Leg two updates

[Guest]

Video from Sanya from what has been reported by others earlier. Sanya are out of the race with a mast failure and that is a shame as they had thrown the cat amongst the pigeons and were going so well.

 

[Guest]

Roll back and then roll forward tracker and it is a bit dissapointing to see how Telefonica has just sailed on past Camper.

[Atom Ant 0]

Well it is a Juan K boat - did we expect anything else?

[Guest]

Telefonica shine as boats drag north.

[Guest]

At 1900 UTC tonight Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP) and PUMA’S Mar Mostro (Ken Read/USA) were engaged in a proper fight for first place as the fleet racing in Leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race heads north in a drag race 681 nautical miles (nm) east of the coast of Madagascar.

 

CAMPER (Chris Nicholson/AUS) is also in the mix, just 5.30 nm behind Martínez and his men who are back on top. Groupama 4 has also made some substantial gains this evening and is in fourth, 162 nm to the east of the main pack. Ian Walker’s Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing is still over 100 nm behind the leader tonight.

 

The endless days of no wind and icy cold rainsqualls are now a distant memory, replaced by typical trade wind sailing with warm spray coming over the deck and a shining sun, which have raised the spirits of the crew who had all but given up hope of finding these kinds of sailing conditions. Wet and smelly sailing kit is coming out to air and shoes are replacing sea boots as the temperature begins to climb. All the gear is carefully stacked on the windward side to tease out every ounce of boat speed.

 

Average speeds in the past three hours have been hitting just over 19 knots for Groupama 4 and have led to far more respectable 24-hour runs such as Telefónica’s run of 359 nm over the past 24-hours.

 

Meanwhile, the luckless Team Sanya continues to head towards the Madagascar port of Ehoala where they will assess their options after breaking a vital piece of supporting rigging on their mast (D2) in the early hours of this morning.

[Guest]

Leg 2 : Cape Town - Abu Dhabi

Day 8 - A long tack North

 

 

 

With the Chinese boat having broken a shroud and forced to make a detour to Madagascar, the fleet will now be led by Camper and Telefonica, whilst Groupama 4 is well over to the East, 150 miles from the central group. This positioning is favourable for around 48 hours' time…

 

 

 

There is no strategic initiative in prospect between now and the end of the week: the five boats still in the match are simply involved in a very long starboard tack until they approach the equatorial Doldrums, which is positioned at 8° South. With eased sheets in an easterly tradewind of twenty knots, the weather conditions have finally stabilised in the sunshine, with temperatures on the up. After over three days of trying to traverse an impenetrable front, the pace of this second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race has picked up again. However, ahead of them, the tropical depression which favoured Sanya initially, before causing her to damage her rig, will lead to strong breezes until tomorrow morning, as well as bringing along its share of tropical clouds…

 

 

A long, tough knock-back

 

The Chinese boat, which pulled off a superb strategic coup by leaving the group to take a westerly option around the front, reaped the benefits of the tropical depression which was forming offshore of Madagascar. Sanya had made the break with a lead of over 200 miles and was preparing to reposition herself to the East behind the storm, to take up in front of her rivals offshore of Réunion Island. Unfortunately, a piece of the shroud broke on the Chinese boat, forcing Mike Sanderson and his crew to divert towards Fort-Dauphin, to the South-East of the island of Madagascar. Sailing into an already steady wind, which is easing progressively, Sanya will make a pit-stop to effect repairs and, if all goes as predicted, she is set to lose all her lead in less than 24 hours. In addition, she is set to head back out onto the water by working her way along the coast of the large African island, into a northerly breeze, which won't favour her ability to make headway towards the equator. This is a long, tough knock-back for the team then…

 

For the rest of the fleet, it's a whole different set-up as the aim is again to make up ground to the North-North-East so as slip between Mauritius and Rodrigues Island, which lies at 60° East. The Spaniards on Telefonica and the New Zealanders on Camper are heading the pack but are further West, whilst the Americans on Puma are forty miles to windward, with Groupama 4 some 150 miles further East. Abu Dhabi's situation isn't a good one since they're over a hundred miles shy of the leaders.

