Volvo Ocean Race Leg 4 Day 2

Groupama 4 lead leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race

Volvo Ocean Race Leg 4 Day 2

By Volvo Ocean Race media on 20 Feb20 February 2012Groupama 4 lead leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race © Yann Riou/Groupama Sailing Team/Volvo Ocean Race

Sickness and slamming set the early tone

Sea sickness and waves as high as five metres are making life difficult for all six teams on the first day of the second stage of Leg 4 from Sanya, China to Auckland, New Zealand.

Conditions on board have been brutal as the crews struggle to rein in their Volvo Open 70s to avoid teeth-rattling crash landings off the backs of the monster waves left over from several days of gale force winds.

A drifting start in the wind shadow of Sanya’s towering mountains belied the testing weather the crews found themselves in just hours later, after the wind and sea state quickly ramped powering them towards the Strait of Luzon at speeds up to 20 knots.

On Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, Media Crew Member (MCM) Nick Dana said the unavoidable and relentless slamming made for a near impossible working environment on board.

“The airdrops we are experiencing off the backs of these sharp waves make it difficult to keep your feet below you let alone a sail or a steering wheel in your hands,” he said.

“We’re currently blasting along at around 18-20 knots with a J4 and reef in.

“Down below looks like a war zone. Several people have been sick already, and the rest just keep swallowing.”

Even Abu Dhabi skipper Ian Walker, a double Olympic medallist, confessed to feeling the effects of the punishing sea state.

“Today I had a hint of seasickness for the first time ever,” he said. “Fortunately I have kept the freeze dried roast chicken and mashed potato down so far unlike a few others onboard.”

Walker said the Abu Dhabi crew were not relishing the prospect of a fortnight-long battering but were settling into a normal offshore routine of grabbing sleep in between their four hourly watches.

“The snoring has started down below and the guys on deck are finding their rhythm,” he said. “Nobody is really looking forward to a week or two of upwind slog – especially in these waves, but we will cross off the miles and wait for better sailing somewhere further down the line.”

Race organisers split Leg 4 into two stages in order to prevent the fleet encountering conditions considered un-sailable in the South China Sea.

Conditions were light and fickle for the second stage start at 2300 UTC on Sunday (0700 today in Sanya), all but wiping out the effects of the staggered start sequence from the Stage 1 coastal race less than 24 hours previously.

Franck Cammas’ Groupama sailing team made the best of the early drifting to pick their way past overall race leaders Team Telefónica, skippered by Iker Martínez, and into the lead.

At 1300 UTC today Groupama had a lead of less than two miles over Chris Nicholson’s CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand, with third and fourth placed Telefónica and Abu Dhabi positioned furthest north just over a mile and a half apart.

The near windless start had given CAMPER an immediate opportunity to sail round round the wallowing early starters.

“We had to wait nine long minutes and 13 arduous seconds as Telefónica, Groupama, Abu Dhabi & Sanya all started before us,” said CAMPER MCM Hamish Hooper.

“As it turned out it became a slight blessing in disguise for us,” he added. “We could see that they were all a bit parked up not long after the start so knew we didn’t want to go the way they did.”

CAMPER leave Sanya still second in the overall standings and Hooper says despite losing points to leaders Telefónica during the Chinese stopover the predominantly Kiwi crew have been re-energised by the prospect of a victorious arrival in New Zealand.

“At times you feel like a block of cheese being rubbed up against a cheese grater, slowly withering you away physically and mentally, but the guys are resilient and focused, and it feels fantastic to finally be heading for home to Auckland.

“Our short-term goal for sure is to be the first out of the Luzon Strait. No need to guess our long-term goal,” Hooper said.

Ken Read’s PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG, who started almost 40 minutes after Telefónica, were still in sixth at 1300 UTC, 14.5 nm off the lead.

Mike Sanderson’s Team Sanya made a tactical break to the south of the main fleet and at 1300 UTC were fifth, 8.4 nm behind Groupama and averaging 11 knots.

The six-boat fleet will take around three days to cross the South China Sea to the Strait of Luzon and are expected to complete the 5,220 nm second stage of Leg 4 to Auckland around March 8.

Position Report at 13:06:43 UTC:

Pos	Team	DTL	BS	DTF
1	GPMA	0	10.8	5065.6
2	CMPR	1.5	11.3	5067.2
3	TELE	4.3	11.8	5069.9
4	ADOR	5.5	12	5071.1
5	SNYA	8.4	11.5	5074
6	PUMA	14.8	11.3	5080.5

www.VolvoOceanRace.com

The Chinese cavern (from Groupama Sailing Team)

After setting off from Sanya at first light local time in the wake of the Spanish, Groupama 4 quickly took control of the fleet on their way towards the North of the Philippines. On the programme is a 660-mile sprint to the Luzon Strait, across a rather ill-tempered South China Sea, with an easing breeze of around twenty knots and what are still heavy seas.

