Volvo Ocean Race Leg 8 - Day 5

Water over the deck onboard CAMPER during leg 8 of the Volvo Ocean Race © Hamish Hooper / CAMPER ETNZ / Volvo Ocean Race

Risky manoeuvre holds key to glory

The overall result of the closest ever Volvo Ocean Race could hinge on a risky manoeuvre the teams will try to pull off in heavy weather, fading light and close to the eye of a violent storm later on Thursday.

With less than 500 nm to go before the teams reach Lorient, and just one more offshore leg to come, the 2011-12 race could all come down to how well the six crews, led by Groupama sailing team, carry out a daring gybe in winds of up to 40 knots in the last 24 hours of Leg 8.

Telefónica, the overnight leaders on Leg 8 and one of four teams still in the running for the overall prize, posted a 24-hour run of 564 nautical miles to set a new best mark in the IWC Schaffhausen Speed Record Challenge.

Iker Martínez's team were then given a reminder of how everything could yet change, however, when they slipped from top spot on the leg to third at the 1300 UTC position report after briefly slowing down before picking up speed again.

Telefónica are in second place overall, eight points behind Groupama. PUMA are 13 points off the leaders, with CAMPER 10 points behind them.

With just five miles splitting the top four boats the manoeuvre all are now contemplating could prove pivotal and will put the skills of the teams to the ultimate test when they're at their most exhausted.

"The gybe is going to be super crucial -- it will decide the winner," said Andrew Cape, navigator on Telefónica.

"It's a question of how far you want to push into the low -- do you want a bit more wind, is it too much wind, how much shift do you get up for the gybe?

"This is really crucial. It will come this evening some time as it gets dark, and you'll certainly see different ideas. It won't instantly be who has the better idea -- you won't know till the end. When the breeze shifts a bit or picks up and you lay the finish, you'll know."

The critical gybe must happen following a record 24 hours for the fleet which saw CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand's longstanding race record of 553 nautical miles, set on Leg 1 from Alicante to Cape Town, topple to Telefónica.

With plenty of runway still ahead, though, Telefónica are form certain of winning the trophy and the IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph Edition 'Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12' watches the race's official timekeeper will give as prizes at the end of the race.

All six teams were pushing man and boat to the absolute limit in the knowledge that the results of Leg 8 could determine their overall finishing position.

"It's pretty full on -- it's a bit like playing chicken really," said Tom Addis, navigator with second-placed PUMA, who at 1300 UTC trailed Groupama by less than four miles with a 0.1-mile buffer over Telefónica in third.

"We have this really intense low pressure system really close to the finish and there's very little time to make up for being conservative, so everyone is pushing pretty hard.

"There is worse to come, so we just have to try and keep it all together. If you're too conservative you're chances of winning are pretty slim because you've got very little time to make up the extra distance, so we'll see how we go."

After slipping down the rankings yesterday when their mainsail became stuck up their mast, Groupama were back up in pole position and determined to protect their overall lead.

PUMA were in second, 3.7 nm behind, with Telefónica a fraction behind and CAMPER 5.1 nm off the lead.

"Fingers crossed everything works out and we can keep pushing as hard as we can and not say goodbye to the lead," Groupama helmsman Phil Harmer said. "Everyone is pretty tired, but everyone wants this one really badly. Amazingly, everyone is still smiling."

Position Report at 13:02:13 UTC:

www.VolvoOceanRace.com

The first boats are expected to cross the Leg 8 finish line in Lorient, France, at 1000 UTC on Friday.

Live video calls will take place with the six boats prior to their arrival in Lorient, which can be watched at www.volvooceanrace.com or www.livestream.com/volvooceanrace

Provisional schedule:

0430 UTC – CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand
0500 UTC – PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG
0530 UTC – Groupama sailing team
0600 UTC – Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing
0630 UTC – Team Telefónica
0700 UTC – Team Sanya

Massive attack (from Groupama Sailing Team)

Less than 24 hours from the finish offshore of the island of Groix, the pace has shot up as the fleet approach the centre of the Atlantic depression: over thirty knots of wind and some staggering speeds! Groupama 4 snatched back the controls early this afternoon when the Spanish suffered a technical issue. Now less than 450 miles from Lorient, the finish is scheduled for midway through Friday.

It has taken a circumnavigation of the globe for the Volvo Ocean Race boats to get the speedos spinning: peaks of speed at over thirty-five knots and some average speeds of over 27 knots… After the light airs of the Azores, the fleet has entered a depression synonymous with westerly winds of twenty knots, gradually increasing to 30-35 knots, with the worst of the gales set to hit late afternoon this Thursday. This timing is likely to tie in with a key decision to gybe onto the home straight to Lorient…

In the eye of the storm

Shortly before night fell yesterday, Franck Cammas and his men were on red alert when the mainsail lock stuck at the masthead just as the breeze was beginning to build: the hook system, which enables the sail to be held in place, got jammed and Brad Marsh had to climb to the top of the mast three times to resolve the problem…

“We couldn't put a reef in the mainsail as the car was trapped: as such we managed to install another car so we could reduce the sail down to two reefs. We'll see how things go on Friday morning when we try to shake out a reef because right now the profile of the mainsail doesn't look great… It wasn't easy for Brad up the mast and it was pretty tricky for the helmsman too, who tried to ensure he wasn't shaken about too much. Fortunately it's not a wing mast and he was able to get a grip on it to scale it and effect repairs. The major issue revolved around dumping the sail downwind with the leeward runner on.”

