May 3, 2012 -1900 UTC Leg 6 Day 12
FADING BREEZE GIVES SECOND STRING NEW HOPE
Leg 6 03/05/2012 19:01:35 UTC
&xnbsp; DTL DTLC BS DTF
1 PUMA 0.00 0 16.2 1345.7 2 CMPR 5.10 0 14.8 1350.8 3 TELE 16.90 0 16.1 1362.6 4 GPMA 109.10 2 14.6 1454.8 5 ADOR 140.30 6 15.7 1486.0 - SNYA Did Not Start
As the fleet racing in Leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race enter the final 1,300 nautical miles to the finish in Miami, the breeze is softening. The high boat speeds, which allowed PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG (Ken Read/USA), CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand (Chris Nicholson/AUS) and Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP) to achieve in excess of 500-mile days, will evaporate and be replaced by frustratingly slow conditions.The fading breeze, which will stall the frontrunners, could give Groupama (Franck Cammas/FRA) and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR), in fourth and fifth places respectively, a ‘get out of jail free’ card as they stay with the pressure for longer and reduce the deficit accordingly.
At 1900 GMT tonight, Groupama led Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing by 31 nm, but were off the lead by over 100 nm.CAMPER, in second place, are just 5.1 nm behind long-term leaders PUMA, while third-placed Telefónica, who are looking for a fourth leg win to bolster their position as overall leaders, are now 16.9 in arrears, having been as close as 5.2 nm on May 1.Already the breeze is becoming lighter for the leading trio, dropping to 13 knots, and rotating to the right. Once they get past the island of Barbuda, around 200 nm ahead, the weather will become seriously tricky.“We are expecting a little low, which will bring breeze, but before that it’s going to be pretty light and fickle,” explained CAMPER helmsman/trimmer Rob Salthouse. It is going to be an anxious 48 hours for the leading three as they negotiate the light airs and set up for the next lot of pressure that is forecast to follow.
“We have got the boat for those conditions, but we will just have to see how it all pans out,” Salthouse said.Some routing has suggested an option could be to thread through the Caribbean Islands, but it’s a high-risk manoeuvre particularly for CAMPER and Telefónica who need to stay in touch with PUMA and not take fliers.“Over the last few days there have been times when we’ve gone faster, and times when they [PUMA] have, but we are here,” said Telefónica trimmer Pablo Arrarte. "They’ve got away a little bit, but the wind is beginning to drop and we hope that we can pick up again and recover the miles we’ve lost."
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May 3, 2012 - 0700 UTC Leg 6 Day 12
PUMA MATCH CAMPER IN CRAZY, WET ROLLER COASTER RIDE
Leg 6 03/05/2012 7:01:27 UTC
&xnbsp; DTL DTLC BS DTF
1 PUMA 0.00 0 19.8 1550.6 2 CMPR 4.90 0 20 1555.4 3 TELE 18.60 0 20 1569.1 4 GPMA 121.20 1 19.9 1671.8 5 ADOR 143.60 5 18.5 1694.2 - SNYA Did Not Start
There is no let up at the head of the fleet. At 0700 GMT today, PUMA (Ken Read/USA) still had the advantage, leading CAMPER (Chris Nicholson/AUS) by 4.9 nautical miles and achieving top speeds as high as 30 knots, while third placed Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP) were 18.6 nm off the pace.
“It is amazing how evenly matched we are with PUMA,” observed CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand co-skipper Stu Bannatyne. "Less than a mile in it in every sked, both teams obviously pushing to the absolute max, and both boats appear to be exactly the same speed at the moment.
"In the most exhilarating of sailing, the fleet is crashing north in a crazy, wet roller coaster ride, racking up the miles towards the finish in Miami and in pursuit of the IWC Schaffhausen Speed Trophy awarded to the team who cover the most miles in 24 hours. In the 24-hour period from 0700 GMT on Wednesday, PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG had covered 509 nm with CAMPER a short neck behind on 505 nm, clearly illustrating the closeness of the race with 3,250 miles of the leg already completed. The leading trio are 351 miles southeast of Guadeloupe.In a contrast to the past few days, foulweather gear is back in force as torrents of water, rather warmer than in the Southern Ocean, firehose the crews as they put the pressure on to gain a mile wherever they can.
The second battle playing out for fourth and fifth place has calmed as Groupama sailing team (Franck Cammas/FRA) extend their delta to 22 miles over Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) who bring up the rear 143.6 nm astern of PUMA. Despite the deficit, the crew of Groupama are reindexing positive, reporting that on board, spirits are high. The excellent sailing conditions and their comeback in relation to Abu Dhabi have much to do with the raising of morale.
The last stage of Leg 6 is expected to be in light conditions, bristling with meteorological traps, something that appeals to the Groupama crew who view this as an opportunity to get back in the game. &xnbsp;
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