Before the start, we talked to skippers. Interviews.
“I think the moment of truth will be round the cape. There are a couple of decisions to be made even if you’re right on the coast here leading up to that. Certainly once we’re around the cape and we get a little more weather we’ll see. You’d have to call it 50/50 at the moment.
“[Big winds and seas] in the past have been normal for Cape Town. We’re ok with all of that. I haven’t seen anything in the forecast that’s too concerning.
“It’s a distinct possibility we will be at sea at Christmas. As far as I know no Christmas presents or Christmas puddings have gone on board so it will be business as usual. To be honest I’m focused on racing. Normally when you’re at home at this time of year you feel quite a build up coming into Christmas. I’d have to say that hasn’t occurred this year. It’s been more of a build up coming into leg 2. It’s business as usual for me.”
Mike Sanderson, Team Sanya:
“The nice thing we’re thinking is here’s an opportunity to get amongst the mix. Yesterday’s in-port race was kind of a worst case scenario for us. We’re in an older generation boat, we’ve had less time to work on our crew work. That really highlighted those two issues. This leg is looking less likely to be a drag race. It’s looking like there’s going to be some interesting tactical decisions. There’s going to be a few stop start periods. For us it’s wonderful. If I was in the position I was in the last race I did with a healthy lead, like Telefónica has now, this is your worst case scenario. People like us are going to get in your way.
“I think what we have to do is not clutch at straws. We have to wait until something comes up that is a well-calculated risk. If you speak to my navigator Axel Magdahl about when he went north round the ice gate in the Southern Ocean in the last race he looks at you like it was everyone else who took the risk and what he did was the logical choice. We’ve got to wait for opportunities like that. We don’t need to be doing dumb things, we don’t need to be taking risks if it’s pretty stacked one way.
“It’s looking like the issue is going to be sea state rather than wind speed in the first 24 hours. Down by Cape Aghulas there are still 3-4 metre waves but only 20 knots of wind. One of the things about 20 knots of wind is that the boats are already going as fast as they can go upwind, so it’s almost worse because you want to sail upwind at 13 knots but if there’s a leftover sea state left over from the big low out there we could be launching off some beauties. Although we were cautious even when we ran into something, I think the fleet is very conscious of getting through these first couple of days. I think you might even see a whole new level of people buttoning off.
Franck Cammas, Groupama sailing team:
"We're starting in good conditions, as for the boat and for us. We want to race, to fight on the water. We are excited to be all together. It's very good to have the entire fleet on the start line for the Volvo Ocean Race to shine again!
"First nights are always tricky, we saw it in Alicante. We try to find the good balance between prudence and attack. We always look after the material but, on the other hand, it's never good to lose miles the first night. The options will be defined by tomorrow's morning ranking. We will try to be in the good group and we will push Groupama 4 as it should be!"
Ken Read, PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG:
“It’s really the next 72 hours because it’s really very changeable. There’s a low sitting down there that gives us some nice reaching conditions around the cape but every time we get a weather forecast it seems to be different. If we were looking for something simple it’s not that, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to get beat up that bad either so there’s something to be said for that especially coming out of the situation we have.
“It’s hard to keep an eye on the rest of the fleet – you have to bet on yourself sometimes too. In Leg 1 Groupama bet on themselves and they were wrong. We’re all wrong from time to time. I am very comfortable with Tom Addis as our navigator and hopefully his meteorological background comes into play here. It’s definitely something these navigators and skippers will have to sort out on the fly, there’s no road map available right now, not this time.
“I think the team is still a little tired but we’re anxious to get back at it again. We’ve got something to prove I think – that where we were on that first leg was not a fluke, and that we’re potentially front runners in this race. I would never put the pressure on, like ‘this is do or die’, but we gotta start getting some points and we have to get the gremlins off the boat. That ripped kite yesterday was really unfortunate. That was our race to lose at the time. We got to get the luck going in our favour for once and I think things will turn out just fine.
“Our new team motto is to be the first team to win this race without completing all the legs. No-one has ever won the Whitbread or the Volvo doing that. Fortunately this happened early so we know how big our climb really is. If it had happened late all of the sudden you jump into a hole and there’s no way out. We know what our hole is and we have a long way to go. There are gremlins out there for other boats too so we have to just keep plugging away and see what happens.
