ericsson Racing Team ready for leg 8 of the Volvo Ocean Race

11:07 PM Fri 5 Jun 2009 GMT

'Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 In-port race in Galway, Ireland
Ericsson 3 took 4th place and Ericsson 4 came 5th.' Oskar Kihlborg /Ericsson Racing Team

Leg 8 of the Volvo Ocean Race is called an offshore leg for scoring purposes, but Ericsson Racing Team is approaching it more as coastal sailing.

The 1,250-nautical mile leg to Marstrand, Sweden, features headlands, tidal gates, shipping zones, exclusion zones, oil rigs, a jaunt up the English Channel and a short loop off Rotterdam. With the fleet so evenly matched in speed, it's likely the estimated four- to six-day passage will be active for the crews.

'It's going to be pretty tiring because there's a lot of daylight - it's almost mid-summer's - and everybody's going to be racing hard because they'll be in sight of each other,' said Ericsson 4 navigator Jules Salter. 'There's stuff everywhere. It's going to be exciting.'

Ericsson 3 navigator Aksel Magdahl said he's taking more tools on this leg than he's used to.

'I'm taking more charts than normal,' Magdahl said. 'They have valuable information along shorelines and it's good to be able to show the crew where the trouble spots are. I also have some tide books and almanacs.'

Aside from the route, forecasting this leg is also a bit of a struggle. Team meteorologist Chris Bedford says that's due to the time of year and the fact there is an abundance of weather systems, none of which stands out.

'The forecast is very changeable, but we're starting to focus on a solution,' said Bedford. 'It's more due to the continent warming up and the water is still cold. So we're getting some temperature contrasts. Anytime you get into the summer season, the weather systems are much more subtle. Picking which disturbance will become the primary low pressure becomes difficult.'

The most interesting feature of the leg is the Rotterdam Loop. The race committee intends to set two marks off the Dutch coast between 2 and 2.5 nautical miles apart to orient a reaching course. The loop comes about two-thirds of the way through the leg, and the boats must clear the 'sausage' before continuing on to the finish.

'We're not quite sure how that'll work,' said Salter. 'If the course is right up on the coast it could be light. If we're there first thing in the morning it could be 3 to 4 knots of wind. Or, there could be a lot of breeze. It might take four hours or be a quick diversion.'

The route takes the fleet out of Galway Bay, around the south coast of Ireland and past Fastnet Rock, the revered lighthouse that serves as the rounding mark for the Fastnet Race. It can be one of the most treacherous places in the world, but might be benign when the Volvo fleet passes between it and the mainland.

'Anytime you're forced back to land the wind is likely to get squirrely,' said Bedford, who is predicting a light northeasterly wind. 'There could be a light spot in the lee of the mainland, so it could be a restart scenario.'

From there it's on to the English Channel, where the fleet is required to stay on the French side. That takes the fleet to the Rotterdam Loop, and then onwards up the North Sea and its many oil rigs towards Skagen, the northern tip of Denmark. Past Skagen, an estimated 35 nautical miles lie ahead before the finish in Marstrand, an idyllic vacation island on Sweden's west coast.

As Ericsson Racing Team leaves Galway it says goodbye to one of the most successful stopovers of this race. More than 317,000 people have visited the race village since it opened on May 23, and almost 200,000 are estimated to have swarmed the shores of Salthill and its 2-kilometer promenade along the shore of Galway Bay.

VOLVO OCEAN RACE LEADERBOARD
(After Galway In-Port Race)
1. Ericsson 4, 94 points
2. Telef?nica Blue, 81
3. Puma, 80
4. Ericsson 3, 62.5
5. Green Dragon, 53
6. Telef?nica Black, 39
7. Delta Lloyd, 31

by Ericsson Racing Team media