Volvo Ocean Race Leg 4 Day 10

Breakneck speeds threaten 24-hour speed distance record

The 24-hour speed distance record for the current edition of the Volvo Ocean Race is under threat as the fleet face four days hurtling south at up to 30 knots.

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand set the bar at 554.16 nm during Leg 1 from Alicante to Cape Town – but as the six teams power south through the Pacific Ocean trade winds the record could tumble.

Volvo Ocean Race chief meteorologist Gonzalo Infante said the latest weather and routing models suggest that several of the teams stand a chance of bettering CAMPER’s record over the next few days -- particularly those able to sail wider angles in the east.

“It’s going to be very close but it’s very possible the record could fall in the next few days,” Infante said.

The arrival of the solid north-easterly trade winds benefitted the easterly boats first with leg leaders Franck Cammas’ Groupama sailing team extending their advantage at the front to 55 nautical miles (nm) in the 1300 UTC position report.

To the west of the fleet Chris Nicholson’s second placed CAMPER and Iker Martínez’s third placed Team Telefónica continue to struggle to match the speeds of the trio in the east.

Ken Read’s PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG and Ian Walker’s Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing who have both clocked up peak speeds over 25 knots.

On Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing skipper Ian Walker could hardly contain his delight at the opportunity to capitalise on the eastern investment they had made, often in light and tricky conditions.

“Finally it feels like the Volvo Ocean Race,” Walker said. “No more drifting around or upwind sailing -- just raw power, soaking decks and high speeds.

“Fortunately all the easting we have strived for over the past week allows us to sail as wide an angle as we are.

“The wind is 25 knots and building. Boat speeds fluctuate between 18 and 30 knots.

“The miles to the finish are now tumbling fast which makes the soaking on deck well worth it.”

PUMA navigator Tom Addis said the crew was enjoying the chance to unleash the full potential of their boat in the open ocean.

“It’s been fantastic, fast reaching,” Addis said. “We’re back in open water, no shipping, no fishing nets, no debris to dodge.

“We’re just letting the boat rip doing 22, 23 knots, reaching with bow up. It’s what these boats are good at so that’s always a nice feeling.”

Addis added that PUMA were aware that they must keep up their breakneck pace for the next few days if their northern ‘further but faster’ strategy was ultimately to work.

“Opportunity is ahead for us starting from now, for sure, especially after all our hard work to get east,” he said.

“After all this torture we’re going to finally have wider and faster angles than most of the guys, so we should be gaining by the hour. We’ve put in the hard work, and now it’s time to reap the rewards.

“When you travel the most miles in a leg like we have, I guess you’ve got to expect to put some good runs on the board. We had 26 knots earlier, we may get close again but it’s likely to just average 20 knots plus.”

Team Sanya skipper Mike Sanderson said although his crew were in sixth they had done well to stay in the hunt but were now facing some big losses in a drag race against the more powerful newer boats.

“We’ve worked very hard through the change of positions to be among the pack, we’ve led at times and we’ve been last at times, but now we’re faced with the reality of the speed of these new generation boats,” Sanderson said. “They’re going in excess of a knot faster than us, and they’re just going to sail on by.

“We’re all very competitive sailors and we’re all used to winning, but now we’re just not fast enough through the water after battling for the last week to keep up.

“One knot difference is big – you’re talking a 24-mile difference each day. Over the next three or four days with the trades, it’s a little bit scary. It’s going to be 100 miles in those three or four days.”

The fleet still have more than 3,500 nm to go to the finish in Auckland and are expected to arrive around March 9.

Position Report at 13:02:05 UTC:

www.VolvoOceanRace.com

Landing place (from Groupama Sailing Team)

A big wake is now being carved out between the Mariana Islands and the Vanuatu archipelago. Indeed making headway in consistent north-easterly tradewinds of around twenty knots, Groupama 4 is leading the way towards the equator, some 1,500 miles ahead. However, the point at which they traverse this system is not yet known and will very likely depend on the easterly monsoon.

Over the past 24 hours, Franck Cammas and his men have consolidated their lead over the New Zealanders. Indeed, even though the separation between the two boats hasn't varied dramatically in terms of distance to the goal (Auckland), it's the positioning which is becoming increasingly favourable since the whole fleet is targeting the same objective: traversing the ocean with the tradewinds till they're South of the equator. This Tuesday lunchtime, the six VO-70s were all just about benefiting from the same breeze: a NNE'ly air flow of around twenty knots, which is enabling them to reach towards the South-East in between 100° and 120° of true wind. Perfect conditions then, for making headway towards the Vanuatu archipelago at more than twenty knots.

Advantage to windward

Though the speeds are pretty similar, between 18 and 22 knots, the boats furthest East (to windward) have the advantage of being able to pull on the helm a little bit more and hence go faster. This is the case for the Americans who, having been caught up in a temporary lull, are on a course where they can bear away more to converge on the fleet. In fact there is a 200-mile lateral separation between the Spanish furthest West and Groupama 4, while Puma is still 40 miles further East. As they drop down towards Auckland, the sailors will see the tradewinds gradually shifting round to the North-East tonight, before clocking round to the ENE at noon on Wednesday and then virtually due East in the evening. The upshot of this will be a change in the angle that the boats attack the wind, forcing the trimmers to haul on the sails and the helmsman to negotiate what will be bigger waves which will be closer together. The average speed will drop as a result, but it won't be as significant the further East the boat is.

