|
Volvo Ocean Race 2011/2012 - Leg 5 - Start 18.03.2012
www.volvooceanrace.com - Übersicht
Video Monsterwelle
29.03.2012 - 1900 UTC Leg 5 Day 12
FLATTER SEAS AID PROGRESS FOR LEADING PAIR
Leg 5 29/03/2012 19:03:55 UTC
&xnbsp; DTL DTLC BS DTF
1 GPMA 0.00 0 16.3 2190.5 2 PUMA 41.00 7 17.2 2231.5 3 TELE 363.10 14 19.8 2553.6 4 CMPR 1267.20 9 14.6 3457.7 5 ADOR 1475.40 13 12.3 3666.0 - SNYA Did Not Finish
At 1900 UTC today as Groupama (Franck Cammas/FRA) and PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG (Ken Read/USA) close on Cape Horn, conditions have improved temporarily for the series of gybes required to set them free of the Southern Ocean.Groupama reported sailing with 25 knots of west north-westerly wind in a much less violent sea. “We are heading towards the southern tip of South America, but not directly towards Cape Horn, since we will have to gybe several times along the coast,” said skipper Franck Cammas. It will be touch and go as to whether Groupama and PUMA will both escape the punchy weather still due in the region of Cape Horn tomorrow when the leading pair will be in the vicinity.
|
Abu Dhabi Reparatur Aussenhaut
Foto: Nick Dana
|
The fleet will not be sorry to leave the Southern Ocean behind. Cammas said that it was only yesterday that the waves dropped below seven metres, and admitted to broaching Groupama twice during the heaviest of conditions. “We haven’t been really frightened at any point, but it was stressful for a long time,” he said.Groupama is expected to enter Drake’s Passage, the expanse of water that separates Cape Horn from the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica tomorrow. Cape Horn marks the northern boundary of Drake’s Passage, the area notorious for shipwrecks and known as the ‘sailor’s graveyard’.
“It’s not a deciding factor that we will still be leading on exiting Drake’s Passage. However, it is not a deciding factor to be leader. What matters is to make it back into the Atlantic with a boat in her absolute prime and with a crew which is great shape,” the French skipper explained.While Groupama and PUMA keep up their duel, 41 nautical miles (nm) apart, third-placed Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP) are continuing to sail cautiously with a gaping 363 nm between them and first place. However, the crew is still looking forward to rounding the historic landmark.“Despite how the racing is going, rounding this Cape is always an important maritime passage and it is a symbol of great personal achievement for all of us, because of the tough conditions, the cold and because of the risk undertaken when you sail down in these latitudes,” the Spanish skipper said.
Further back still and also sailing slowly due to possible damage, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing have 1475 nm to claw back to still be in the game. Some of this will be achieved when Telefónica make their pit stop in Ushuaia, but whether it will be enough to give Walker and his men a podium position reindexs to be seen.CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand is indextaining a steady speed towards Puerto Montt in Chile, where she too will make a pit stop for damage repairs.
&xnbsp;
&xnbsp;
&xnbsp;
&xnbsp;March 29, 2012 - 1000 UTC Leg 5 Day 12
GUNNING FOR GLORY AT CAPE HORN
Leg 5 29/03/2012 10:08:06 UTC
&xnbsp; DTL DTLC BS DTF
1 GPMA 0.00 0 19.8 2325.9 2 PUMA 55.40 2 18.8 2381.3 3 TELE 385.80 1 16.5 2711.7 4 CMPR 1217.60 8 14.1 3543.5 5 ADOR 1425.70 26 10.5 3751.6 - SNYA Did Not Finish
With barely more than a day before the cigars can be broken out when Groupama (Franck Cammas/FRA) and PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG (Ken Read/USA) reach Cape Horn, the race is back on again. Thoughts of survival mode have been put aside as PUMA begin to make their presence felt and Groupama answer.The sea state for the leading pair has improved, and both teams are piling on the pressure, reverting back to a full-on racing set up as they enter a phase more reminiscent of a race. They will approach the Cape in downwind conditions requiring several gybes, which will introduce a tactical element not seen for the past eight or more days.
|
Groupama bei Kap Hoorn
Foto: Yann Riou
|
According to Groupama’s helmsman/trimmer Thomas Coville, there is a psychological game at stake as Groupama play ‘poker’ with PUMA for first and second places. The team is monitoring and analysing the positions, headings and speeds from the three-hourly position reports.“We can feel the pressure of PUMA, who needs not to lose us before Cape Horn, and possibly to come back,” Coville said. “We have to show we can be faster.“Until now, in the south, we followed our rhythm and sailed our own race. Today we are arriving near the Horn and we are collecting the fruits of what we have done over the past 10 days, with all the relative tiredness.
”However, Groupama and PUMA are still in the Southern Ocean and it is necessary to keep the foot hovering over the brake pedal, just in case. There is a front coming in from the north, but before it arrives, there will be a band of lighter air, which will throw in some tactical decisions.“It’s about how you deal with the light and then what you do with the new stuff,” PUMA’s skipper Ken Read said in a call to race headquarters earlier today. A pleasant 15-knot downwind sail around Cape Horn would be nice, but according to Read, it doesn’t look likely. The low will reach PUMA around 250 nm from the Horn and with it will come a howling Southern Ocean gale to give the fleet a final pasting.“Makes for an exciting last little bit, seeing as it will be VMG downwind sailing with a few gybes thrown in… in about 40 knots of wind. Like everything so far in this race, it’s been about facing adversity and dealing with it - that’s all we can do,” Read said.Further back in third place and now 385.8 nm off the lead, Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP) are sailing as fast as they dare, but could of course go faster had they not been nursing damage incurred earlier. The crew has made a temporary repair which they are confident will hold until the boat arrives in the Argentine port of Ushuaia after rounding Cape Horn.
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR), the fourth boat still racing towards Cape Horn, have had a big night, although their delta is still 1425 nm. A new top speed was set for the team when Rob Greenhalgh clocked a boat speed of 41.5 knots, Ian Walker was knocked off the wheel during a huge surf and the ‘piece de resistance’ was a crash tack.“The wind instruments had blown off the top of the mast and the numbers that Anthony Nossiter was steering to in the pitch black went haywire.“My last words to him before he started helming were, ‘whatever you do, don’t Chinese gybe in to windward’. He took me to my word and as the numbers indicated he was going to crash gybe, he steered hard up to weather. The net result was an inadvertent tack and ensuing capsize,” reported the skipper.The boat was pinned on her side as the indexsail was hard against the runners and the keel was canted the wrong way, but according to Walker, the whole episode was remarkably peaceful. “Once we got some boys on deck, we managed to tack the runners, centre the keel, back down and get sailing again,” he said. After checking the boat over, they were off again after a very lucky escape.Still racing, but headed for a pit stop in Chile, the crew of CAMPER are trying to find new ways to fend off the inevitable boredom associated with nursing the boat.
With less than 1500 nm to run before they are reunited with their shore team who will manage the repair work, the crew has survived some windy conditions and are in good spirits.
&xnbsp; |
|
|