It has been the year of the Water Dragon in China since 23 January 2012. This particular dragon belches out rain rather than fire, which is providing the land with moisture and enriching the harvest. For the six crews, who took a staggered start from 2300 hours (according to their result during the preliminary course in Sanya), their introduction to proceedings has also proved to be very wet… A light breeze was blowing as the sun rose in the East. Once the boat had got around the land masses that form the island of Hainan, the wind showed itself to be more consistent with around twenty knots of north-easterly on a somewhat lumpy sea. “The inside of the boat is wet and the foulies are soaked. Each time it's a surprise to observe the total discomfort of these boats on these points of sail! However, the benefits are twofold: you make very fast headway, and particularly on Groupama 4. Added to that you only have to glimpse at the standing…” wrote Yann Riou this morning.

Chinese Night…

This lively system is set to last until tonight, Chinese time (UTC + 8), which equates to early this Monday afternoon in Europe. The tropical storm which prompted the Race Committee to keep the Volvo Ocean Race fleet in port for an extra half a day, is in the process of crumbling offshore of Vietnam. Meantime, the monsoon is reasserting itself, but it has been heavily disturbed by this weather phenomenon. Up against a still very rough sea state, set to smooth out over the coming hours, the VO-70s initially sailed with sheets eased in order to get away from the Chinese coast as fast as possible. Then gradually the breeze slowly shifted round towards the ENE and it is likely to ease progressively to around fifteen knots at sunset. As such the courses are bending round and tonight (local time) will probably be an opportunity for some repositioning once the wind backs round to the East again, or even as far as ESE, as it drops away to around ten knots…

The weather forecasts are fairly uncertain in this cavern of the South China Sea, which is presenting a complicated configuration with the mainland to the North, Vietnam to the West, Borneo to the South and the Philippines in their line of sight. Between Luzon and Taiwan, a passage of some 180 miles, which is reminiscent of a sort of dark cave with the current lack of moon (new moon on 21 February), the situation promises to be full of surprises. A depressionary low is forming from noon on Tuesday only to disappear a few hours later. However, this system will ‘break' the north-easterly monsoon to leave in front and behind it a fairly fickle and variable air flow with north-easterly to south-easterly winds of between 15 and 5 knots! As a result it will be very difficult to anticipate the evolution over the medium term and it's highly likely the fleet will split right out before converging on the Philippines…

Having what it takes!

Indeed, after half a day at sea, the sailors haven't adopted identical short term strategies: whilst Telefonica and Abu Dhabi, tailed a dozen miles or so back by Puma, were sailing high up to reposition themselves to the North of the fleet, Groupama 4 and Camper were lengthening their stride with sheets eased whilst Sanya was making a clean split, plunging down to the South-East! There is already a 25 miles lateral separation after covering just 130 miles since the start in Hainan… However, this first phase indicates that Franck Cammas and his men have negotiated this lively start well and are managing to contain the pressure from the New Zealanders, whose boat is renowned as being the best upwind. They will now have to adapt their tactics to a sky which will become overcast and squally, leading to sizeable wind shifts and appreciable differences in the intensity of the breeze.

As such a highly technical leg is in store and it's likely to involve a great deal of jockeying for position. The reasons for this don't solely relate to the fact that the route towards the Luzon Strait is brimming over with meteorological pitfalls, but also because some zones of calm are forecast around the outskirts of the Philippines. As a result the difficulty doesn't centre on taking the head of the group fleetingly, but rather positioning oneself as best as possible on Wednesday to tackle the Luzon Strait. The options include a northerly route where the pressure seems steadier but on the nose, a direct route where you have to constantly adapt to the sizeable wind shifts, or a southerly route where the general oceanic current is less intense and the sea smoothed by the Philippines archipelago…

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

Walking into to an empty marina was not exactly the way we wanted to start our morning, but as the last boat to finish yesterday’s course and the last boat to start today’s, that is how it began. Our lonely Mar Mostro sat at the docks, idly awaiting the looming departure and coming storm. Sanya, and China, have been lovely hosts and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed the crowds with their enthusiasm. But, the time to go has come and we’re all excited to get going and take on the challenging road to Auckland on Leg 4.

Our start was fine, though it was not one to be remembered. We drifted across the line by ourselves a little before 8 AM (local), 40 minutes after Telefónica, with only Abu Dhabi still visible around the corner. Naturally, the leaders were the first to arrive at the stronger winds to the east and we had to watch them extend their advantage.

We eventually made it across the morning zephyrs and we’re now going upwind in about 20 knots of wind and an unnecessarily violent wave set. The sea is making life unpleasant for the time being, and nobody expects it to do anything but worsen. We’re all trying to adjust to the ocean life in a hurry, but in the incessant and unpredictable pounding there’s bound to be some suffrage!

- Amory