2nd placed talks about his race

We are conducting a series of interviews with some virtualskippers during this grueling leg to Rio. Today, we have been discussing via email with Ubatuba 1, skippered by Dimitri Matoszko who is currently in 2^nd place ! Let’s discover who is the person behind the helm of this VOR70

Sébastien Destremau: Hello Dimitri and welcome to the virtualinterview’s room. Firstly, congratulationon making it this far in this grueling fifth leg of the Virtual Volvo OceanRace. Second placed in front almost 200 000 competitors must be overwhelming.

SD : How is the boat? And the skipper? When did you startplaying with us and what were your results in the previous legs?

Boat and skipper are tired, but happy, we are approaching home.I start in middle of leg two, a learning leg for me. My results are increasedevery leg, 9618 in leg two, 387 in leg tree and 23 in leg four.

SD: From a race point of view - How are you going in this leg?Are you happy with the way you have sailed so far? Do you feel you’ve made someerrors and what would they be? What was the toughest moment for you during this leg?

The big jump in this leg was the low pressure system, only fewsailors catch the opportunity. I was happy to catch this systems two times. Obviously I made many errors, every sailors made errors, excepting Powerof7 with anexcellent job, virtually errors free. The night of cape Horn was a real fight, many gibes without sleep.

SD: How many hours a days are you spending on the game? Are youusing outside sources of weather forecasts and which ones? What is the currentweather situation for and your own analysis to reach Cap Horn/Rio?

I am spending 3 hours a day, more or less. I am using Ugrib for weather forecasts, it is essential to see the development of low pressure systems. Now we are in a critical moment, light and variable breezes,everything is possible and nobody is safe.

SD: What are the main improvements you'd like to see in this game?

This game is great, nothing to change.

SD: A little bit about you now: Your Age? Where do you live?What is your Profession? How’s the family/entourage feels about yourinvolvement in this race?

I am 43 years old, married, two teenager girls. I live in a tropical water front paradise, Itamambuca Beach, southeastern shore of Brazil.I am manager of Itamambuca Eco Resort an ecological hotel in Ubatuba. My family loves sailing, my regions have many beautiful islands and pleasure weather, then the involvement with any race is natural.

SD: Are you a sailor? Casual or racer? And what is your sailingresume? Real and virtual?

I am a cruising and racer sailor with some interesting results,as Brazilian champion in ORC. In Brazil we have many high level competitivesailors, either with 8.000 km of shore... As a virtual sailor is the my first time.

SD: Anything else you would like to add to wrap up thisinterview? An anecdote about what you might have experienced throughout thisjourney maybe? The relationship you might have with a player(s)?

I would like to thank everybody that wrote to me with affection, in special for all brazilians and portuguese. Thank you and GoodWinds!!

SD: Thank you for sharing these thoughts with us and I doapologies in advance if this interview brings you a flood of boat messages. Weare looking forward to follow your boat as the journey continues.