Volvo Ocean Race - Its a disaster says Telefonica Blue skipper

6:02 PM Sun 14 Jun 2009 GMT

'Marstrand Volvo Ocean Race, Telefonica Blue runs hard aground shortly after the start.' Rick Tomlinson &copy

Bouwe Bekking - 'It is clearly our own mistake of course, we thought we were to leeward of the rock and clear of it and we smacked it right on the head ... and clear of it and we smacked it right on the head ...'

Telefonica Blue ran aground on a rock shortly after the start of Leg 9 in Marstrand and has since served a two-hour penalty for suspending racing.

In fact, it took the crew two hours to free the stricken boat with the help of pliot vessels and support craft.

Bouwe Bekking and his men have returned to Marstrand to have the boat hauled out for a full assessment of the damage.

Bekking, who's boat suffered a similar mishap at the start of Leg 5 out of Qingdao, was understandably crestfallen by the setback. He explained what happened.

'We were sailing along under a Code Zero and a staysail and we had cleared the leeward mark by roughly two miles, doing about 16-17 knots and basically hit a rock straight on,' he said.

Asked whether the incident, a collision with a 1.5 metre rock, was down to a charting problem, he added: 'It is clearly our own mistake of course, we thought we were to leeward [of the rock] and clear of it and we smacked it right on the head.

'In that sense PUMA was right behind us and had a to make a big alteration of course as well. S*!t happens but it shouldn't happen but ... clearly a mistake.'

Marstrand Volvo Ocean Race, Telefonica Blue hard aground shortly after the start. - Rick Tomlinson &copy

As for the damage, Bekking said that was unclear until a full inspection had been made though they did take on water following damage to the port daggerboard. Early indications are not encouraging.

'It doesn't look that good. We took quite a lot of water on board. The canard has been pushed through the daggerboard case which is where all the water was coming in from.

'We just have to assess the rest of the damage. We can see that we broke one of the rudders off. We have to see how the bulb will look and the keel. The good thing is that the keel is still there so the boats are very very strong. If you hit at 25-30 kph normally a boat would sink so thank you Volvo for a good rule.'

As for the lengthy battle to free the boat from the rock, Bekking added: 'We tried different options, we pulled a winch off, the co-ordination is always very difficult. We have to thank the Coast Guard, the pilots and the police here, they have been really really helpful.

'They managed to pull us off and get us safely to the harbour so a big thanks to them.'

In the short term, there is no prospect of points on this leg. And in looking ahead, if the damage is as severe as is suggested, it may be game over in the battle with PUMA for second place overall.

'Yes of course it is a disaster and everybody realises that. The most sad person is SciFi [Simon Fisher] . I don't know how many thousand times he has said sorry. That's how it is, we are a team we will come on top of it again. Yeah, most likely second place is gone.'

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Mark Chisnell reports - 'Telefonica Blue is indeed out of the water. I'd say they've got plenty on to make the start of Leg 10, never mind the In-Port Race in Stockholm. But we won't really know the deal until the structural engineers take a look at it, and that could take a few hours to do properly, as they will probably want to test it with ultrasound.'

by Volvo Media