Volvo
Baltic Race - Humphries Hits The Jackpot - Again
[2004-06-30]
Henning Johannesson
Sandhamn, Sweden, June 30, 2004
– Britain's Matthew Humphries and his crew
onboard Team Elanders hit the jackpot again in
Sandhamn today, but Humphries is not taking anything
for granted. Sony Ericsson has brought in Danish
Olympic sailor, Stig Westergaard, as starting
helmsman, to take on Team Elanders’ Kiwi
match racer Cameron Appleton.
Today’s
race was originally scheduled to be held in Kiel,
but was postponed due to bad weather. The Race
Committee started the 18-nautical mile inshore
race just off Sandhamn on Stockholm’s outer
archipelago and immediately there were two match
races going on. Team Elanders locked onto Sony
Ericsson and JMS clashed with Avant – resulting
a protest, which will be heard tonight.
“Our
pre-start manoeuvres weren’t sharp enough,”
said Westergaard who received a telephone call
from Sony Ericsson’s skipper Thomas Blixt
inviting him to sail. “We need to get that
tuned up, then we’ll kick their butt,”
said Westergaard with a grin. Even so, Sony Ericsson
was still only four minutes behind Team Elanders
at the finish. The Danish Olympic and World Champion
sailor will now sail for the rest of the series,
as starting helmsman on Sony Ericsson and back
up to ace driver, Jeff Scott, who has helmed the
boat without a break throughout the series. “He
(Scott) looked like a ghost when I got here, so
I’m the backup,” Westergaard explained.
Drinking
champagne on the dock, the crew from Team Elanders
looked very relaxed, but not, insisted skipper
Matthew Humphries, ‘complacent.’ After
winning the start, rounding the windward mark
in front and leading the fleet down the second
of the two spinnaker legs, Team Elanders could
only watch as Sony Ericsson over took them. But,
while Sony Ericsson chose to hoist a gennaker,
the crew on Team Elanders stayed high on the course,
hooked into the new wind and then sailed away.
“Ray (Davies/NZ) did a brilliant job,”
said Matthew. “It was amazing, but it’s
far from over and we’re not thinking in
any way that we’re ahead. We’ll just
fight harder to get the best out of the boat.
We’re going to continue to use that momentum,
stay focussed and in control.”
Sparks
are flying between Avant and JMS Generation and
a protest will be heard tonight over a port/starboard
incident at the start. “We are really surprised
about the behaviour of JMS Next Generation,”
said a furious Mikael Lundh. “They ignored
the rules and we are protesting them. It’s
dangerous and it’s not the first time we
have had this situation.” In spite of this,
Avant finished eight minutes ahead of JMS Next
Generation and Lundh was very pleased with his
crew of youngsters: “It was a very tricky
race with light air. The crew worked really, really
hard, and I’m very proud of them, “
he said.
The
Croatians on AV-Teknik had a rough day. A mooring
warp got wrapped round their propeller and they
left the dock late and under tow. The bad luck
continued when they ran out of water on the way
to the start, and couldn’t gybe quickly
enough to avoid going aground. The team then retired.
Finishing
positions race 4 (postponed from Kiel and held
in Sandhamn today)
1 Team Elanders (Matthew Humphries, UK)
2 Sony Ericsson (Thomas Blixt, Swe)
3 Avant (M Lundh, Swe)
4 AV Teknik (Marko Murtic, Cro)
5 JMS Next Generation (Stefan Eneman, Swe/Kjell-Inge
Heiberg, Nor) Disqualified
Positions
overall after leg 6 (now including race 4)
1 Team Elanders 23.0 points
2 Sony Ericsson 22 points
3 JMS Next Generation 12.0 points
4 Avant 11.5 points
5 AV Teknik 5.5 points
http://www.volvobalticrace.org
