Leg 3

[Guest Crafty 1]

So, essentially Telefonica have overlaid, Camper are pinching to make the mark and they're all concertinering (is that a word?) and it'll all get terribly close (can you say "scripted") before Camper once again snatch defeat from the very jaws of victory right at the end.

 

Cynical much??

 

No i would say spot on!

[Guest]

live link

 

http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/racetracker/rdc.html

[Guest]

One of the interesting parts of this leg is about to start and they boats have been pushing each other hard over the last 24 hours to be the first to enter. So far Telefonica have proved why they are the best in anything over 10 knots and have gained over 18 in the last two days to now lead just before the interesting straights.

 

Heres the Volvo midnight PR

 

Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP) leads from PUMA’s Mar Mostro (Ken Read/USA), CAMPER (Chris Nicholson/AUS) and Groupama 4 (Franck Cammas/FRA) in a fight that will last at least 25 nautical miles to Statue Point situated on the northern tip of Pulau We, the island the fleet must leave to starboard before entering the Malacca Strait.

 

Overnight the weather played a big part in juggling the leaderboard. At 0700 UTC this morning, Team Telefónica were clinging onto a lead of 1.5 nm ahead of CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand. PUMA’s Mar Mostro (Ken Read/USA) had regained third place after a cloud captured Groupama 4 and brought her to a standstill.

 

By 1000 UTC this morning, it was all change again as PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG deposed CAMPER to take up second, just 1.10 nm astern of the leg leader. In the closest of races, CAMPER is still just .4 of a mile behind PUMA’s Mar Mostro and Groupama 4 is less than 5 nm further back.

 

The wind in lee of Sumatra only shifted 30 degrees to the right overnight, which let Telefónica retain her leading position and, while the top four fight it out, the split in the fleet has extended to over 60 nm to Team Sanya in sixth position.

 

“The racing is still locked tight so there is no room for error,” commented CAMPER’s co-skipper Stu Bannatyne. "You have to be on your game, but it’s hard going. It’s more puffy out here than a 1970s perm, and things aren’t going to get any easier once we reach the Malacca Strait."

 

Groupama had a tough night, losing third place after spending 45 minutes trapped by a cloud. Cammas was pragmatic. “It’s annoying, but it’s just starting," he said. "We have to expect lots of unstable areas in the next days."

 

Meanwhile, the sheets on the winches of Groupama are burning bright red as the crew attempt to capitalise on any gains they can make and minimalise any losses. “Much like a salesman on commission,” remarked bowman Brad Marsh today.

 

The leading boats now face a 25-mile beat to Statue Point on the north tip of the island of Palau We in 10-15 knots of breeze before they can contemplate what lies ahead in the Malacca Strait. This stretch of water will present some complex navigational and tactical challenges, which will cause many lead changes.

 

“The Strait promises to be a minefield of opportunities and losses,” Marsh explained. "Like a game of snakes and ladders, one wrong move will drop you a long way back and one lucky move will make you look famous."

 

In the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09, the eventual overall winner, Torben Grael’s Ericsson 4 entered the Strait in first place, but ultimately finished the leg in Singapore in fourth. Leg 3 this time finishes in Sanya, allowing a longer runway to make up lost miles.

 

Already the hazard of fishing boats is making itself known. Most of the fleet have seen the small craft trailing long nets, but as yet no one has become ensnared, although ground is lost while altering course to avoid them.

 

For Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) and Team Sanya (Mike Sanderson/NZL), it has been tough going, with huge changes in wind direction and pressure. Both teams now trail the leaders significantly, but in the minefield of the Malacca Strait, anything can happen and often does.

[Guest]

Video time. Teams keep swapping the lead which is great to see. Telefonica currently lead and Camper are sailing at an angle that their not that fastest at, however theres still four boats behind them and groupama have been hurt the most.

