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Volvo Ocean Race 2011/2012 - Leg 5 - Start 18.03.2012
www.volvooceanrace.com - Übersicht
Tagesvideo Auckland
March 22, 2012 - 1900 UTC Leg 5 Day 5
CAMPER LEADS THROUGH SERIOUS SOUTHERN OCEAN AS SANYA TURNS TAIL
Leg 5 22/03/2012 19:04:31 UTC
&xnbsp; DTL DTLC BS DTF
1 CMPR 0.00 6 22.2 5308.5 2 GPMA 4.20 4 19 5312.7 3 PUMA 22.20 7 23.1 5330.7 4 TELE 36.50 14 24 5345.0 5 SNYA 292.80 87 7.2 5601.4 6 ADOR 413.60 13 18.6 5722.1
CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand leads the Volvo Ocean Race fleet across the Southern Ocean as Mike Sanderson turns Sanya round and heads back up the track towards New Zealand after shearing their starboard rudder earlier today. The team is expected to take between four and five days to reach New Zealand and they continue to assess their options in terms of how to get back in the race as quickly as possible.
“It’s unbelievable, I’m just lost for words,” Sanderson said shortly after making an assessment of the broken rudder, which also tore a hole in the back of the boat flooding the aft compartment.“The rudder snapped in between the boat and the deck, which is just the worst thing that can happen because then it just leverages itself off the boat and leaves a pretty messy trail,” he said.
While Sanya limps away, at the head of the field, CAMPER (Chris Nicholson/AUS) has overhauled Groupama 4 (Franck Cammas/FRA) as the fleet runs downwind with a violent westerly depression, which is tracking slowly eastwards. The depression packs very strong, very violent and very cold winds from the deep south and the weather is likely to be at its worst when the fleet reaches the western ice limit, 238 nautical miles (nm) ahead.Onboard the French boat, skipper Franck Cammas and his men have reduced sail to one reef in the indexsail and a small storm gennaker.“We’re still a long way from the matter in hand and once we have 40-45 knots of breeze, the sea state will be all important. We will then have two reefs in the indexsail and the storm jib,” skipper Franck Cammas said. He added that the whole crew is tense, wondering how the boat will cope in the very strong conditions expected between today and Saturday.At 1900 UTC tonight, CAMPER led Groupama by 4.2 nm with PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG (Ken Read/USA) in third place, 18 nm off the lead.
Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP) in fourth was averaging the highest speed of 24 knots, 36 nm off the lead.Sixth placed Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) at 42 degrees south and just under 300 nm in deficit, have accepted that it is going to be hard for them to catch the leaders, and are setting their own goals, working hard to indextain the intensity required to sail the boat fast.“No longer will motivation be provided by the three-hourly position reports that help us judge how we are doing against the other teams. These will be meaningless with no boats in the near vicinity or in similar wind,” said Ian Walker.The next five days promise extreme conditions leading almost to survival mode for the crews as they race towards the notorious Cape Horn.“At the moment, we’re trying to go as fast as we can, but we’re not fussed about the positions, we’re just trying not to break anything. The Southern Ocean is quite a serious place really,” said Tom Addis, PUMA’s navigator as the four leading boats headed into the back of the low pressure.
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March 22, 2012 - 1100 UTC Leg 5 Day 5
SANYA WORK ON REPAIRS AS RIVALS SCORCH DOWNWIND
Leg 5 22/03/2012 10:12:00 UTC
&xnbsp; DTL DTLC BS DTF
1 CMPR 0.00 6 24 5503.2 2 GPMA 0.50 7 23.6 5503.7 3 PUMA 23.70 8 22.6 5526.9 4 TELE 44.90 5 19.7 5548.1 5 SNYA 51.60 52 14.6 5554.8 6 ADOR 354.40 20 19 5857.7
Team Sanya are working to repair damage to their boat after a broken windward rudder caused the aft compartment of the boat to take on water while they were leading Leg 5 from Auckland to Itajaí in Brazil.The team, skippered by the experienced New Zealander Mike Sanderson, said they were working through the aft deck hatch to pump water from the aft watertight compartment. There is no water leaking into the index compartment of the boat.Volvo Open 70s have two rudders and each boat also carries one extra emergency rudder. This rudder can be mounted either on the stern or through the same bearings as the original rudders.
