VOLVO OCEAN RACE 2001/02

illbruck threaten a race for second...
After a glimmer of hope at the end of Leg 3, Kostecki's illbruck crew left their rivals in no doubt who was back in charge as the fleet reached Rio. TIM JEFFERY reports

Leg 4 diary
A review of the most ice-strewn - and probably dangerous - leg that this race has seen for many years

Routeing analysis
Or two dimensions seems easier than three. DAVID BRAYSHAW

Report time
Two-thirds of the race distance gone along with nearly half the available points. ANDREW HURST takes stock

FEATURES

The $64million question
Not since the Volvo (then Whitbread) Race first introduced the Volvo 60 class has there been so much speculation over the shape of the subsequent event, or indeed of the likelihood of it happening at all. One man knows (nearly) all the answers - ANDREW HURST talks to Volvo Race chief executive HELGE ALTEN

Another day at the office - Not!
Klaus-Jürgen Heer explains what you do when someone asks you to build Juan Kouyoumdjian's outrageous new 35m, pencil-slim, water-ballasted and be-winged monohull.

REGULARS

COMMODORE'S LETTER - PETER RUTTER

EDITORIAL - ANDREW HURST

Update
Volvo Diaries take on an icy look this month, a report from the first week's trials of Mark Pivac's new 12 metre foiler, Spitfire. Plus IACC racing reaches San Francisco Bay ahead of the Cup...

World news
Team New Zealand continue to set the pace at the IACC International Regatta in Auckland, while the scandal-clouds gather over Syndicate Row, De Kersauson leads the Jules Verne Challengers away after all, and reaction to the new Admiral's Cup format. Plus Peter Craig pulls off the biggest success at this year's Terra Nova Trading Key West Raceweek. IVOR WILKINS, PATRICE CARPENTIER, DOBBS DAVIS, ROB MUNDLE.

Rod Davis
The hardest task in an America's Cup campaign? ŒSkippering the B-Team'.

ORC column
Alignment is in sight at last as the ORC puts its weight behind the newly formed IMS 600 class, one of the two classes that will compete at Admiral's Cup 2003. DAVID LYONS reports

Olympic and small boat news
The Star class recently approved a major step forward in the drive to attract an even wider international spread of competition. And also, perhaps, to help some of its members to live a little better...

America's Cup news
Scandals, centreboards, chasing the Deutschmarks, two new boats for Dennis, Chris Dickson back in the news - it must be Cup time again. Plus an interview with GBR Challenge design co-ordinator DEREK CLARK

Design - Bang for the buck!
On paper, at least, the new Simonis Voogd Max Fun 35 appears to offer exactly this in prodigious quantities. MAARTEN VOOGD explains

SEAHORSE RACEBOAT BUILD TABLE

RORC NEWS
SEAHORSE RACE CALENDAR
SAILOR OF THE MONTH: Vive la France - encore!

Slipping away

The results of Leg 4 of the Volvo Race were so extraordinary that illbruck must have been left thinking they had won the lottery twice on the same day. As illbruck's co-navigator Ian Moore explains (see Update) things could not have worked out better for the German-based team, their rivals finishing in almost exactly the reverse of the order in which they had been lying overall going into the leg.

Hence illbruck moves seven points away from the rest of the fleet, which in turn has closed into a bunch that will inevitably become distracted with racing among themselves.

Still the most consistent threat to illbruck is Grant Dalton's Amer Sports One. Dalton may not have the fastest boat, but it is fast enough. And Dalt's crew is second to none - especially in the area of helmsmen (actually, why any big-budget teams started what was always going to be a tight contest with a less than plentiful supply of world-class helmsmen is a mystery). Dalton is under pressure to make a big jump on illbruck in the next couple of legs, to close the fight down before the Œinshore' stages at the end.

Others are also under pressure to at the very least bang in a stage win, so there is every chance of seeing a new name on the top step of the podium in Miami. Kostecki is the consummate series sailor, not a man who needs to win by a lot - just to win. Hence a big margin at the event's halfway stage, the equivalent of over one point per leg from Rio to the finish, is a huge bonus. Over a long series the best-prepared entrant usually draws ahead, and no race is longer than this one. For those who want to see a close finish (and that's just about everybody except the illbruck team!) the next leg is likely to be the most important of the whole race.