Fleet fly out of Cape Town at the start of Volvo Ocean Race Leg 3
by Volvo Ocean Race 11 Dec 2017 02:46 NZDT
10 December 2017
Cape Town provided another spectacular stopover to the Volvo Ocean Race, as the fleet raced off for Melbourne, Australia on Sunday afternoon.
Charles Caudrelier's Dongfeng Race Team and the Spanish MAPFRE squad were neck and neck leading the Volvo Ocean Race fleet out of Cape Town and towards the southernmost point of the African continent on Sunday.
It was the eleventh time in the history of the event that the fleet had raced out of Cape Town, this time on a 6,500 nautical mile leg to Melbourne, Australia. The ETA is currently between the 24th and 26th of December.
Conditions were ideal, with the famed Cape Doctor wind blowing at 20-25 knots. The fleet raced around a short triangle course in front of the city, before being freed to sprint off towards Australia.
There was some drama for the Dongfeng team who had to make a late crew change just before leaving the dock. Daryl Wislang suffered a back strain this morning and the team decided not to risk having it flare up more while at sea. He stepped off the boat to be replaced by Fabien Delahaye.
"It is the worst sailing you can do but it's also the absolute best," said Stu Bannatyne, a three-time race winner on board Dongfeng, in reply to a question about the Southern Ocean.
"Fortunately it seems the human mind forgets the bad times and only remembers the good, which is why we keep coming back."
That is a sentiment that is sure to be shared among the 63 sailors (and seven on board reporters) over the coming days.
Current Standings:
1. MAPFRE (ESP, Xabi Fernández), 14 points
2. Vestas 11th Hour Racing (USA/DEN, Charlie Enright), 13 points
3. Dongfeng Race Team (CHN, Charles Caudrelier), 11 points
4. Team AkzoNobel (NED, Simeon Tienpont), 7 points
5. Team Brunel (NED, Bouwe Bekking), 6 points
6. Sun Hung Kai Scallywag (HKG, David Witt), 5 points
7. Turn The Tide on Plastic (Naciones Unidas, Dee Caffari), 2 points
www.volvooceanrace.com
MAPFRE head into the Southern Ocean, en route to Melbourne (from MAPFRE)
At 14:00 h local time in Cape Town, the Spanish boat, skippered by Xabi Fernández, began one of the most long-awaited legs of the round-the-world race, at the front of the fleet. The Volvo Ocean race boats are due to face winds of over 40 knots, freezing temperatures and huge waves over the decks, as they head into the fearful Southern Ocean for the 6300 miles of leg three to Melbourne.
It was an intense start for the fleet on leg three of the Volvo Ocean Race in Cape Town. Crossing the start line in 25 knots of wind, the fleet firstly sailed a short coastal race, before setting off to face the first of the Southern Ocean legs. 6300 miles lay before the Volvo Ocean Race fleet en route to Melbourne, Australia, through one of the most inhospitable parts of the planet, and in some of the most extreme conditions on earth.
After an emotional send-off from the docks, the Race Committee began the race at 14:00 h local time (13:00 h in Spain), from the race course set exactly opposite the Cape Town Race Village. Having sailed a shorter and simpler windward-leeward route than usual, (just three legs due to particularly strong wind conditions), after 30 minutes the fleet were already en route to the Southern Ocean.
The MAPFRE crew, skippered by Basque sailor Xabi Fernández, were well aware of the importance of leaving at the front of the pack from the very start, ensuring a good position in the first few miles of the leg. As the fleet lined up to jostle for the best spot at the start line, the Spanish boat was able to set off at the front alongside Dongfeng Race Team, Vestas 11th Hour Racing and Team Brunel, all fighting to be among the first to round the top mark.
The Chinese team arrived first, followed by Xabi Fernández's crew in second, and Bouwe Bekking's team in third. MAPFRE gradually closed in on Charles Caudrelier's team, until just after completing the three legs of the coastal route, where they were finally able to pass Dongfeng and leave Cape Town in first place.
The fleet are now heading south, towards the Cape of Good Hope, and it won't be until rounding Cape Agulhas when they will begin to move south-eastwards; their sights set on the Roaring Forties.
Awaiting the first front
After an intense beginning to the leg in typical southern conditions, the fleet will still need to face a transition before they can jump into the characteristic frontal conditions and head fully into the fearful Southern Ocean. If predictions are correct, MAPFRE should reach the first low pressure system on Wednesday, where they are expected to find winds of between 40 and 45 knots, and waves of over eight metres. The decision whether to round the front or cross it, will be one of the major strategic options of the leg.
Earlier today, Joan Vila, MAPFRE's navigator, explained, "Sailing around a front often means having to complete too many miles, and it really depends on just how far you have to go to avoid the area of strong winds. Sometimes it is worth going into it, and taking your foot off the accelerator a little. If we don't have to make too long a journey to round it, we will try to avoid it as much as we can."
