As if the piggyback leg to Abu Dhabi and the many defects hadn't already caused enough criticism, the organisers don't seem to be running out of surreal ideas when it comes to meeting the demands of the sponsors. To avoid the heavy weather, the start of the fourth leg to Auckland will not be postponed to a more favourable time, as would presumably be the case with any other regatta, but the spectacle will be shown for TV, the internet and live viewers on the programme onSunday at 07:00 CET. Then we sail a few circles in the bay of Sanya, past the huge statue of Guanyin Buddha, before finishing at the lighthouse in front of the marina. For the time being.
The boats will then return to the harbour and have to wait until the monster seas in the South China Sea, which are up to eight metres high according to the weather forecast, have calmed down a little. "We will start the leg sometime on Monday, perhaps even in the dark," announced regatta director Knud Frostad. "We are doing this on the advice of our own weather experts and also those of the teams. They all believe there are conditions that are dangerous for 12 to 18 hours after the start because they could smash the boats if they sail against them." The plan is to send the teams on the long journey according to their ranking after the "opening round".
"We have to believe the forecast," says Telefónica skipper Iker Martínez, who easily beat Puma and Abu Dhabi in the Inport Race with his team in a fresh breeze and flat water. "The decision was difficult, but it's clearly a case of safety first and we don't want to hit the wall."
To be fair, it must be noted at this point that lessons have been learned from the disasters of the last race, when the boats were badly battered by the bumpy seas in precisely these waters and had to call at ports of refuge with serious defects (e.g. broken carbon fibre main booms). However, designer Juan Kouyoumdjian, who designed three of the five new boats for this edition of VOR, believes that advances in the processing of materials should at least make the new boats better able to withstand such stresses.
"The materials are specified by the rules, because the boats have to be safe. They are also very safe," he told YACHT. "The real revolution happened more in the construction methods or in the chemistry of the resins. Today, boat builders work much more precisely and are very familiar with the latest prepreg methods."
But even when the boats stop, as in the Clipper Round the World Race for paying amateurs, whose fleet is also in these waters, there is still a risk of serious injury to the crew. See current message for the evacuation of two sailors in the Clipper Race.
Result Inport Race
1. Telefonica; 2. Puma; 3. Abu Dhabi; 4. Camper; 5. Groupama; 6. Sanya.
Intermediate overall standings
1st Team Telefónica, 101
2nd CAMPER with Emirates Team NZ, 83
3rd Groupama Sailing Team, 73
4th PUMA Ocean Racing by BERG, 53
5th Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, 43
6. team Sanya,17
More on the Event page and about the Live stream the YouTube channel and the apps for I-Phone and Android.
Current positions and distances in the Tracker.
