Windless rain clouds have stonewalled PUMA’s eastern course and allowed Team Telefónica to sail around them in the west to claim second place.
In the three hours to 1300 UTC PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG dropped 30 nautical miles on leg leaders Groupama sailing team and had fallen to third position 15 nm behind Telefónica.
Fourth placed CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand were also closing in on PUMA, reveling in stronger winds in the west that were producing average speeds three knots faster than PUMA.
While PUMA struggled Franck Cammas’ Groupama sailing team appeared unable to put a foot wrong and at 1300 UTC they had extended their lead to 150 nm.
PUMA Helmsman Kelvin Harrap said his team felt they had been served a third body blow, having been stymied twice yesterday by massive rain clouds that reduced the wind and PUMA’s boat speed to almost zero at around 1000 UTC.
“We just ran into another big cloud with no wind so we’re parked up,” he said. “It’s not great. We’ve been on the eastern side of the fleet and we’ve picked up more clouds so it hasn’t been very favorable for us.
“We are trying to pass them the best we can using the radar and sailing around the ones we see. Right now we’re in the middle of a bad one, which seems to like us more than any of the others.”
Harrap said the PUMA crew was unsure why they had suffered more than the rest of the fleet but were hoping for better luck as they tried to hold off Chris Nicholson’s fourth place CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand.
“Right now we are just trying to keep the boat moving and sail towards some clear sky,” he said.
“We are excepting some fresh upwind sailing in the next few days and we are trying to decide how to position ourselves in relation to Telefónica and CAMPER.
“We will see what happens in the next 24 hours and how it’s going to pan out.
Wed, 07 Mar 2012, 16:00:57 UTC
1 Groupama 0.00
2 Telefonica 149.50
3 Puma 168.10
4 Camper 211.90
5 Abu Dhabi 322.80
6 Sanya 385.30
From : Volvo Ocean Race
Credit : A.Ross/Puma/VOR
In the three hours to 1300 UTC PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG dropped 30 nautical miles on leg leaders Groupama sailing team and had fallen to third position 15 nm behind Telefónica.
Fourth placed CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand were also closing in on PUMA, reveling in stronger winds in the west that were producing average speeds three knots faster than PUMA.
While PUMA struggled Franck Cammas’ Groupama sailing team appeared unable to put a foot wrong and at 1300 UTC they had extended their lead to 150 nm.
PUMA Helmsman Kelvin Harrap said his team felt they had been served a third body blow, having been stymied twice yesterday by massive rain clouds that reduced the wind and PUMA’s boat speed to almost zero at around 1000 UTC.
“We just ran into another big cloud with no wind so we’re parked up,” he said. “It’s not great. We’ve been on the eastern side of the fleet and we’ve picked up more clouds so it hasn’t been very favorable for us.
“We are trying to pass them the best we can using the radar and sailing around the ones we see. Right now we’re in the middle of a bad one, which seems to like us more than any of the others.”
Harrap said the PUMA crew was unsure why they had suffered more than the rest of the fleet but were hoping for better luck as they tried to hold off Chris Nicholson’s fourth place CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand.
“Right now we are just trying to keep the boat moving and sail towards some clear sky,” he said.
“We are excepting some fresh upwind sailing in the next few days and we are trying to decide how to position ourselves in relation to Telefónica and CAMPER.
“We will see what happens in the next 24 hours and how it’s going to pan out.
Wed, 07 Mar 2012, 16:00:57 UTC
1 Groupama 0.00
2 Telefonica 149.50
3 Puma 168.10
4 Camper 211.90
5 Abu Dhabi 322.80
6 Sanya 385.30
From : Volvo Ocean Race
