Sport-heute: Sailing - DYING WIND AND CONFUSED SEAS EQUAL PAINFUL PROGRESS

22. Februar 2012, 00:23

DYING WIND AND CONFUSED SEAS EQUAL PAINFUL PROGRESS

Update 21.2.12 16.15 Update 22.2.12 0020

The Volvo fleet, still led by CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand (Chris Nicholson/AUS), is struggling in a dying wind, which has left in its wake a big, sloppy sea, and the exit of the South China Sea looks now to be a painful and drawn out affair. Team Sanya, skippered by Mike Sanderson from New Zealand during leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Sanya, China to Auckland, New Zealand. (Credit: AndrŽs Soriano/Team Sanya/Volvo Ocean Race)

Zürich, 21.2.12 Red. (mk) Earlier there appeared several options open for the six teams in the approach to the Luzon Strait. Iker Martínez/ESP initially positioned Telefónica to the north, looking for the favourable wind flow that funnels through the Strait of Taiwan, but in the last hour the Spaniard has cashed in his northing and tacked back to cover the fleet.

Ken Read/USA in sixth place made the same decision, tacking PUMA’s Mar Mostro shortly before Telefónica and selecting the more conservative route. Only Mike Sanderson/NZL and Team Sanya, now rising to third place behind Groupama 4 (Franck Cammas/FRA), have chosen the southerly option. Sanya is a significantly slower boat, which forces Sanderson and his men to take a more radical approach.

Although Will Oxley, navigator with CAMPER, expects the seastate to moderate shortly, MCM Hamish Hooper reported this morning that currently this is far from the case. “I think I can speak for everyone in saying that we are looking forward to leaving the South China Sea behind,” he said miserably.

Tony Rae, one of CAMPER’s helmsmen, added: “This is like sailing in a washing machine without the soap suds unfortunately”. According to Rae, a mix of current, wind and the fact that the fleet is right where the ocean bed rises from 600 metres to only 200 metres all combine to make a pretty messy and confused ride. “Not what I would call smooth sailing,” the veteran round the world race campaigner said.

On board PUMA there is talk of canting the keel to leeward to induce heel to help avoid the belly flops that are making the crew cringe at every wave landing. “Our flat-bottomed girl aches with each flight and cries with each crash,” said MCM Amory Ross.

The first waypoint at the Philippines lies around 350 nautical miles to the northeast of the fleet. “Between us lie more of the waves we have come to hate, leftover swell from the monsoon, a few tacks, adverse current and gradually easing winds,” sums up Ross, who added that the conditions were well within early expectations.

Leg 4
21/02/2012 10:02:47 UTC
	DTL	DTLC	BS	DTF
1			CMPR	0.00	0	12.2	4903.1
2			GPMA	4.10	1	12.1	4907.2
3			SNYA	11.40	1	12.2	4914.5
4			ADOR	12.60	2	11.3	4915.7
5			TELE	17.90	8	12.5	4921.0
6			PUMA	44.80	10	11.4	4947.9

Update 21.2.12 1615

CAMPER LEAD AS TRAILING PUMA CONSIDER RADICAL OPTION

The skippers and navigators are facing a tactical minefield in the South China Sea after moderating breezes left behind a horribly confused sea state on the third day of the second stage of Leg 4.

Despite having thousands of miles of open water sailing ahead of them on the way to Auckland all six teams know that their exit from the South China Sea could prove decisive.

At 1300 UTC, as the fleet tracked north east towards a northerly crossing of the Luzon Strait close to Taiwan, the new leg leaders Chris Nicholson’s CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand held an almost six nautical mile (nm) advantage over previous front runners, Groupama sailing team skippered by Franck Cammas.

“We can see Groupama on the radar about 10 miles directly abeam of us,” said Nicholson today. “It’s snakes and ladders with them at the moment -- for one hour they will gain and the next hour we will gain.

“There’s a fair bit to consider, but for the moment we’ve got at least 14 hours on starboard tack trying to sail as fast as possible.”