However, the 6300 miles separating Cape Town from Melbourne will clearly be intense. The fleet is expected to take about two weeks to complete the route, where their day-to-day routine will involve the cold, strong winds, and huge waves typical of the Southern Ocean. One of the most long-awaited legs of this edition of the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 is on its way.
Quotes:
Joan Vila, navigator
In four days' time we will come up against our first frontal system. The latest data we have, shows that it will be quite an active low pressure system, and we may have winds of up to 45 knots. It will be a large storm, particularly because of the sea state; some of the weather models are showing waves of up to eight metres, or even a little more.
Pablo Arrarte, watch captain
The first 10 or 12 hours will be the toughest. We have upwind conditions and a lot of wind, possible up to 35 knots, and there is likely to be quite large waves, so it will be quite a busy start. But we have already been through this before, and we have been training with these kinds of conditions. It is just another upwind route, and we will have to take care, but the trickier part will come from Wednesday night onwards, and up to next Sunday, when we will meet a very strong front with between 40 and 45 knots. We will have to sail conservatively so we don't break anything.
Willy Altadill, trimmer/helmsman and second boat captain
I have only been in the Southern Ocean once, and everything you do is done much more calmly. You think everything through twice, because it can be extremely costly if you make a bad move, handle a manoeuvre wrongly, or something breaks. It is a cold ocean, with strong winds, and from time to time you see an albatross. People tell many stories about the South, but for me it is just another place we sail in, with nothing at all on the horizon. It is like being in a desert of water.
Támara Echegoyen, trimmer
We are all anxious to get sailing in the Southern Ocean, on this long leg which is both feared and loved by all the sailors. This time it is going to be quite tough, because we are starting in strong upwind conditions, which is not as comfortable as downwind. The team is ready to take on the challenge, and I am really looking forward to seeing what happens in the Southern Ocean.
MAPFRE Crew for Leg 3:
- Xabi Fernández (ESP)
- Joan Vila (ESP)
- Pablo Arrarte (ESP)
- Rob Greenhalgh (GBR)
- Louis Sinclair (NZL)
- Blair Tuke (NZL)
- Willy Altadill (ESP)
- Támara Echegoyen (ESP)
- Sophie Ciszek (USA/AUS)
- Jen Edney (USA). *OBR= on board reporter
Vestas 11th Hour Racing departs Cape Town for Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race (from Vestas 11th Hour Racing)
The 5,800-mile leg to Melbourne, Australia in extreme conditions of the Southern Ocean
"The Doctor came in to see us off from Cape Town," said Simon Fisher, navigator for Vestas 11th Hour Racing ahead of the Leg 3 start to Melbourne. The strong southeasterly breeze, known as the "Cape Doctor," was blowing 25-30 knots for the start on Sunday, December 10th as the seven boats started the 5,800-mile leg to Australia via the Southern Ocean.
"The start will be as challenging and spectacular as ever," the British navigator continued. "We've been preparing intensively ahead of the racing in Cape Town and leg start, with the assistance of our full navigation team, including Vestas Meteorologist, Thomas Alsbirk, who has provided vast knowledge of local meteorological phenomena." Table Mountain, the iconic landscape that surrounds the South African city, can cast a wind shadow blocking their exit but also produced huge gusts that can drop off the hill into the bay so the variance in the wind speed can be drastic.
The Vestas 11th Hour Racing crew will quickly encounter challenging conditions in the first 18-24 hours. Together with the powerful winds, there will be turbulent seas as they head down to the Cape of Good Hope and into the Southern Ocean. The leg is expected to take 16-18 days depending on the weather with arrivals expected around Christmas Day.
"It will be all about balancing performance with looking after the boat and crew," said skipper, Charlie Enright (USA). "We do not want to damage anything or anyone as we head down into the Southern Ocean where we may well meet extreme conditions for many days on end."
"The Cape Town stopover has been amazing," said team director, Mark Towill (USA). "We got a chance to get out of the race village and meet local community members who are making a difference in the devastating drought facing South Africa. It is humbling to be part of a team that highlights and takes action on local environmental issues. We are leaving a legacy by giving back to the communities that host us."
Dee Caffari, Skipper Turn the Tide on Plastic, and her crew have left Cape Town with Leg 3 to Melbourne underway. For 70% of Caffari's crew, it will be their first time sailing in the Southern Ocean, the most remote and hostile region on the planet providing conditions that they've never experienced. (from Turn the Tide on Plastic)
The Southern Ocean is notorious for some of the toughest conditions with extreme cold, wind and big waves but equally it is extremely well known in ocean racing for providing some of the best sailing on the planet. For Turn the Tide on Plastic, it will be a balance between speed, performance and safety. The lack of experience in the Southern Ocean means the crew have to quickly gain insight and feeling for when it is right to make changes, when you can push the boat and when you can't. This can make all the difference.
