Volvo Ocean Race- Close racing and tricky conditions for Puma

by Puma Ocean Racing on 26 Feb 2009
It has been an eventful week for the Puma Ocean Racing team, who are presently a quarter of the way through the longest leg of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09, from Qingdao, China to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Whilst the incredibly close racing continues, with just 26 miles separating the top three boats; Puma, Ericsson 3 and Ericsson 4, the Puma Ocean Racing team are battling with tricky sailing conditions in the Doldrums area just south of the equator. In between squall showers, the Puma team had a double celebration this week in crossing the equator and the youngest member of the team, Michi Mueller (GER) becoming a father for the first time.

Very few boats have ever raced through this region of the Pacific Ocean before, a new route for the Volvo Ocean Race. Safely back in the southern hemisphere and currently heading towards the tropical islands of Fiji, the fleet will soon cross the date line and enter the western hemisphere, a further milestone in this epic 12,300 mile leg.

Skipper Ken Read (USA) commented on the close racing: 'You would think that some day we would have nice ‘ocean passage sailing’. But as always, we and our competitors are all sailing in a tiny little space in the ocean. It never fails in this race. There always seems to be a boat in sight. And we are in the middle of nowhere! How does this happen? Ericsson 3 has been our companion for three days now. Two days ago they sailed into our world after we got out of a squall into some lighter air. We then started a 48 hour flat out drag race and slowly pulled out a very hard earned four mile lead, only to have it evaporate late last night in one squall. We slowed to 11 knots, they came roaring up at 20 knots and it has been game on ever since. They get one, we get one. Each squall is usually accompanied by a a sail-changing frenzy with a bit of commotion on deck.'

Regarding the onboard celebrations: 'We officially celebrated Michi becoming a Dad and the equator crossing all in one shot. Out came the cigars that [Jerry] Kirby (USA) stashed away and a bit of rum and coke that Justin [Ferris, NZL] had buried in the sailmaking kit (courtesy of our enterprising young sailmakers Scoob and Tom who put the rum in a small bottle and labelled it ‘sewing machine oil’!). Michi immediately claimed that cigars were not a tradition in Germany but rum and coke may as well be and went that route. Jerry [Kirby, USA], Erle [Williams, NZL], Sid [Gavignet, FRA] and I went for the cigars. If you think about it, that half hour on deck was the only time the entire crew may be on deck together barring a sail change or a serious situation. Never are we all on deck together just to hang out. 11 guys enjoying each other and relaxing for a minute in the middle of a fairly high stress environment. Now we are back at it again. This race is just getting started.'

Leg five of the Volvo Ocean Race is expected to take 35 – 40 days to complete. The Volvo Ocean Race is made up of ten legs, finishing in June 2009 in St. Petersburg, Russia. By joining the race, Puma has entered a new premium category and is the only Sportlifestyle company to participate in the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09. For more information about the race, team and the Puma Sailing collections, please visit www.pumaoceanracing.com

PUMA LEG FIVE DAY 12 QFB: received 25.02.09 1052 GMT

Sailing along through the Micronesian Islands of the South Pacific, I got a nasty awakening this morning as I was rolled out of my bunk without warning. Fortunately I landed in the stack below me, but the boat was tipped over at such an angle that if you didn't know what was going on you might think the boat was about to capsize.

We’d been hit by another line squall; they appear to be quite prevalent in this part of the world and seem to have some teeth as well. Once the call has been made that we are about to get hit the crew has to react quickly to make the boat safe - wind speeds in a squall can easily double or increase by 20 knots. I could hear the guys on deck running around as they got the big jib down and put up a smaller sail, then a minute later, the reef starts to go in, I can feel the boat accelerating and then go quiet as the helmsman turns downwind so that the guys can make the manoeuvre safely. The squall has generated a sloppy wave pattern and the boat starts to crash and bump because the waves are disorganised and random. This particular squall was a real beauty and lasted about two hours.

The first indication that you are going to get nailed by a line squall will be a general darkening and thickening of the clouds to weather, therefore if you’re reaching and you see some activity at about 45 degrees off the windward bow, you need to start getting prepared. The leading edge of the squall comes with a pretty high probability of a significant wind-shift. You will observe high black cloud above you and light rain will start to fall, this lasts for about five minutes and is generally followed by a short pause in the rain, which may be accompanied by possible clearing of the clouds. This break will only be for a few minutes before the large drops start to fall from the puffy nimbus clouds that make up the body of the squall.

Once in the squall, the rain will be torrential, and I mean torrential. It's really quite fun. Because the water is so cool and clean it provides a great chance for a shower and generally speaking the on-deck watch has to work around the off watch guys streaming out of the hatch clutching shower gel.

There's a lot of space for interpretation of both line squall theory and on the water observation. Trust me.... everyone has his own theory of line squall theory, and everybody observes the outcome of a squall in their own special way.

Rick Deppe MCM