CAMPER navigator Will Oxley confirmed the importance of the passage through the Luzon Strait between Taiwan and the Philippines: “There's not a lot happening in terms of moves right now,” he said. “All the boats are high-tailing to the north east.

“It's all about getting out of the South China Sea. Nervous times really. We're still in a good position - let's just hope the boat can do it for us.”

Groupama skipper Franck Cammas said his team were happy to be in the top two at this stage having configured their boat for downwind rather than upwind sailing on Leg 4.

“We got some reaching after the start, a couple of hours above 20 knots in a rough sea state,” Cammas said. “Once again we were pretty quick, then we started sailing upwind and we aren’t the most confortable doing that.

“But we are holding there. Because we didn’t prepare the boat for upwind on this leg we knew we would suffer for the first few days.

“CAMPER created a split. They are 10 miles to windward and it looks like the favourable side at the moment. We are following them closely.

“I hope we’ll get some reaching after Taiwan. It’s good now though, we are where we should be.”

Having pursued the most southerly route since leaving their home port, Mike Sanderson’s Team Sanya were today reaping the benefits of a progressive wind shift to the right. At 1300 UTC they had leapfrogged from fifth to third ahead of Ian Walker’s fourth placed Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and Iker Martínez’s Team Telefónica in fifth.

Ken Read’s PUMA Ocean racing powered by BERG remained in sixth more than 45 nm off the lead.

Media Crew Member (MCM) Amory Ross said life on board had been brutal for the PUMA crew, who had tacked as much as five times in a 40 minute period as they tried in vain to reconnect with the fleet. “These are full on ocean tacks, so everyone is a little beaten up right now,” Ross said.

Having trailed the fleet since leaving last in the second stage staggered start Ross said PUMA were contemplating the radical option of sailing north around Taiwan -- a detour of some 400 nm – to avoid windless conditions in the Strait of Luzon.

“The problem is we just can’t seem to work out where we want to go just yet,” he said. “The weather systems are changing quickly right now and our previous route of passing between the southern tip of Taiwan and the northern islands of the Philippines is now looking like it is out of the playbook.

“That whole area is going to be glassed off at the time we were hoping to arrive. It’s just hard to believe we would have to go so far north when we ultimately want to go south.”

Telefónica navigator Andrew Cape said the fifth placed Spanish team were happy with their northerly position in relation to the fleet which he hoped would enable them to stay in the strongest winds on the approach to Luzon.

“Our position to the north is where we wanted to be,” Cape said. “There’s still a lot of miles to be done but we wanted to position ourselves to make sure we stayed in good breeze.

“It’s going to get quite tricky the next few days. There are still a lot of things to be sorted out yet but the next 24 hours will be more slogging away upwind still. There’s still a long way to go but we’re confident.”

On Abu Dhabi, skipper Ian Walker said the lumpy seas posed no real risk to the boats structurally but were making life difficult for the helmsmen particularly at overnight.

“The wind has gone hard right, lifting us up into quite a big head sea,” Walker said.

“It is uncomfortable rather than boat breaking but the helmsman needs to be alert for the odd wave with no back to it. Last night was very dark with no visible horizon which made it especially hard to helm accurately.”

Despite performance improvements after tuning adjustments and a new mainsail for this leg, Walker confessed to being concerned over Azzam’s pace compared to the leaders, but said tactics rather than raw speed would be key over the next few days.

“We seem to be going a bit better with our new mainsail and slightly different trim but still cannot quite match the pace of the leading three,” he said.

“The weather models are all over the place right now and the exit strategy through the Luzon Straits is far from clear.

“I suspect we may see some very different tactics leading to some opportunities over the next few days.”

