Telefonica Blue takes a battering in heavy storms, on leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Singapore to Qingdao, China. Image copyright Gabriele Olivo/Telefonica Blue/Volvo Ocean Race.
by Mark Chisnell
The subtlety of the chess game has been replaced by the misery and physicality of the assault course. Is it going to come down to the last man standing, as the remnants of the fleet embark on a dangerous crossing of the Luzon Strait, while others seek shelter from the storm?
02:00 ZULU - PUMA turned south while leading and headed downwind, they’ve stopped in a bay just south of the town of Vigan - but reported no details on the nature or extent of the presumed damage.
05:30 ZULU – The new leaders, Telefonica Black, pulled out and sheltered by the coast for almost three hours to change to their storm trysail, after reporting that the boat was unmanageable with two reefs in the mainsail. This sail change was before it even started to get properly rough.
07:15 ZULU - Delta Lloyd turned back from the Luzon Strait for the calmer waters of the coast to repair unspecified damage.
08:30 ZULU - Green Dragon, already nursing a damaged rig, followed Delta Lloyd’s lead and headed inshore.
PUMA Ocean Racing, skippered by Ken Read (USA), breaks their boom in over 50 knots of wind and 20 feet high waves, on leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Singapore to Qingdao, China. The crew were able to save two broken sections of the boom and are putting together a jury rig boom with which they intend to continue to race the remaining 1,100 miles. The team have sought shelter in a small harbour in the northern end of the Philippines, where they are waiting until the worst of the storm passes. Image copyright Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race.
10:30 ZULU UPDATE - Skipper Ken Read reports in an audio interview, with Amanda Blackley, that PUMA has a broken boom, and Delta Lloyd have just pulled into the same bay to repair their damage. Delta Lloyd have officially suspended racing to complete their repairs.
At 10:00 ZULU this morning, Telefonica Blue were still going out into the Strait, followed by her sistership Telefonica Black. Behind them, the two Ericsson boats, 4 and 3, were also still sailing upwind, but had not yet reached the northern tip of the Philippine Island of Luzon. That’s where they have to make a decision to leave its shelter and embark on the crossing. Conditions have been horrendous – the graph of Maximum Wave Height (MAX_WV_HGT in the Data Centre) shows peaks of 14 metres for Telefonica Blue, with True Wind Speed (TWS) maximums of almost 50 knots for Telefonica Black.
It’s a fast moving situation, and we will update the damage reports as soon as we hear from the teams. But we can reassure everyone that the reported problems are all with the boats, and that there are no serious injuries in the fleet.
The importance of speed and tactics has faded
Graph of Mean Wave Heights experienced by the fleet. Image copyright Volvo Ocean Race.
The story of the last 24 hours has been one in which the importance of speed and tactics has faded, as boat preservation became the priority. It started to get rough yesterday afternoon GMT, according to navigator Simon Fisher, aboard Telefonica Blue.
Along with PUMA, they had chosen to go north-west on starboard tack after South Rock Light. So it took them longer to get into the sheltering effect of the island of Luzon to the east of them, once the wind increased. In contrast, the leader, Telefonica Black headed inshore immediately after passing the South Rock waypoint. And it does look as though she held off the chasing pair for a little longer as a result of that decision.
But once they all got close to the coast, both Telefonica Blue and PUMA started to grind down the deficit (more than you can say for the British economy), and PUMA eventually passed Telefonica Black to take the lead at the 22:00 ZULU Position Report last night. They had settled into a pattern – sailing close to the shore, tacking up the beaches of north Luzon. Some of the maneuvers only five miles or half an hour apart – not much when you consider what’s involved.
By that time, Rick Deppe, the Media Crew aboard PUMA, was reporting tough conditions , as the leading trio held their advantage of 20 to 30 miles on the rest of the fleet. Behind them, Ericsson 3 skipper, Magnus Olsson’s nails suffered a worse fate than the finger-chewing frustration of their decision to split from the fleet and go east last week. Medic Richard Mason had to fix one of them for him when he stuck his finger in the runner winch - don’t read this if you’re squeamish, eating, or have a thing about nails screeching down blackboards...
Meanwhile, aboard Ericsson 4, David Endean described for Guy Swindells conditions of 25 knots of wind speed and two metre waves – but as Endean anticipated, it was about to get a whole lot worse - reckoning he’d rather be aboard his boat than any other in the fleet...
By this time tomorrow, they should be through the worst of it.
Graph of True Wind Speeds experienced by the fleet. Image copyright Volvo Ocean Race.
Endurance through the next 24 hours will likely determine the results of this leg. And it isn’t going to be subtle or tactical. The latest weather analysis from Race Forecaster, Jennifer Lilly, predicted ‘challenging conditions’ - and the fleet have got them. If there is some good news, it’s that by this time tomorrow, they should be through the worst of it.
Today’s Predicted Route shows that those that can keep sailing will have reached the southern tip of Taiwan by this time tomorrow. By then, their breeze ought to have moderated to 20-25 knots – but at the risk of sounding like a stuck record, if they put the boats in the strongest current flow (east of Taiwan), where the sea state is worst, then the risk of breakages will remain. At least until they get clear of the north end of the island in a couple of days time.
But just to show that the Dragon Kings do have a sense of irony – it now looks like this rough, upwind endurance test will be concluded with at least 24 hours of light to moderate downwind sailing. Maybe they aren’t going to need all that cold weather clothing after all...
The TEN ZULU REPORT (so called because it follows the 10:00 GMT fleet position report, and Zulu is the meteorologist's name for GMT).
Volvo Ocean Race
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