Volvo Ocean Race – Leg 7 – Transatlantic Troubles

Volvo Ocean Race 65 comments

                             Nick Dana – Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing

                Ian Walker and the crafty vets aboard Abu Dhabi once again showed their mastery of short-handed, close track, in-port sailing by battling Groupama neck-and-neck the entire race just off-shore of glittering South Beach in fluky, dying-wind conditions. PUMA stole third from Camper in a photo finish. And Telefónica managed to shoot itself in the foot yet again after grabbing the lead at the first windward mark, getting rolled after sailing off-shore and getting pounded by the current, and hitting the next-to-last mark after desperately trying to squeeze in a floundering leeward tack, forcing them it to do a penalty turn which doomed them to last, thus allowing all of her rivals to close the points gap.

                Abu Dhabi continued its mastery of Miami by leading the pack on its 3,590-mile leg to Lisbon against a stiff north wind and the 3-knot Gulf Stream.

                                    Paul Todd – VOR

“There’s nothing like going upwind in the Gulf Stream and slamming into a big swell,” said PUMA watch captain Tony Mutter.

                               Armory Ross – PUMA Ocean Racing

Normally, the quickest route to Europe is not the most direct. Previous Volvo winners have sailed up the coast of North America  to the top of Maine, where an iceberg exclusion zone marks the northern limit of the race course, and then slingshot east to Europe. But that strategy went out the window when Tropical Storm Alberto rolled in off the coast of Georgia offering a narrow window of opportunity for any boat that could catch a ride on its powerful winds all the way to the Azores.

                                Armory Ross – PUMA Ocean Racing

That was a nice plan, but when TS Alberto unexpectedly turned, the smooth downwind sailing at the storm’s edge turned into everyone but Groupama’sworst nightmare. The French boat gybed before trouble hit and this time the move handed them a 70-mile lead on PUMA.

                                  Armory Ross – PUMA Ocean Racing

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing skipper Ian Walker described the frustrating struggle.
“The whole fleet with the exception of Groupama were caught out when the tropical depression Alberto changed course and moved south east over the top of us. We were trying to ride the windshift and extra wind just to the south of it but a violent windshift headed us straight into the eye of the storm. We came off some terrible waves. And the lightning was crashing all around right down to the water and it didn’t seem possible our carbon mast could avoid a direct strike.”

                              Nick Dana – Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing

Alberto finally drifted north and the fleet headed east, enjoying some fast downwind sailing. At this point, the fleet had separated by about 40 miles with Telefónica farthest to the north and Camper to the south. Groupama and PUMA took the middle lane.

                               Yann Riou – Groupama Racing Team

But the North Atlantic is always unpredictable and the models showed several options – and trap doors – ahead.

                            Nick Dana – Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing

Will Oxley, the frazzled old navigator on Camper agonized. “…there is a big high about to roll down over the top of us. The routing is showing two quite dramatically different solutions right now. If you are slow you need to bug out now and go well north to get above the high pressure that’s coming in from Canada. If you are fast enough you can slip through to the Azores high and play the edge of that with the front.”

                                          Hamish Cooper – CAMPER ETNZ

The next guest to the party was a big high pressure system of light winds dropping down from Newfoundland. Camper was the first to tack north toward the land of the icebergs, followed by PUMA and Sanya. The lead boats Telefónica and Groupama , along with Abu Dhabi, decided to try and continue east and sail around the bottom of the new game changer.

                                   Yann Riou – Groupama Racing Team

But after a few days, the Newfoundland High convinced the southern boats to tack north in order to escape its windless grip.

                                   Armory Ross – PUMA Ocean Racing

“For a few days we have clung to the hope that we could just about ride the southwesterly wind east and connect with the westerly flow round the Azores High that would deliver us to Lisbon,” skipper Ian Walker aboard Abu Dhabi said. “It was a dream scenario – a very direct and downwind route that avoided the ice gates to the north.”

                                   Yann Riou – Groupama Sailing Team

And so, the nightmare began as the fleet slogged its way ever north, searching for breeze along the meandering edges of the Gulf Stream in the frigid North Atlantic. Following the race tracker GPS showed six boats heading east, then north, then east, then north, climbing steadily into the land of the ice and snow. No one slept. There was barely time to even eat. The wind constantly shifted – sometimes as much as 60 degrees – forcing all hands to dash up on-deck to change the sails in a chaotic scramble, wearing all of their bulky foul weather gear.

                                Hamish Cooper – CAMPER ETNZ

Amory Ross aboard PUMA said. “Everyone’s crisscrossing around out here and the first boat free will likely have a large advantage as forecasts are calling for fast downwind conditions, but the weather isn’t going according to schedule and we’re still searching for a sign of the system’s northern boundary.”

                         Nick Dana – Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing

Abu Dhabi was the first boat to find the strong westerlies that rocketed them toward Lisbon, followed by PUMA and Camper. Now it was straight line, fast, downwind sailing with one final light wind road block remaining about 200 miles from the finish.

 Nick Dana – Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing

In what was one of the closest Volvo finishes, and after twelve days of intense racing, Abu Dhabi squeaked out a six minute victory over Groupama (the new overall race leader), followed by PUMA.

                                              IAN ROMAN – VOR

Next Stop: Lorient, France


                VOLVO OCEAN RACE SCOREBOARD

GROUPAMA          183


Telefónica           180


PUMA                   171


CAMPER                162


Abu Dhabi          104


SANYA                 32


65 comments

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