Play of the Day - PUMA crack the Code

by Mark Chisnell on 5 Oct 2008
It was won by Bouwe Bekking, Iker Martinez and their boys on Telefonica Blue, with a beautiful day’s sailing – fast, tidy and with few if any errors. But the Play of the Day was all PUMA’s – sixth in the first race and up against the ropes, they pulled a blinder that got them right back into it, almost won them the second race and gave them a third for the day overall.

It was all about the code - specifically, the Code Zero. The rules have changed since the last Volvo Ocean Race to allow these huge sails – hoisted all the way to the top of the mast from the bow, and overlapping the mainsail almost back to the end of the boom.

And once they were legal, everyone started to wonder how best to use them. The rules specify only three of these masthead sails, and two of the slots were always going to be used by conventional downwind sails – spinnakers, that would try and cover the widest possible set of conditions.

But the opportunity now existed to try and build a sail that would go upwind. The sail area could potentially generate huge extra horsepower, and transform the boat’s performance in the light winds.

But was it practical – could the rigs be built strong enough, could the boats be built strong enough, and would the sails hold their shape sufficiently under the huge loads? No one really knew the answers to that - until today.

Kenny Read and his trimmers were clearly keen to use the sail in the first race, they only swapped it out for a conventional headsail at the last minute.

But it takes a lot of bottle to start the first race of a long series against completely unknown opposition with an entirely different sail up.

And we’re not talking about the difference between the light and the medium jib here, we’re talking about maybe another 100 sqm.

Speaking afterwards, Read said: 'We’ve practiced a lot in those conditions before, and I’m only kicking myself for not using it in the first race. We knew we could do it and no one else had it up and I changed it with five minutes to go.'

But they came out a little punchier for the second, and the Code Zero was hoisted. They stuck with it right through the aborted first start – although there was a headsail on the foredeck just in case.

And it worked – with half the fleet jammed up at the committee boat (and some serious contact between the Russians and Delta Lloyd), and Ericsson 3 over the line, PUMA just cruised away in clear air and very good shape.

And sailing upwind they looked awesome. Yup, the tacks are pretty ugly - the sail has to be furled as the boat is pushed through the eye of the wind, and the boat is really slow until the sail is unfurled again, but once they’re moving, they’re off like a robber’s dog. As Read commented: 'It would have been smoking in the first race too, just a shame.'

The only boat to match the play was Green Dragon, and perhaps that means that only Green Dragon have set the boat up to use these sails in these conditions.

But it didn’t really work for Ian Walker and his Irish/Chinese team - that may just have been a question of a less well developed sail, or one that wasn’t intended to go as far up the wind range, or as close to the breeze.

And Green Dragon have not had as much time on the water as Puma, and less time to learn how to handle the sail through the tacks. They didn’t look quite as slick.

It’s an open question whether the Telefonica boats - with structurally lighter looking rigs and no jumpers – could take the sail as far up the wind range and match PUMA with a Code Zero hoist in those conditions. Read reckons their Code Zero will go fine in 11 knots, it’s just that much slower to tack and harder to use on a short beat.

But when asked about the sail, Bouwe Bekking said: 'We could use it as well, but if you use it in a fleet race you can't tack or protect as well.'

And in the end it was Telefonica Blue who got the better of the race, drawing closer on the second beat, as PUMA tried to balance the extra tacks to stay in phase with a seriously shifting breeze, against the six or so boat lengths they lost with each tack.

Telefonica Blue finally slipped through on the final run, as Puma either hit a light spot or slightly overstood the gate – hard to tell from where we were positioned - and Telefonica Blue rolled by.

Nevertheless, Read and his team will take a valuable lesson away from today – although he warned about drawing any conclusions in conditions that were dominated by positioning and clean sailing, rather than boat speed.

He said: 'We learned we got a little weapon there ...' It’s part of a wider strategy, which Read explained as 'build a big old powerful boat, and hopefully have something that can get you through the light stuff.'

It’s the strategy that Read reckons won ABN AMRO ONE the last race, and one that his team have taken to heart. And remember, while in today's conditions PUMA didn’t - as Read put it – 'light the world on fire' neither did ABN AMRO ONE in the first, light air day in Sanxenxo in 2005. But there I go, trying to draw conclusions when I really should wait to see what happens next ...

http://www.volvooceanrace.org/