All Eyes To Challenging Cochin

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

After a long waiting the sail is now directed to Cochin. In Cape Town, South Africa Kerala is a piece of mystery and excitement. “Here everyone is talking about India and we’re excited to be going there,” says Ken Read, skipper of Puma. “Approaching India and Cochin could see a whole new lot of challenges,” says Team Erricsons sail note. Eighteen day journey from Cape Town to Cochin will start on Saturday.

All the Eight participating teams had made arrangements for repairing of yachts in Cochin. After the first leg two boats got considerable damage. The route to Cochin is new to all the participating teams. In these circumstances there is a greater chance of damage. Eying these possibilities all the teams have requested for an out of water repair.  “The biggest threat is if this leg takes much longer than predicted. The India stopover is only 10 days long. Get there 4 or 5 days late and this will be a pit stop not a stopover. Get there with lots of damage to your boat and you may not have time to fix it,” says Team Telefonica’s press note.

In the first leg Erricson 3  had replaced their Keel and Telefonica black got hit in the rudder. After the complexity of leaving Cape Town and rounding the Cape of Good Hope all the teams have to negotiate the Agulhas Current before a drag race to longitude 58 East as the first scoring gate.

While the sailing team is getting some well deserved rest, the shore team, which has been bolstered in numbers due to the short South African stopover, is hard at work servicing and repairing the boat. They got only 12 days to do this. When they come to Cochin they have to repair each and every inch of the yacht. Shore teams of all the participating teams have completed their work in Cape Town and hopes to leave to Cochin by air on 16th.
Sailing through the unknown

The passage from Cape Town to Kochi is widely regarded as an ‘unknown’ for the Volvo Ocean Race sailors, as no professional round-the-world yacht race has ever sailed this course before. The leg is expected to be predominantly upwind sailing and piracy is considered a serious threat in these waters. As the commercial capital of India’s south western state of Kerala, Kochi will welcome the fleet after a tough eighteen days at sea.

Ken Read commented: “Leg One to Cape Town was such a close leg, we had some great racing and we learned a lot about the boat and how hard we can push ourselves onboard il mostro. This is only the beginning. In just a few hours we’ll be saying ‘goodbye Cape Town and hello Kochi’. We’ll be ready for that and to go out there and push even harder.”

International organizers of the Volvo Ocean Race will take charge of the Race Office in the Willingdon Island in next week. Office will be operational by the 3rd week of November.

Meanwhile, Cochin Port Trust had almost completed the construction of the world class Race Office. Facilities provided in the Race Office match international standards; says Chairman N. Ramachandran.  In connection with the Race, Port Trust had built two additional stories for the existing Marine Office. Each floor of the three storied building has a working space of 1,200 sq. mtr. The building is situated near BTP jetty. 1st floor of the building provides amenities for Radio uplinking and Television uplinking. IT room with all the major conveniences is operational now. Several computer points with 10 mbps (millions of bits per second) connection are to be set up in the media zone of the Race Office. Fully dedicated 40 Telephone lines will be activated in the Office. Press conference area, conference room etc. are provided in the 1st floor.

‘Ocean Lounge,’ a dream like Restaurant is being constructed in the 2nd Floor. CGH Earth has won the bid for running the Restaurant. There will be a Mini Corporate Meeting Hall near the Lounge. Top officials of the participating companies are expected to conduct Business meetings in the hall. Networking sessions with the local entrepreneurs also will be conducted here.

Volvo Ocean Race CEO’s office, Corporate Public Relations Office, Director’s Office etc. are going to function in the 2nd floor. According to the agreement Port Trust had to handover the building to organizers one week prior to the arrival of the yachts. Port completed the upper stories of the building spending Rs. 1.10 Cr. Furniture and other facilities cost around 55 lakh.