PRO RACING NEWS
Justin Chisholm
Communications Officer
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing
The official nickname for
Auckland - where the Volvo
Ocean Race was based for
the New Zealand stopover - is
‘City of Sails’ and for sure it’s
hard to walk around the place
for very long without catching
a glimpse of sails out on the
harbour. Kiwis love their
yacht racing and Auckland is
steeped in the history of two
of sailing’s most iconic events:
the America’s Cup and the
Volvo Ocean Race. Wandering
around the VOR Race Village
and mingling with the visitors
as they gaze up at the line of
six identical Volvo Ocean 65s
in their cradles, the snippets
of conversations you hear
are predominantly about hull
shapes, sail choice, navigation
or weather conditions.
No surprise then that
large crowds gathered at
the Viaduct Yacht Basin in
Auckland’s Halsey Street for
the night time arrival of the
top three VOR crews on the
three week Leg 4 from Sanya,
China. More than 5,000
miles of racing across two
hemispheres and all three
were in clear sight of each
other as they peeled to A3
gennakers as they bore away
into the Hauraki Gulf for a
three-way downwind match
race to the Auckland finish
line in Auckland Harbour. The
much improved Spanish team
MAPFRE took the winning gun
by a margin of four minutes
from Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing
in second and Dongfeng
another four minutes behind
in third. That’s right eight
minutes separating first and
third! I have sailed two lap
Melges 24 races with bigger
finish line deltas than that!As well as being raced in
identical boats it is that for the
majority of the time the fleet
can ‘see’ each other using AIS
(a mandatory requirement
in this edition of the race)
that forces the yachts closer
together. They call it the ‘AIS
Tether’ - as everyone waits
for someone else to make
a move. ADOR skipper Ian
Walker told me the Abu Dhabi
crew, while leading, had
seriously considered slowing
down so they could get back
in AIS range to check on what
the others were doing
behind them.If the racing is tight on thewater then it’s even tighter at
the top of the leaderboard.
When Walker broke off from
attacking leaders MAPFRE
on the final approach to
Auckland it was to slam a
tight cover on his closest rival
Charles Caudrelier on Team
Dongfeng who was nipping at
his heels. The single point he
clawed back tied the pair on
points. Walker’s men took the
overall lead only because they
lead the In-Port Series. It’s the
narrowest of advantages but a
significant psychological boost
for ADOR as the race heads
out into the Southern Ocean
on Leg 5 to Brazil.As I’m typing this in Auckland
I can see sailors pacing the
docks pensively as the race
village is torn down around
them. They should have left
24 hours ago but the arrival
of severe tropical cyclone
Pam put paid to those plans
forcing the organisers into
a 48-hour delay. Written on
the crews’ strained faces andhidden in their hushed tones
is the knowledge that this is
where the race changes gear
and leaves the moderate
conditions we have seen thus
far behind. Even without the
unwelcome presence of Pam,
Leg 5 is going to be brutal
and the sailors know they will
be battling the conditions as
much as they will be racing
each other.By the time you read this we
will know how the crew and
their boats stood up to the
challenge. We’ll know who
was brave enough to push
hardest and who was smart
enough to back off when they
needed to. Ian Walker sums
up the problem in a nutshell:
“The windiest we have seen
so far was 40-knots for a very
short time in Table Bay when
we left Cape Town,” Walker
said. “That means we don’t
know where the red line is yet
with these boats – and
chance are we won’t know
where it is until we cross it.”Battening down for the stormDismantling the village in a hurry