 

 

[Guest]

Press releaseGroupama 4 in the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012

 

Leg 3 : Abu Dhabi - Sanya

Day 6 - An Indonesia weave for Groupama 4

 

 

The trickiest and most uncertain passage of this leg began at noon this Friday, as the leaders entered the Straits of Malacca. Still bunched together within a six-mile zone, the top four boats are battling into an easterly breeze amidst a series of tack changes. Seemingly Groupama 4 is keen to shake off her markers by positioning herself to windward of the fleet…

 

 

Knit one, purl one: the entrance to the Straits of Malacca kicked off at around 0900 UTC with a spot of ‘weaving' to round the island of Pulau We. Among the course marks to be left to starboard, this small island signals the North-West tip of Sumatra and, as the wind tends to funnel by this landmass, the fleet were faced with around fifteen knots of ENE'ly. The six VO-70s didn't think twice about closely skirting past the islet of Pulau Beras, before launching onto a beat of around twenty miles to make their way into the long channel which stretches over 500 miles to Singapore. A zone seldom frequented by race boats, it has nonetheless been a crossroads for commercial shipping for centuries, with massive congestion extending as far as the South of Malaysia. Each day over five hundred ships sail through this passage, which narrows, as it does in the Channel, from 200 miles (a little more than the distance between Ushant and Land's End) to less than fifteen miles (less than half the distance from Dover-Calais).

 

 

“We haven't planned to change the watch system: the minute something alerts us on deck, the standby watch is operational if we're required to manœuvre. There is already quite a lot of stuff trailing around in the water, such as pretty big tree trunks, so there's always a member of the crew at the guardwires looking ahead. There are certainly a lot of people in the Straits of Malacca with a huge amount going on. We don't mind it but we're going to have quite a lot to do too. We're going to have our work cut out refining the trim so we can make the most of the little wind there will be and we'll have to be on top of things in every domain. Groupama 4 isn't necessarily the most at ease in these conditions, but for the time being, we're on the pace and the atmosphere onboard is very good: we're happy to see some of our rivals on the horizon” indicated the skipper of Groupama 4 at noon yesterday.

 

On constant look-out on deck

 

Initially the scenario of around twelve knots of ENE'ly is set to remain, before it clocks round to the North-East beyond the Pantonlabu headland (130 miles to the East of the entrance). The difficulty will relate to interpreting the series of cloud masses in this equatorial zone, where the intense heat causes considerable evaporation. With this come squalls, which can halt progress all of a sudden, as it did on two occasions last night for Franck Cammas and his men! During the beat this lunchtime, Groupama 4 was able to make up the ten miles she lost during the double whammy of misfortune, but it's likely that this phenomenon will be repeated. In fact, there's every chance that each team will be affected in turn, but it's the point where it happens which could have some very serious consequences.

 

Early this afternoon the French boat opted to reposition herself to windward of her three direct rivals, Abu Dhabi being relegated to over twenty miles astern and Sanya to fifty miles, and not yet inside the Straits of Malacca. Given that the island of Sumatra culminates at nearly 3,000 metres, the fleet appears to be gunning for the middle of the channel, so as to distance itself from these landforms, which often cause a buffering effect as the wind gains height, leaving virtually no air near the coast. It will take until midday on Saturday for the breeze to begin to shift round to the North, easing to less than ten knots along the way. This is bound to lead to a degree of tension aboard as, within a matter of miles, the breeze may be very different, both in terms of strength and direction. In this zone coloured by meteorological uncertainty, where there is a great abundance of fisherman near the shores, the navigators will be favouring both a trajectory down the centre of the race zone and a low risk strategy, by remaining bunched together. However, will this be enough to prevent the fleet from unravelling? That is the question. For now, nothing could be less certain in this tunnel of variable weather…

[Guest]

Tonight at 2200 UTC, all six boats racing in Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race are negotiating the Malacca Strait with their eyes wide open. At 1900, CAMPER (Chris Nicholson/AUS) became the new leader, Sanya (Mike Sanderson/NZL) had moved up a place to fifth, but by 2200 UTC, it was all change.

