Volvo Ocean Race - Cape Town Stopover
| Crews face potentially rough start! |
| Friday, 04 November 2011 13:11 |
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The 6 skippers, above, ready to rock. Ian Roman / Volvo Ocean Race The teams are ready, the Volvo Open 70's are packed and ready, and with less than 24 hours to go until the start in Alicante, today is for relaxing and spending time with family, friends and loved ones. In the back of everyone's minds however, will be the latest weather reports, which point towards a baptism by fire on the opening evening. The six international teams could be hit by boat breaking conditions as they make their way out of Alicante and into the Mediterranean, bound for Cape Town, 6,500 nautical miles away. The weather forecast is for winds of 25 knots just hours after the starting gun fires in Alicante, Spain at 1300 UTC (1400 local). The combination of those winds with a choppy sea state will make it a tough first night on the Volvo Open 70 boats. “The conditions at first will be ideal for these boats – fast sailing in fresh breeze,” said Gonzalo Infante, the Volvo Ocean Race’s chief meteorologist. “But within about 12 hours, as the boats race into the night, they will have to punch upwind into winds around 25 knots and confused seas. These boats will be slamming around and it will be very wet on deck.” Ken Read, skipper of PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG, put it bluntly: “It looks like we could get the crap kicked out of us getting out of the Med.” 6500 nautical miles away, the city of Cape Town awaits, and the excitement is growing. |
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Volvo Ocean Race Podcast
Jeff Ayliffe had an exclusive chat to PUMA Ocean Racing's skipper Ken Read today. When they last chatted, Ken was hoping to be back for the Volvo Ocean race 2011, but they had not confirmed. The team are are not only back, but have experienced a transatlantic victory aboard the new boat 'Mar Mostro', and Read told Jeff he was delighted to preparing for Alicante and the start of Volvo Ocean race action
- Volvo Ocean Race Cape Town
Team Camper’s South African crewman is Michael Pammenter, who sailed with Telefonica Black in 2008. Michael caught up with Jeff Ayliffe just after the boat Was being transported to New Zealand.
- Volvo Ocean Race Cape Town
Puma Ocean Racing’s Jono Swain is the 2nd of 3 South Africans in this years Volvo Ocean race. He chatted to Jeff Ayliffe about sleeping patterns and life aboard a Volvo open 70
- Volvo Ocean Race Cape Town
Capetonian Paul Wilcox is part of Abu Dhabi Racing in the Volvo Ocean Race, and he was chatting to Jeff Ayliffe shortly after the team pulled off a win in the Transnet after a close battle with Groupama.
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