Leg 5

[Guest]

kiwi b it's basically the same video the is on the team nz blog, the add is only 14 seconds of a 4x4, go get a beer from the fridge and it's over

[Guest]

Was there anything worth watching on that video from the herald site? It had an advert embedded at the beginning of it, and i have a policy of refusing to watch content that is provided with adverts embedded in it.

 

 

Well firstly its free from a free site, so sorry about the add, maybe buy the herald paper and you can watch the video without add .... that said, its damn good footage montage across a number of boats at about 2m07s is the best footage of boat droping in off a wave an burying bow..enjoyed

[Guest]

kiwi b it's basically the same video the is on the team nz blog, the add is only 14 seconds of a 4x4, go get a beer from the fridge and it's over

 

Thanks, I'll just watch the one on the ETNZ blog then...

[SloopJohnB 322]

Only 2701.8nm to go and 2348 behind GA, Campers back race again.

[Guest]

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand (Chris Nicholson/AUS) has joined Groupama sailing team (Franck Cammas/FRA) back on the racetrack, but in different oceans, after both boats made pit stops to effect repairs. While CAMPER has left the Chilean port of Puerto Montt and is headed for the Southern Ocean and the notorious Cape Horn, Groupama, under jury rig after dismasting on April 4, is in the Atlantic having left Punta del Este on Saturday, and are sailing carefully towards the finish line in Itajaí, Brazil.

 

At 0441 GMT today, CAMPER reached the point where they suspended racing on April 2, and are back in racing trim. Their shore crew worked round the clock to make substantial repairs in order for the crew to complete the leg safely by way of Cape Horn. As the water and air temperatures become progressively colder for Chris Nicholson and his men, the seven-strong team on Groupama are experiencing the complete opposite.

 

It took CAMPER 26 hours to motor south from Puerto Montt to the waypoint at 43 52 South, 74 52 West, where they began racing. The crew reported light wind, but swells that are causing the boat to bang down hard after each wave. The crew however feel very confident in their boat and the repairs made in Chile and are ready to take on the challenge ahead. They have 2348 nautical miles to race to the finish and are averaging 10.4 knots.

 

Meanwhile, Groupama has ideal conditions for racing under a jury rig and is making 12.3 knots reaching towards the finish in around 20 knots of wind. Yesterday, the team managed to surf the boat at 19 knots, although they are not altering the balance of the boat by stacking sails or canting the keel. They are sailing a shorthanded watch system with only two people on deck at any time in three watches. At 1000 GMT today, Groupama had 353 nm to go to the finish.

 

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing was the second boat to dock in Puerto Montt after suffering serious structural damage on March 29. Despite at sea heroics to try to repair damage to the mid-section on the port side of Azzam’s hull, skipper Ian Walker made the difficult decision to retire from Leg 5 and ship the boat from Chile to Itajaí. Although Walker and his team have readied the boat for shipping yesterday, Saturday, the ship that was due to carry Azzam to the Leg 5 finish port has been delayed due to bad weather.

 

“Every day that we have to wait, puts more and more pressure on us to get the repair work carried out in Itajaí before the start of the next leg,” said a frustrated Ian Walker.

 

“We cannot start the work here in Chile, so all we can do is work on any other servicing and work list jobs to save time in Brazil. To move this along, we are also sending two of our shore team to travel on the ship.”

[SloopJohnB 322]

Today with PJ http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/Auckland/pl ... -Nicholson

[Guest]

Groupama sailing team have less than 150 nautical miles standing between them and a podium position that will keep them in the running for overall race victory, while Chris Nicholson’s equally ambitious CAMPER are feeling a chill as they make their trek south towards Cape Horn.

 

Groupama skipper Franck Cammas and his men on board the damaged Groupama 4 have been averaging 9.05 knots over the past day, covering 217.2 nm in 24 hours.

 

The French team have set a steady pace since cautiously resuming racing on April 7 with a jury rig and three reefs in their main after breaking their mast and suspending racing on April 4.


 

Helmsman/trimmer Charles Caudrelier said that it was frustrating to go against the team’s grain and race at a reduced speed, but he admitted it was better than the alternative.

 

“It’s a bit frustrating,” he said. “You want to arrive quickly for your holidays, but it’s way less frustrating than acting like a fool, breaking your mast and getting one more week of going back to the land to repair, before leaving again.

