Volvo Ocean Race - and then there were four...

The Volvo Ocean Race fleet of Open 70’s is now down to four boats as they try to make their way from Singapore to Quindao, China. Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve done any writing, but I’ll give a quick synopsis here. For full details head to volvooceanrace.org.

When I last left you the fleet was preparing to head from CapeTown, South Africa north to India. This was quite an exciting leg, and certainly not without drama. I’m probably missing some really interesting occurrences, but based totally on memory, Green Dragon and Puma had some of the biggest problems. Green Dragon broke their carbon boom early in the leg and were forced to sail the rest of the leg boomless. This proved not too much of a problem for the team as much of the sailing was off the wind, though limited their ability to reef the main in big air. Puma, on the other hand, had some issues with their boat itself. They had some structural failure in (if I remember correctly) their longitudinal frames. They enacted a repair en-route and made it safely to India. Ericsson 4, led by Torben Grael, won their second leg. They were followed by Telefonica Blue, Ericsson 3, and Telefonica Black.

After Cochin, India, the fleet headed east to beautiful Singapore. The fleet dodged fishing boats (there are some great videos and pictures posted on the Volvo site of this), and ventured through currents that were at time stronger than the wind. It was fun for us arm chair sailors to watch their paths literally make zero headway as they tacked back and forth off the southern tip of India. I was certainly glad that it wasn’t me out there. The finish of this leg was incredibly tight, with Telefonica Blue nipping out Puma and the two Ericcson Boats. There was an in port race in Singapore (actually 2), with the day again belonging to Ericcson 4.

After Singapore, the fleet took a turn to the north (and west) with a destination of Quindao, China (site of the 2008 Olympic sailing). The fleet was expecting some horrendous conditions on the uphill slog to China, and mother nature has certainly not disappointed. The goal for most teams was to make it to China in one piece, incurring as little damage to the boat as possible. At last count, zero boats have attained this goal, as by my math anyway, every boat has had at least some damage, and 3 boats have retired from the leg leaving 4 left limping to China.

Did you pick up on the fact that there are only 7 boats on this leg? The fleet actually lost 1 before the start of this leg. Team Russia had to jump ship and abandon further racing as the world economic problems had seriously cut into their funds. They couldn’t pull together the money needed to send the team onward, and instead sent the boat and team packing back towards South Africa.

So right now, the fleet is closing in on China. Telefonica Blue leads the way, after surviving winds of over 50 knots and waves of confused seas with waves of over 30 feet. They lead, however, they are doing so with a portion of their bow missing due to a collision with a floating object. The Volvo 70’s are built to account for such collisions with a false bow, so the team is not in real danger (unless they hit another floating object). Cross your fingers for them to make it safely.

Ericsson 4 is sitting in second right now, though Puma is nipping at their heals. Ericsson 4 may be in the best shape of the fleet right now, but they lost all of their instruments earlier in the leg. They are sailing cautiously through some very crowded waterways keeping a keen eye for close encounters.

Puma has had some issues, but has actually come back to close ground on the leaders. They are currently sailing without a boom, mimicking Green Dragons performance from Leg two, though doing so upwind in much greater breeze. There are also rumors that Kenny Read sailing without a finger, or at least part of a finger, as he had an issue getting his digit sucked up into a block. Hope for him and the team that the pain meds are kicking in and he’ll get some good medical care once in China.

Green Dragon is sitting in fourth right now, but in no contention to make a charge at the leaders. They are in survival mode, as they had some serious structural issues early in the leg. They anchored and made some repairs and are continuing on their way, but are not able to push the boat at all.

Telefonica Black was the first to bail out of this leg. They were actually leading when they had some structural issues of their own. They had some separation of their hull from their deck, and opted not to test their luck. Probably a wise move. They are currently in port in the Philippines trying to make repairs to get the boat ready for the leg to Brazil.

Ericsson 3 was next to bow out. While pounding upwind in third place they discovered a large hole in the forward compartment of their boat. They were taking on water rapidly and the hull was beginning to delaminate. They bailed and reinforced the weakened area and were able to make their way to Taiwan safely. This was probably the closest call of the race so far, as some Ericsson crew members thought for sure that they would lose the boat to the sea.

Delta Lloyd was the last to fall. This was also perhaps one of the more surprising failures, as they are sailing a boat which has been around the world before. Turns out that even this solid boat wasn’t up to the upwind pounding offered on this leg. The team suffered damage to the forward bulkhead and was taking on large amounts of water, continually weakening the hull. The team continually bailed and sealed off the bow compartment from the rest of the hull so as to prevent further water ingress. They made it safely to Taiwan, sharing space with their friends aboard Ericsson 3.

So it has certainly been an eventful leg. Again, for more details and some great media, visit volvooceanrace.org. I’ll try to do a better job of updating from here out, but no promises.