Kochi-coos!

Gentlemen never keep a lady waiting. And the sailors of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 proved their chivalry by reaching early for their date with the Queen of the Arabian Sea. The first to call on the Queen was skipper Torben Grael and his men on board the Ericsson 4. They crossed the line at 4:22 a.m. on November 30; the ETA was December 3. Preceded by three tugs spraying plumes of water in welcome, Ericsson 4 tied up at the pontoon on Willingdon Island, Kochi, as the team anthem, Metallica’s Enter Sandman, boomed across the bay. Exit light/Enter night/Take my hand/Off to never never land, went the refrain as the jubilant Ericsson shore crew and families of crew members welcomed the yachtsmen with hugs and kisses all around.

The second to arrive was Telefonica Blue skippered by Bouwe Bekking. The Blues sailed in at 6:07 p.m., against the backdrop of a magnificent sunset. Skipper Anders Lewander claimed the third position by bringing in Ericsson 3 at 1:06 p.m. on December 1. The finishing point was an imaginary line between Kochi port’s first channel-marking buoy and the INS Tarangini, a three-masted barque of the Indian Navy anchored at seas.

Soon it was pouring yachts at the pontoon, Fernando Echavarri, Beijing Olympics gold medallist in Tornado-class sailing, brought in the Telefonica Black at 5:30 p.m. The ‘photo finish’ came when skipper Ken Read put PUMA Il Mostro across the line at 6:02 p.m., followed by Roberto Bermudez with the Delta Lloyd (6:09 p.m.) and Ian Walker on the Green Dragon (6:38 p.m.). After 4,450 nautical miles through squalls and the Doldrums, these three Volvo 70s had touched base in a window of 40 minutes! Team Russia reached Kochi at 6:53 p.m. on December 3.

Meanwhile, the response from the public has been excellent. Crowds turned up late in the evening to cheer the yachts as they arrived. The race village, too, has become a hit. The Volvo ‘igloo’ which houses a yacht simulator, complete with a heaving floor, is the biggest crowd puller. The stopover website, www.cochinoceanrace.com, is attracting around 30,000 hits a day says Binosh Bruce of Primmero Technologies, which runs the site.

The Volvo Open 70 is the class of the yachts raced in the VOR. Made of carbon fibre, V70s weigh around 14,000kg and are 70.5 ft long. A V70 parked upright will be one metre taller than the Sistine Chapel. Designed to exceed speeds of 30 knots—55kmph—a V70 carries up to 24 sails, the biggest of which can cover two tennis courts! To top it all, the mast is a whopping 103.3ft above water. The V70s carry two Volvo Penta engines, one for powering the boat in emergency situations and the other for powering the generator on board.

The standard crew on a V70 is 11 hands. “The skipper chooses the crew,” says Read. “Most of us in VOR have sailed with or against each other. So it is easy to pick a crowd, balancing the strengths and weaknesses.” Of the 11, one is the media crew member, who is not allowed to help sail the yacht. The remaining 10 are divided into two watches of four men each; the navigator and skipper do not have a specific watch. When one watch sleeps, the other sails the yacht.

“The skipper and navigator are always on call,” says Torben. “Perhaps just when you take off to bed, fresh meteorological data comes in and we have to stay up to plan. We are expected to keep both watch-captains updated.” On the Alicante-Cape Town leg, Ericsson 4 had to evacuate crewman Tony Mutter and Torben filled in for him on the watch, leaving navigator Jules Salter on the weather desk.

Most of the yachts have taken a beating on the Cape Town-Kochi leg. Ericsson 4 had minor problems with the rudder, PUMA Il Mostro cracked the longitudinal frames that keep the yacht from bending in half; Green Dragon broke its boom—the pole at the bottom edge of a sail and both Telefonica yachts broke their dagger boards, the panels that stop a yacht from slipping sideways. Walker says: "You can see Telefonica guys carrying dagger boards tucked under the arm. We need three guys to carry ours. You make choices. You build it stronger and make it more reliable or you push the envelope. The team that treads that line best manages the best result."

How does the race committee monitor possibilities of cheating at sea? What if the team switches on the motor on in a windless zone? Well, the engine is sealed as teams leave port and it is checked at each finish line. Oh, there is another small matter: there are five fixed cameras on board that can be rotated 360⁰, this includes one mounted below the deck. Then there are the two handheld cameras with the media crew member. Speak of eyes in the sky!