SAILING. VOR2012, Leg One Day 6 – It’s day six for the fleet racing in the Volvo Ocean Race and the conditions are taking their toll with seasickness and tiredness setting in for the crews sailing out to the west. Inshore, Groupama 4 (Franck Cammas/FRA) continues to luck in, leading the fleet by 111.40 nautical miles (nm), while the rest of the fleet loses out.

Groupama Sailing Team sail along the African coast during leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Alicante, Spain to Cape Town, South Africa. Photo Credit: Yann Riou/Groupama Sailing Team/Volvo Ocean Race

The three boats to the west, led by Telefónica (Iker Martinez/ESP) with PUMA’s Mar Mostro (Ken Read/USA) just eight nm astern are currently sailing upwind and away from Fernando de Noronha, the mark of the course on the Brazilian coast that the fleet must leave to port, in order to reach a new low-pressure system. Once there, they will hook into the new breeze on the western side, avoiding the centre where there will be little or no wind, and speeds will start to clock up.

The on-going battle between PUMA’s Mar Mostro and Telefónica continues as they engage in their own private drag race, causing a frenzy of activity for each tack as gear and crew are stacked in the optimum position. The two boats are in sight of each other, which adds to the onboard competition.

It is hard for CAMPER (Chris Nicholson/AUS), who are on their own, 78 nm to the north. Nerves of steel are needed on board as the crew cling to their strategy to sail closer to the low-pressure system and meet the promised new wind.
Meanwhile, the crew of Groupama 4 (Franck Cammas/FRA) are relishing their lonely course 24 nm inshore.

They spent a magical night racing downwind under a full moon, no clouds and a balmy 20 degrees Celsius. The dream trip will be over if the weather gods kill what little is left of the trade winds, but for now the crew are enjoying themselves and last night they saw very clearly the lights of their former base camp in Lanzarote. Earlier this morning they gybed away from the Canary Island of Fuerteventura and they are now running parallel with the coast.

Discussions on board include how best to bridge across to the west and re-join the fleet. Earlier this morning, bowman Brad Marsh described this move as “similar to crossing a battlefield full of mines and bombs -- with surrounding trenches and gunfire from all angles”. But he added that Groupama sailing team are a band of smart and experienced Frenchmen who are confident in their battle plan.

Every position report tells a story. Will Groupama 4’s bold move pay off or is west still best? The crews wait in anticipation for the only source of information that gives the answer – at least temporarily.

Meanwhile, a long way behind, Abu Dhabi resumed racing this morning as they stepped tentatively back into Leg 1 with a replacement mast.

Volvo Ocean Race 2011 - 2012
www.volvooceanrace.com
November 10, 2011 - 1000 UTC

Groupama Gamble To Play Out In Next 24 Hours

Will Groupama's coastal gamble pay off? The next 24 hours will tell, as the French team and the huge lead they have accumulated close to the west African shore come under threat from a new weather system and three rivals sick of taking losses in the windless west.

A bold move from skipper Franck Cammas? The Frenchman says not, he was expecting the other boats to go the same way when he made his call inside the first two days of Leg 1. But whatever the motivation – and a team choosing Highway to Hell as their anthem might be expected to take a few risks – the only significant question now is whether it was a wise one.

As of 1300 UTC on Thursday, the decision had brought them a lead of 140 nautical miles over Team Telefónica, who are ahead of PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG and CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand. Those three teams followed conventional wisdom by deciding that west is best when it comes to reaching the way point at Fernando de Noronha off the coast of Brazil.

While it's a case of so far so good for Cammas, leading the first French entry in the race for 18 years, weather forecasts point to a new low pressure system that could come in to destroy the trade winds to their south.

The nightmare scenario for Groupama is to see their three main rivals starting to exploit the new system from Friday afternoon. By the following day, the trio could be hitting boat speeds of 18 knots in the pure trade winds, eating into the lead of a French team whose speed at 1300 was around 14 knots.

