Volvo Ocean Race - Groupama 4 heads into difficult seas

by Vincent Borde on 3 Feb 2012 In the Volvo Ocean Race, Franck Cammas and the crew of Groupama 4 are beating into difficult seas and a north-easterly wind that at times reaches over 30 knots. The team still has another six hard hours of racing along the Vietnamese coast before they can again head offshore and put in one last tack towards Sanya.

In the wake of the Spanish, Franck Cammas and his crew are having to keep a careful eye on the New Zealanders as they make a rather fast comeback close-hauled.

Groupama 4 was in contact with Telefonica as they passed Malaysia, but she's lost a little ground on the Spanish in the long climb up to Vietnam. Neither of them has been able to contain the fine comeback achieved by Abu Dhabi and above all Camper, which is very much at ease in these upwind sailing conditions. Indeed it's worth noting that, two days ago, the New Zealanders and the Emiratis had a deficit of over 70 miles a piece.

By the time Telefonica and Groupama 4 were able to put in their first tack near the Mekong River, the New Zealanders had reduced their deficit to 40 miles. Just a few tacks later, early this Thursday afternoon, the deltas in relation to the Spanish had increased to around ten miles, with a lead of just five miles over Camper! As for Abu Dhabi, she was positioned around thirty miles astern, as was Puma...

'We've been close-hauled making our way along the Vietnamese coast for approximately 24 hours, in a fairly strong breeze, which has increased to such an extent that we've just switched back to the storm jib and put a reef in the mainsail. We're expecting the wind to shift round to the North and for now we're short-tacking near the shore. It's exhausting for us because we're having to lug the gear from one side to the other with every change of tack before we can switch onto port tack in a few hours' time to head offshore again. There is a huge amount of fishing boats in the area and we're having to slalom our way through them. We can't see either Telefonica or Camper, even though they're not very far off', said Erwan Israël at noon this Thursday.

It's at the mercy of these changes of tack that the pursuers have managed to make up their lost ground, as each manoeuvre costs dearly in terms of boat speed: you have to shift over two tonnes of gear on deck and down below, from one side of the boat to the other, before you can turn the helm. Then you have to begin all over again a few minutes later so as to avoid the sand banks, whilst ensuring you remain close to the coast where the counter current is less strong and the seas aren't so heavy.

'Night has just fallen and in these very short, very choppy seas, it's not easy to steer well because there are some wind rotations near the coast, which occasionally force us to sail into the waves. We're also extremely tired, because the race has been intense since the start and so we're frequently taking turns at the helm.

The counter current has prompted us to go and play along the coastline: there was a knot and a half of current pushed along by the monsoon on its way down to the South-West. As a result, we're considerably better protected since we moved closer to Vietnam, but we can't get too close to it as there are a lot of sand banks, even up to three miles from the shore.'

It's only at the Padaran headland, which marks the northward curve of the Vietnamese coastline, that Groupama 4 will be able to get offshore in a more northerly breeze, which is still in excess of twenty-five knots due to the monsoon compressing against the land. From then on, the further offshore the French boat gets, the more the breeze will back round to the North-East, easing to 15-20 knots as it does so.

It's in this new shift, that the crew will have to tack one last time in order to dive towards the finish. Deciding exactly when to perform this final manoeuvre is essential in determining the podium for this third leg! Too early, and they'll have to sail upwind again for several hours in the general oceanic current; too late and that will extend the journey to China. Sanya is likely to appear on the horizon on Saturday afternoon (European time).

'We've already performed ten or more tack changes and we still have to perform at least the same amount again! After that, we'll be able to head offshore where we hope we'll cross in front of Puma. Late tonight (local time) or at daybreak, we'll be able to perform a final change of tack in a north-easterly wind: it will be an important moment because after that we'll be on a direct course towards Sanya. It's a lot less hot but the living conditions are worse as we're really getting shaken about upwind and we're finding it really hard to sleep...'

Position of the competitors at 1600 UTC on 02/02/2012:

1. Telefonica 412.6 miles from the finish
2. Groupama 4 - 10.7 miles from the leader
3. Camper - 17.9 miles from the leader
4. Puma - 27 miles from the leader
5. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing - 28.8 miles from the leader
6. Team Sanya - 212.3 miles from the leader

Groupama website
Volvo Ocean Race website