Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing skipper Ian Walker might just have to rethink his leg three race strategy after long-time leaders Dongfeng Race Team were pegged back in the Volvo Ocean Race on Tuesday.
Walker had pretty much admitted defeat in the hunt for first place in leg three of the VOR after the Chinese/French team’s advantage had stretched to 106 nautical miles at one point on Monday.
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The 44-year-old said there is still plenty to play for in the third leg, with ADOR, Mapfre, Team Alvimedica and Team Brunel all switching opportunities to take second place in the last week.
Despite their dominance in this leg, Dongfeng entered the 500 mile stretch of the Malacca Strait on Monday, separating Malaysia and Sumatra, where among other hazards, the winds are notoriously fickle.
While Dongfeng found themselves parked up on Monday night in four knots of wind, the rest of the chasing pack were closing the gap rapidly, buoyed by 10 knots of wind.
Indeed, by 11:00 UAE time on Tuesday morning, ADOR had moved from fourth place to second and were just 16 miles off first place.
Walker said: “The principal issue is the fact that the monsoon winds don’t get through in the middle of the Strait so you rely on very fickle winds and local breezes to get you through the central part.
“It means you need to pick a side, the Indonesia side or the Malaysian side, and right now in the last hour we’ve committed to going to the Malaysian side.”
Prior to the significant change in the leg, Walker said he was concentrating on trying to finish second and hoping Dongfeng slipped up.
“We’re having a pretty good race,” said Walker.
“Dongfeng got ahead in the first few days of the leg and they’ve just extended and extended their lead.
“Never say never, the weather might trip them up, but at the moment the focus is on the battle for second place.”
The weather did in fact catch Charles Caudrelier’s men up and the battle for victory in the race to Sanya is now tantalisingly poised, with the Strait also throwing up many other issues for the fleet to deal with.
The Strait is considered the busiest shipping lane in the world, littered with huge tankers and dozens of tiny fishing vessels, as well as, bizarrely enough, litter.
In past races, navigators and helmsmen have found themselves dodging discarded refrigerators and rusting washing machines, with a collision with such a hazard at speed potentially causing considerable damage to a Volvo Ocean 65.
Walker added: “There’s fishing nets and boats, particularly as you get further up the strait, although that’s not such a problem in the day, it’s at night-time along with the debris in the water.
“We hit something pretty solid on Sunday night, but no idea what it was. We don’t seem to have damaged anything.”
At 17:00 on Tuesday, ADOR were still in second but had fell back to 29nm off Dongfeng. Team SCA, in sixth position, were only 55nm off the lead though.
