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Big Beachcats: Spectacular capsizes at Volvo Extreme 40 Grand Prix
Team Holmatro started inconsistantly at the Volvo Extreme 40 Grand Prix in
Portsmouth (GBR). After two days and eight races, the Dutch entry claims
a fourth position overall. The Austrian Andreas Hagara, former European
and national Champion Tornado, did the honours as a skipper on Sunday.
He performed pretty well with a series of 4-2-2-4. On Tuesday May 30,
Mitch Booth returned in his role as skipper with Hagara next to him. The
crew experienced difficulties with the short course and a drop on the
point table was inevitable. Tommy Hilfiger and subsequently the Volvo
Ocean Race multihull made history as first VX 40's to capsize in a
breeze up to 25 knots. Basilica stood up against all risks and is
leading, followed by Tommy Hilfiger and Motorola.
"That
was an entertaining day", said Mitch Booth afterwards on the
dock. "I was so much distracted on the downwind leg, that I sailed over
the starting buoy." It was Leigh MacMillan that pitchpoled first with
the Motorola in the second race. The crew was hanging in the air for
seconds, with the rudders free. The VX 40 came down snail-like and
everybody drew a breath of relief, as nobody knew the consequences of a
capsize. The answer came in the last race: the carbon boat and the
sailors were very strong. Randy Smith and his teammates were given the
honour to be the very first VX 40 upside down. They were just recovering
from a pitchpole, as the next wind gust came in. It blew the American
multihull over. A heavy rib was needed to upright it. While being in
this rescue process, the Volvo Ocean Race team pitchpoled merciless.
Skipper Yves Loday, designer of the VX 40 and 1992 olympic champion
Tornado, could not avoid this unvoluntary swim and crashed badly into
the mast. Loday, who had a bruise in his face: "The cold water relieved
the pain, but my back hurts now." Nevertheless, the sailors could still
make fun of it. Randy Smith, sitting on the upper hull and shouting down
to the people in the rib: "Of course we will finish the race anyway."
This did not happen.
Team Holmatro had its own problems today. The starts went well, but from
there they lost more and more ground to the competitors. They dropped
from a second to a fourth place overall, with a series of 5-4-4-3 on
Tuesday. Booth afterwards: "We have not performed well. The course was
too short for us, which resulted in poor boat handeling as our guys are
in general smaller. It is pretty heavy to carry around the spinnaker and
to trim constantly." But this did not affect the effort or fun. The
second Austrian guest crew member Alex Wiesinger, won in 1986 with
Andreas Hagara the European title Hobie Cat 18 en skippers a Dragon
nowadays, with a smile: "It has been years since I was a bowman. I am
totally broken, but it was great." He replaced Herbert Dercksen, who got
sick after the Holland Regatta. Taylor Booth was the fourth core crew
member.
Hagara's comeback
Hagara enjoyed his latest sailing adventure on the Volvo Extreme 40: "I
have tried to set up an Austrian project, but I did not succeed. Mitch
called me and asked me to stand in for him on Sunday. I have not sailed
for two years, so I had to get used to it at the beginning. Especially
because we had 24 knots on the first training day, which was pretty
tough. Taylor was the only person who knew the boat." Hagara's goals was
not to finish in last position, which did not happen: "I think my
extensive experience counts. We were off in first position every time
and we could take over other teams on boat speed. The forces are
incredible and the fun factor is big."
A very sad loss
The arrival in Portsmouth was also an emotional event for the employees
and relations of Holmatro. Their beloved skipper Hans Horrevoets of the
Holmatro 1, a Grand Soleil 44, died on May 18th 2006 during the seventh
leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. Since 2003, Horrevoets has used his
passion, knowledge and professionalism in sailing as a coach and trainer
of talented young sailors. He made their dreams of participating in high
level IMS-events come true. They did it and won several prizes.
Jaap Meijer, Managing Director Holmatro: "We had so many more plans with
Hans for after the Volvo Ocean Race. I can still not believe he is gone.
Hans has always had an enormous value for our company, as a skipper and
as a person. We will miss him deeply."
The Portsmouth Grand Prix will end on Thursday June 1st 2006.
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