CAMPER take lead on big day for Nicholson

CAMPER skipper Chris Nicholson has taken his team to the lead of the Leg 3 Stage 2 charge to China with perfect timing to celebrate his country’s national day of pride, Australia Day.

The Aussie skipper edged PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG out of pole position around 2140 UTC on Wednesday night and fought off continued attacks from the fleet to lead by more than eight nautical miles 0700 UTC today.

The key move by Nicholson was a delayed tack north, with the red boat tending one nautical mile further east and tacking at 2140, while PUMA tacked to starboard at 2125 and lost their lead.

Skipper Chris Nicholson and navigator Will Oxley discuss the latest report and look for the other boats to leeward onboard CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand - Hamish Hooper/CAMPER ETNZ/Volvo Ocean Race

Nicholson and his fellow Australian patriot navigator Will Oxley made a second major play at 0540 when they were the first of the fleet to return to port tack.

PUMA slipped further to third position by taking a more northern course than Groupama sailing team who have advanced to second place. The pair tacked to starboard almost an hour after CAMPER along with sixth placed Team Sanya, while Team Telefónica in fourth place and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing in fifth were continuing north at 0700.

Will Oxley studying the performance data onboard CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand - Hamish Hooper/CAMPER ETNZ/Volvo Ocean Race

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand’s early starboard course was a major educated gamble said Oxley from his nav-station, where he and Nicholson have been virtually glued overnight analysing weather files.

“The navigators are all scratching their heads as the grib files are far from dealing with the present situation,” he said. “The winds are 40 degrees out on the current direction.

“Everyone is trying to decide when to tack back onto port to head toward Indonesia. If you tack too early you could sail too far south and run out of wind, you wait too long the other boats will tack and you will get there last. The next 12 hours will be very interesting.’’

PUMA Media Crew Member Amory Ross said the mental game had intensified overnight as the yachts threw in short tactical manoeuvres to best position them for the entry into the Malacca Strait tomorrow.

Ross said skipper Ken Read and navigator Tom Addis were preparing for what was considered to be one of the most crucial moves of the 3,051 nm leg so far, the return tack east. He said everyone on board was alert for the ongoing battle.

“Timing for what could be our last tack east is critical: we want to minimise the distance sailed, but maximise our time on the new lifted tack,’’ he said.

“Short tacking the last 400 miles of this ‘first stage’ was not what any of us envisioned, at least not based on the weather information we previously had, but it’s provided some reviving interest among the crew, and a bit of tactical activity to get the brains working again. Sailing in a straight line for three days has a distinct dulling effect.”

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Source: http://volvooceanrace.com

The VENUES of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12:
The 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race will start with the In-Port Race on 29 October in Alicante, Spain and the route will go to Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya, Auckland and on to Itajaí. Next stop is Miami and then across the Atlantic to Lisbon followed by Lorient and Galway.

1 Alicante 2 Cape Town 3 Abu Dhabi 4 Sanya 5 Auckland

6 Itajaí 7 Miami 8 Lisbon 9 Lorient 10 Galway

Abu Dhabi Corniche -
Abu Dhabi

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Posted by nauticweb on January 26, 2012. Filed under News, Regattas, Regattas with Picture, Volvo Ocean Race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry