Leg 4

[Guest]

To me, ocean racing should be about how the competitors deal with the worst of what nature can throw at them...Not the fact that someone got unlucky and sailed into an area with no wind during an inshore windward/leeward.

 

 

Well said BB. Bravo.

 

Also....after listening to Chris Nicolson I now understand what it is like to be a loyal Aussie rugby fan and listening to Robbie Deans discuss another loss.

[SloopJohnB 323]

Its blowing the socks off.

 

 

What a joke.

 

 

 

Wouldn't want my little Johnnie get hurt.

[Guest]

Well there back racing now which makes me happy and heres hoping they still make it into auckland during day time on thursday

[RushMan 31]

Well there back racing now which makes me happy and heres hoping they still make it into auckland during day time on thursday

 

Puma is overpowered in the conditions... must be all of 0.2 knots of wind, with a lumpy 0.1m wave height

[Guest]

Telefonica once again show why their boat is slow when there is no wind have surrendered their lead of over 3 minutes to camper already who are leading as the snail along the coast.

[Richard2249 5]

At least the light air start has rendered any advantage/disadvantage from yesterday's cruise up and down the coast null and void.

[Guest]

At least the light air start has rendered any advantage/disadvantage from yesterday's cruise up and down the coast null and void.

 

 

Your right and the drag race is now on. They have hit what is left of the monsoon and are taking off. Do you think any of the boats are going have any significant breakages?

[Richard2249 5]

Hope there's no more major breakages, fleet is small enough as it is. I see Telefonica have set themselves up in their usual windward position and from past experience they'll probably drive over the fleet over the next couple of days. If the breeze knocks it will just take them a bit longer. They're definitely quick.

[Guest]

The boats turn a little south and Look who yet again is there to pounce when the opportunity comes. The boats are going to hit winds of 20kts shortly but theres nothing dangerous on the way for the boats to navigate.

[Guest]

Its that time of the morning.

 

Sea sickness and waves as high as five metres are making life difficult for all six teams on the first day of the second stage of Leg 4 from Sanya, China to Auckland, New Zealand.

 

Conditions on board have been brutal as the crews struggle to rein in their Volvo Open 70s to avoid teeth-rattling crash landings off the backs of the monster waves left over from several days of gale force winds.

 

A drifting start in the wind shadow of Sanya’s towering mountains belied the testing weather the crews found themselves in just hours later, after the wind and sea state quickly ramped powering them towards the Strait of Luzon at speeds up to 20 knots.

 

On Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, Media Crew Member (MCM) Nick Dana said the unavoidable and relentless slamming made for a near impossible working environment on board.

 

“The airdrops we are experiencing off the backs of these sharp waves make it difficult to keep your feet below you let alone a sail or a steering wheel in your hands,” he said.

 

“We’re currently blasting along at around 18-20 knots with a J4 and reef in.

 

“Down below looks like a war zone. Several people have been sick already, and the rest just keep swallowing.”

 

Even Abu Dhabi skipper Ian Walker, a double Olympic medallist, confessed to feeling the effects of the punishing sea state.

 

“Today I had a hint of seasickness for the first time ever,” he said. “Fortunately I have kept the freeze dried roast chicken and mashed potato down so far unlike a few others onboard.”

 

Walker said the Abu Dhabi crew were not relishing the prospect of a fortnight-long battering but were settling into a normal offshore routine of grabbing sleep in between their four hourly watches.

 

“The snoring has started down below and the guys on deck are finding their rhythm,” he said. “Nobody is really looking forward to a week or two of upwind slog – especially in these waves, but we will cross off the miles and wait for better sailing somewhere further down the line.”

 

Race organisers split Leg 4 into two stages in order to prevent the fleet encountering conditions considered un-sailable in the South China Sea.

 

Conditions were light and fickle for the second stage start at 2300 UTC on Sunday (0700 today in Sanya), all but wiping out the effects of the staggered start sequence from the Stage 1 coastal race less than 24 hours previously.

 

Franck Cammas’ Groupama sailing team made the best of the early drifting to pick their way past overall race leaders Team Telefónica, skippered by Iker Martínez, and into the lead.