 

Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP) was back in the leader’s position, a fraction over three nautical miles (nm) ahead of CAMPER, with PUMA’s Mar Mostro (Ken Read/USA) 6.30 nm behind in third. All three were heading towards the mainland shore on port tack. The second half of the fleet however all lost miles to the leaders. Groupama 4 (Franck Cammas/FRA) lost seven nm, but retained fourth position, while the worse casualty, Sanya, still on starboard, slipped back to sixth, trading places with Ian Walker’s Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing.

 

Onboard CAMPER, navigator Will Oxley is planning to keep away from the coast of Sumatra. “We don’t think there will be much wind there tonight,” he said.

 

The weather models are predicting the wind to come aft and decrease, which will slow the front-runners and could play into the hands of Team Sanya and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) who are playing catch up. At least, that is what Jules Salter, navigator of Azzam is hoping. “That’s where the advantage of being behind is, if there ever is one,” he said.

 

As the Strait narrows and constricts, it becomes harder to pass and according to Salter, there are plenty of potholes to be avoided. “We will try to work out where the clouds are from our satellite pictures,” he explains. “Every three hours we also receive the wind information form the other boats and piece together what’s going on. Hopefully we can pick a better path for ourselves,” he said.

 

Along with the rest of the fleet, the crew of Groupama 4 are working extra hard in all areas to catch up 15 nm. “We’re going to have our work cut out refining the trim so that we can make the most of the little wind there will be and will have to be on top of things. Groupama 4 isn’t necessarily the most at ease in these conditions, but for the time being we are on the pace and the atmosphere on board is very good,” Franck Cammas reported.

 

Now that the fleet races in darkness, it is a question of feeling the way through the tidal rips and congested commercial shipping. All boats in the fleet are equipped with an AIS system, which is mandatory for racing in the Malacca Strait. This device sends the name, direction and speed of each racing yacht to all commercial shipping within a 20 nm radius of each yacht, each one appearing on the ship’s screen as a blip marked ‘racing yacht, limited manoeuvrability’.

 

Added to the Malacca Strait challenge are the small fishing boats with long nets and tree trunks and other debris floating unseen in the water requiring a crewmember on deck to keep a permanent watch for unseen hazards. Daylight will bring a welcome relief.

[Guest]

Its an interesting battle here. Camper have massively lost out and I dont know why while Puma are eating away at Telefonicas lead. I wonder who will be leading this at the next update?

[Guest]

Telefonica are on FIRE. They are now over 11nm infront of Puma and have tactically been the best boat in the last 48 hours. They deserve this lead, but will it evaporate on them with one bad decision?

 

 

 

n less than 24 hours, and with the fleet now at the halfway point of Leg 3 Stage 2, Telefónica have improved an insignificant 0.1 nm lead over their closest rival to one of almost five nm.

 

Under the cover of darkness PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG manoeuvred into second place, edging CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand into third place, more than10 nm in their wake.

 

Groupama sailing team are more than 20 nm behind Telefónica in fourth position, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing are double the distance, trailing by just over 40 nm in fifth position and Team Sanya have lost major ground in sixth place, more than 90 nm behind.

 

Average speeds have ground to around eight knots in the fickle easterly wind that is barely mustering 10 knots against strong tidal forces.

 

Despite the slowed pace there has been very little opportunity for sleep, according to PUMA Media Crew Member Amory Ross. “I think we did more sail changes last night alone than we had over the 1,000 miles it took to get here,’’ he said.

 

Having edged out CAMPER with a close-shave manoeuvre around the rocky northern Sumatran coast, PUMA have steadily escaped the clutch of the red boat.

 

“We did manage to get around CAMPER at some point and we haven’t seen them since,’’ Ross said. “That’s the way it works, and we know it all too well. You miss a cloud and it sets you back 10 miles, maybe more. It happened to us on Leg 1 and Leg 2, and it’s nice to be on the other side of the fence for a change.”

 

Helmsman/trimmer Rob Salthouse said his team simply misread a cloud situation.

 

“When we did get up and out of it we fell into the old trap again of not getting out of it enough and we fell back into it,’’ he said. “PUMA got to weather of the cloud line well before us. They were basically abeam of us by seven miles this morning, they are now 14 miles directly on our bow, so we have just taken a massive one which hurts a bit.”

