Volvo Ocean Race Leg 5 - Day 12

Casey Smith peers through the hood of his survival suit on PUMA during leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race © Amory Ross / PUMA Ocean Racing / Volvo Ocean Race

Groupama and PUMA in tactical battle on approach to Horn

The Leg 5 leading pair were gearing up for more tough conditions on Thursday as they engaged in an intense tactical battle on the run in to Cape Horn.

Already wearied by 11 days of classic Southern Ocean sailing Groupama sailing team and PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG look set for a challenging approach to the southernmost tip of South America tomorrow before they take on the 2,000 nautical mile stint to Itajaí.

A brief respite from the heavy going will give way to high winds and huge seas from a low pressure system moving down from the north.

“A secondary low is coming down the coast and will kick our butts about 250 miles from the Horn,” said PUMA skipper Ken Read.

Leaders Groupama sailing team are expected to round Cape Horn around 1200 UTC on Friday, followed closely by PUMA.

Despite enjoying a lead of around 52 nm at 1300 UTC today the French team are ever wary of their rivals.

“We can really feel the pressure from PUMA,” said helmsman Thomas Coville, preparing for his ninth rounding of Cape Horn. “They need to stay with us, and we need to answer them. We have to show we can be faster.

“There is a psychological game going on at each position report. We are playing poker with PUMA for first and second.”

Read says the cat and mouse game is one the PUMA crew know all too well and are happy to play.

“When it is full-on and you need to back off a bit you use your sked to say to the other guy, 'Don't worry, we aren't going to push,'” Read said. “Of course, then one of us pulls the trigger to sail full speed immediately after the sked in order to hopefully maximise the time back up to speed.”

Meanwhile, third-placed Team Telefónica continued at decent speed towards Ushuaia, where their shore team await to carry out repairs.

“We are sailing pretty fast but the pity is that we could go faster,” media crewmember Diego Fructuoso said. “Pepe (Ribes, boat captain) has done a great job with the repair, ensuring that we will not have any problems until reaching port.

“On the other hand, the logistics are very complex and the effort from Horacio Carabelli (shore team manager) effort has been incredible. From the boat we told them what we needed and he has done everything and awaits us at Ushuaia with a team ready to repair the boat as quickly as possible.”

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand, in fourth, celebrated reaching 1,500 miles to go to Puerto Montt in Chile where they will stop to repair bow damage.

“We’re all still trying to get the boat to Chile as fast and as safely as we can so we can have a quick turnaround and get to Brazil as quickly as possible,” said co-skipper Stu Bannatyne.

At 1300 UTC today Abu Dhabi Ocean racing remained in fifth place 1,448 nm off the lead.

Position Report at 13:02:08 UTC:

At the gateway to deliverance (from Groupama Sailing Team)

With less than 400 miles to go to reach Cape Horn, Groupama 4 is making fast headway towards South America, but the crew will have to link together a series of gybes before they make it through into the Atlantic. The sailing conditions have considerably improved and, if things pan out as they should, Franck Cammas and his men will be Cape Horners from daybreak local time, or early afternoon on Friday (European time).

Making landfall on the Chilean coast is already part of the programme and before sunset this Thursday the Andes cordillera will appear over the horizon! This will be the first land they've seen since setting out from Auckland, after twelve days at sea, nine of which have been particularly lively... Groupama 4 is in tip-top condition and the crew is benefiting from a slight `let-up' to lengthen their stride, without forcing either the machine or the men.

"It will be daybreak in about half an hour's time: right now, for the first time in a long while, we're sailing with 25 knots of WNW'ly wind, on considerably flatter seas. It's a lot less violent down below and on deck. We're beginning to slip along smoothly with a lot more sail up, even though we aren't carrying everything aloft again yet. We're heading towards the southern tip of South America, but not directly towards Cape Horn, since we'll have to gybe several times along the coast, a session which will probably start tonight. The north-westerly wind is set to kick back in with a punch and we should be able to make out land this Thursday afternoon (local time). It's very beautiful down here so we'll be able to do a spot of tourism..." indicated Franck Cammas during the noon radio session today.

The end of the very rough weather

The austral depression has done some damage and just half the fleet are still in a position to get the best out of their VO-70s. Groupama 4 has managed to negotiate this latest storm without mishap, despite it picking up very messy seas. Indeed, it was still making its presence felt this morning when it caused Abu Dhabi to crash tack with the sails backed and the keel on the wrong side... which just goes to show how violent the Pacific has been (and still is). It's the ability to temper this speed-safety ratio, which has been a real plus for the two leaders, who haven't sought to impose their authority at the head of the fleet and are simply focusing on sailing gently, without putting too much pressure on their machines.

"We've tried to get our bearings in the rough weather in terms of the way we trim the boat and we're being sparing with her, whilst making fast headway. We've tested the different sail configurations. At times, it's reminiscent of multihull sailing, where you have to make headway gently, really bearing away, with the sails depowered and hence not sailing the boat flat out. On the whole, we tend to carry more sail up forward whilst putting reefs in the mainsail, as we're doing at the moment under masthead gennaker. We've always tried to slip across the waves gently and the helmsman has to really play around with the wheel so as not to slow down too suddenly and not accelerate too fast. You're considerably less protected on a VO-70 than on a trimaran like Groupama 3! You're one or two metres lower down on a monohull, and it's a bit like being the leeward float on a multihull... We've put up a wall of sails in front of the helmsman to protect him, but he gets the full force of it dumped on top of him."

Two years ago, Franck Cammas passed by these same places during the Jules Verne Trophy and the South Pacific wasn't quite the same then. A lot of this was down to the fact that monohull and multihull sailing are very different...

"Compared with the Jules Verne Trophy, the Pacific has been a lot tougher this time. With a multihull, the period of bad weather rolls through a lot quicker... On Groupama 3, we had just as big a depression before we made Cape Horn, with 40 knots of breeze, but that only lasted a day. Here, we remained with the system for longer (eight days) in very heavy seas, because the depression wasn't really moving. It remained very static and we were at the back of it too! We had cross seas and the waves only dropped below seven metres yesterday evening... There have been some very tough times, especially at night, as we're traversing the area later in the season and there is almost as much darkness as daylight. We haven't really been frightened at any point, but it was stressful for a long time: you gradually get used to getting slammed by the sea, though we did go into a broach twice..."

Duellists at Cape Horn

The end of this fifth leg is far from over though as there are still over 1,800 miles to go after Cape Horn before the crews reach Itajai. As such the duel between the Americans and the French is only just beginning and there are a number of strategic opportunities on the cards over the coming days. Initially it will be important to find out what the separation is between the two boats as they exit Drake's Passage. A delta of over fifty miles, as was the case at noon this Thursday, would be a bonus, though it certainly wouldn't be enough to guarantee a result. Indeed, after a quick climb with the wind on the beam, there will be another depression to negotiate offshore of Argentina and very likely some upwind conditions and light airs as they approach Brazil.

"Like any rounding of Cape Horn, it's both legendary and a deliverance! It's the end of the hardest section of the Volvo Ocean Race. We'll finally be able to climb northwards, towards milder latitudes and, most notably, the seas will become flatter and more organised. From Isla de Los Estados, life will change radically, as will the level of comfort aboard. The conditions will alter drastically, because we're not gearing up for a high speed dash to get to Cape Horn. There are going to be a series of gybes, the effects of land and there will be a strong north-westerly wind (35 knots), easing after the rock. It's not certain that we'll still be leading on exiting Drake's Passage! However, it's not a deciding factor to be leader: what matters is to make it back into the Atlantic with a boat in her absolute prime and with a crew which is in great shape."