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Franck Cammas, Groupama 4, Volvo Ocean Race

Cammas & the Volvo Ocean Race

Amidst a maze of islands

30 January 2012

The landscape is surrealist with the buildings of the island of Singapore shooting up out of the middle of a multifaceted equatorial archipelago: a genuine labyrinth in which the top five crews have become ensconced. One last tack to the Ayam headland and the long beat up towards Vietnam will begin…

“On entering the Straits of Malacca, I was expecting to experience some tricky, complicated moments, and a good old battle with the rest of the fleet: all the ingredients were there to show the tactics and strategic opportunity to advantage, using the currents, the squalls and the effects of the coast. And that’s just what we had! The big surprise has been the shipping, even though we knew there would be a lot of it, as there are a huge amount of fishermen with boats from times gone by, sometimes not lit up amidst the cargo ships at night… By day, there are a great many obstacles we have to avoid, but at night we don’t know where they are! Added to that, we’ve seen how the separation between each boat can be created and lost extremely quickly in this type of passage” explained Franck Cammas this Monday morning.

At the foot of the commercial city
Ultimately, the descent into the Malacca funnel went rather smoothly for the top five VO-70s, though Sanya is still finding it hard to extract herself from the various Indonesian pitfalls, over 150 miles astern of the Spanish leaders. For Groupama 4, the results on exiting this second section of the course are positive, since Telefonica is just three miles ahead and Puma is five miles astern. As for the New Zealanders, they are one of the biggest losers of this stint along the gulley due to their option along the shores of Malaysia and Camper is even astern of Abu Dhabi! Over fifteen miles shy of Franck Cammas and his men, these two crews are likely to lose even more ground this Monday afternoon, as they’re going to have to beat as far as Singapore, whilst the top trio is already in a position to make the South China Sea on a single tack.

“We caught up with Telefonica by making best use of a rain squall last night: we were able to surf along the edge of it for a few hours at over seventeen knots, whilst in the normal run of things, with the usual six to seven knots of breeze, you can half that amount of speed. In this way we were able to get back in contact with Puma and we followed that with a very good day’s sailing, staying in the middle of the channel” highlighted the skipper of Groupama 4.

A bracing third section!
From now on the sailing conditions are going to be less stressful since the monsoon will settle itself in for the long-term, without being disrupted by the Malaysian mountains. Furthermore, the tidal currents will no longer influence their progress and the shipping will quieten down the further North they get. However, still beneath a blazing sunshine and rainy squalls, it’s not going to be a very pleasant atmosphere once Groupama 4, heeled over 20°, has to combat the waves in a mixture of slamming and vibrations, which will mark out the 1,200-mile beat into a north-easterly wind. Initially, the leaders will be able to make headway to the East on port tack as far as the large Bunguran archipelago, before tacking due North towards the Vietnamese coast. When they switch onto this beat, the time may be ripe for Groupama 4 to get past the Spanish, who are decidedly very incisive over the offshore legs…

“We have 1,200 miles left to go after Singapore and we have to make sure we make our exit as close as possible to the leader. After that, we’ll link onto a long stretch sailing into the wind: we know we’ve made progress in these conditions, but Telefonica is still formidable on this point of sail. We’re going to have to put in some good tacks because with 1,000 miles of upwind sailing, a lot could happen. It’s always good to start off with a good lead over Camper, which can make very fast headway in these conditions. It’ll make a change from the Straits of Malacca: there will be bigger seas, with a lot of slamming and comfort will be fleeting!” concluded Franck Cammas.

Position of the competitors in the Volvo Ocean Race on the third leg from Abu Dhabi – Sanya at 1500 UTC on 30/01/2012
1. Telefonica 1,098.7 miles from the finish
2. Groupama 4 – 3 miles astern of the leader
3. Puma – 7.90 miles astern of the leader
4. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing – 22.10 miles astern of the leader
5. Camper – 23.20 miles astern of the leader
6. Team Sanya – 163.90 miles astern of the leader

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