On the eve of the start of Leg 3 Stage 2, we bring you all the dockside chat as the Volvo Ocean Race sailors gear up for the 3,000 nautical mile race to Sanya in China.
Ian Walker, skipper, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing:
"We were thrilled with the end of Abu Dhabi, not only winning the in port race, which was obviously huge for the team and for the stopover, but then to round that off with winning into Sharjah was great and starts to make a little bit of an in-round into the points gap as well, so that’s good. And this leg – it’s going to be a lot of upwind sailing, so I think we’ll learn a lot about the relative boat speeds of the boats upwind, certainly in the first four days."
Ken Read, skipper, PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG:
"This is definitely a different challenge but it feels like the race is starting. It has been such a bizarre set of circumstances that nobody could ever anticipate, and for some reason this feels like the start of the race. And I think we’re ready to start the race and that’s the bottom line. It can’t get any more bizarre than this, there’s no doubt about so let’s go, let’s get this show on the road.
"I think CAMPER and Telefonica have shown to be the solid good upwind boats so far, but we’re constantly tweaking and there could be some light air reaching across. But the Malacca Straits that’s just a roulette wheel, and then it will probably breezy upwind from then on. The first person that breaks out of the Straits will have a nice little advantage most likely. But last time we did this leg, or a leg like this, and finished at the end of the Straits there was four of us that finished within two minutes of each other. So who knows. All bets are off. And just because you’re first into the Straits doesn’t mean you’ll be first out I guarantee you that."
Franck Cammas, skipper, Groupama sailing team:
"It’s true that we haven’t been at the level we would have liked to have been at for the first two long offshore legs. I hope that what we have seen in the short legs, and the confidence that we have been able to build, I hope that we can transpose this onto this longer leg and clearly these are the most important legs, these long legs. Yes, obviously we want to have a good result on this type of leg and catch up with the teams ahead of us. There can be some big shake ups with this next leg in the rankings and I hope that the dynamism that we have had since Abu Dhabi and the good results that we had, and the confidence that we in the speed of the boat , will allow us sail even better this time.
"We expect upwind conditions, wind on the nose, for most the time. Not a lot of wind so not necessarily the best conditions for Groupama – but we will see, I think all the boats have been specially optimised for this leg, with the right sails and right weight onboard to be fast in these conditions. We have also done that, it’s not exactly the best leg for us, statistically speaking, as it’s not a leg where the boats are going to go very quickly. But we will see, it will be a very good exercise."
Iker Martinez, skipper, Team Telefónica:
“Finally we can get all of this out of the way. We've got ourselves a Masters in improvising, and loading and unloading yachts onto ships but now we can focus on getting back to sailing and being back on the boat together to fight for the race, which is why we are all here: to sail and to race against the others.”
"The hardest thing over the past few months was without doubt dealing with the changes in schedule. It's very hard to focus on the race when you're being sent here and there...planes, cargo ships, and risky situations for the yachts themselves.”
Mike Sanderson, skipper, Team Sanya:
"It's time to get this show back on the road. It's been a month since we limped into Madagascar and what a month it has been. A lot has been said about all the good work that happened to get the boat back sailing again, since then the guys had a slow but good trip up to Malé in the Maldives. It was always going to be tight from the minute we realised that we had to replace all the side rigging on the mast to make it back to meet the fleet in time for this re-start.
"I don't think I have ever been so amped up to get back out and go racing. We owe it to you all that are reading this and we owe it to ourselves to go and have a decent leg and get this show back on the right track. The boat is great and the team is one of the most wonderful group that I have been involved with, I really can't say enough good things about them. Through thick and thin they have just dug it in and done what needs to be done and some. I am sure we will have a nice leg and gain some momentum from there, so all the efforts can finally reap some rewards."
From : Volvo Ocean Race
Credit : I. Roman/VOR
Ian Walker, skipper, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing:
"We were thrilled with the end of Abu Dhabi, not only winning the in port race, which was obviously huge for the team and for the stopover, but then to round that off with winning into Sharjah was great and starts to make a little bit of an in-round into the points gap as well, so that’s good. And this leg – it’s going to be a lot of upwind sailing, so I think we’ll learn a lot about the relative boat speeds of the boats upwind, certainly in the first four days."
Ken Read, skipper, PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG:
"This is definitely a different challenge but it feels like the race is starting. It has been such a bizarre set of circumstances that nobody could ever anticipate, and for some reason this feels like the start of the race. And I think we’re ready to start the race and that’s the bottom line. It can’t get any more bizarre than this, there’s no doubt about so let’s go, let’s get this show on the road.
"I think CAMPER and Telefonica have shown to be the solid good upwind boats so far, but we’re constantly tweaking and there could be some light air reaching across. But the Malacca Straits that’s just a roulette wheel, and then it will probably breezy upwind from then on. The first person that breaks out of the Straits will have a nice little advantage most likely. But last time we did this leg, or a leg like this, and finished at the end of the Straits there was four of us that finished within two minutes of each other. So who knows. All bets are off. And just because you’re first into the Straits doesn’t mean you’ll be first out I guarantee you that."
Franck Cammas, skipper, Groupama sailing team:
"It’s true that we haven’t been at the level we would have liked to have been at for the first two long offshore legs. I hope that what we have seen in the short legs, and the confidence that we have been able to build, I hope that we can transpose this onto this longer leg and clearly these are the most important legs, these long legs. Yes, obviously we want to have a good result on this type of leg and catch up with the teams ahead of us. There can be some big shake ups with this next leg in the rankings and I hope that the dynamism that we have had since Abu Dhabi and the good results that we had, and the confidence that we in the speed of the boat , will allow us sail even better this time.
"We expect upwind conditions, wind on the nose, for most the time. Not a lot of wind so not necessarily the best conditions for Groupama – but we will see, I think all the boats have been specially optimised for this leg, with the right sails and right weight onboard to be fast in these conditions. We have also done that, it’s not exactly the best leg for us, statistically speaking, as it’s not a leg where the boats are going to go very quickly. But we will see, it will be a very good exercise."
Iker Martinez, skipper, Team Telefónica:
“Finally we can get all of this out of the way. We've got ourselves a Masters in improvising, and loading and unloading yachts onto ships but now we can focus on getting back to sailing and being back on the boat together to fight for the race, which is why we are all here: to sail and to race against the others.”
"The hardest thing over the past few months was without doubt dealing with the changes in schedule. It's very hard to focus on the race when you're being sent here and there...planes, cargo ships, and risky situations for the yachts themselves.”
Mike Sanderson, skipper, Team Sanya:
"It's time to get this show back on the road. It's been a month since we limped into Madagascar and what a month it has been. A lot has been said about all the good work that happened to get the boat back sailing again, since then the guys had a slow but good trip up to Malé in the Maldives. It was always going to be tight from the minute we realised that we had to replace all the side rigging on the mast to make it back to meet the fleet in time for this re-start.
"I don't think I have ever been so amped up to get back out and go racing. We owe it to you all that are reading this and we owe it to ourselves to go and have a decent leg and get this show back on the right track. The boat is great and the team is one of the most wonderful group that I have been involved with, I really can't say enough good things about them. Through thick and thin they have just dug it in and done what needs to be done and some. I am sure we will have a nice leg and gain some momentum from there, so all the efforts can finally reap some rewards."
From : Volvo Ocean Race