"It was not our choice to go alone," Cammas said via the Inmarsat-powered phone bridge in a conference call from Groupama 4. "Of course the Anglo-Saxons would say that the French boat went for the lonely path, but really that wasn't our choice.

"I have nervous moments for sure, but I don't share them. I just share my hopes. We've done everything we wanted to do up to now.

"We have never been surprised by the light wind areas – they were all announced by the routing -- but we are now entering another area and have a doubt about tomorrow, with light winds expected. We will have to deal with it to find a passage and make it work. On the other hand we have more wind than expected so we are a bit in advance, which is always good."

The other great unanswered question on Thursday was how Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing would progress with their replacement mast.

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing during leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Alicante, Spain to Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo Credit: Nick Dana/Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race)

Ian Walker's team resumed Leg 1 officially at 0216 UTC on Thursday after returning to the point where they were forced to suspend racing when their mast snapped in horrific conditions on Saturday, just six hours into the race.

Sailing with a new mast, and with no more replacements in the locker, means the team will take a cautious approach.

"It is not normal practice to step a new mast and set off in the dark and straight offshore – new masts can sometimes take days to tune up but we don't have that time," Walker said.

"We also don't have the safety of a spare mast waiting for us if anything goes wrong. The stakes are now very high and we must sail accordingly.

"Right now we are taking it one step at a time. We will not sail fully loaded tonight until we can check everything in daylight.

"Just like falling off a horse it takes time to regain your confidence but you simply have to get back on it as soon as you can.

For the three boats in the west, the continued sailing in light winds was proving frustrating but the tight battle between Telefónica and PUMA's Mar Mostro was at least a welcome distraction.

"Now I get up on deck for four hours to struggle with the little wind there is, and to see if we can manage to put some distance between us and PUMA, who have been snapping at our heels since we left Alicante," wrote Telefónica helmsman Pablo Arrarte.

"At night, we can see their navigation lights and by day we see them pretty well, given that we haven't been further than 10 miles apart."

CAMPER were 90 nm further away from the way point than PUMA after choosing to head further north in a bid to catch stronger winds earlier.

Team Sanya, the sixth entry in the race, were forced to pull out of Leg 1 because of damage to the hull. They have finalised plans to ship the boat to South Africa in the hope of completing repairs before the second in-port race in Cape Town on December 10 and the start of Leg 2 to Abu Dhabi the following day.

Volvo Ocean Race 2011 - 2012
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November 10, 2011 - 1400 UTC

Speeds are up as wind increases

At last the fleet is beginning to fly and tonight at 2200 UTC the three boats way out in the Atlantic are enjoying the benefit of a bit more wind and making good progress on starboard tack at around 17 knots, more the sort of speed associated with these high performance racing machines. But, although Groupama 4 (Franck Cammas/FRA) still holds the lead, the boats offshore are slowly but surely starting to chip away at her lead.

We are now starting to see the fleet spread out and although Telefónica (Iker Martinez/ESP)is 182 nautical miles (nm) behind Groupama 4, in the last three hours she’s gained four miles. It’s the same story for PUMA’s Mar Mostro (Ken Read/USA) who also lost miles earlier but have clawed back to just three miles behind the Spanish boat.

It’s a rather more encouraging picture for CAMPER (Chris Nicholson/AUS) too tonight, who are also making small inroads into their 245 nm deficit.

Meanwhile, Ian Walker (GBR) and his team on Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s Azzam, who restarted the leg earlier today are struggling with the vagaries of the Mediterranean and have little or no breeze.

As Chris Nicholson, skipper of CAMPER said earlier in the week when faced with the same conditions, it is important to keep the boat moving in the light conditions regardless of the course, as once stopped, the Volvo Open 70 is very hard to get moving again.

Volvo Ocean Race 2011 - 2012
www.volvooceanrace.com
November 10, 2011 - 2200 UTC