What skipper Charles Caudrelier and his crew are doing must be extremely frustrating for the crews of the other five boats. Because they are not doing anything so obviously different. And yet they continue to pull away from the pursuers. By midday, they were over 100 nautical miles ahead of the chasing quartet. Mapfre, Alvimedica, Abu Dhabi and Brunel are almost on a par, with SCA slightly behind.
Entering the Malacca Strait was tactically difficult in very light winds. The Chinese boat passed the entrance with a lead of around 60 nautical miles, tacked first and pulled away. Caudrelier had previously been confidently swinging ahead of the field and also ventured a small solo run. In addition, he obviously cannot complain about his boat's lack of speed, especially in the Gulf of Bengal where he was able to pull away time and again in almost identical conditions.
In view of the very close results and stages so far, a 100 nautical mile lead is already a comfortable cushion. But the decisive section of this leg is still to come. In the narrows between Sumatra and Malaysia there is almost no wind and very strong currents. Two scenarios are conceivable there. The pursuers close the gap in the calm, which would mean a restart. Or Dongfeng manages to cross the bottleneck first due to its large lead and reach the fresh wind of the China Sea. In that case, victory could only be taken by a material error.
Impressions from on board on reaching the Malacca Strait
"We have the feeling that we are fast on the wind," says Caudrelier. "And if we reach Singapore before the fleet, we'll have a good feeling for the last stretch northwards to Sanya."
In contrast, the leg is completely open for the chasers. Only eight nautical miles between four boats means that the tactics are as close as in a class regatta when approaching the windward mark. It is very likely that luck will also play a role in choosing the right strokes.
Lars Bolle
Chief Editor Digital
