Ericsson Racing Team ready for a wet 'n' wild ride.

(From Hugin)

1 January 2006 - One day before the start of leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race, the members of the Ericsson Racing Team are enjoying their last moments of peace before entering a whole new wild world: the Southern Ocean.

After a month in Cape Town, mainly spent training, mending bruises and recuperating from leg one, the seven teams competing in the Volvo Ocean Race are ready to set sail again. Leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race is one of the toughest of the eight month event, with over 6,000 miles to sail between Cape Town (RSA) and Melbourne (AUS). "We are as ready as can be", comments Ericsson Racing Team skipper Neal McDonald. "Our number one priority is crew safety, so during the stopover we have been literally tearing the boat apart, checking every single element - particularly the keel movement system - reinforcing it and putting it back together. This gives us the confidence we need to sail in the roaring forties." Leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race starts on Monday 2 January at 11:00 GMT, just north of Grainger Bay. The winds should be quite light at the time of the start, but rough seas and strong winds are expected a few hours into the race, as the boats near Cape of Good Hope. As a result of ice reports, the race organisers have added two ice waypoint gates which will force the boats north and lengthen the course. The first ice gate will be in the region of the Crozet Islands and will be a line 400 miles long that will have to be crossed at some point. The second will be in the region of the Kerguelen Islands and will be 500 miles long; again the boats will have to sail north of this at some stage. The fleet will also pass two scoring gates at the longitude of the Kerguelen Islands, about halfway to Australia, and again at Eclipse Island on the south west tip of the continent. The finish is in Hobson's Bay, Melbourne, just north of the junction of the Williamstown and Port Melbourne Channels. The winner of the leg will be awarded 7 points, whilst the boat that crosses the scoring gates first will receive 3.5 points. Even though one month long, the Cape Town stopover has been extremely busy for the sailors and the shore crew. "We have been checking and updating the entire boat, and testing new sails", comments technical Director and Volvo Ocean Race veteran Magnus Olsson. Ericsson also competed in the in-port race on Boxing Day, finishing sixth in an exhilarating race competed in winds exceeding 40 knots. Finally, the Ericsson Racing Team has welcoReutersthe arrival of Irish sailor Damian Foxall, a highly experience sailor and veteran of five round-the-world events, as a substitute to Tony Kolb who recently left the team. The Ericsson Racing Team wishes you a very happy New Year. Quotes: Neal ...