Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (ADOR) regained the lead in the Volvo Ocean Race yesterday morning after leaders Dongfeng Race Team broke their rudder.
The Chinese boat hit an unidentified object and lost the lead, but replaced the decimated part and they were soon back on the trail of Ian Walker’s crew.
The problem enabled Azzam to take the lead but Dongfeng rectified the damage to keep hold of second place.
At 05:00 UAE time, ADOR were second but 18.2 nautical miles off the Chinese leaders.
Shorty afterwards, Dongfeng’s problems hit and ADOR took full advantage, opening up an 8.4nm gap at one stage, although Dongfeng clawed that back again to 5.9 at around 20:00 UAE time.
Dongfeng’s onboard reporter Yann Riou said: “We had two opt-ions, installing the emergency rudder or removing what was left of the old rudder and putting the new one in place. We decided to go for the second option.
“Thomas (Rouxel) put the diving suit on. He jumped into the water, removed what was left from the old rudder (not much), and we put the new one in place.”
It has not been all plain sailing for Walker’s Abu Dhabi crew either. They reported narrowly missing a net yesterday afternoon but the winds were so light that they were able to take evasive action.
Team Brunel and Team SCA were not so lucky and were held up briefly after debris caught in their keels.
“There’s an age old saying: exp-ect the unexpected. It pretty much sums up offshore sailing,” says Team SCA’s on-board reporter Corinna Halloran.
“We just took a huge fishing net from a boat from Senegal or Mauritania, an African fishing boat,” said British skipper Sam Davies.
“Thankfully, they did the right manoeuvre. They went in the right direction not to tangle the net around our keel.”
The Dutch boat, meanwhile, even had to send a swimmer into the water to dive down to remove a strip of rubber from their keel.
After a week at sea, the close quarters the ships had encountered in the first few days has changed somewhat, with 71nm separating ADOR and seventh placed SCA.
The seven-strong fleet was exp-ected to arrive in Cape Town at the beginning of November but they may be delayed after light winds in the Atlantic held up their progress.
“I keep wondering if this is going to become like basketball, where you watch 38 minutes of a close game to get to the last two minutes when there’s this intense finish,” said Azzam skipper Walker.
ADOR’s on-board reporter Matt Knighton has been lightening the load with his blog entries, describing life on-board a Volvo Ocean 65 as “anything but glamorous”.
“When you’ve been constantly gybing down the Sahara for three days with six other teams in close proximity, time to rest is at a premium.
“Two hours without a gybe? Probably not. Four hours where you don’t need to hop up on deck? Unheard of.”
For the crew, trying to stay at the front of the fleet has meant a few changes in routine.
“Meal times have turned to modified grazing and sleeping really is just resting with one eye open waiting for Ian to poke his head down and yell, “gybing guys!
“Then it’s out of your bunk and on deck in whatever clothes you’ve got on… or not got on.”
