Volvo Ocean Race
Franck Cammas : "To finish third in Itajai isn’t too bad"
mardi 10 avril 2012 –
Toutes les versions de cet article : [English] [français]
23 days 12 hours 58 minutes and 44 seconds : such is the final race time for this leg between Auckland and Itajai, via Cape Horn. For the actual time at sea, you have to deduct 61 hours 46 minutes of suspended racing following Groupama 4’s dismasting, just as she had gained the upper hand over the Americans on Puma, offshore of Rio de la Plata. As such, it’s a huge relief for all the shore team and sailing team to have managed to recover the whole of the rig and to have rebuilt a new spar so as to cover the remaining 650 miles between Punta del Este and Itajai.
A deserved podium place
Franck Cammas and his crew perfectly negotiated the trickiest and toughest part of the Volvo Ocean Race by being the first to round Cape Horn, after enduring over eight days of an extremely long and violent austral storm. The climb up the Argentinean coast was the opportunity for an intense and superb duel between the French and the American boats. Indeed for four days, Groupama 4 and Puma were continually jockeying for position at the head of the race, where they were sailing within sight of each other ! And whilst the two VO-70s were beginning the final sprint to the finish offshore of Uruguay, together with a Spanish crew who had performed a dazzling comeback after a pit stop behind Cape Horn, Groupama 4’s mast broke just below the first set of spreaders…
This incredible suspense was cut short at that point as Franck Cammas and his men suspended racing to make for Punta del Este to effect repairs. In a little less than three days, the shore team had managed to recover and adapt the upper section of spar to assemble an 18m-high jury rig. In this way, Groupama 4 was able to complete this fifth leg and secure third place, Sanya and Abu Dhabi having retired due to damage and Camper having had to make a pit stop in Chile to reinforce her bow. In fact the latter is just about to round Cape Horn (early on Wednesday) as Groupama 4 was making it into Itajai…
Franck Cammas, skipper of Groupama 4
“To finish third in Itajai isn’t too bad, even though we had slightly higher, more fulfilling ambitions a week ago than to finish the leg under jury rig ! This result enables us to remain in contact with the leaders in the overall standing, since the Spanish are just twenty points ahead. It remains a big disappointment, but part of that sentiment has been erased by the work the shore team and the sailing team did in Punta del Este. We can be proud of what we’ve achieved and I think we’ve come out all the stronger from this.
Heroes ? We’re not heroes. I just hope that we’re good sailors… We’re still in a positive phase and as skipper, I won’t have any difficulty in remotivating the crew for the next leg. We still have some very clear and very ambitious objectives : we’re going to rig up our spare mast, which is due to arrive in Brazil soon. We’ve proven during this tough leg that we’ve sailed well and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t perform just as well in the next stage…”
Info presse www.cammas-groupama.com/fr/
Classement de la cinquième étape Auckland-Itajai
- 1-Puma (Ken Read) : 19j 18h 09’ 50
- 2- Telefonica (Iker Martinez) : 19j 18h 22’ 28
- 3- Groupama 4 (Franck Cammas) : 23j 12h 58’ 44
- 4- Camper (Chris Nicholson) : à 2 100 milles de l’arrivée
- Abandon : Abu Dhabi (Ian Walker)
- Abandon : Sanya (Mike Sanderson)
Classement général après cinq étapes océaniques et cinq régates « in-port »
- 1-Telefonica (Iker Martinez) : 1+30+6+29+2+27+6+20+1+25 = 147 points
- 2-Groupama 4 (Franck Cammas) : 2+20+2+18+5+24+2+30+4+20 = 127 points
- 3-Camper (Chris Nicholson) : 4+25+5+24+4+18+3+15+6+15* = 119 points
- 4-Puma (Ken Read) : 5+0+4+19+3+17+5+25+5+30 = 113 points
- 5-Abu Dhabi (Ian Walker) : 6+0+3+10+6+14+4+10+2+0 = 55 points
- 6-Sanya (Mike Sanderson) : 3+0+1+5+2+5+1+5+3+0 = 25 points
*Sous réserve que Camper termine cette cinquième étape.
Dans la même rubrique
Volvo Ocean Race : First leg win for Ken Read 15 minutes ahead spanish team
Volvo Ocean Race : Franck Cammas : "this dismasting takes away a fair old dose of our chances for outright victory"
Volvo Ocean Race : Cammas and crew round Cape Horn ahead
Volvo Ocean Race : Franck Cammas : "We hit 32 knots in one surf"