 

Media crewman Hamish Hooper described the lively situation in the Malacca Strait like crossing a minefield.

 

“It hurts - - those painful hard earned miles just eaten up by the other boats because of a ruthless cloud,’’ he said.

 

“The frustration and disappointment is immense but you just have to keep pushing on, keep positive and not let it get you down.”

[Guest]

At 1000 UTC today, Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP) still led the hunt, 11 nm ahead of PUMA’s Mar Mostro, 46 nm off the coast of Sumatra, with the rest of the fleet spread out over 96 nm from first to last.

 

The Malacca Strait is such a busy stretch of water and, coupled with unstable weather, gains and losses among the six-boat Volvo Ocean Race fleet will be commonplace over the next 36 hours or so.

 

At 0700 this morning, all but sixth-place Sanya (Mike Sanderson/NZL) had made small gains, with PUMA’s Mar Mostro (Ken Read) closest to mounting a challenge for leadership, just 5.4 nm behind Telefónica. However, the luck didn’t hold for the chasing pack and at 1000 UTC today, the whole fleet had made losses as average three-hour speeds for all but Telefónica sank into single figures. PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG are now 11.4 nm behind the leaders in second and CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand are 25.2 nm off the pace in third.

 

CAMPER (Chris Nicholson/AUS) lost a handful of painful miles overnight and another 10 nm this morning when the team became trapped under a windless cloud and Groupama 4 (Franck Cammas/FRA) appeared on the horizon just five miles or so behind.

 

“The key is not to do anything radical,” said CAMPER co-skipper Stu Bannatyne this morning. “We just have to sail the boat the best we know how. We know the boat is pretty fast in light air and flat water, which is probably what we’re going to get a bit of, so it’s important not to panic, not to do anything silly, to stay in touch and just chip away a little bit at a time.”

 

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing are 48 nm behind the leaders, with Team Sanya now struggling almost 100 nm in arrears.

 

Sanya skipper Mike Sanderson has told his team that no matter what position they finish in, they can look each other in the eye and know they gave their all. A night of tacks and little sleep brought some small gains but Sanya still trail in last place.

 

After a week at sea, the first sight of the beautiful Indonesian coastline rising above the sea with its ragged tropical vegetation was quite an unexpected experience for some of the crews, especially those from Europe. We tacked a lot and it was just beautiful,” said Groupama 4’s Thomas Coville. “It was really exciting, really magical,” he added.

[Guest]

Interesting part in the Pr from volvo that I dont like as it undermines the other boats finishing leg 2.

 

Team Sanya will receive full Leg 3 points when they finish at their homeport, as they were unable to take part in Stage 1 because of a rigging problem, while the other five teams will receive 80 per cent of the leg points

 

Team Telefónica have extended their Leg 3 lead as the fleet funnels into the worst of the Strait of Malacca where wind shifts, fishing nets and strong tidal surges create a roll of the dice every minute.

 

At the halfway point of the 3,051 nautical mile race to Sanya, China the fleet has expanded across 105 nm and slowed to average speeds around 10 knots in fickle winds that are causing plenty of hot and sweaty sail changes and crash-tacks.

 

PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG remain second after cutting the corner into the strait and edging CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand into third place, where they remained at 1400 UTC on Saturday.

 

With CAMPER firmly locked in their sights, fourth placed Groupama sailing team are poised for an assault on the leading pack, with Abu Dhabi 23 nm adrift in fifth and Team Sanya more than 100 nm off the lead in sixth.

 

Telefónica skipper Iker Martínez said the unpredictable nature of the strait meant strategy was as much about Lady Luck as good decision making.

 

“It’s a tricky area for sure and making choices is difficult too,’’ the Olympic gold medallist said. “Here, the decision making process is different. It’s a lot about chance. We try to get some information to help decide, but it’s a bit of a lottery. Right now we are just sailing as fast as possible.”

 

PUMA skipper Ken Read said his team were focused on reeling in the Spaniards, plus avoiding a collision course with the dozens of large ships and debris.

