Volvo Ocean Race - meeting at the Pub

by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World Team on 31 Oct 2014 Yesterday the Chris Nicholson skippered Team Vestas Wind, made a big gain in the 2014-2015 Volvo Ocean Race, and was briefly in second place.

The Danish flagged entry had been positioned to the west of the leaders, who were in the fringe of the St Helena High.

While there was no significant difference in boat speed during much of the 12 hour period, and indeed the wind speeds remained very comparable, the change in placings came when the two lead boats, Team Brunel (Bouwe Bekking) and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker) were forced to gybe away from the High, and head in a SW direction, rather than sail into an area of lighter winds.

I talked to an upbeat Chris Nicholson by sat phone today as Team Vestas Wind blasted towards Cape Town in close company with Ian Walker's Abu Dhabi and the Bouwe Bekking skipped Brunel.

Commenting on the closeness of the racing in the one-design and the premium they place on navigational strategy, Nicholson said that he had done this leg four times and this race was by far the hardest. 'It is the most complex one we have had. There are still minefields ahead of us. There has been a lack of sleep for everybody, but the sailing itself hasn't been that hard. we have had a couple of nasty days and nights early on. But thankfully, I would say it has been pretty passive.

Nico was obviously tired, late in the interview i asked him was he getting enough sleep, his comment was 'not even close'

'We were hoping we could put in a good performance on this leg, after our late start to the campaign. We are sitting in third, but there are still a lot of tricky spots to go. We are going to have a bit of breeze later on tonight and again tomorrow. There may be light airs coming into Cape Town.

The late start has meant that Team Vestas Wind have had to get a lot of the wrinkles out of the boat, that others did during trans-oceanic crossings and the Round Britain Race. 'It's a bit like a mobile mechanics shop out here at times,' Nicholson said. 'We've had all sorts of issue that whole week, to be honest. We are dealing with them one by one. The problem is we are using our on board redundancy systems so I am looking forward to the finish in about a week, to be honest.

'But all considered we are going all right. On a couple of points of sail I think we are quite fast. And there's a couple we are slow on. We copped a bit of a pasting from Brunel last night - so we have some work to do. '

Commenting on the closeness of the racing je said 'Its been an amazing race so far, it seems like we all go our separate ways but meet up the Pub on Friday nights'

We will post the full interview overnight.