An indelicate Indian
Barely 5 days later their departure from South Africa for one of the longest stages of the race towards Australia (6,500 miles), the Volvo Ocean Race teams are having a hard time... A discovery for the rookies, many of the 63 sailors taking part in this 3 e step. All of them had the right to a big depression, typical of this inhospitable region of the globe. The conditions are extreme, punctuated by violent winds and uninterrupted breakers, giving boats shaken in all directions and sailors subjected to cold and humidity... It's hard life on board!
Big damage for AkzoNobel
Conditions that triggered damage and numbers within the fleet. But seriously impacted AkzoNobel whose mainsail track did not resist a gybe in 35-40 knots (video to discover below). The crew of Simeon Tienpont was forced to lower their mainsail - also damaged - and go further north to find more favourable conditions for a repair.
"The whole team's been working very hard for the last day and a half to fix this thing. We've been heading north, it's ten degrees warmer, which has allowed us to get down the mast track and start repairing the mainsail - it's a far from ideal situation - we were saying before the start of the leg that we needed to get to Melbourne in one piece. Unfortunately, we made a bad gybe, now we have to deal with it and fight it, there's nothing else to do." said the Dutch skipper this Friday, December 15th.
Which strategy to choose?
The other teams had to choose a trajectory that would allow them to best deal with a violent weather phenomenon that could generate winds of up to 60 knots. Dee Caffari, skipper of Turn the Tide on Plastic, opted for the safety option, given the lack of experience of her crew, by taking a fairly northerly route to escape the worst of the wind. However, as a result, the boat ended up in a 6 e position this Friday, more than 200 miles from the leader, Dongfeng Race Team.
For the more experienced crews, we didn't ask too many questions... They went south, flirting with the edge of the ice exclusion zone, encountering heavy seas and winds in excess of 50 knots. Dantesque conditions, with "terrible seas" as Charles Caudrelier, skipper of the Dongfeng Race Team indicated, and peaks at 33 knots. But this choice is bearing fruit, as the Franco-Chinese boat is leading the way with an incredible pace, closely followed by MAPFRE. The Spaniards are in second place, fifteen miles from the leader.
And if the two favourites for the race are at the head of the fleet, it's no coincidence, as Marcel Van Triest, weather specialist for the Dongfeng Race Team explains: "These are the boats that have spent the most time on the water before the race. We can see that this preparation is paying off, but the performance differential will get smaller and smaller as the race goes on."
Behind them, Vestas 11th Hour Racing follows at around 100 miles, while Team Brunel and Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag, who had chosen a middle option when facing the first low pressure system of the Deep South, are already around 200 miles behind.
