The ferociousness of the Southern Ocean has flexed its mighty muscle as the majority of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet experienced Chinese gybes overnight.
– Trip to the deep-south danger zone in VOR fifth leg
– Volvo Ocean Race facing rough seas as Leg Five advances
Four of the six boats suffered big hits and toppled over briefly as the deadly southern sea gave the fleet its roughest ride of the race in 12 dramatic hours.
A Chinese gybe is an accidental gybe caused by either strong wind or big waves. It forces the main sail to slam over, the boat to end up in the water, with the keel on the wrong side keeping it on its side.
Team SCA, Dongfeng Race Team and Mapfre suffered Chinese gybes between Monday to Tuesday, while Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing experienced two gybes in one night, although they still managed to hang onto second place.
ADOR endured a drama-filled night, reporting a “night of two gybes: a wild one in pitch black with a massive wipe-out and then a ‘controlled’ one at 30 knots”.
On-board reporter Matt Knighton admitted that the crew had been pushing Azzam hard, and almost “wiped out”, due to the tactical race to Cape Horn heating up.
“We’ve been pushing the boat hard, admittedly on the verge of out of control all-day, attempting to thread the needle between speed and keeping the boat together,” he wrote in his daily blog yesterday.
“On our first gybe last night (Monday) we wiped out – broached in the darkness trying to gybe with the spinnaker up.”
“It’s a double edged sword”, added skipper Ian Walker.
“On the one hand if you push it hard and get away with it you can take big miles – you can’t take 10 miles a sked in light winds but you can in strong winds.
“Then again, if you push it too hard you can’t finish the leg so the stakes are high.”
Damage was still being assessed in the aftermath of the incidents, although Dongfeng appeared to have avoided any serious problems with their boat.
REAL TIME FOOTAGE AS UNCONTROLLED CHINESE GYBE KNOCKS DOWN DONGFENG https://t.co/oOyveE916A … @volvooceanrace #VOR
— Dongfeng Race Team (@DongfengRacing) March 24, 2015
Chinese race rookie Liu Xue described the incident as like a scene from Titanic.
“It felt like I was on the Titanic when that happened,” he said. “I kept thinking ‘no, it’s going to be bad.’ But I calmed down quickly. Hopefully it’s not going to happen that often, otherwise I’m not sure if my heart is strong enough.”
Charles Caudrelier’s Dongfeng were first to reveal a Chinese gybe on Monday afternoon.
On-board reporter Yann Riou reported: “It took two to three hours to sort out the mess, the boat was on her side, we took 300 litres of water in to the boat through an air vent.”
French skipper Caudrelier added: “We paid a heavy price in terms of miles lost to our competitors [about 30], but I confess that despite that I am a happy skipper even after the incident.
“Why? All my men are onboard, the crew did an extraordinary job, and we haven’t broken anything, or damaged any sails.”
Spanish boat Mapfre, winners of leg four from Sanya to Auckland, then reported a third Chinese gybe, which happened just before midnight. There was no immediate news from the Spanish boat regarding damage sustained.
Team SCA became the third team to report of being upended, at around 09:00 UAE time yesterday, the all-women team’s OBR Anna-Lena Elled reported.
“We ended up on the side for maybe two to four minutes before slowly getting back in the right position,” she told VOR race HQ.
All four boats were still able to continue sailing.
In fact, despite the scares, the fleet in general has reduced the gap to leg five leaders Team Brunel, who were keeping a 14 nautical mile gap between themselves and ADOR at 20:30 UAE time last night (Tuesday).
Mapfre were five miles further back in third, with Team Alvimedica another five miles adrift in fourth.
Dongfeng, in fifth, were 25 miles behind Charlie Enright’s men, while SCA were 132 miles off the lead of Brunel.
