Other Sports December 2008

All at sea

Cape Town turns out in force for Volvo Ocean Race

By John MacDonald in Cape Town

John MacDonald

Everything in Cape Town that could float seemed to be occupying the waters of Table Bay. From heavily-armed naval vessels to rubber dinghies, power cruisers to multi-hulls under sail, even a brave soul standing upright on a surfboard and using a broomstick as a paddle...

That’s the effect the Volvo Ocean Race has on people – even in the Tavern of the seas, a city with salt water in its veins and centuries of maritime heritage.

Capetonians tend not to get over-excited about events on the water, but this was no routine occasion and they turned out in force to watch the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race get under way.

Under the gaze of the vast spectator armada and a swarm of helicopters buzzing in the sky, the eight yachts had a foretaste of what they would expect on their 4,450 nautical mile race to Cochin in India... strong winds, heavy seas, and flat calm.

Before the off, Andreas Hanakamp, skipper of Team Russia summed up the atmosphere among the crews on the dockside: “You can never come to this place for long enough, but let’s set the horses loose. We are here to race, so let’s race.”

After saying their goodbyes and spending a few precious minutes with their families, the race fleet assembled in Table Bay, jockeying for position on the start line as the minutes ticked down to the signal gun being fired.

Puma (Ken Read/USA) judged the gun to perfection, scorching off the start line, her huge red masthead gennaker set and going like a freight train.

With water pouring over the deck and a small number four jib working as a staysail set underneath the gennaker, Puma blazed away from Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA), followed by Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR) in third position. Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) was up with the pack, while Delta Lloyd with new skipper, Roberto Bermudez/ESP made a disappointing start.

Unfurling their big headsail first, Green Dragon benefited from good speed in her position down to leeward of the fleet, while some of the other teams struggled to manage these huge, unwieldy sails.
Torben Grael’s Ericsson 4, flying a more conservative fractional gennaker, was sucked up under Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) in the big chop, whipped up by the wind and the armada of spectator boats.

But Puma had made the right choice of sail and almost laid the first mark before the crew hauled in canvas shortly before rounding the first of three marks on the triangular course.

Puma continued to streak away in winds topping 30 knots, opening up a healthy lead, while Torben Grael took Ericsson 4 outside a large container ship sailing hot and fast with slightly eased sheets.

But, instead of leaving the fleet standing as promised, halfway down the final leg, Puma came to almost a complete standstill as the wind dropped and the fleet compressed, surfing up behind in typical Cape Town fluky conditions.

Code Zeros were hastily unfurled as wind dropped to almost nothing and it was a frustrating time for the crews who were very aware that whoever found the breeze first would make a huge gain.

This race has been won and lost in this bay before, and to be first out of Cape Town could make all the difference.

The race became a drifting match, with the fleet desperate to find any breeze at all. Puma ran into problems trying to unfurl their Code Zero, needing three men on the bow to fix the problem and, in the end, dropping the sail to the deck.

Delta Lloyd, to leeward of the fleet, looked well placed for the new breeze, and might well have picked the right path through the glassy calm. Ericsson 4 led Puma and Green Dragon, but were not safe at all. Although Puma was furthest off shore, Telefónica Blue was rock-hopping along the coast, hoping to sneak round the fleet and catch the strong south-westerly breeze offshore as they headed for the Southern Ocean and days of cold and wet hard-sailing eastward before heading north towards India.

The start set the tone for a dramatic first week to this leg, Many of the eight-strong fleet suffered damage in the big and confused seas caused by the Algulhas current, a notoriously rough stretch of water – only to be becalmed in the Doldrums as they gybed northward.