Volvo Ocean Race - Groupama 4 take the lead

by Franck Cammas on 28 Jan 2012 Volvo Ocean Race Team Groupama 4 lead the fleet on the sixth day of the second stage of leg three at the 1600 UTC position report.

The trickiest and most uncertain passage of this leg began at noon this Friday, as the leaders entered the Straits of Malacca. Still bunched together within a six-mile zone, the top four boats are battling into an easterly breeze amidst a series of tack changes. Seemingly Groupama 4 is keen to shake off her markers by positioning herself to windward of the fleet.

Knit one, purl one: the entrance to the Straits of Malacca kicked off at around 0900 UTC with a spot of ‘weaving' to round the island of Pulau We. Among the course marks to be left to starboard, this small island signals the North-West tip of Sumatra and, as the wind tends to funnel by this landmass, the fleet were faced with around fifteen knots of ENE'ly. The six VO-70s didn't think twice about closely skirting past the islet of Pulau Beras, before launching onto a beat of around twenty miles to make their way into the long channel which stretches over 500 miles to Singapore. A zone seldom frequented by race boats, it has nonetheless been a crossroads for commercial shipping for centuries, with massive congestion extending as far as the South of Malaysia. Each day over five hundred ships sail through this passage, which narrows, as it does in the Channel, from 200 miles (a little more than the distance between Ushant and Land's End) to less than fifteen miles (less than half the distance from Dover-Calais).

'We haven't planned to change the watch system: the minute something alerts us on deck, the standby watch is operational if we're required to manœuvre. There is already quite a lot of stuff trailing around in the water, such as pretty big tree trunks, so there's always a member of the crew at the guardwires looking ahead. There are certainly a lot of people in the Straits of Malacca with a huge amount going on. We don't mind it but we're going to have quite a lot to do too. We're going to have our work cut out refining the trim so we can make the most of the little wind there will be and we'll have to be on top of things in every domain. Groupama 4 isn't necessarily the most at ease in these conditions, but for the time being, we're on the pace and the atmosphere onboard is very good: we're happy to see some of our rivals on the horizon' indicated the skipper of Groupama 4 at noon yesterday.

Initially the scenario of around twelve knots of ENE'ly is set to remain, before it clocks round to the North-East beyond the Pantonlabu headland (130 miles to the East of the entrance). The difficulty will relate to interpreting the series of cloud masses in this equatorial zone, where the intense heat causes considerable evaporation. With this come squalls, which can halt progress all of a sudden, as it did on two occasions last night for Franck Cammas and his men! During the beat this lunchtime, Groupama 4 was able to make up the ten miles she lost during the double whammy of misfortune, but it's likely that this phenomenon will be repeated. In fact, there's every chance that each team will be affected in turn, but it's the point where it happens which could have some very serious consequences.

Early this afternoon the French boat opted to reposition herself to windward of her three direct rivals, Abu Dhabi being relegated to over twenty miles astern and Sanya to fifty miles, and not yet inside the Straits of Malacca. Given that the island of Sumatra culminates at nearly 3,000 metres, the fleet appears to be gunning for the middle of the channel, so as to distance itself from these landforms, which often cause a buffering effect as the wind gains height, leaving virtually no air near the coast. It will take until midday on Saturday for the breeze to begin to shift round to the North, easing to less than ten knots along the way. This is bound to lead to a degree of tension aboard as, within a matter of miles, the breeze may be very different, both in terms of strength and direction. In this zone coloured by meteorological uncertainty, where there is a great abundance of fisherman near the shores, the navigators will be favouring both a trajectory down the centre of the race zone and a low risk strategy, by remaining bunched together. However, will this be enough to prevent the fleet from unravelling? That is the question. For now, nothing could be less certain in this tunnel of variable weather…

Position at 1600 UTC on 27/01/2012
1. Groupama 1,686.7 miles from the finish
2. Camper – 1.5 miles astern of the leader
3. Telefonica - 1,5 miles astern of the leader
4. Puma – 6.9 miles astern of the leader
5. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing - 9.20 miles astern of the leader
6. Team Sanya – 26.6 miles astern of the leader

Groupama Sailing Team website