Leg 4
21/02/2012 13:02:00 UTC
	DTL	DTLC	BS	DTF
1			CMPR	0.00	0	12	4880.1
2			GPMA	5.70	2	11.5	4885.8
3			SNYA	11.60	0	11.8	4891.7
4			ADOR	13.80	1	11.7	4893.8
5			TELE	17.30	1	12	4897.4
6			PUMA	46.30	2	11.5	4926.4

UPDATE 22.2.12 - 0020

Leg 4
21/02/2012 22:01:44 UTC
	DTL	DTLC	BS	DTF
1			CMPR	0.00	0	11.7	4809.7
2			GPMA	10.40	6	13	4820.1
3			SNYA	17.70	9	10.8	4827.4
4			ADOR	18.40	2	11.5	4828.1
5			TELE	27.10	7	9.8	4836.8
6			PUMA	40.20	6	11.8	4850.0

CRITICAL TIMES AHEAD

After a long starboard leg towards the southern tip of Taiwan, there has been something of a tacking frenzy between 1600 and 2200 GMT, when all but PUMA’s Mar Mostro (Ken Read/USA) tacked onto port, followed shortly by Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP) and CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand (Chris Nicholson/AUS) tacking back again. Tonight’s activity is the first in a series of arduous manoeuvres for the fleet in order to free themselves from the claws of the South China Sea.

At 2200 UTC tonight, CAMPER maintained a 10.4 nautical mile (nm) lead over Groupama 4 (Franck Cammas/FRA) despite narrowly avoiding a huge unlit buoy earlier, something that navigator Will Oxley described as a ‘complete show-stopper in the dark’. The many oilrigs and platforms that dot the area south of Hong Kong have also kept the crews at the height of awareness for most of today. The team plans to slip just under the southern tip of Taiwan and sneak through the Luzon Strait before the wind shuts down and the whole area becomes a glassy, windless zone.

The solutions on how to exit the South China Sea effectively vary wildly. Options include shooting away to the southeast and just shaving the Philippines, while another suggests heading north around the island of Taiwan. It is a pivotal moment in the leg, where winners can be losers and vice versa.

It has been another tough day for the Americans onboard PUMA’s Mar Mostro, who earlier carried out five exhausting tacks in 40 minutes. The crew is feeling beaten up, but trying to remain positive after a bad day in the office. The options ahead are not clear for them and the team is yet to make firm decisions on which way to go, but is seriously considering taking the northerly option around Taiwan in order to avoid the glassy snare ahead, although it will mean sailing around 400 extra miles.

In a lateral split spanning 13 or so nautical miles, this evening Team Sanya has moved both up and down the order and now lies in a respectable third place, 17.7 nm behind CAMPER. Average speeds vary from 13 knots for Groupama 4, to 9.8 knots for Telefónica and the fleet is divided by 40.2 nm from CAMPER in first place and PUMA 40.2 nm back in sixth.

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Richard Mason from New Zealand having a power nap onboard Team Sanya, skippered by Mike Sanderson from New Zealand during leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Sanya, China to Auckland, New Zealand. (Credit: AndrŽs Soriano/Team Sanya/Volvo Ocean Race)

Team Sanya, skippered by Mike Sanderson from New Zealand during leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Sanya, China to Auckland, New Zealand. (Credit: AndrŽs Soriano/Team Sanya/Volvo Ocean Race)

Skipper Chris Nicholson looks for out competitors on the horizon onboard CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand during leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Sanya, China to Auckland, New Zealand. (Credit: Hamish Hooper/CAMPER ETNZ/Volvo Ocean Race)

Skipper Ian Walker helming Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing during leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Sanya, China to Auckland, New Zealand.

Brad Marsh getting rope out of the stacked bags on Groupama Sailing Team during leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Sanya, China to Auckland, New Zealand. (Credit: Yann Riou/Groupama Sailing Team/Volvo Ocean Race)

Tom Addis and Ken Read mull over the new weather information in hopes of finding a way out of the northwest predicaments to come. PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG during leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Sanya, China to Auckland, New Zealand. (Credit: Amory Ross/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race)

Navigator Will Oxley delves into some chocolate onboard CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand during leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Sanya, China to Auckland, New Zealand. (Credit: Hamish Hooper/CAMPER ETNZ/Volvo Ocean Race)