The sun returned to Marstrand Saturday as the skippers sat down to discuss the forthcoming Leg 9, the short Swedish sprint down to Sandhamn off the coast of Stockholm. The leg measures just 525 nautical miles, but as it winds down the coast of Sweden, it promises to offer up numerous challenges to the fleet. Ericsson 4, who sit atop the overall leaderboard, are strongly positioned to win the Volvo Ocean Race on this leg. Skipper Torben Grael and his team have a 15 point margin over PUMA, with just 20 points available to any team that runs the table the rest of the way.The start was extremely intense and tricky with very light shifty winds and irritating swell. But it was to change pretty quickly. After the gun the wind was flirting around each boat during the first beat upwind, giving everyone moments of glory. Telefónica Blue managed to go through the right hand side of the course and, luckily, the wind swung right some 120 degrees and they were in the lead together with Green Dragon. Telefónica Blue/Bouwe Bekking became wedged on a rock and suspended racing at 1231GMT while leading the fleet at the start of leg nine to Stockholm. The boat hit the rock while racing at around 14 knots of boatspeed and is hard aground in one-metre swells. The team immediately dropped the sails, but the boat’s keel is firmly wedged within the rocks whilst the rest of the fleet is sailing away. A pilot boat and the coastguards are standing by and attempting to tow the boat clear. All the crew are unhurt.