Ian Walker, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing:
“It’s a slightly unusual set up right now with this low pressure to the south but hopefully it will be a relatively calm exit. Normally you get six bells knocked out of you leaving Cape Town but we will be on the wind for a bit and then hopefully it should free up a bit. We should be able to get to the east as fast as possible. The question will be whether we can keep pace with the low pressure. If we fall off the back we will see some prolonged light air before new breeze fills in from the north. I think the fleet will head east south east out of here and then there might be a difference of opinion as to what to do from there on.
“If you’re near the back of the fleet there is a temptation to try something different. I’m sure Sanya wont care where everyone else is going, they will do what they think is right. For us we’d like to sail near some other boats – we still don’t know how our boat goes against everyone else. I think for the first few days everyone will stay bunched and there maybe some splits after that.
“I think we’re through it now. We’ve sailed in a fair bit of breeze. Ok, we haven’t fallen off any big waves but we’re reasonably happy, as happy as we can be.
“There’s two part to this leg of course. The first part is key because of all the points to be won and the second part is important to us more than anyone else because we want to lead the fleet into our home port. All we can do is our best and as we’ve seen we’re up against some very tough opposition with fantastic boats and great sailors. We’ll just play our hand and hopefully it will be strong enough.”
Iker Martínez, Team Telefonica:
“I think we are just going to focus on this in-port racing we have to do before we leave. That’s going to be important. Not so much for the distance but to make sure you don’t break anything. Then we’re going to have to go upwind to the cape and all that time will help us know what we have to do later. That’s the plan now. We have to go out and start the leg. It’s always very busy – we’re giving 200 per cent to get round these marks! Then we’ll get to the cape and see what we think is the best option.
“It’s 50/50 whether to follow the fleet or take a risk. If it’s not a radical option then the boats will be pretty close. There will be fighting between the boats but also thinking about the long term option. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
From : Volvo Ocean race
Credit : I. Roman / VOR
“We’ve talked several different weather scenarios. We’re almost continually waiting for the next weather to come in to try to paint the picture a little clearer for us. We’re gonna have to keep a very close eye on the competitors as we always do but you may well be just having to go there as a group. I think everyone’s equally concerned.“I think the moment of truth will be round the cape. There are a couple of decisions to be made even if you’re right on the coast here leading up to that. Certainly once we’re around the cape and we get a little more weather we’ll see. You’d have to call it 50/50 at the moment.
“[Big winds and seas] in the past have been normal for Cape Town. We’re ok with all of that. I haven’t seen anything in the forecast that’s too concerning.
“It’s a distinct possibility we will be at sea at Christmas. As far as I know no Christmas presents or Christmas puddings have gone on board so it will be business as usual. To be honest I’m focused on racing. Normally when you’re at home at this time of year you feel quite a build up coming into Christmas. I’d have to say that hasn’t occurred this year. It’s been more of a build up coming into leg 2. It’s business as usual for me.”
Mike Sanderson, Team Sanya:
“The nice thing we’re thinking is here’s an opportunity to get amongst the mix. Yesterday’s in-port race was kind of a worst case scenario for us. We’re in an older generation boat, we’ve had less time to work on our crew work. That really highlighted those two issues. This leg is looking less likely to be a drag race. It’s looking like there’s going to be some interesting tactical decisions. There’s going to be a few stop start periods. For us it’s wonderful. If I was in the position I was in the last race I did with a healthy lead, like Telefónica has now, this is your worst case scenario. People like us are going to get in your way.
“I think what we have to do is not clutch at straws. We have to wait until something comes up that is a well-calculated risk. If you speak to my navigator Axel Magdahl about when he went north round the ice gate in the Southern Ocean in the last race he looks at you like it was everyone else who took the risk and what he did was the logical choice. We’ve got to wait for opportunities like that. We don’t need to be doing dumb things, we don’t need to be taking risks if it’s pretty stacked one way.