 

Windward advantage

 

On the water, the very quick forming tropical depression has rapidly altered the deal: the front which was blocking progress to the East crumbled more quickly, whilst the Mascareignes High has expanded. The route to the South, which Franck Cammas and his men adopted, lost a bit of its lustre as the wind eased on approaching the centre of the high pressure. Indeed, the central group was able to traverse the front quicker than forecast to hook onto the north-easterly tradewinds, whilst Groupama 4 stalled after her hook round to the South. Though the French boat is sailing with a little less breeze than her rivals this Monday afternoon, the situation will be identical across the fleet by Tuesday morning as everyone will have around fifteen knots of easterly wind.

 

As such Groupama 4's separation will begin to bear fruit from Tuesday afternoon, once the French boat reaches 60° East. At that point the helmsman will be able to bear away slightly and gain a good knot of additional speed in relation to the central group, which will still have to sail at an angle of 70°. This differential in heading of around ten degrees should be enough so that Franck Cammas and his crew end up back in contact with tomorrow's three leaders: Telefonica, Camper and Puma… As a result Groupama 4's tactical option hasn't paid off quite as well as hoped, but it certainly hasn't proven detrimental to the next stage in this second leg. This is especially true given that they're lining up for the Doldrums, which will have to be traversed before they arrive in the port which will mark the end of this first section of the course.

[Guest]

Video from volvo about Sanya

 

Video from Camper

http://www.youtube.com/user/Camper#p/u/6/gCTP9TRALTQ

[Guest]

Okay, this is a genuine question.

 

If they have lost a d2 shroud, why not tack and replace it? Do they not carry some spectra to replace it with, or is there something about the terminals or whatever that makes it not possible to replace at sea?

I remember the last time I got a Cat 1 a piece of rplacement rigging as long as the longest stay was required.

[chic014 0]

I think they're using continuous rigging so the fibres inside a braid go up the side stay and split, with some going inward as the D2 and the rest carrying up as the sidestay, so it's not as easy as changing one piece as they're all in one. I think.

[Guest]

Thanks, that helps make sense of it. Hard to believe people of that caliber wouldn't try a jury rig, guess we have to assume they did and couldn't, I just couldn't figure why.

[Guest Rocket]

Probably can't afford to risk dropping the rig - it sort of doesn't matter with this format if they come 6th - someone had to...

[chic014 0]

Sanya are using Future Fibres rigging. Make's this sound like sh$# now:

 

http://www.futurefibres.com/News-Downlo ... ibres.html

 

I think it's similar to what Southern's offer. Here is a good explanation of the technology:

 

http://www.southernspars.com/southern/i ... page&p=225

 

In particular Fig. 2 shows the split from sidestay to D2.

[Guest]

Thanks, that helps make sense of it. Hard to believe people of that caliber wouldn't try a jury rig, guess we have to assume they did and couldn't, I just couldn't figure why.

Me too. I'm wondering why they just can't rig a temporary one using a dyneema or something. Be a bit ugly but I'm sure they must have some grunty ropes aboard that would be plenty strong enough.

 

Bit of a pisser for the lads though. 2 legs 2 failures must be gutting for them. But I suppose that is yacht racing at the top and often very tweaky edge.

[Kiteroa 8]

The Southern EC6 is a bit different.

 

The Future Fibre product is pretty well untested. And until a boat actually finished a leg with it intact i guess it will remain that way.

 

Sanya are using Future Fibres rigging. Make's this sound like sh$# now:

 

http://www.futurefibres.com/News-Downlo ... ibres.html

 

I think it's similar to what Southern's offer. Here is a good explanation of the technology:

 

http://www.southernspars.com/southern/i ... page&p=225

 

In particular Fig. 2 shows the split from sidestay to D2.

[Guest]

The three way drag race has now become a 4 way drag race with Camper having to fight if they dont want to fall behind the faster boats in this wind and angle. groupamas strategy has worked for them so far and it all depends now on the weather fronts and boats not breaking to see if they will win this part of the leg. The crews are going to be battling it out for the next several days in this easterly wind and then it will swing to the south and the boats should pick up a bit more speed.