Given the grib files, it looks better to attack the Doldrums the furthest East possible and hence closer to Fiji rather than the Solomon Islands. From 5°N, which will become a reality in 1,000 miles and two and a half days at sea, the trades are likely to ease to around fifteen knots while the skies will become saturated with moisture. The squalls and the zones of calm are forecast to be highly developed to the East of New Guinea as far as the Solomon Islands. As such there's a compromise to be found between speed and heading to ensure they don't get too close to this equatorial snare.

To each his compromise

Early this Tuesday afternoon, it had to be admitted that Telefonica, like Camper, were sailing in a wind which was more oriented towards the ENE (55°), whilst Groupama 4 and Abu Dhabi were making headway in a north-easterly breeze (45°) and Puma was still in a NNE'ly wind (32°). As a result there was a 10° difference in heading, which over three days with sheets eased transforms the current 200-mile East-West separation into one of over 500 miles! Whilst those furthest East will be able to tackle Melanesia via the Pandora Bank (between Vanuatu and Fiji), those furthest West will reach landfall at Guadalcanal or even Bougainville...

It's this landing place in this maze of equatorial islands which is essential. The first reason for this is that the Doldrums are less developed to the East. Secondly the wind will be less disrupted by the islands. Finally, the angle at which the crews can make landfall in New Zealand will be more favourable. As such Franck Cammas and his crew should be able to consolidate their lead over the next two days, since the tradewinds are now a lot more firmly in position and there is no strategic option possible. In this way, before the week is out, it's the passage of the equator which is set to become the real issue in the big downhill section of this blue run...

Blog from the Seas (by Amory Ross, MCM, PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG)

LOCATION: 1,000-miles WNW of Wake Island
BOATSPEED: 15 KTS
WINDSPEED: 18 KTS
HEADING: 130-degrees
SAILS: C0 (code-zero), full main
WEATHER: Sunny, warm

Yesterday’s sunrise brought strong winds and positive results, but today’s brought light winds and negative ones. After two days of consecutive gains, it was a stinging reminder that we are very vulnerable out here on the corner, and that there is still a very, very long way to go to New Zealand.

It was tough sailing for a few hours this morning with all sails flapping in the wind and nothing to push them (or us) anywhere. And when you go to all-stop like that, from sailing in 16 knots of wind to drifting in 4, you move almost everything in the boat. All of the sails on deck go from the back of the boat to the bow. All food, personal bags, spares, pelican cases, and anything else lying around below also go forward. Even my sleeping bunk un-fastens and moves forward.

All of that moving gear helps refine the fore and aft trim of the boat for a particular condition that is based on wind strength, point of sail, and sea state. Light air upwind sailing (this morning), you want the slim-profiled bow touching down and as little of the wide Mar Mostro butt touching the water as possible. High speed downwind sailing (last night), where the boat can plane, calls for all the weight aft so that the bow stays up and doesn’t burrow through waves, and so that the weight is outboard and back to take advantage of a Volvo 70’s powerful beam. Those are two extremes, but there are many in-between trims, too. Like a pilot on the yoke, it’s a constant adjustment of onboard weight while under way to find the right balance of fore and aft trim.

So to a rising sun we moved the boat’s contents forward and could do nothing but watch the computer screen confirm that the rest of the fleet was still averaging 10+ knots. Not fun. Fortunately, we’ve stopped the bleeding and are back up to speed in a nice 15-knot northerly.

We will live another day…but not before returning everything to the back of the boat!

- Amory

Nick Dana Team Blog (from Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing)

Finally!! Azzam has just poked into the solid northerly trades. The wind direction has now headed enough that we are rattling southeast at pace. The latest sched should show us doing around 60 miles, a massive departure from the majority of scheds for the entire race so far. Not to mention the sailing is sensational. 18-20 knots of consistent northeasterly wind while we rip along with a full main and fractional zero averaging around 20 knots of boat speed. “About as good as it gets” Jules Salter explains. “Soak it in and rest up fellas, it won’t be like this for forever. It looks like it will be a tight finish with more upwind.”

No matter though, right now we are all just focussing on the sailing at hand and getting south. It’s now roughly 1,600 miles to the equator and we are smashing them off quickly. Azzam is now in “super-stack” mode with everything that is not tied down jammed in the back corner of the boat and as far outboard as physically possible. Our ‘snow plow’ bow has been chucking up ten-foot solid walls of white water for the better part of day. As Justin Slattery put it, “you almost feel weightless when doing a sail change on the bow. The wave it puts over the deck is insanely powerful. You can’t see a thing, you’re basically working from memory at that point.”

Looks like we are in for a wild night. We have just peeled from the fractional zero and are opting for our smaller G2. As the breeze continues to go right, we will be forced to sail tighter angles and cannot afford to have too much sail area up.