Caffari, has embraced the challenge, "I have great support in both Liz Wardley and Martin Strömberg, who bring invaluable experience to the team. And while our team lacks experience in the Southern Ocean, we have very skilled and adaptable sailors onboard who have a lot of offshore miles. Together we have a wide skillset and can learn quickly."
Perhaps equally important to taking on the Southern Ocean is that as Caffari says, "they're young and they're hungry for it. I'm not sure they know exactly what they've let themselves in for but I'm sure just like the rest of us sailors who have been in the Southern Ocean, they'll find it to be some of the best and worst sailing they will ever do."
For Volvo Ocean Race sailors, both seasoned and debuting, the Leg 3 route is at the heart of the race. Bowman, Lucas Chapman (AUS), is most excited for the Southern Ocean. "It's a mythical thing that people talk about. The conditions demand respect. It's where sailing legends turned into legends. I want to experience the ocean that I've read about and that has been the essence of the adventurous race that I've followed for as long as I can remember. To be honest though, coming from a warm climate, I'm really not looking forward to the cold!"
Francesca Clapcich (IT) is also dreading the cold, "I think it will be the most challenging thing". But for Francesca entering the Southern Ocean means more than just being uncomfortably cold. "I've watched sailing in the Southern Ocean many times and I never thought it was possible for a women to go there in a performance boat so it's a big achievement in my sailing career."
Bianca Cook (NZ) shared the best advice she'd been given ahead of the Southern Ocean, "one hand for yourself, one hand for the boat." But Bianca, who said she'd never really been seasick, wasn't happy to hear that they'll all likely get sick. What will push her through such lows is knowing that, "once I arrive in Melbourne, my family traveling from New Zealand will be waiting on the dock. I really hope they get in before we do!"
There are two crew changes for Turn the Tide on Plastic. Bleddyn Mon (WAL) has stepped onboard, giving Henry Bomby (ENG) time for some R&R and Elodie Mettraux (SUI) is substituting for Annalise Murphy (IRL).
Mon had trepidations ahead of the Leg, "I think it would be strange not to. The next leg will be my longest time at sea by threefold and we'll be in the Southern Ocean of all places, so I am basically going into the unknown."
After being slightly buried by the other boats at the starting line in Cape Town, the team negotiated a short triangle course before departing into the open ocean. They had a good upwind leg in the short-course and followed this up with hard work by everyone through the transitions around Camps Bay.
Cape Town put on a show for the farewell, with the glamorous backdrop of Table Mountain and Lion's Head in clear view and blue skies. Conditions were ideal, with the famed Cape Doctor wind blowing at 20-25 knots. Strong winds and a forecast over the first week promises for an exciting leg. Follow us on our social media channels to stay up to date!
Bekking & Burling's Team Brunel ready to brave the storm in the Southern Ocean! (from Team Brunel)
Team Brunel left Cape Town today for Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race. In great conditions with more than 20 knots of wind the boat with on board Volvo Ocean Race veteran Bouwe Bekking and world sailor of the year Peter Burling headed South. Team Brunel left the Table bay in Cape Town in first position and are now on their way to Melbourne.
Burling: let's do this!
Volvo Ocean Race rookie Burling was pretty stoked this morning to leave Cape Town. Burling: "I'm really looking forward to go in to the Southern Ocean. This is why you're sailing the Volvo Ocean Race. It's going to be windy, it's going to be tough, it's going to be cold but we are ready for it. Let's do this!"
6,500 nautical miles from Cape Town to Melbourne
Leg 3 is an 6,500 nautical miles which will bring the sailors in about 17 days from Cape Town to Melbourne. The route takes the teams down to the area south of 40-degrees latitude where storm systems frequently circle. For the teams it's a tricky balance to decide when to push and when to protect. The stakes are even higher as this is the first double-point leg. The winner of Leg 3 will collect 15 points (7 x 2 = 4 plus a 1 point win bonus).
Bekking: Southern Ocean always special
For veteran Bekking, who is sailing his 8th Volvo Ocean Race, the Southern Ocean are always special. Bekking: "These kind of Legs are the ones that separates the boys of the men and the girls from the women. For me the Southern Ocean is always special, it's pure sailing and you have to be fully focussed all the time, especially with all the potential dangers there are."
"We should remember it's late spring, just the beginning of summer and the winter has just passed in the Southern Hemisphere so the water is still bloody cold."
