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Six hours into the third leg of the Volvo Ocean Race and there is divided opinion among the fleet as to the best choice of routing – inshore or offshore – as they make good their escape from Cochin.
By the 16:00 Position Report there was a seven-mile separation between both parties and there is less than seven miles between first and last with just over 100 miles of the 1,950-mile sprint to Singapore wiped off.
The fleet is making steady progress at around 12 knots of boatspeed. The lead bunch, positioned offshore, is headed by PUMA who have Telefonica Blue, the Ericsson twins and Delta Lloyd for company.
Bernard Stamm, SUI, (Cheminées Poujoulat) is the latest skipper to report problems, not 24 hours after the keel damage of his compatriot Dominique Wavre.
That regular maxim trotted out by skippers, teams and media during the pre-race months is never more applicable now. ‘To finish first, first you have to finish.’
PUMA still lead the main offshore group, as the sea breeze starts to fade – ten knots or less for everyone now. Ericsson 3 and Telefonica Blue have made a move further offshore, but it doesn’t seem to have paid, and they have slipped back.
Team Russia’s inshore route is giving them an advantage on the leaderboard, as they are closer to the course south, but it remains to be seen whether that converts into a real advantage on the water.
The whole fleet has tightened together, less than three miles between PUMA at the front, and Green Dragon at the back.
The gates opened and they came in the thousands. Some two hours later the queues to get into the race village are still snaking for hundreds of metres down the road.
When the time came for the sailors to be paraded through the crowds and down to the pontoons, it made for one of the most spectacular departure ceremonies this event has ever seen.
The Indian people, while unfamiliar with this race and its history, have shown incredible enthusiasm on this first visit to Asia. They pressed deep into the passage walked by the sailors and, with arms waving and voices coarse, mobbed the crews and took pictures as they walked one-by-one to their boats.
The stakes are high going into the third leg, but Ken Read is keeping his money safely tucked away in his pocket.
“If I were a betting man I’d steer right away from this one,” said the PUMA skipper. “I absolutely could not pick a favourite for this leg.”
They were sentiments repeated over and again by each of the skippers as droves of Indian media turned their spotlights on the Cochin race village.
The skipper reported that he is safe and sound, but says that the keel is now swinging free under the boat.
The keel head is the top part of the keel blade located inside the boat. Connected to two hydraulic rams, it is the lever that enables the keel to be canted to one side or the other of the boat.
A little motivational spur, not that he was in need of any more mental drive, was provided yesterday by a prolonged call from the freezing wastes of the Indian Ocean to a Mike Golding/ Ecover/Vendee Globe themed activities morning at his five year old son’s Soren’s school in Warsash, Hampshire may have added an extra edge which propelled the British skipper into second place this morning.
On a warm, clear evening, the Volvo Ocean Race celebrated its own and paid tribute to what has been a spectacular stopover. With thousands in the race village to join in the celebrations, this was a memorable prize-giving ceremony.
As for the awards themselves, for the second consecutive occasion, Ericsson 4 scored the double, earning not just the leg win, but the highest 24-hour run (522 nautical miles) on the leg as well. Skipper Torben Grael said it wasn’t easy.
With the dismasting of Loïck Peyron’s Gitana Eighty on their minds, there is no sign of any obvious let up in the intensity of the battle among the leaders of the Vendée Globe this morning.
Some 430 miles west of the Kerguelen Islands, deep in the south Indian Ocean, there is now less than 40 miles between the leading five boats as Jean-Pierre Dick makes a small gain to lead by 30.4 miles from Roland Jourdain who is up to second place again.
Loïck Peyron, who had already fully endorsed his ranking as one of the popular favourites to win this Vendée Globe, reported to the Course Direction early this afternoon that he had dismasted at between 1300hrs and 1315hrs UTC.
The solo skipper, who had lead the pack down the Atlantic for 16 days, was down below in his Farr designed Gitana Eighty studying meteo information when he heard a very loud bang. When he got in deck his immediate fears were realized when he found his mast in three or four pieces.