Tagesvideo
December 20, 2011 - 1900 UTC Leg 2 Day 10
PEDAL TO THE metaL
Leg 2 Report: 20/12/2011 19:05:47 UTC
&xnbsp; 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.’’
December 20, 2011 - 1100 UTC Leg 2 Day 10
POWER-REACHING GROUPAMA 4 IS NEW LEADER
Leg 2 Report: 20/12/2011 11:02:25 UTC
&xnbsp; DTL DTLC BS
1 GPMA 0.00 0.0 20.1 2 TELE 17.50 12.0 17 3 PUMA 28.10 21.0 14.3 4 CMPR 30.80 16.0 15.9 5 ADOR 123.60 17.0 15.8 - SNYA Suspended Racing
Today at 1100 UTC, new leaders Franck Cammas and his team on Groupama 4 have a clear advantage over the rest of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet are enjoying true trade wind sailing at its best, having stormed into the lead at 0700 UTC this morning. Meanwhile, the rest of the fleet has headwinds to contend with that are likely to stay with them for the next few days.It is Groupama's position to the east that has eventually paid dividends as the boat comfortably beam reaches in the lead at high speed. A tropical depression to the west of the fleet is responsible for introducing a more northerly component to the usual east-southeasterly trade winds normally associated with this region and the chasing pack, currently 162 nautical miles (nm) to the west of Groupama 4, is suffering due to this.Although Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP), PUMA's Mar Mostro (Ken Read/USA), CAMPER (Chris Nicholson/AUS) and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) have better wind strength, their angle to the breeze is much less favourable and it is likely to reindex so for the next two days.
"Our old friend 'upwind' has come to play again," writes Hamish Hooper from CAMPER (Chris Nicholson/AUS). "After days of relatively easy and smooth motion, it is back to 'bronco' mode down below."The next hurdle the fleet will face will be the crossing of the Doldrum-belt in the next two days. The East African Exclusion Zone, put in place by race organisers to keep the fleet away from the threat of piracy, will mean the fleet is likely to cross the Doldrums nearer to their eastern end.Meanwhile Team Sanya have arrived in the southeast of Madagascar, where the team will meet with their shore crew and mast experts to repair the rig, which was damaged early Monday morning. The team suspended racing at 0807 UTC this morning.
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