"I think the most frightening thing is that the depressions are still so strong... the amount of pressure that is in the air is just humongous. And of course, the water temperatures – hopefully with the ice limits we don't encounter any ice -- but if the water is just a few degrees above freezing and you get a southerly breeze, you might be having icicles off the mast some times. We've experienced it in the past... When we did this leg in the old days, this was the leg when the most damage appeared. The boats today are stronger than before, but still things can break."
Dongfeng leads the way to the Southern Ocean from Table Bay (from Dongfeng Race Team)
Dongfeng Race Team skippered by Charles Caudrelier of France led the way around a short inshore course at the start of Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race from Cape Town to Melbourne today.
The red and white Volvo Ocean 65 sponsored by Dongfeng Motor Corporation of China, which is lying in third place overall in the race, quickly found her stride in classic Table Bay conditions – flat water, 20-25 knots of wind from the southeast and a cloudless sky.
In front of a sizeable spectator fleet of yachts and small craft, Caudrelier at the wheel, and with Carolijn Brouwer of the Netherlands and Marie Riou of France trimming, coaxed Dongfeng into the lead on the first inshore leg.
Dongfeng Race Team then held the initiative throughout the short inshore phase before rivals MAPFRE, skippered by Xabi Fernandez, sneaked ahead in the lee of Signal Hill as the boats headed off into the south Atlantic.
Ahead lies one of the toughest stages of this race, 6,500-nautical miles of the southern Indian Ocean on the route to Melbourne. To start with the crews will face some very rough, wet and cold conditions as they hammer their way south around the tip of South Africa into a gusty headwind.
The next phase will be crucial to sorting out the early running order as the fleet tackles a large area of light winds before them crews hook into the first of the big depressions rumbling around the bottom of the world towards Australia.
The forecast for this double-points scoring leg suggests that in around three days time Dongfeng Race Team and their rivals will be sailing downwind in 40-50 knots of breeze and seas of 7-11 metres.
Boatspeeds will be high but Caudrelier has made it clear that he will be conscious at all times of the need to preserve the boat from major damage as the Volvo Ocean Race returns to the Southern Indian Ocean after detouring further north at this stage in previous editions.
A big factor in this leg will be the Antarctic Ice Exclusion zone which sets a hard border on the southern fringes of the racecourse. This reaches well north of where the navigators might otherwise want to place their boats at some points during the leg, an indication of just how far north ice bergs are currently drifting.
The Dongfeng Race Team crew for this leg has three new faces. Kevin Escoffier of France is on board instead of fellow Frenchman Jeremie Beyou and Chinese sailor Xue Liu, also known as Black, is on for his fellow countryman Chen Jinhao/Horace in a planned rotation.
Not planned is the replacement of watch captain Daryl Wislang of New Zealand by French Dongfeng reserve sailor and team Performance Analyst Fabien Delahaye, after Wislang suffered a back injury just hours before the Cape Town re-start.
Dongfeng Race Team finished Leg 1 of the race from Alicante to Lisbon in third place and was second in Leg 2 from Lisbon to Cape Town. It currently lies in third place on the overall scoreboard, three points behind the leader MAPFRE, and two points behind second-placed Vestas 11th Hour Racing, skippered by Charlie Enright.
This is Dongfeng Motor Corporation's second campaign in the Volvo Ocean Race. On debut in 2014-15 Caudrelier's team finished third overall.
Team AkzoNobel streaks out of Table Bay on a high-speed Southern Ocean run to Melbourne, Australia (from Team AkzoNobel)
Team AkzoNobel has set off on Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race – a 12,000-kilometer open-ocean passage from Cape Town, South Africa to Melbourne, Australia via the lower reaches of the icy and storm-ridden Southern Ocean.
Despite the idyllic weather at the start the sailors were braced for a punishing first night at sea with gale force winds and huge seas forecast to make life on board thoroughly unpleasant.
Once offshore the wind ramped up quickly and by 1900 SAST (1700 UTC/1800 CET) the team AkzoNobel sailors were battling 45-knot headwinds and monstrous waves as they clawed their way past South Africa's Cape of Good Hope.
The fastest route to Melbourne sees the fleet dive south into the storm track – a conveyor belt of intense low-pressure weather systems that race around the bottom of the world unchecked, generating fierce winds and gigantic breaking ocean swells.
It will be fast and furious sailing and the team AkzoNobel sailors know they could be tested to their absolute limits before they reach Melbourne. More than ever, safety was uppermost in everyone's minds when they left the dock in Cape Town today.
"You can come unstuck at any point," said team AkzoNobel watch captain Chris Nicholson (AUS). "It's going to be a fast and hectic leg. To get a good result you need to keep the hammer down, but keeping everyone safe is down to all of us looking out for each other all of the time."
The seven-boat Volvo Ocean Race fleet is expected to arrive in Melbourne at the end of Leg 3 by December 27.