The Volvo Open 70 “movistar”, has started training in Cape Town’s waters. The Spanish boat in the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-2006 came back to the water yesterday, Sunday, after being weighted, as the Volvo Ocean Race demands.
The organizers checked movistar’s weight is still on the rule –between 12,5 and 14 tons-. “Our boat is nearly the maximum weight- says Xabi Fernández, movistar’s trimmer-. Fortunately, despite the reinforcements we have added with the Portimao’s repairs, we still have the allowed weight. Otherwise we´d had to take weight out from the bulb, and this would be extra work and moreover a reduction of the speed of the boat. It can be said that this has been excellent news for all of us”.
The VO 70 came back to the water in Cape Town’s Marina at 17:02, local time, once the mast was tunning and the new weight was checked.
“All the team has celebrated the boat is ready and in the water – mentioned Bouwe Bekking, movistar’s skipper-. After we have lived these last 35 days, to see her moored at the dock was just fantastic”.
Intense training programme
The “movistar” left her base at 14:00 to sail for the first time since the boat arrived to Portimao, on the last 14th of November. During the daily meeting, Bouwe Bekking told the today’s programme to the crew: “Basically, we will test the hydraulics systems and we’ll see if everything works properly, too. It will take about three hours sailing. Tomorrow it will be a longer and more intense day and, if the conditions are good, we will try to sail an offshore in order to find big waves and a stronger wind”.
“movistar” found a really good sailing conditions during her first day in the water, with 24 knots of wind and waves. “It has been a good way to start in the South African waters –said Bouwe Bekking after they came back to shore-. Today, we just sailed a few hours butit was enough to check everything runs ok. We have checked the hydraulic system of the keel, and since the weather conditions were favourable, we were also testing some sails. Tomorrow we sail earlier and we’ll train all the day”.