Het zijn toch immense boten...
On the road to Rio
Brasil 1 has left the ML Boats shipyard, in Indaiatuba and is on her way to Rio de Janeiro. The trip will take approximately three days.
After eight months of construction, the work in the shipyard has been completed. The boat will arrive at the Marina da Gloria in Rio de Janeiro at the end of the week.
Brasil 1 left the boatyard last week and the trip will take approximately three days. It marks the end of more than eight months and 35,000 hours of work, to build the first Brazilian sailboat to compete in the Volvo Ocean Race.
"I am very anxious to get the boat in the water. The hardest part of the project is over and the Brasil 1 is a boat now. It took a lot of work to build her in Brazil, but we managed to do a quality job and I am sure that we will have one of the best boats in the competition," confirms Torben Grael, skipper of Brasil 1 and the best Olympic sailor in the world, with five podium finishes.
The final preparations of the 70-foot (21.5 metre) boat will take place at the Marina da Gloria in Rio, and will start as soon as Brasil 1 arrives, at the end of this week. "Here in Rio, we will step the mast, fit the keel and rudder, and get everything ready for the christening on June 23rd," says André Fonseca who, until the end of May, used to oversee the construction in Indaiatuba.
BRASIL 1 WEIGHS IN READY TO RACE
Last week Brasil 1 and all her fittings were weighed. Brasil 1 is the first yacht of its kind ever built in Latin America. The whole package weighed in according to the team's expectations.
"Our work has been very cautious and we have been able to increase the weight of the keel bulb by 3.2%. A heavier bulb allows us to get more power from the sails, thus increasing our speed. On a round-the-world race, this may result in a gain of several hours," confirms Horácio Carabelli, the technical director of Brasil 1, after calculating the total weight of the boat. The electronic equipment and cables that haven't been installed yet were weighed separately. "We are very pleased with the results we obtained. We achieved our goal," he said.
"Weight is one of the most important aspects in the construction of a competitive boat. The lighter the structure, the more weight we can place in the keel bulb (the part that stabilizes the boat and remains under water). Brasil 1 can be faster if we make the keel bulb heavier," confirms Alan Adler, the director of the project.
Carabelli, who is in Indaiatuba overseeing the construction, explains that the crew worked hard to reduce the weight as much as possible. "Every piece of equipment has been analyzed. Any part that could be substituted by a similar one in carbon fibre was replaced. Even a hundred grams are worth saving in this process," he explains.
Sponsored by VIVO, Motorola, QUALCOMM, ThyssenKrupp, NIVEA Sun and the Brazilian Government through Apex (the organization that promotes Brazilian exports), the Ministry of Industry Development and Foreign Trade, and the Ministry of Tourism, with special support from Varig. Brasil 1 will be christened on June 23rd, in Rio de Janeiro.
The crew has been confirmed as Torben Grael (skipper), Brazilian members Marcelo Ferreira, Kiko Pellicano, João Signorini and André Fonseca, Australian r Adrienne Cahalan (navigator), Spaniards Guillermo Altadill and Roberto Chuny Bermudez, New Zealander Stuart Wilson and Norwegian Knut Frostad.
