Tight angles matter in a wide open Volvo Ocean Race as Leg 6 shows

Azzam slipped only briefly, went from top to bottom but have since bounced back. Osman Samiuddin writes about the small margins and responses to adversity.

Leg 6 of the race from Itajai, Brazil, to Newport, United States, has been full of challenging situations. Matt Knighton / ADOR

No Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) is ever without moments of adversity, so it was a matter of when, not if, Azzam would face their first major setback.

This time last week, it finally arrived.

Their progress as race leaders has been relatively smooth.

They won the toughest leg of the race, one in which to finish in one piece was an achievement. They have a podium finish to show for every leg and have not had any major damage to the boat.

Their sails are better preserved than many other boats and even their crew changes have gone off smoothly.

Things had gone so well, it was a little unnerving.

Last week, as they led out of Itajai at the start of Leg 6 to Newport, they got on the wrong side of a cloud line.

To make matters worse, they did so at just the wrong time, when higher winds would push those who had not made that mistake farther away.

With alarming swiftness, they slipped into last place.

“Four [nautical] miles became 10, become 20,” skipper Ian Walker said.

Walker wrote the crew should be prepared to finish at least 20nm behind if not more.

But Walker is indefatigable and he saw it as an opportunity for his crew to respond – and they did.

At a point in the leg where the race, in Walker’s words, turns into a procession for the leaders, Azzam clawed back the deficit and were, over the weekend, back in a notional lead.

They have slipped since into third place, but it was a tigerish response to adversity.

“We knew we would have to be patient and wait for an opportunity,” Walker said. “We did a great job of keeping our heads up after that early setback.

“As the race progressed and got past Brazil, it became quite a fast-reaching race and that is a strength of ours.

“We came back into the race on that fast-reaching section, which was all about choosing the right angles, steering and trimming and for whatever reasons, we are quite good with that.

“We’ve only really had a couple of sticky patches in this race so far, near Sri Lanka, a couple on Leg 2. What’s good is nothing really changed.

“We just went about with our job. We didn’t cry over spilt milk, or over analyse what we did wrong. We just try and do it better and look forwards not backwards.”

Azzam’s position has not stabilised yet. Excessive levels of seaweed slowed down most boats over the weekend, forcing each to stop temporarily to try and get rid of it.

Walker said the crew had spent most of their time in removing seaweed off the rudder and keel. It had been an obstacle in the last race as well, except that boats were going at faster speeds then, at which seaweed is not such an issue.

“It’s been an absolute nightmare, we were hardly racing the boat,” he said.

“Normally we’re concentrating on sail trims and weight management, but we were on for four hours trying to get weed off because otherwise your performance drops five to 10 per cent. We had to stop the boat once and go backwards to try and get it off.”

The fleet has stayed close in their navigation together through much of the leg.

By yesterday afternoon, a gap was opening between the top three of Dongfeng Race Team, Team Brunel and Azzam and the rest, but the top five remain separated only by 25nm.

Given expected weather conditions, they are likely to stay that way to Newport.

Walker sees opportunities further ahead to retake the lead but there will probably be another taut and cagey end to the leg.

“There will be subtleties and opportunities,” he said.

“It’s all about the management of angles and small differences rather than somebody gybing east or west, north or south.”

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