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defaktes Ruder auf Sanya
Foto: Andres Soriano/Sanya
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The leading pack of five had hoisted masthead spinnakers and were scorching downwind, having hooked into the westerly depression they were hoping for.&xnbsp; The sixth boat in the fleet, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing still has 354 nautical miles to make up after restarting from Auckland 24 hours after the fleet, having returned to Auckland to make repairs. The team have had to head north to evade some lighter winds and the gap between the leaders will grow considerably.While CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand, Groupama sailing team and PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG are keeping close quarters, Sanya had taken a more southerly course, and before suffering damage had been able to sail fractionally faster than the chasing pack.On board Telefónica, navigator Andrew Cape warned that the wind strength will soon increase to 30 or 35 knots.
Overnight the team saw two huge whales as well as a large albatross confirming that this is the true Southern Ocean at last.According to Hamish Hooper, Media Crew Member with CAMPER, there is a sense of real excitement on board, as they finally begin some fast downwind sailing in good breeze. As he steered the boat, skipper Chris Nicholson commented that he had forgotten just how fun and intoxicating the Volvo Open 70s are when they light up and take off in conditions they are designed to be sailed in.&xnbsp; Co-skipper Stu Bannatyne, who has often referred to Southern Ocean sailing as ‘the reason we do this Volvo Ocean Race’ said today, “Without a doubt, the best sailing in the world is downwind sailing in the Southern Ocean – no question about that. We are about to get a bit of it. Our tactics for sailing from here to Cape Horn are to be safe and go fast.”For Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, this leg continues to be a struggle. Despite an exciting day or two gaining many miles over the fleet, it is now clear that the leaders are escaping in strong downwind conditions to the south-east of the team.
The result of this is that Abu Dhabi will be alone as they cross the Southern Ocean.“Our safety net of the other boats will be hundreds of miles away downwind. This is not ideal, but it is situation we knew was very likely when we left Auckland 24-hours after the fleet. It is something we will condition in every decision and move we make,” skipper Ian Walker said.The next hurdle for the fleet will be to ensure they keep to the north of the western ice limit, 500 nm ahead.
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March 22, 2012 - 1030 UTC Leg 5 Day 5
TEAM SANYA WORKING ON REPAIRS AFTER BREAKING RUDDER
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Team Sanya are working to repair damage to their Volvo Open 70 racing yacht after a broken windward rudder caused the aft compartment of the boat to take on water.Sanya, who were leading Leg 5 from Auckland to Itajaí in Brazil at the time, reported the damage to Race Control in Alicante at 0800 UTC.The team, skippered by the experienced New Zealander Mike Sanderson, said they were working through the aft deck hatch to pump water from the aft watertight compartment. There is no water leaking into the index compartment of the boat.The reasons for the broken rudder were not immediately clear.
The damage occurred while the boat was doing between 20 and 25 knots in waves of between 2.5 and 3 metres.Volvo Open 70s have two rudders and each boat also carries one extra emergency rudder. This rudder can be mounted either on the stern or through the same bearings as the original rudders.The problem occurred on Thursday, Day 5 of Leg 5 from Auckland in New Zealand to Itajaí in Brazil. At the time, Sanya held a slim lead over four other boats in the index pack with over 5,500 nautical miles to go to the finish line.It is the third big setback suffered by Sanya since the start of the race. Shortly after leaving Alicante on Leg 1 they suffered major bow damage that meant they had to be shipped to Cape Town.
Then, while leading the fleet on Leg 2, a key piece of rigging broke, forcing them to head to Madagascar for repairs.Latest estimates say the first boats will arrive in Itajaí on April 4.
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