 

“We have accepted our fate now. We are lucky enough to be able to finish in third place and with a jury rig that’s a huge opportunity.

 

“That’s our goal: finish on the podium and stay in the race. As the legs go by, we feel more comfortable and we are improving. We think we can still do things, we think we can still win legs and, why not, the overall ranking.”

 

Groupama will close to within 20 points of overall leaders Team Telefónica when they complete the Leg 5 course in third place.

 

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand were donning their thermals on Monday as they headed due south down the Chilean coast towards Cape Horn.

 

Nicholson said that without a competitor even in the same ocean it was a lonely race but the team were remaining motivated by the promise of 15 points that will move them back up third place and within 28 points of Telefónica.

 

“The incentive for us here is to still get a fourth place and get valuable points,’’ he said. “It’s not as bad or as hard as people think. Certainly the next eight days we’re looking at to get to Itajaí, they’re a lot easier than the eight or nine days it took us to get to Puerto Montt when we broke the boat.”

 

The threat of a giant low pressure system that is due to rise from the Southern Ocean later this week is also motivating the team.

 

“We’ll still have 30-40 knots, so it’s still very windy in anyone’s books,’’ Nicholson said. “It’s all running conditions, and then once we’ve passed Cape Horn there’ll be a lot of tight reaching. But all in all it’s all looking pretty good. We need to get around the cape reasonably fast, there is a lot of breeze coming, so hopefully we can stay in front of all that.”

 

CAMPER have more than 2,400 nautical miles remaining and are averaging 10.15 knots with a 24-hour distance of 243.68 nm.
The team resumed racing at 0441 UTC on Sunday after suspending racing to fix structural damage on April 3.

 

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing were due to leave Puerto Pontt by ship on Monday after reluctantly accepting they could not repair their boat in time to complete the leg.

 

They hope to continue their pursuit of points in the Itajaí In-Port Race on April 21.

 

 

[Guest]

WITH HALF A MAST UNDER JURY RIG, GROUPAMA FINISH HEROIC THIRD IN LEG 5

 

Itajaí, Brazil – Groupama completed a heroic recovery to claim third place in Leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 on Tuesday, limping across the finish line in Itajaí, Brazil with a jury-rigged mast for 20 points that revive their hopes of overall victory.

 

Just six days ago Franck Cammas’ crew were struck with ill fortune after a broken mast ended their dreams of a second consecutive leg win. Cammas’ crew opted to dock in Punta del Este, Uruguay, where they strung together an ingenious makeshift rig, which they nursed all the way to the finish.

 

Victory in the 6,700 nautical mile leg from Auckland to Itajaí would have seen the French team move within close distance of overall leaders Team Telefónica.

 

As it is, third place -- behind winners PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG and second-placed Telefónica -- was enough to take them back up to second overall, within 20 points of the lead.

 

"The guys all did a fantastic job and I am very happy with our podium place. The mood among the guys is very good and we're still right in this race." Cammas said.

 

After leading the fleet through much of the Southern Ocean, Groupama were also the first round Cape Horn, the southern tip of South America. They appeared to be winning their duel with PUMA through the South Atlantic when disaster struck.

 

They suspended racing at 1542 UTC on April 4 after their mast snapped in two, just level with the first set of spreaders, around 10 metres above the deck.

 

The sailors were able to recover most of the rig and made for the Uruguayan city of Punta del Este, around 60 miles from where the incident happened.

 

A round-the-clock repair effort saw a makeshift rig fashioned from the bigger of the two broken parts of the mast in just three days.

 

 

The team resumed racing at 0500 UTC on April 7 with seven crew on board including bowman Brad Marsh, who had five staples put into his wrist after accidentally plunging a knife into it while cutting away the mainsail from the broken mast.

 

Groupama now have 127 points overall after crossing the finish line at 1358 UTC on Tuesday, completing the leg in 23 days, 12 hours, 58 minutes and 45 seconds.

 

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand are on course to finish Leg 5 in fourth place and should climb back up to third with 119 points.

 

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, who like CAMPER were forced to stop at Puerto Montt in Chile after suffering structural damage, were unable to complete the leg. They left the port by ship on Tuesday and should arrive in Itajaí in time for the in-port race on April 21. Team Sanya were also forced to retire from the leg and will rejoin the leg in Miami.

