PUMA leads as teams seek miles from millimetres

PUMA's Mar Mostro drives upwind into night number one of the Volvo Ocean Race leg 3 stage 2 © Amory Ross / PUMA Ocean Racing / Volvo Ocean Race

Aboard Groupama 4 in the Volvo Ocean Race day 2 leg 3 © Yann Riou / Groupama / Volvo Ocean Race

PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG were clinging to a narrow lead at the head of a compressed Volvo Ocean Race fleet on Monday as their closest rivals on board CAMPER looked to exchange millimetres for miles with precision tuning.

At 1300 UTC on day two of the second stage of Leg 3 to Sanya, there were just 10 nautical miles separating PUMA’s Mar Mostro at the front and last placed Team Sanya. Just over one mile stood between CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand and first place.

Groupama sailing team were one nautical mile shy of CAMPER in third place on the 3,051nm stage from the Maldives to China, with Team Telefónica fourth, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing in fifth and Team Sanya sixth.

CAMPER skipper Chris Nicholson said his team were making tiny tweaks to their dagger boards, water ballast tanks, sheeting angles and weight distribution below deck in a bid to gain speed.

“We’re actually just subtly changing all of those things as the wind speed increases,’’ the Australian Olympian said. “It’s all the kind of things you do in a dinghy, only on a larger scale.

“They are millimetre changes. We need to adjust things enough to see a difference, and then look at the instruments and go by feel as to whether it’s good or bad. In the last six hours even I’m pretty pleased that we’ve made some inroads.’’

PUMA skipper Ken Read reckons it was his team’s early move to the north of the course that was paying dividends, but he wasn’t taking his lead for granted.

“Everyone is spread out and there appears to be very little speed difference between the fleet at this point,’’ he said.

“Seeing what we see right now, this race will restart about 10 times in the Malacca Strait, a notoriously fickle place to sail. Things look good now, but it’ is early days. There is a lot to come our way on this leg, that is for sure.’’

The fleet’s speed was slowly increasing on Monday as they escaped the 200 nautical mile wind shadow cast by Sri Lanka and revelled in freshening monsoon winds that will tend north-northeast in the next 24-hours.

Volvo Ocean Race meteorologist Gonzalo Infante said the wind would build to 15 to 20 knots as it clocked left and pack plenty of squalls. “The conditions will be more favourable for the boats further north,’’ he said.

The forecast is less than ideal for Team Sanya who have opted for a more southern route as they struggle to keep pace with the third generation Volvo Open 70s in their second-hand boat.

Skipper Mike Sanderson said he had no choice but to dive further from the rhumb line in a bid to cling to the leading pack.

“We’re trying to match the speed of the others as much as we can,’’ the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race winning skipper said. “That means we have to put the bow down a little further and roll the dice that we’ll get lifted later on.

“We’re not below course so the risk is very low. It’s more just a matter of us trying to match the speed of the new boats. We know anytime it’s a drag race with no tactical options we’re going to suffer, but we’ve just got to hang on and wait for our next opportunity."

Abu Dhabi skipper Ian Walker admitted that even his team were having trouble keeping up with the fleet, despite coming in on winning form having won the fist stage of Leg 3 and the Etihad Airways In-Port Race.

“Right now it is a drag race across the southern tip of Sri Lanka with every boat sailing within one or two degrees of each other and nobody having yet tacked,’’ he said.

“Sadly, it is a drag race which we are struggling to compete in. We are trying every possible trim or sail configuration to try and match the boats around us but we are yet to find fifth gear.”

Team Telefónica are continuing to claw back the miles they lost in the opening hours of the race when a fitting on their code zero broke. Sail coordinator Jordi Calafat said repairing the 500 square metres of sail below deck was a difficult and hot task that required hand stitching.

“To fix the sail was very easy, the worst bit was getting the sail down below,’’ he said. “It’s one of the heaviest and biggest sails. The damage was to one of the corners of the sail so we stitched it by hand. We put a new plate in and off we go.

“I think the repair will hold, fingers crossed it won’t be a problem. Everything else is fine, and we’re back at full speed. At the moment we’re overtaking Abu Dhabi – it’s all good.”