Fortunately this technical hitch occurred before dusk and Franck Cammas and his crew were able to power up again under reduced sail area whilst the breeze picked up to over thirty knots. Their deficit in relation to the Spanish leaders stretched to over eleven miles at one point, but they quickly reduced it to six miles with the Americans within their sights to windward. Despite this slight, fleeting drop in pace, Groupama 4 has racked up 560 miles over the past 24 hours (from 1300 UTC on Wednesday to 1300 UTC Thursday), which is her greatest distance since the start of the Volvo Ocean Race in Alicante!

“We had to be on the attack to recover our lost miles: we've had some good conditions over the past 24 hours, but I'm not sure if we'll manage to border on 600 miles/day. Up to 30-35 knots is okay, but after that things become a bit rock & roll… This evening, things are going to be pretty full-on when it comes to gybing, but we don't have a third reef in any case! At the helm, you have to be able to nail the moves that involve compensating for the holes on the back of the waves and then powering the boat up again, similar to the scenario on a multihull, so as to avoid burying the bow. This involves a lot more work than on a trimaran so we're only helming a maximum of two hours,” indicated Franck Cammas at the noon radio link-up this Thursday.

A very bunched finish

The big news on this ‘Big Thursday' is the sudden stalling by Telefonica shortly before 1300 UTC: the Spanish were continuing to make headway towards Lorient, but with speeds of less than seven knots… whilst the three other pretenders for podium places were still hurtling along at 24 knots. Is it a momentary issue as was the case on Groupama 4 on Wednesday evening, or is there more serious damage? It would seem that a rudder issue is the source of this drop in pace, but Telefonica had her accelerator pressed to the floor again an hour and a half later. This twist of fate for the Iberians has put her position on the final podium at risk because if the Hispanic boat finishes shy of third place, her hopes of an outright win in Galway could be thrown open.

“This lunchtime we're sailing in 30 to 32 knots of westerly wind: it's a bit lively as the sea is chaotic, but things are pretty steady in terms of speed! We can see Puma behind us. We're going to have to put in a gybe at the end of the day when there's a lot of breeze around. It's not going to be an easy moment! We're going to have to stick it out for 3-4 hours with over 40 knots, as the wind isn't set to decrease until after midnight. Right now there's just twenty minutes' separation between the frontrunner and the fourth placed boat: a lot could happen between now and Groix with the gybe, the increase in breeze and the sail changes, but things are going to be tight right the way to Lorient as we'll still have 25-30 knots”, explained the skipper of Groupama 4.

Whilst the breeze is set to increase to over 40 knots at dusk, keeping control of the gear will become more important than outright speed: the slightest incident can cost very dearly, as we've seen with Telefonica, who lost around fifteen miles in an hour and a half…

“Everyone's on the attack: it's full-on and pretty stressful because we need everything intact to make the finish… We should see Groix late morning on Friday. The race is likely to be decided on the gybe as there aren't really any options to be had in these conditions…”

CAMPER in the mix as leg reaches thrilling climax (from CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand)

Breaking news: CAMPER establish new IWC Schaffhausen Speed Record with a 24-hour run of 564.922 nautical miles

Navigator Will Oxley said on Thursday that the key to winning Leg Eight will be getting the balance right between speed and caution.

At 1500 UTC Camper was just 5.1 nautical miles behind leg leader Groupama, with the fleet less than 500 miles from the finish line in Lorient. It could now all come down to how well the crew gybes in winds of up to 40 knots in the closing stages of this intriguing leg.

After the deep Atlantic depression had resulted in breakneck speeds for the fleet overnight, Oxley believes CAMPER is now nicely positioned but stressed keeping errors to a minimum would be key to winning the leg and claiming the maximum 30 points.

“We’re seriously on the edge. It’s very hard work, everything’s maximum load, and we’re just hanging on,” Oxley said. "We’re still waiting for the low pressure, the barometer has dropped about 20 millibars in 24 hours - which is a pretty significant drop - and we are expecting tonight to be probably one of the windiest nights of the race. So we are going to have to take care as well as push hard. It’s a fine balance, and hopefully we end up on the right side of the equation.”

Oxley said that in the last 24 hours the fleet had broken the speeds achieved on the first leg from Alicante to Cape Town.

“This is the fastest the boats have gone in the entire race so far,” he said. “Back of the envelope calculations say we’ve done 558 miles, Puma’s done 558 miles, Groupama’s done 558 miles, and Telefonica’s done 563, so we’ve all gone faster than our run on leg one, and there’s still more of it to come.”

Asked about the continual bailing of water out of the boat after a seemingly endless deluge in the last day or so, Oxley replied: “It’s not clear whether we are in a submarine or a yacht – my swimming pool doesn’t have quite as much water as this!”

Oxley predicted a very fast finish in France, with the boats expected to arrive in Lorient on Friday during daylight.

“As we move away from low the breeze should hit us, turn to the left a bit, and moderate a little bit, but we will probably even have 20 knots at the finish line,” he said.

Media crew member Hamish Hooper insisted the CAMPER crew will fight tooth and nail to win the leg.

“You can sense the determination of all of the guys onboard,” he said. “This is incredible tough and draining sailing but you just know these guys are not going to give an inch to the other boats. We still have an outside chance of winning this race and you can guarantee that everyone onboard will fight with everything to keep the hope alive.”