With less than 48 hours before the start of a difficult leg to Sanya. Robert Greenhalgh talks about the days ahead.
Putting the wheels back on
To be honest, the first few months of the Volvo Ocean Race have been hard to take. The dismast out of Alicante was a terrible start and the poor results in Leg 2 was difficult to swallow. However, the team has dug deep and been very positive about how to put things right. The whole team has put in a tremendous amount of effort and thought and scoring maximum points for the inshore race in Abu Dhabi and the sprint to Sharjah were tremendously satisfying and we feel that although we are effectively a leg behind the lead, the wheels are back on.
The pressure was on for the in port race, especially with a downwind light airs start. We had made a decision to go left away from the shore and when we saw that there were a lot of VIP boats to the right of the course causing a few potential problems, we committed to the left and made it to the top mark first. We didn’t sail a perfect race, far from it and there is much room for improvement but it was great to win inshore in our homeport and give the locals something to cheer about.
23,000 people turned out at the prize giving in the event village and the racing got huge exposure on TV and newspapers. Our sponsors want to put Abu Dhabi on the world map and hopefully last week we did just that. It is fascinating for me to see sailing develop in Abu Dhabi. The country have all the raw ingredients; great sailing conditions, super facilities and the means and determination to stage world events.
The start of Leg 3 was a 100-mile sprint to Sharjah and we knew the start would be crucial. After the initial course around the buoys there would be little opportunity for passing lanes on the reach up to the finish. The start looked good but with just a few boats lengths to the line, the decision was taken that we would scrub speed as we were too early. Telefonica came in with speed and were in a dominant position. But we fought back and managed to claw our way up to second, making good gains on mark roundings with slick work and intelligent lines and as we headed off for the sprint, we were right on the heels of Telefonica with the rest of the boats some distance behind. The northwesterly kicked in and the fast running conditions suited us more than Telefonica and we managed to pass them and hold the lead for the win.
We are not kidding ourselves, we are still way behind the leaders and we need to improve our performance for the race to Sanya. We have won a couple of battles that is all but I have to say that we were delighted to give Abu Dhabi something to cheer about. There is plenty more racing before we get to Galway in July.
All the best
Rob
Horses for Courses
Leg 2 was very different to what people were expecting. Early on we all got stuck against a weather front, which were bumping into for five or six days and we didn’t come out to well because of it.
We nearly got through the front a few times but the wind died and the front just sucked us back up again. If we had stopped trying to get through to the north and headed south, the further east we would have got but every time we tried to get through we were just coughing up miles. In the end south paid, Groupama got round it there and it also disintegrated there, so being the most northerly boat, we fell into everybody else’s line. Also, the breeze died on us as the rest of the fleet got through. We had no breeze for about six hours, while the fleet sailed away in the new pressure and that kind of sealed our fate. It’s what happens and we have learnt from it.
We are starting to see the variation in performance from sail design; everybody has their sweet spots at certain angles. I don’t think we are as powerful as other teams in power reaching but we already knew that. Groupama are exceptionally fast close reaching, in the short sprint finish they sailed from the back of the fleet to the front in a 80ยบ True drag race but everything is a trade and I suspect we are a bit more optimized than others for downwind. In the short run to the finish we made significant gains, which was very encouraging. Everyone will have their day, what it will boil down to is who has the most days.
Having said all of that I think that we are strong at many different angles and wind speeds and I certainly wouldn’t say the winner of Leg 2 did it on boat speed, not at all. Leg 2 was all about tactics and strategy.
Leg 3 to Sanya could be a feisty leg, hopefully it will be a bit benign passed Singapore but going along the coast of Vietnam, historically it can get very rough with a big sea state for a good few days. It is too far away to predict, we will just have to see what comes.
Right now, Abu Dhabi is buzzing. The whole city is talking about the Volvo Ocean Race and it is all over the TV and Radio, which is great. The Race Village is amazing, it is the best one I have seen over the last three races, Abu Dhabi are putting on a really good show.
All the best
Robert
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