 

At 1300 UTC today Groupama had a lead of less than two miles over Chris Nicholson’s CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand, with third and fourth placed Telefónica and Abu Dhabi positioned furthest north just over a mile and a half apart.

 

The near windless start had given CAMPER an immediate opportunity to sail round round the wallowing early starters.

 

“We had to wait nine long minutes and 13 arduous seconds as Telefónica, Groupama, Abu Dhabi & Sanya all started before us,” said CAMPER MCM Hamish Hooper.

 

“As it turned out it became a slight blessing in disguise for us,” he added. “We could see that they were all a bit parked up not long after the start so knew we didn’t want to go the way they did.”

 

CAMPER leave Sanya still second in the overall standings and Hooper says despite losing points to leaders Telefónica during the Chinese stopover the predominantly Kiwi crew have been re-energised by the prospect of a victorious arrival in New Zealand.

 

“At times you feel like a block of cheese being rubbed up against a cheese grater, slowly withering you away physically and mentally, but the guys are resilient and focused, and it feels fantastic to finally be heading for home to Auckland.

 

“Our short-term goal for sure is to be the first out of the Luzon Strait. No need to guess our long-term goal,” Hooper said.

 

Ken Read’s PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG, who started almost 40 minutes after Telefónica, were still in sixth at 1300 UTC, 14.5 nm off the lead.

 

Mike Sanderson’s Team Sanya made a tactical break to the south of the main fleet and at 1300 UTC were fifth, 8.4 nm behind Groupama and averaging 11 knots.

 

The six-boat fleet will take around three days to cross the South China Sea to the Strait of Luzon and are expected to complete the 5,220 nm second stage of Leg 4 to Auckland around March 8.

[Guest]

Someone got a little on Camper

 

[Guest]

Looks like the rough stuff has blown over already and its back to near flat sea sailing shortly. Ill hunt around for a good weather report at some point today for you.

[Guest]

Leg 4 : Sanya - Auckland

The Chinese cavern

 

 

 

After setting off from Sanya at first light local time in the wake of the Spanish, Groupama 4 quickly took control of the fleet on their way towards the North of the Philippines. On the programme is a 660-mile sprint to the Luzon Strait, across a rather ill-tempered South China Sea, with an easing breeze of around twenty knots and what are still heavy seas.

 

 

 

It has been the year of the Water Dragon in China since 23 January 2012. This particular dragon belches out rain rather than fire, which is providing the land with moisture and enriching the harvest. For the six crews, who took a staggered start from 2300 hours (according to their result during the preliminary course in Sanya), their introduction to proceedings has also proved to be very wet… A light breeze was blowing as the sun rose in the East. Once the boat had got around the land masses that form the island of Hainan, the wind showed itself to be more consistent with around twenty knots of north-easterly on a somewhat lumpy sea. “The inside of the boat is wet and the foulies are soaked. Each time it's a surprise to observe the total discomfort of these boats on these points of sail! However, the benefits are twofold: you make very fast headway, and particularly on Groupama 4. Added to that you only have to glimpse at the standing…” wrote Yann Riou this morning.

 

Chinese Night…

 

This lively system is set to last until tonight, Chinese time (UTC + , which equates to early this Monday afternoon in Europe. The tropical storm which prompted the Race Committee to keep the Volvo Ocean Race fleet in port for an extra half a day, is in the process of crumbling offshore of Vietnam. Meantime, the monsoon is reasserting itself, but it has been heavily disturbed by this weather phenomenon. Up against a still very rough sea state, set to smooth out over the coming hours, the VO-70s initially sailed with sheets eased in order to get away from the Chinese coast as fast as possible. Then gradually the breeze slowly shifted round towards the ENE and it is likely to ease progressively to around fifteen knots at sunset. As such the courses are bending round and tonight (local time) will probably be an opportunity for some repositioning once the wind backs round to the East again, or even as far as ESE, as it drops away to around ten knots…

 

The weather forecasts are fairly uncertain in this cavern of the South China Sea, which is presenting a complicated configuration with the mainland to the North, Vietnam to the West, Borneo to the South and the Philippines in their line of sight. Between Luzon and Taiwan, a passage of some 180 miles, which is reminiscent of a sort of dark cave with the current lack of moon (new moon on 21 February), the situation promises to be full of surprises. A depressionary low is forming from noon on Tuesday only to disappear a few hours later. However, this system will ‘break' the north-easterly monsoon to leave in front and behind it a fairly fickle and variable air flow with north-easterly to south-easterly winds of between 15 and 5 knots! As a result it will be very difficult to anticipate the evolution over the medium term and it's highly likely the fleet will split right out before converging on the Philippines…

 

Having what it takes!