 

Read said his crew was alarmed at the sound of a loud bang on Friday, and surprised to find they had hit a tree.

 

“We crunched up a dagger board,” Read explained. “It probably saved the rudder, though, because the tree probably would have wiped out the rudder. We have a good chunk out of the dagger board now.”

 

The three-time Volvo Ocean Race competitor said the wind conditions were already proving challenging, but he was bracing for much worse in the middle section of the strait where it bottle-necks to just a few miles wide.

 

However, the fortunate fact of the strait, Read suggested, was that its unstable nature meant there were still plenty of opportunities for those hoping to steal the lead.

 

“It’s just a roll of the dice every minute of the day based on the breeze you have,’’ he said. “You can make a few gains, and be very happy but you have to moderate that with the understanding that nothing’s certain.”

 

CAMPER’s co-skipper Stu Bannatyne said his team were banking on their boat’s speed in light wind and flat water to help them claw back the lead they lost on the entry into the strait.

 

“The key is not to do anything radical, we just have to sail the boat the best we know how,’’ he said. “We know the boat is pretty fast in light air and flat water, which is probably what we’re going to get a bit of. So it’s important not to panic, not to do anything silly to stay in touch and just chip away a little bit at a time.”

 

Bannatyne, who raced on board Ericsson 4 during the 2008-09 race when the team dropped from first to fourth in the strait, said he held the firm belief that there was every chance CAMPER could topple PUMA and Telefónica.

 

“I remember vividly in the exact same stretch of water in the last race we had a pretty handy lead in Ericsson 4 and in one little slip up we got rolled by three boats on the entrance to Malacca,’’ he said. “If you get it slightly wrong there are certainly some big mileages to be gained and lost out here.”

 

The fleet is expected to take the best part of three days to navigate the strait, before making a sharp left hand turn into the South China Sea. The teams are expected to finish the leg at Sanya around February 5-6.

 

Team Sanya will receive full Leg 3 points when they finish at their homeport, as they were unable to take part in Stage 1 because of a rigging problem, while the other five teams will receive 80 per cent of the leg points.

[Guest]

he unbearable lightness of the air.....from Groupama

 

 

As the fleet gradually enters deeper into the Straits of Malacca, the breeze is dying away and becoming more random, with the tidal current playing a bigger and bigger role. The next 350 miles promise to be extremely difficult to negotiate, as several windless zones are scattered about this bottleneck...

 

Since noon on Friday, when the six VOR-70s entered the Straits of Malacca, a twelve to eight knot ENE'ly breeze has continued to blow (veering gently to the North), but this is unlikely to carry on once the Spanish leaders approach the capital of Malaysia. Offshore of Kuala Lumpur, the gully narrows to less than fifty miles and mountains reaching over 2,000 metres serve to block the monsoon. From tonight (European time), the wind is set to drop away to less than five knots and it's very likely that conditions will alternate between squalls, torrential rain and extended periods of calm. As such the upcoming phase is likely to be the trickiest to contend with and in this game of lottery nobody knows who's going to draw the lucky number!

 

Fabulous landscapes

 

"It's an area where there isn't a lot of wind: it's very hot and very humid since we're close to the equator (2° North) and there are some tidal currents which can reach five knots, in addition to the general current generated by the monsoon and hence running against us. It'll be a tedious navigation with a great deal of shipping, pirates and lots of rubbish in the water (wood, crates, plastic, nets...). This second third of the course to China will require us to come out of this unscathed, which also means within contact of the fleet" indicated the navigator on Groupama 4, Jean-Luc Nélias.

 

Within the space of a few dozen miles, the sailing conditions are very different, as can be shown by the trajectory of the boat bringing up the rear: having dropped back around fifty miles, Sanya had a lot of difficulty rounding the headland of Sumatra and since then, her speed has been fluctuating at the mercy of the gusts, from less than three knots to twelve knots. And as regards strategy, its hard to get a precise idea of when to tack: within the space of few hours or even a few dozen minutes, the wind fills or eases and it was just a simple puff of air that enabled the Spanish to shake off Camper and Groupama 4, and then at daybreak, Puma... Franck Cammas and his men have managed to get back within sight of the New Zealanders, but early this Saturday afternoon they had a deficit of around twenty miles in relation to Telefonica and around ten to the Americans.