[Guest]

Groupama continue their charge as they have hit the same pressure as the other boats and are now flying. My bet is that they will be the leaders at the next update. Its been nice to see Camper gain on Telefonica and gain back some of the distance that Telefonica took of them as they sailed right by. Its a shame that all the tactics in this leg have pretty much been exhausted unless the wind was to swing in the oppersite way and go north in several days time.

[Guest]

Its all groupama and will be for sometime to come as they have a better wind angle and are smoking the fleet. Telefonica are winning the straight line drag out of the other 3 boats while Camper as I expected are struggling but are still well within striking distance if something changes.

[Guest]

Leg 2

Report: 20/12/2011 19:05:47 UTC

DTL DTLC BS

1 GPMA 0.00 0 18.9

2 TELE 45.60 8 16.8

3 PUMA 53.40 5 17.3

4 CMPR 63.10 9 15.9

5 ADOR 161.20 9 16.2

- SNYA Suspended Racing

After spending most of Leg 1 alone and with no opportunity to change the situation Franck Cammas and his men racing Groupama 4 are enjoying every moment of their well-earned lead, which could deliver a Leg 2 victory.

 

“We are coming back step by step,” Cammas said as Groupama sailing team pressed on this afternoon. “We are leading at the moment and it is great. There are lots of smiles on faces when the position report comes in now.”

 

However, it will not be a walkover. Cammas, competing in his first Volvo Ocean Race, is being pushed hard by race veterans who are nipping at his heels and ready to take advantage in any way they can. With still half the leg yet to complete and a widening band of Doldrums to negotiate, it is far from a foregone conclusion.

 

For most of the afternoon, Groupama 4 has been averaging just under 19 knots boat speed, rivalled only by third-placed PUMA’s Mar Mostro (Ken Read/USA) almost two knots slower. Wind speeds hover between 20 knots on the beam for the French team and up to 28 knots of headwinds for the chasing pack who are 135 nautical miles further to the west.

 

On board Groupama 4 it is wet and wild. Helmets are a necessity as the crew is constantly fire-hosed. For the four boats sailing close-hauled, it is much wetter.

 

Although Cammas is a newcomer to the Volvo, he is an experienced round the world racer and is not afraid to take radical tactical decisions, although those taken on Leg 1 did not play out in the way he expected.

 

"We did have some kind of complex after the first leg - we didn't want to go it alone,” Cammas explains. “When we saw that big gate in the south of the front, we went for it but no one else did.”

 

Ken Read, currently steering Mar Mostro in third place, said he took his hat off to Cammas for making the bold decision to break from the fleet and go south: “I give the French credit. They took matters into their own hands. They stuck to their guns and went for it and it looks like it’s going to pay off for them, at least for now.”

 

Read had flirted with both the northerly option taken by Team Sanya (Mike Sanderson/NZL) and the Groupama 4’s route in the south, but ended up on the safer middle ground together with Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP), currently lying second, CAMPER (Chris Nicholson/AUS) in fourth, and, to a lesser extent, Azzam (Ian Walker/GBR) who now 161.2 nm adrift.

 

But Read is ultimately happy with where his boat is. “We’re happy with how the boat’s going in our little group of three with Telefónica and CAMPER and at this point we like our position,” the American skipper said.

 

Far away to the west in Madagascar, the racing crew and shore crew of Team Sanya, which suspended racing early this morning, is busy examining the state of the boat’s rig after the D2 part of the standing rigging was found swaying unattached in the wind on Monday.

 

Skipper Mike Sanderson explains what needs to happen to ensure the Chinese boat is back on the water and completing Leg 2 as soon as possible. “We’ve got our hands full because now there is an inherent issue with our rigging solution. It’s not as if we can just replace this one stay, we are replacing all the stays on the side rigging on both sides, so it’s no small task.’’

[Guest]

the groupama update explains why they are leading very well as well as some other concern about pirates?

[Guest]

Campers electrical stuff as explained by the video below.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/Camper?feat ... _2cWpdSk2s