Leg 3 has long promised to be as hazardous a stage in the Volvo Ocean Race as we’ll see, but no-one figured it would be quite so tricky from the get-go.
Credit : S Greenfield
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s skipper Ian Walker has told us repeatedly how sorry he’ll be to leave his home part, but that didn’t stop him showing the rest of the fleet a clean pair of heels as they took the honours to lead it out of port and into the Indian Ocean.
Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA) led the chasing pack with Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR), boosted so much by their In-Port Race victory 24 hours earlier, progressing nicely behind them.
For Team Vestas Wind skipper Chris Nicholson (AUS) and his crew there must have been very mixed feelings as they waved their rivals farewell for the 4,642 nautical mile (nm) trip to Sanya which will take about three weeks to complete.
Nicholson’s boat is now targeted for a major repair job culminating in their hoped-for return to the race for the final two legs from Lisbon from June 7 following their grounding on a reef in the middle of the Indian Ocean during Leg 2.
“The toughest moment for us will be the first night of the leg,” Australian skipper Chris Nicholson told a news conference on the eve of the departure to Sanya in Hainan Island, the southern-most point of China.
“That’s when you really know you’re in an offshore race. But we have a new target now – to concentrate on repairing our boat to return to the race.”
This leg promises to be demanding all the way but particularly during the Malacca Strait, which separates the Indonesian island of Sumatra and Malaysia.
At some stages, it narrows to 1.5nm and is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.
“It’s the most challenging part of the whole race,” Team Alvimedica navigator Will Oxley (AUS) told us on the eve of the leg.
“I'm pretty happy dealing with big waves and strong winds, but the complexity of dealing with a narrow channel and a very large amount of shipping is what causes the problems."
"Some 300ft of steel coming at you at 20 knots is always concerning, particularly if you haven't got much control over your speed if there's not much wind.
“Then you have squalls, very violent squalls in the night, and there's lots of fishermen who are not showing navigation lights and have long nets. You can get tangled in the nets, or worse still, run someone over. So it's very stressful."
credit : W Little
News : Team Vestas Wind will be rejoining the race by repairing the boat, "large portions of the deck can be reused"
http://scanvoileinenglish.blogspot.fr/2015/01/volvooceanrace-team-vestas-wind-will-be.htmlFrom Volvo Ocean Race
