Victory in Rally Orinoco 2004 - By Andy Leeman

It was just a vague hope that we could be equally successful after this sensational 3^rd place in Rally Orinoco 2001. Knowing that this result would be hard to beat we started in the 31^st edition of Rally Orinoco, titled „Nuestros Rios Son Navegables“(www.nuestrosrios.com). The longest and hardest boat race in the world is held in Venezuelan waters every August and that attracts more boats and spectators every year.  

As in 2001, Ivor Heyer, director of the manufacturer of rigid inflatable boats AB Inflatables in Venezuela and Andy Leemann of Majorca based Yachtcenter Palma, equipped a boat and built a team to participate in the race. They used a Rib Oceanus 28 of the brand AB (Artigiana Bartelli), with two outboard engines Mercury-Optimax -Racing, 250 hp each. Besides the skippers Ivor Heyer  and Andy Leemann as well as supermechanic Esteban González, Carles Perez, Luisa Almiñana and Siggi Stamm joined the team. After the Majorcan flag had been handed over by the President of the Island Council, Maria Antonia Munar in July, they started as official representative of the island of Majorca.

The rally began on August, 28^th, in San Fernando de Apure. A total of 127 boats were participating in this adventure, heading for Puerto Ordaz, 2.000 kilometres downriver. Not even half of them reached the finishing line. The conditions of the race that can be described as the nautical counterpart of the Rally Paris-Dakar are taking their toll year by year. Heat, extreme humidity, mosquitos, rapids and shoals are exhausting for men and machines. As everybody else, we also had some minor technical problems but luckily these were solved before the start. Here the experience of the rally 2001 proofed very helpful: All you need is strong nerves to keep tuning and optimizing till the very last minute …. Then, after the starting signal everything went smooth, the material was excellent, the team at its best, the support never failed. We mastered rapids and shoals, mile by mile, by mile.

The impressions of the endless landscapes of the jungle will remain unforgettable – very often nothing was to be seen of the competitors, they were just swallowed by the jungle to only reappear in the next sequence of narrow bends in the river. Then again the sharp contrast of big crowds on the pit stops, boats, boats, boats and enthusiastic spectators hanging in the trees like apes to get the best view … a gigantic funfair.

It was impossible to estimate exact positions because the boats started in different classes and at different times so that the rally was sheer excitement till the very end. Would we really be good enough for a position among the first three boats of our class? Andy Leemann describes what happened in Puerto Ordaz when they proclaimed the winners - after eight days, little sleep and a lot of miles: „They did not call us for the third position and we really had to control our disappointment. O.k, apparently we had landed on the ungrateful fourth or fifth position. To our surprise they then announced that we had won – it was overwhelming.”

The boat that was considered somewhat „exotic“ – the only Rib in the whole competition – really made it and triumphed over the rest.