 

 

MARSH STAYS THE COURSE TO SEE GROUPAMA HOME

Despite having sustained a nasty knife wound to his wrist while cutting free the mainsail from Groupama’s broken mast, bowman Brad Marsh said he turned down the chance to leave the boat during the French crew’s pit stop in Punta del Este to avoid letting down his crew mates.

 

Speaking today after Groupama finished Leg 5 in Itajaí, Brazil in third place, Marsh said it was his own decision to stay on board.

 

“I'm responsible for the boat’s rigging and I didn't want to leave the guys to have to deal with that on their own,” he said. “Now I'm really pleased to have completed the leg.”

 

Marsh said he had known immediately that his injury was a bad one when he accidentally jammed his knife deep into his wrist soon after the mast snapped while Groupama were leading with less than 1,000 nautical miles of the finish Leg 5.

 

As the rest of the crew struggled to secure the broken spar and prevent any damage to the boat’s hull, boat medic Martin Krite tended to Marsh, first stemming the flow of blood before taking him below to close the wound using surgical staples.

 

Krite said today he had been happy with the way the medical emergency had been dealt with, despite a false start with the first two staples.

 

Marsh was greeted on the arrival pontoon today by his girlfriend Robin Hilton, dressed in a Groupama branded nurse’s uniform complete with stethoscope.

[Guest]

Krite said today he had been happy with the way the medical emergency had been dealt with, despite a false start with the first two staples.

 

Camper almost to the Horn!

[Guest]

From EMTNZ on twitter

 

CAMPER has rounded Cape Horn and is heading North

[Guest]

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand rounded Cape Horn under the cover of darkness on Wednesday, marking a major milestone on their mission to complete Leg 5 to Itajaí, Brazil.

 

The CAMPER crew passed the cape at 0025 UTC, catching brief but poignant glimpses of the headland when the lighthouse flashed, Navigator Will Oxley said.

 

“We didn’t do much (to mark the occasion) because by that stage we were in to 25 to 30 knots, beam reaching, so it was fire-hose weather on deck,’’ he said. “We acknowledged we had passed it, spent a bit of time staring at a flashing light and got into focusing on the next landmark.”

 

Despite being unable to properly sight the cape, Media Crew Member Hamish Hooper said the team were nevertheless pleased to have passed one of the classic ocean racing waypoints.

 

“Unfortunately when we rounded it was dark, no moon to even lighten it for a slight sighting,’’ Hooper said.

 

“For some reason this doesn’t seem to bother me, more often than not it would with a landmark like this, but I guess it illustrates the relief and jubilation of finally making our way north out of the relentless Southern Ocean.”

 

Hooper along with helmsman/bowman Daryl Wislang and helmsman/trimmer Adam Minoprio were rounding Cape Horn for the first time, while helmsman/trimmer Tony Rae and co-skipper Stu Bannatyne, have passed the Cape four and seven times respectively.

 

Skipper Chris Nicholson said it was late in the year to be taking on Cape Horn, but having been delayed by structural damage which forced the team to suspend racing on April 3 and resume on April 8, there was little choice.

 

“Ideally you want to be doing this in February, but there have been a few little delays,’’ he said. “It’s been quite a marathon really for all of us in the team to get here at this stage. We would have done an extra 2,000 miles than everyone else, and taken 10 days longer.”

 

Since the rounding CAMPER have been battered by gusts in excess of 60 knots and are racing with a reefed mainsail and storm jib, Oxley said.

 

They have their sights firmly set on the Falkland Islands with an estimated time of arrival in Itajaí around the end of the week.

 

“Our plan is to pass to the east of the Falklands, try and use this wind to project us fairly quickly to the north east,’’ Oxley said. “We have our arrival some time around the 15th, but there are plenty of landmines between now and then.”

 

At 1300 UTC CAMPER had 1752 nautical miles remaining on the racetrack to Itajaí. If they successfully complete Leg 5 they will receive 15 points, and return to third place on the overall leaderboard.

 

[Guest]

Having chosen to pass east of the Falkland Islands on their way to Itajaí, CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand are today still feeling the wrath of a major low pressure system chasing them from the south.

 

Although protected to some extend by their location in the lee of the South American landmass the CAMPER crew have nevertheless had a bumpy ride over the last 24 hours.