 

Indeed, after half a day at sea, the sailors haven't adopted identical short term strategies: whilst Telefonica and Abu Dhabi, tailed a dozen miles or so back by Puma, were sailing high up to reposition themselves to the North of the fleet, Groupama 4 and Camper were lengthening their stride with sheets eased whilst Sanya was making a clean split, plunging down to the South-East! There is already a 25 miles lateral separation after covering just 130 miles since the start in Hainan… However, this first phase indicates that Franck Cammas and his men have negotiated this lively start well and are managing to contain the pressure from the New Zealanders, whose boat is renowned as being the best upwind. They will now have to adapt their tactics to a sky which will become overcast and squally, leading to sizeable wind shifts and appreciable differences in the intensity of the breeze.

 

As such a highly technical leg is in store and it's likely to involve a great deal of jockeying for position. The reasons for this don't solely relate to the fact that the route towards the Luzon Strait is brimming over with meteorological pitfalls, but also because some zones of calm are forecast around the outskirts of the Philippines. As a result the difficulty doesn't centre on taking the head of the group fleetingly, but rather positioning oneself as best as possible on Wednesday to tackle the Luzon Strait. The options include a northerly route where the pressure seems steadier but on the nose, a direct route where you have to constantly adapt to the sizeable wind shifts, or a southerly route where the general oceanic current is less intense and the sea smoothed by the Philippines archipelago…

[Guest]

After tacking north around midday today, at 2200 UTC tonight Chris Nicholson/AUS and CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand were the leaders of the pack as Volvo fleet bashes upwind across the South China Sea towards the ominous Luzon Strait, 446 nautical miles (nm) ahead.

 

The crew of CAMPER has always felt confident about the conditions faced on this leg, having trained in the rugged waters off Auckland, however there is no room for complacency in this fleet and Nicholson has to protect his position from a challenging Groupama 4 (Franck Cammas/FRA) who is just 0.7 nm astern and averaging one knot faster.

 

In third place, Ian Walker’s Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing is seven nm back and has overall race leader Telefónica nipping at his heels just .30 nm behind. PUMA in sixth has yet to make up their earlier deficit and is 22 nm adrift.

 

Mike Sanderson, skipper of fifth-placed Team Sanya, reported huge waves of around four metres tonight, but fortunately not accompanied by 40-knot winds. Instead, the maximum wind speed has been 17 knots. Sanderson and his men are 33 nm further south than PUMA’s Mar Mostro in the north, with tactical leverage over the fleet.

 

It’s been a horrible day of upwind slamming, the crew holding their breaths as the boats launch off steep waves and land with a sickening thud. Firehose conditions are back and several teams are suffering from seasickness, which does not add to the pleasure of this opening upwind stretch.

[Richard2249 5]

Go Camper! In a nice position on the inside of the lift and 6 degrees up on Groupama.

[Guest]

Camper are doing a great job here and have extended on Telefonica overall today. Lets hope they can continue it over night.

[benny14 6]

Looks like the wind is going to die in 18 - 24 hours... Could be another park up and restart from there... Probably somewhere around the top of the Phillipines... Anyone know how navigable the island group is? i.e. can they weave their way through?

[Guest]

Looks like the wind is going to die in 18 - 24 hours... Could be another park up and restart from there... Probably somewhere around the top of the Phillipines... Anyone know how navigable the island group is? i.e. can they weave their way through?

 

Heres what there thinking Benny

 

[Guest]

but the boats have taken a different option than what they were talking about in the video.

[Guest]

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.”