Blistering Pace Set in Volvo

Groupama sailing team, PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing all posted blistering 24-hour runs of more than 500 nautical miles as the southbound stampede continued.

"Sailing this way is fun, and it’s what everyone thinks about when they sign up to sail around the world" - Amory Ross, PUMA Ocean Racing

Ken Read’s crew on PUMA had double the reason to celebrate this morning – not only have they moved up the rankings into second place behind Groupama, they were also the first team to smash the 500-mile mark.

PUMA sailed 522.14nm at an average speed of 21.7 knots in the 24 hours up to 0340 UTC.

Leg leaders Groupama answered back with a run of 501nm averaging 20.9 knots, while fifth-placed Abu Dhabi posted 507nm at an average of 21.1 knots.

“523 miles in 24 hours is a lot of miles for a sailboat,” said PUMA media crew member Amory Ross.

“That’s averaging 22 miles-per-hour over the last day, and it’ll likely improve over the next few hours, too. Not so bad for close reaching in 20 knots of breeze and an awful sea state.

“It’s also the most our Mar Mostro has logged this race (we were unfortunate to miss the high speed run into Cape Town with some minor mast problems).

“It feels good to be going fast, psychologically at least! Sailing this way is fun, and it’s what everyone thinks about when they sign up to sail around the world.

“It’s also a return to the painful existence of slamming and crashing, only this time it’s sunny, wet, and getting hotter by the hour.”

PUMA’s run doesn’t beat CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand’s current race record of 554nm during Leg 1 from Alicante to Cape Town which earned them the IWC Speed Record Challenge trophy for the leg and puts them in contention for the overall award, handed to the team which posts the biggest 24-hour distance over the course of the nine legs.

The 24-hour distance world record of 596.6nm was set by Ericsson 4 in the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race.

Abu Dhabi Edge Lead

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing this afternoon looked to have got the better of CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand in the hand-to-hand combat the pair have been engaged in all day.

In his latest report from the boat Abu Dhabi Media Crew Member (MCM) Nick Dana described how Abu Dhabi had finally got the upper hand after nipping at CAMPER’s heels since first light this morning:

“The battle has raged all day,” he said. “At dawn we were behind them with the breeze slowly fading. This was a bit worrying, as we believe them to be one of the fastest boats in light air. Nevertheless we kept pushing and as the day crept on the sea breeze did too.

“Up and down on our line CAMPER continued to swerve, gaining here and losing there. Finally we decided we would start to sail our course as if they were not next to us. A difficult task when you are stuck in a nail biter in light air and calm seas.

“Eventually we caught a small shift and edged ahead. Even now we are locked in a gybe dual through the fields of anchored ships.”

Dana said the day had been a scorcher in more ways than one with blistering heat and stifling humidity adding to the intensity of the boat-on-boat action.

“Today has been a difficult day to sit at the computer,” Dana said. “Firstly because we had our record temperature inside Azzam thus far. It was a whopping 40 degrees down below, coupled with humidity that you had to cut your way through.

“And secondly because of our little match race going on with CAMPER at the moment. In fact, as I write this we are no more than 20 metres from an anchored super tanker – ducking and weaving between the giants with CAMPER closely at our heels.”

The crews have been at sea for nine days now without a proper shower or fresh food, a fact that Abu Dhabi skipper Ian Walker said made sailing past the bright lights of Singapore on the way to the South China Sea all the more difficult.

“We are now within 50 miles of Singapore – one of my favourite cities in the world. It is going to be very hard not to stop in for a visit!” Walker said in his blog from the boat today. “Right now we could all do with a cool, soft drink and a freshwater shower.”

With the challenge of the Malacca Strait almost completed Walker said he had mentally all but ticked off the middle section of the second stage of Leg 3.

“In my mind this represents the end of the second stage of Leg 3b i.e. the Malacca Straits,” he said. “I have to say that with the exception of a period of getting stuck in the shipping lane with little or no wind to manoeuvre with, the Straits have held very few of the perils we feared.

“No pirates, no collisions, far less debris in the water than I remember last time, fewer thunder storms and fewer periods of calm.

Nevertheless Walker said he was bracing himself for a tough passage through the Singapore Strait and out into open water for the final section to Sanya.

“The waters off Singapore will offer lots more shipping and some strong adverse currents so we are not out of the woods yet,” he said.

Although Abu Dhabi previously lost out badly on a key weather coin toss which saw them anchored along side CAMPER in no wind and strong adverse current while the top three romped away, Walker said with a long and difficult slog to China still to come he was far from capitulating on Leg 3.

“We are closer to the leaders than we have been since Day 4,” he said. “Right now the top five boats are within 25 miles of each other after eight days racing.

“Looking ahead it would be fair to say that nobody onboard is looking forward to the last part of this leg. 1200 miles upwind to China with some rough conditions certain off the Vietnamese coast.”

With the Siren calls of Singapore ringing in his ears Walker said the Abu Dhabi crew were preparing themselves and their boat for the brutal monsoon surge conditions they would face over the next week.

“Now is the time to be checking things over,” he said. “Doing any small maintenance bits and any other chores before the sea conditions deteriorate in the South China Sea.

“Much as it breaks my heart we will not be stopping in Singapore tonight,” he added sadly.

Every Little Bit Helps

In the Volvo Ocean Race even the tiniest of advantages can spell success on the race course – and having a chance to work on their boats in port gave Abu Dhabi and PUMA the edge they needed for glory the in Leg 3 Stage 1 sprint, according to their skippers.

“That’s the key to these races, you have to keep getting faster at each stopover, and this really is the first time we’ve had a chance to work on boat speed" - PUMA skipper Ken Read

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing scored their second win in two days as they snatched victory from Team Telefónica in the dying moments of Saturday’s 106 nautical mile race from Abu Dhabi to Sharjah, while PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG staged a spectacular comeback from fifth place to cross the line in second.

After both teams dismasted in Leg 1, they were robbed of any opportunity to make modifications to their boats in Cape Town, instead racing against time just to make it to the next start line.

But 10 golden days in Abu Dhabi, the race’s first ever Middle Eastern stopover, allowed the two crews precious time to study their boats’ performance and fully prepare for the conditions that lie ahead on the next leg.

“We tweaked the sails, the boat, a little bit of everything,” said PUMA skipper Ken Read.

“That’s the key to these races, you have to keep getting faster at each stopover, and this really is the first time we’ve had a chance to work on boat speed.

“Obviously in Cape Town we just frantically had to get ourselves back in the water and get racing again.

“It seems like we’re a little bit better. For sure we were going faster in the reaching conditions, the tweaks that we’ve done appear to have helped in those conditions, so we’re very pleased about that.”

Abu Dhabi skipper Ian Walker put their success down to the small modifications they made to Azzam while in their home port.

“We’ve made a couple of changes, nothing major,” he said. “We’ve talked a lot about how we sail the boat, looked at all the data and talked with the designer.

“I think one of the things we’re all seeing is that you can get big differences in speed with minor changes to the boat so we’re just trying to educate ourselves really.”

Both Walker’s and Read’s men are now looking to take their newfound speed into Leg 3 Stage 2, which will commence once the boats reach the safe haven port, around January 23.

The overall leaderboard sees PUMA lying in fourth on 36 points with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing five points behind in fifth place.

Just 20 points separate Abu Dhabi from third placed Groupama sailing team, with 80 per cent of the total leg points up for grabs in Leg 3 Stage 2.