 

Media Crew Member (MCM) Hamish Hooper reported once again resorting to the pill bottle to counter his seasickness as CAMPER bumped, banged and crashed their way upwind against an unpleasant seaway at an average speed of more than 11 knots.

 

Hooper said the continuing tough conditions made spending time on the wave swept deck an unappealing prospect.

 

“Each of the guys get ready for their watches and glance out of the hatch with pensive apprehension,” he said in a report from the boat today.

 

“I guess they were feeling a bit like me, having mentally left the harsh cold conditions of the Southern Ocean behind last night, but having to continue dealing with them today.”

 

While the conditions onboard are anything but comfortable skipper Chris Nicholson said they were a good test for the structural repairs carried out by the shore crew at the Chilean port of Puerto Montt earlier this month.

 

“We got around the Horn in good shape then got a bit of a touch up between there and the Falklands,’’ he said. “Pretty hard on the boat, almost similar to when we left Auckland, so a good test for all of the new structure in the boat and everything looks all good."

 

Race meteorologist Gonzalo Infante said the team could expect conditions to ease slightly over the next 24 hours but added the low in the south was likely to give rise to a trough in the South Atlantic and could require CAMPER to make a choice on how to negotiate it.

 

“The eastern perimeter of the trough will pack 25-35 knot northerly winds, while to the west there will be 25-30 knots from the south west,” he said.

 

“Depending on how quickly the trough moves east, CAMPER could be faced with a decision in the next 24 hours on whether or not they divert west around the trough.”

 

At 1300 UTC today CAMPER had just over 1400 nautical miles to run to the finish. The most recent estimated time of their arrival at Itajaí is April 16 when they will score 15 points for fourth place, boosting them back to third overall.

 

Meanwhile in Itajaí, the shore crews of the three teams who already completed Leg 5 have had to cope with sweltering heat as they work steadily through their jobs lists to get their boats into racing trim as soon as possible.

 

Groupama shore manager Ben Wright said his next priority was to start work on their replacement mast which is expected to arrive at the team base today after being flown from the Netherlands by official race logistics partner DHL.

 

“It was unloaded off the plane during the night, loaded on a truck and is due to arrive in the middle of the afternoon,” he said. “We are looking forward to getting it in front of our base, unpacking it and putting it together.”

 

Wright said he was confident the operation to fit out the new spar would be completed in the next couple of days despite requiring some painstaking work.

 

“It is a first generation mast but there are not many differences,” he said. “We need to go through the process of putting it all together and checking everything over.

 

“There is a lot of work and a lot of details which just soak up time so it will take a couple of days, but we have that time before the boat goes in the water so there is no rush or panic on it.”

 

Already in Itajaí ahead of the arrival of their boat by cargo ship, the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing shore crew were today preparing the ground for critical repair work.

 

Latest estimates suggest Azzam will arrive in Itajaí on the evening of April 18, just two days before the Itajaí In-Port Race.

[Guest]

are we there yet?

 

[Guest]

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand were enjoying fast sailing and rising temperatures today as they prepared to take on the final 500 nautical miles (nm) of Leg 5.

 

The Kiwi/Spanish team are within around 48 hours of finishing the 6,700-mile leg from Auckland in New Zealand, one of their home ports, to Itajaí in Brazil.

 

CAMPER were forced to suspend racing on April 3 and divert to Puerto Montt in Chile to repair structural damage, resuming the leg on April 8. The crew have maintained an impressive pace since and spirits are high on board as the end of this challenging leg draws near.

 

“The breeze has been shifting left all day and the gybe we’re now on is the favoured one to Itajaí,” navigator Will Oxley said. “I know there’s a bit of interest in when we’re going to get to Itajaí, and the good news is that at the moment we’re improving our ETA. With a bit of luck we could be having brunch in Itajaí.”

 

As temperatures rise with every mile the team make north, co-skipper Stu Bannatyne was relishing taking his foul-weather jacket off for the first time since the leg start on March 18.

 

“You can’t imagine how nice it is to not have a tight rubber seal around my neck,” he said. “To top it off, we had a flying fish incident, so we must be getting into warmer water.”

 

By the time they complete the leg it will have been an entire month since they set sail from Auckland.

 

At 1300 UTC on Sunday CAMPER had 509 miles left to sail, and were averaging over 16 knots of boat speed.