 

A bottleneck

 

"The landscape near the coast is fabulous, reminiscent of Brest's harbour area in the tropics, but we've performed a great deal of manoeuvres since we entered the Straits of Malacca: it's exhausting because you have to restack all the sails each time, which equate to nearly 2.5 tonnes! We've had to contend with headwinds and less strong currents: it's hard-going physically, especially in the heat, as it was necessary to break the sleep pattern, because everyone was needed on deck. The manoeuvres are painful, longer and the fatigue is piling up... The two leaders have got away from us a bit, but we've come back within sight of Camper, which got a bit of an edge over us when we got a few plastic bags caught around the appendages. There are a lot of things floating about in the water!" explained Charles Caudrelier.

 

The Indonesian night, which began at around noon European time, is making the sailing even more uncertain as it becomes impossible to pinpoint the zones with wind since the moon is barely into her first quarter and the day only lasts a dozen hours. Furthermore, the light, fluky breeze means that headsail changes have to be frequent in order to obtain a speed which has dropped to less than ten knots since the start of the weekend. At this pace, Singapore isn't likely to come into view before Monday!

[Guest]

Leg 3, Stage 2, Day 7 Blog from Amory

 

Phase One, complete. We’ve made it across the Indian Ocean and the Sea of Bengal, still in one piece and very much in the hunt. Telefónica converted on their northerly position and were first to make landfall and lead into the Strait, CAMPER close behind. We were an even closer third with Groupama an hour or so behind us. It’s been great racing, after a business week of steady ocean sailing, to have so many of us within sight of each other. This is exactly what we’re here for.

 

On to Phase Two: the Malacca Strait. We spent much of a wild first night avoiding squalls and growing cloud lines, and everyone was working through the early hours. Sleep was hard to find. I think we did more sail changes last night alone than we had over the 1,000 miles it took to get here. And with each sail change comes a trim change, and a trim change means moving equally as many things above deck as below it. We did manage to get around CAMPER at some point and we haven’t seen them since. That’s the way it works…and we know it all too well. You miss a cloud and it sets you back 10 miles, maybe more. It happened to us on Leg 1 and Leg 2, and it’s nice to be on the other side of the fence for a change.

 

It’s not getting any colder out here either. The amount of food consumed in this heat is substantially lower – nobody wants to chow hot food – and it’s almost impossible to drink enough water. One indication of the kind of bodily stress these high temps can inflict is in visible weight loss: we’ve all gone “Homie-G” with the lo-rider baggy shorts look. Thankfully, good and plentiful food is one of the greatest motivators to get wherever we’re going, so it only seems to make the boat faster!

 

 

Amory Ross

 

Media Crew Member

 

PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG

[Guest]

Video time an im loving the one from Camper

 

 

 

[Guest]

groupama have made a move (or caught a lovely cloud) and have jumped camper and made up over 10nm. telefonica are furtherst south and are looking well placed for the the update round 4pm to be back in the lead unless they get caught out. Camper have been a little dissapointing consider how they crossed the doldrums last time, but luckily for them they still have plenty of chances to get the lead back as there going to be in these straights for at least another day.

[Guest]

Have volvo thrown the update every three hours out the window and are doing them more often?

 

Telefonica are still well placed and the navigation of these clouds looks to be getting more interesting with groupama crossing infront of puma.

[Guest]

I think the tracker is suppose to be updating hourly or less thorugh the straits isn't it?

[Guest]

I think the tracker is suppose to be updating hourly or less thorugh the straits isn't it?

 

Every minute I have discovered

[203 0]

All in all, we've had a F*$king shocker

 

I love it! But come on kiwis, keep digging for that speed!

[SloopJohnB 322]

Where are they going?????

 

[Guest]

Maybe it was a tracker glitch? Its seems fine now. Camper keeps loosing ground on the leaders and its hard to watch as there speed keeps dropping. down to 4 kts now