Perhaps it is because we are more exposed to media from the UK, Australia and the US that Telefonica was hardly talked about before the Volvo Ocean Race. We heard about the might of Emirates Team NZ backing Camper, we heard about the sports marketing bucks behind PUMA and we heard about the force that would be Ian Walker, backed by Abu Dhabi money.
But with three legs having been raced, the Spanish team have 3 from 3 and the boat seems to perform just as well in the tricky light winds of the Malacca Straights as it does in heavy Atlantic conditions.
Team Telefónica won a third stage victory in the Volvo Ocean Race on Saturday. Less than nine hours separated the top five teams at the finish of the 3,051 nautical mile (nm) leg from the Maldives to Sanya in China.
Telefónica crossed the line at 03:58:22 UTC, with an elapsed time of 12 days 19 hours 58 minutes 21 seconds to take 24 points and become the first boat since Peter Blake’s Steinlager 2 in 1989-90 to sweep the first three legs.
Groupama sailing team came in second, giving them 20 points, while CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand took the third podium place and 16 points. PUMA Ocean Racing picked up 12 points for fourth, with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing coming in fifth and taking eight points.
Telefónica navigator Andrew Cape said:
“It’s one of the toughest legs I’ve done. Mentally it was very difficult, tactically very difficult. Physically it wasn’t as tough as a long southern ocean leg but mentally it was really hard. I’m feeling really exhausted and I just want to have a beer.”
Franck Cammas’ from Groupama agreed:
Cammas said the final part of the second stage of the leg had been punishing for the French crew.
“We had many manoeuvres all the time. In the last 48 hours we did 24 tacks and each tack on a Volvo Open 70 is very hard. All the crew have to be awake. The fight was very good with the others. I think Telefónica is very fast in these conditions, so all the time they gain a little bit in distance because of their speed. It was a good opportunity to test our boat with Telefónica and the leading boats. We improved a lot in the tuning of Groupama so it was very good for us.”
Skipper Chris Nicholson from CAMPEr confessed to being disappointed with third place after a tactical call in the Malacca Strait saw them lose touch with the leaders:
“We thought and expected to do better than third to be honest but it’s a difficult race we’re entered into with the best professional teams in the world. We got on the wrong side of a thunderstorm in the Malacca Strait. The other guys went to the Indonesian shore line and we couldn’t get there.That was pretty much the ball game there and then. We left the Singapore Strait in fifth so we’re happy to have got back to third. We thought we were a lot better than fifth. To finish third is good, it’s a good positive for us to finish on.
Ken Read’s PUMA Ocean racing powered by BERG also made some strategic decisions that cost them:
“I think, the whole world knows our most defining moment was choosing an easterly course on the last bit from the Malacca Strait to Sanya. It didn’t work and I put my hand up for that. At the end of the day that’s my call. I have to look at myself in the mirror over these decisions. We have to sit down and figure out better ways to handle these situations. I’m not in anyway going to turn my back on these decisions, but at the same time we take calculated risks.
Ian Walker’s Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing closed out the top five:
“Certainly in the first week and in the last few days there has been a lot of straight line and boat speed sailing. A lot of light wind and up wind. We just crossed the miles off and we are glad to be here. The Malacca Strait is always busy although this time it was nowhere near as bad as it could have been. We had one hard night along the Vietnamese coast with a succession of tacks, but other than that I would say it was relatively easy on the bodies. The margins are very small. The difference between us and Telefónica is one or two per cent. We sailed pretty well, we just didn’t have the legs to keep up with the leaders.”
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