A jailbreak for illbruck; Assa Abloy first in but last out

Story and Photos By Rich Roberts
For YachtRacing.com

GOTHENBURG---Amid a sunsplashed scene of controlled chaos, Germany's
illbruck, with San Francisco skipper John Kostecki at the helm, broke from the Gothenburg gate like a thoroughbred and seized a commanding lead on the ninth and final leg of the Volvo Ocean Race.

Executing the downwind start perfectly, illbruck rapidly left itssevenrivals and a spectator fleet of hundreds of boats of every size anddescription far behind as it jibed through the mouth of the Gota Alv River that forms the city's natural port. A phalanx of 14 Swedish Navy camouflage-painted hydrofoils formed a narrow 200-meter channel to keep the spectators at bay.

The dying following wind turned 180 degrees to a 10-knot sea breeze before the boats reached the exit to the Baltic Sea and turned south toward Kiel 250 nautical miles away.

As the boats sailed toward the horizon, still followed by a hundred
determined spectators, illbruck had about a half-mile lead on Sweden's SEB, and the rest of the order was Australia's News Corp, Norway's djuice, Amer Sports One, Bermuda's Tyco, the women's Amer Sports Too and Sweden's Assa Abloy.

Yes, Assa Abloy, first into Gothenburg 10 days earlier and in a secure second place overall, was last out, leaving its chances of overtaking illbruck's five-point lead impossibly thin. Assa Abloy needed to finish first or second on this leg with illbruck no better than fifth.

Illbruck's superiority was such that it seemed to be sailing in its own private breeze. As it sailed almost out of sight, the other seven boats for a while for left strung out across the face of the spectator

fleet with their spinnakers drooping like limp long johns on a clothesline.

The fleet hoped to arrive at Kiel Sunday afternoon but the forecast was not favorable.