 

CAMPER are expected to finish around 1200 UTC on April 17 after which they face a four-day turnaround to prepare for the DHL In-Port Race Itajaí on April 21, and the start of Leg 6 to Miami the following day.

 

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s Volvo Open 70 Azzam was on its way to Brazil by cargo ship after retiring from Leg 5 with structural damage. Two of the team’s shore crew, Sam Bourne and Tim Collen, have accompanied the boat to get a head start on the repair job to be carried out in Itajaí.

 

In a report today Bourne said working conditions on board had earlier been difficult as the ship rolled through 40 degrees in big waves. Now in flatter water, Bourne said the pair were were making good progress on their long list of tasks.

 

“Tim and I set to work on the yacht; we have a big job list and need to make good progress before arrival in Itajaí so we can focus on the major repair,” he said.

 

“Today was the day to rebuild the forward stacking bay that was sacrificed to shore-up the damaged hull. Tubes were cut, splinted, fitted and glued together to form the frame, ready to laminate tomorrow.

 

“It was pretty cold in the boat, around 10 degrees, so slow cure time meant that was the end of play for the day on that project. Next up was repairing the bracket for the keel hydraulic pump, a victim of the violent motion of a Volvo 70 at high speed.”

 

Abu Dhabi are expected to arrive in Itajaí around April 18 when the team will have to race the clock to effect repairs to the hull in time for the next points scoring opportunity -- the DHL In-Port Race Itajaí on April 21, on the eve of the start of Leg 6 to Miami.

[Guest]

Camper have just finished

 

After 31 days racing CAMPER finally crossed the Leg 5 finish line in Itajaí, Brazil at 12:35:44 UTC, having sailed an average of 1,400 nautical miles further and 11 days longer than their counterparts on the podium.

 

Hamish Hooper/CAMPER ETNZ/Volvo Ocean Race

Relief was visible on the faces of the 11 crew as they claimed fourth place in the race from one of their home ports, Auckland, New Zealand to Brazil, earning them 15 points that catapult them back to third position overall.

 

Skipper Chris Nicholson said it has been an epic 9,048 nm race for the team, who were forced to suspend racing on April 3 when they pulled into the Chilean port of Puerto Montt for five days to fix structural damage.

 

“This leg, before we left Auckland was one where we had awesome potential I thought, and one of those factors was our reliability," he said.

 

“As always this race throws up lots of surprises and that was one of them. We’d done a lot of hard testing with the boat and never had a problem from day one.

 

“So, for this one to pop up like it did was both disappointing and surprising. What wasn’t disappointing or surprising was how the team dealt with the problem, everyone got on with the job that took a lot of resources and a lot of hard work from everyone right across the team to essentially rebuild the boat in Puerto Montt, Chile, and rejoin the race.

 

“It’s a valuable 15 points we’ll get, we won’t even know how valuable those points are until the end in Galway, but I have a feeling they’re vital.”

 

First place was claimed by PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG on April 6 after an epic victory over Team Telefónica, who fought back from a 400 nm deficit after suspending for repairs to claim second place, just 12 nm behind the winners.

 

Groupama sailing team claimed the final podium position on April 10 under jury rig, after the team were forced to suspended racing to repair their broken mast on April 4 and resumed racing on April 7.

[Guest]

[Fogg 427]

Only 3 days til the in port race and 4 days til they depart again.

[203 0]

Is it just me, or is Camper's crazy looking sail patterns lost their touch? They sure have faded! Maybe time for a repaint??

[benny14 6]

Ok, so Camper got the speed record for this leg... With a run of 528nm... The 24 hour speed record is 596.6nm by Ericsson 4 in the 2008-2009 race. SO... These boats are supposedly lighter, more powerful and faster, yet none of them have come close to that record yet, AND they keep breaking... Yes, conditions have something to do with it, but I would have thought if the boats were supposed to be faster they would have been coming closer to that record, even without ideal conditions (I don't know what the conditions were when Ericsson 4 did their run). Something doesn't stack up for me...

[Crocket 12]

Traditionally the record usually gets broken on leg 1 skirting around the bottom of the St Helena high. Must have something to do with the sea state and they can take the brakes off? I think the last few editions of the race, the boats have encounted hard reaching conditions without the huge southern ocean rollers.

This time around, I'm sure they only got low to mid 20s in that part of the ocean.