While the first night of racing is over the teams still have more than 2700 nautical miles and many challenges to overcome until their expected finish at China in early February.

Eighty percent of the points for Leg 3 are up for grabs on stage two, except in the case of Team Sanya. They will score full points for this second stage after being unable to compete with the fleet in the first stage.

Position Report - 13:02:42 UTC:

Blog by Amory Ross, MCM, PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG

Happy Chinese New Year! We are finally headed to China where they are now celebrating 2012, the “Year of the Water Dragon.” They sound cool, Water Dragons, but I think we lay claim to the king of sea monsters here on the “Mar Mostro,” so we’ll see who reigns supreme over the coming weeks.

It has been a pretty benign start to this leg with light to medium conditions, sunny skies, and a flattening sea state. A few sail changes overnight and some small variations in course to maintain our lane, and that was about it for excitement. Everyone’s pretty evenly paced and the fleet is going the same speed for the most part through the first 24 hours of racing.

We have CAMPER off our hip sailing consistently higher in the lifts, maybe trying to protect against Telefónica (off of their hip), though we cannot be sure. With Groupama just to leeward and Abu Dhabi dead astern it would be premature to sail high to protect against those two.

And today’s big news onboard: the New England Patriots will be facing the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. I happen to be a very big Giants fan, and Kenny and Rome happen to be very big Patriots fans. The Super Bowl is played on February 5th, and we have all given Tom a very specific deadline for when we need to arrive in Sanya. He has enough problems with American sports fans as it is – our obsession with statistics – but I think he understands the magnitude of the New York / Boston rivalry well enough not to risk missing a shift on our behalf!

Report from Groupama 4

Since setting out from Malé on Sunday morning, the crews have been closely marking each other as they adopt the same course in a moderate NE'ly breeze. Making an average speed in excess of twelve knots, the fleet will pass below the island of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) tonight, but cannot yet set a direct course towards the northern tip of Sumatra.

In the space of thirty hours, the six VO70s have covered 350 miles on a beat in a breeze fluctuating between 10 and 14 knots since leaving Malé. The wind has backed slightly, enabling the fleet to adjust its aim and sail closer to the direct course towards Pulau We, which marks the entrance to the Straits of Malacca. Incidentally, the deficits are somewhat insignificant since Sanya, a little further South than the bulk of the group, is just ten miles shy of the American leader, Puma. Having put up a consistent performance to get past the New Zealanders' boat, Puma has been powering down the track for nearly a day. Camper is now playing the role of tender in her wake, whilst Groupama 4 is the first wagon on the train.

Towards the rear of the train, it's the leaders in the overall standing who have dropped off the pace a little after a metal attachment on their large headsail, the Code 0, broke. The Spanish had to dump the sail and effect repairs down below before they could rehoist the sail, which cost them a few miles. However, the Juan Kouyoumdjian designs are unquestionably at ease in these relatively calm conditions (12 knots of NE'ly wind and a slight swell) as Telefonica has already been able to get past the two Farr designs. Indeed Sanya is sailing a shade slower, while Abu Dhabi appears to be less swift in a sub-ten knot breeze… For Franck Cammas' crew, being in contact with the two leaders is proving to be particularly enriching in terms of lessons in trimming since everyone is sailing within sight of each other.

The tradewinds generated by an enormous anticyclone over China aren't as steady as all that and the presence of the large island of Sri Lanka, some 150 miles away, which culminates at over 2,500 metres, is causing some disruption to this system. As such a course due East towards Sumatra is proving to be a little irregular as their headway is dictated by the slight rotations in the breeze. This Monday afternoon, there were around 900 miles to go before the fleet enter the Straits of Malacca and, given that the wind isn't likely to change dramatically over the coming hours, the fleet is due to tackle this sensitive passage from Thursday onwards. This is where things will become more complicated as a result of the Indonesian land masses and the tidal currents, especially as the breeze will clock round to the East, forcing the crews to put in some tacks… For now though the drag race phase continues, with no tactical options for the taking, though extreme concentration is required at the helm and with the trimming as the crews try to stay on the pace and avoid derailing due to technical issues!

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