On powerful boats like the V.O.60s the loss of speed might be as little as a few tenths of a knot, but in the fierce competition between the yachts, no-one can afford such a disadvantage. Therefore the crews are working frantically to get rid of whatever sticks to their yacht. Some have fit special weed cutting devices to their keel, others carry weed sticks they can use to clear the keel or rudder when going slow, but most report that they have to sail backwards to get clear. Reports about Œbacking down‚ came in from several yachts.

Brad Jackson from Tyco explains a typical procedure : "After going slowly for a short while we decided that we had to clear it off which meant hoisting headsail and dropping the spinnaker before rounding up head to wind and going backwards. Normally this is enough to clear the foils but in the murky North Sea we had no easy way of knowing that we are 100% clean ! It is very annoying to turn around and point 180 degrees from where you want to go and watch the boats behind you take away your lead that you have been working on for two days. We lost first place to ASSA ABLOY but at least we were going 100% again."

Race leader illbruck hasn’t been spared the experience : "Also, seaweed has played a big role in this leg so far. All the teams have performed "back downs". This normally means dropping your headsail or spinnaker and turning the boat into the wind, which allows the boat to stop, and slowly go in reverse for a few moments to let the sea weed come off the keel, strut, and rudder. Each back down move you make you can lose anywhere from 0.5 to 2 miles. Making the back down move could mean losing 2-4 places. That is one of the reasons the boats are changing positions all of the time on this leg. "On our last back down, we had seaweed wrapped around our strut, so Tony went for a swim in the chilly water of the North Sea to clear it off. No one was excited about swimming this morning, but Tony, the youngest crewmember onboard, stuck his hand up and said, ’I will do it’ and everyone else onboard was relieved and happy that Tony went swimming," wrote skipper John Kostecki.

While most of the crews accept it as a natural occurrence, Mark Rudiger, navigator on ASSA ABLOY had a more to say on the matter : "Why is it that just when things are going your way, something comes along to foul it up ? After fighting hard to hold the lead with Tyco, and holding off the rest, playing the tides and gybing on the shifts, we came out of Dover Strait in good shape. The boats behind had gained a lot as predicted because we hit the big ebb first and were sailing into dying breeze. They got out of jail free. On top of that, all of a sudden, we slowed down noticeably and the
fleet was all over us."

While the other yachts had to free their keels and rudders from seaweed, ASSA ABLOY’s obstacles were of a different nature : "Magnus [Olsson] came up on deck shaking his head, and exclaimed in his drawn out Swedish accent ’you won’t believe what was on the keel’. Everyone looked around waiting for some one to guess ’three big fishes’. He laughed spreading his arms as far as he could. We all looked suspicious of another Magnus Olsson fish story, but Richard and Sidney [Gavignet] confirmed having watched through the scope. I had to agree that looking at the performance factor on the graph, it went up 6%. So now after 48 hrs of giving everything for a few boat lengths, it’s back to the grinder for more boat lengths to gain back."

On Amer Sports One Dee Smith had to deal with another problem. Having lost their early lead, the confidence in the design of the red and grey yacht faded as the competition overtook : "It has been tough for us on the non-Farr [Yacht Design] boat. We had a good lead entering the English Channel ; just to see the Farr [Yacht Design] boats come up and pass us over the last 350 miles."

Still confident about what lies ahead, Dee continues : "We feel very good on how we are sailing just to be this close. Our time will have to come when the wind gets light and tricky. I know the race won’t be this close at the finish. Getting into the marks in Norway without any real wind will be very hard, and there it just might not pay to get there first."

Djuice and Amer Sports Too continue to trail the fleet. Djuice is looking forward to the lighter conditions off the Norwegian coast, where they hope to close in on the fleet and repeat the good result they had into Rio at the end of leg four. Now 160 miles behind the leading yachts, hopes for a good position at the end of this leg are fading away for Amer Sports Too.

Last night SEB has split from the main pack, sailing a parallel course about ten miles to the northwest. For the other yachts it is what John Kostecki called a "drag race" where pure boat speed counts. The yachts are expected to round Torungen Lighthouse off the Norwegian coast tomorrow early morning and to pass Skagen at noon.

Volvo Ocean Race Position Report, Day 4, 1303 GMT

PS Yacht Latitude Longitude DTF CMG SMG TFHR DTL DTL-C ETA PO
– 1 AART 56 20.04N 005 31.84E 274 38 10.8 292 0 0 29/05/02 13:50 49
– 2 ILBK 56 20.08N 005 29.40E 275 37 11.1 291 1 -1 29/05/02 13:53 56
– 3 TYCO 56 20.44N 005 27.60E 275 37 11 292 1 -1 29/05/02 13:55 39
– 4 NEWS 56 17.24N 005 31.88E 276 39 11 290 2 -1 29/05/02 14:00 39
– 5 TSEB 56 22.68N 005 12.76E 279 46 10.6 290 5 +1 29/05/02 14:15 30
– 6 AONE 56 15.96N 005 22.24E 281 43 11 286 7 0 29/05/02 14:24 39
– 7 DJCE 55 55.92N 005 05.76E 302 36 11 275 28 -1 29/05/02 16:22 25
– 8 ATOO 54 07.48N 002 53.84E 434 22 11.7 226 160 -3 30/05/02 04:21 11