“It’s looking like the issue is going to be sea state rather than wind speed in the first 24 hours. Down by Cape Aghulas there are still 3-4 metre waves but only 20 knots of wind. One of the things about 20 knots of wind is that the boats are already going as fast as they can go upwind, so it’s almost worse because you want to sail upwind at 13 knots but if there’s a leftover sea state left over from the big low out there we could be launching off some beauties. Although we were cautious even when we ran into something, I think the fleet is very conscious of getting through these first couple of days. I think you might even see a whole new level of people buttoning off.
Franck Cammas, Groupama sailing team:
"We're starting in good conditions, as for the boat and for us. We want to race, to fight on the water. We are excited to be all together. It's very good to have the entire fleet on the start line for the Volvo Ocean Race to shine again!
"First nights are always tricky, we saw it in Alicante. We try to find the good balance between prudence and attack. We always look after the material but, on the other hand, it's never good to lose miles the first night. The options will be defined by tomorrow's morning ranking. We will try to be in the good group and we will push Groupama 4 as it should be!"
Ken Read, PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG:
“It’s really the next 72 hours because it’s really very changeable. There’s a low sitting down there that gives us some nice reaching conditions around the cape but every time we get a weather forecast it seems to be different. If we were looking for something simple it’s not that, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to get beat up that bad either so there’s something to be said for that especially coming out of the situation we have.
“It’s hard to keep an eye on the rest of the fleet – you have to bet on yourself sometimes too. In Leg 1 Groupama bet on themselves and they were wrong. We’re all wrong from time to time. I am very comfortable with Tom Addis as our navigator and hopefully his meteorological background comes into play here. It’s definitely something these navigators and skippers will have to sort out on the fly, there’s no road map available right now, not this time.
“I think the team is still a little tired but we’re anxious to get back at it again. We’ve got something to prove I think – that where we were on that first leg was not a fluke, and that we’re potentially front runners in this race. I would never put the pressure on, like ‘this is do or die’, but we gotta start getting some points and we have to get the gremlins off the boat. That ripped kite yesterday was really unfortunate. That was our race to lose at the time. We got to get the luck going in our favour for once and I think things will turn out just fine.
“Our new team motto is to be the first team to win this race without completing all the legs. No-one has ever won the Whitbread or the Volvo doing that. Fortunately this happened early so we know how big our climb really is. If it had happened late all of the sudden you jump into a hole and there’s no way out. We know what our hole is and we have a long way to go. There are gremlins out there for other boats too so we have to just keep plugging away and see what happens.
Ian Walker, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing:
“It’s a slightly unusual set up right now with this low pressure to the south but hopefully it will be a relatively calm exit. Normally you get six bells knocked out of you leaving Cape Town but we will be on the wind for a bit and then hopefully it should free up a bit. We should be able to get to the east as fast as possible. The question will be whether we can keep pace with the low pressure. If we fall off the back we will see some prolonged light air before new breeze fills in from the north. I think the fleet will head east south east out of here and then there might be a difference of opinion as to what to do from there on.
“If you’re near the back of the fleet there is a temptation to try something different. I’m sure Sanya wont care where everyone else is going, they will do what they think is right. For us we’d like to sail near some other boats – we still don’t know how our boat goes against everyone else. I think for the first few days everyone will stay bunched and there maybe some splits after that.
“I think we’re through it now. We’ve sailed in a fair bit of breeze. Ok, we haven’t fallen off any big waves but we’re reasonably happy, as happy as we can be.
“There’s two part to this leg of course. The first part is key because of all the points to be won and the second part is important to us more than anyone else because we want to lead the fleet into our home port. All we can do is our best and as we’ve seen we’re up against some very tough opposition with fantastic boats and great sailors. We’ll just play our hand and hopefully it will be strong enough.”
Iker Martínez, Team Telefonica:
“I think we are just going to focus on this in-port racing we have to do before we leave. That’s going to be important. Not so much for the distance but to make sure you don’t break anything. Then we’re going to have to go upwind to the cape and all that time will help us know what we have to do later. That’s the plan now. We have to go out and start the leg. It’s always very busy – we’re giving 200 per cent to get round these marks! Then we’ll get to the cape and see what we think is the best option.
“It’s 50/50 whether to follow the fleet or take a risk. If it’s not a radical option then the boats will be pretty close. There will be fighting between the boats but also thinking about the long term option. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
From : Volvo Ocean race
