Yachting: Two Volvo boats turn back

Only three days into the second leg of the Volvo Ocean race the gruelling Southern Ocean leg has already taken its toll on competitors.

The Swedish boat Ericsson was yesterday forced to turn back to Cape Town, still thousands of kilometres from Melbourne, after breaking a hydraulic ram to the keel.

A few hours later Brasil 1 reported an area of the deck was delaminating (carbon layers unbonding) and the boat also turned and headed back.

According to the latest positioning report today, of the five remaining boats movistar was leading the race, 81 miles (130km) ahead of Pirates of the Caribbean.

ABN AMRO One, skippered by New Zealand's Mike Sanderson, had torn a couple of jibs, which had to be repaired, heading out of Cape Town but was otherwise relatively lucky.

"Beating up the coast we hit some pretty bad kelp which we didn't notice until we were well into it. We couldn't work it out: We had awesome speed in the in-port when we'd lined up with everyone, and yet we were just okay," Sanderson said.

They managed to remove the kelp and yesterday proceeded to overhaul both Ericsson and the Pirates through a sheer boat speed advantage.

A structure on the boat's bow later broke, but a couple of crew members were able to repair it.

Sanderson said that for a while there was an open hole in the deck and about six buckets of freezing water had to be bailed out every half-hour.

ABN AMRO Two's navigator Simon Fisher gave an insight into recent conditions: "Yesterday afternoon and evening was absolutely heinous in terms of pounding upwind," he said this morning.

"It took its toll on the boat and the crew. Most people bounced their dinner. While the wind strength of 25-26 knots was not exceptional the sea state was short and sharp," Fisher said.

"It had us launching off every other wave and coming down with an almighty bang. So we throttled back a bit and pulled up some daggerboard because we didn't want to smash the boat up."

He said the boat was checked for damage following reports of Ericsson's problems, but everything seemed in good order.

- NZPA, HERALD ONLINE STAFF