At around 18:30 CET, the time had come: Groupama was the third boat to cross the finish line in Cape Town. The bad news: this was the last place of the three boats that actually managed to complete this leg. The good news: It was still a podium finish, and they are also in 3rd place in the overall standings behind Telefonica and Camper with 22 points. Even better, they were spared the catastrophic defects that forced 50 per cent of the fleet to abandon and continue their journey by boat.
"We can be satisfied. Third place is not a bad place," said Cammas via the press office. There was perhaps a dash of self-irony in there too, because the Frenchman, who is regarded as one of the best offshore skippers in the world, is a realist. "What's frustrating is that we would have liked to have stayed longer and closer to the others."
He was alluding to the disastrous tactical decision that allowed Groupama to pull out a seemingly huge lead over the field along the African coast at the start of the stage, until the tide turned on the eighth day: they got stuck near Cape Verde, while the others roared further west with good winds and full throttle towards the south. Cammas & Co. were unable to make up the resulting deficit and were even more unlucky towards the end of the leg when they missed the fast-moving low-pressure areas in the South Atlantic and fell even further behind.
While Groupama arrived in Cape Town under its own steam, Team Sanya and Abu Dhabi will arrive by ship on Wednesday. Puma is still anchored off the volcanic island of Tristan da Cunha and is waiting for the German freighter "Team Bremen" to pick up the mastless boat and crew and bring them to South Africa by 6 December. The reserve mast from the USA is due to arrive on Friday. Of the three damaged vessels, the Chinese team Sanya is under the most stress. After arrival and unloading, the old, damaged bow section has to be cut off the hull and a new, already prefabricated one pasted on. Abu Dhabi and Puma, on the other hand, have it comparatively easy with the positioning of their replacement rigs. The problem for these two teams is that they are searching for a fault and will have to sail the rest of the race with the brakes more or less on, because the loss of the second mast would mean the end of the race.
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