The Ocean Race: Too much calm after the storm - circling in the Agulhas current

Anyone currently looking at the Ocean Race tracker stands may be rubbing their eyes in amazement. The fact that Team Holcim - PRB is leading ahead of Guyot Environnement - Team Europe still makes sense. What is more astonishing is that Paul Meilhat's Team Biotherm is listed in third place in the classification of the third royal stage that started on Sunday, although the French team only started the race again along the three capes around nine hours late after their repair stop in the starting harbour of Cape Town. Already third?

Like a dropped bundle of Mikado sticks

The interpretation of the tracker is due to the proximity of the "Biotherm" to the so-called Rhumbline, the direct course line from the port of departure in Cape Town to the Brazilian port of destination Itajaí. The tracker calculations are based on a very simple formula: Position - Rhumbline - shortest route to destination. In fact, the boats, which are already positioned more southerly, have invested in the south in order to reach the low-pressure areas moving from west to east more quickly. As a result, they have moved away from the rhumbline.

The boat symbols on the tracker currently look like a dropped bundle of Mikado sticks. Their prows are pointing in all directions. "Malizia - Seaexplorer" skipper Boris Herrmann reported in the morning: "We have a current against us - the famous Agulhas current - and no wind. We are drifting in circles." This means that the southern investment remains a tough business for the time being.

The pitfalls of the Table Mountain area

There's time to look back on the wild start to Cape Town. As beautiful and impressive as it is: Quite a few sailors will have secretly cursed Table Mountain on the start Sunday. The slipstream cast by the monster rock has already played a role in previous in-port races. At the start of the mammoth stage, this slipstream split the roughly square regatta course into two starkly different halves during the start.

There was an area with no wind and a section with too much wind. It was not the wind strength at the top end that caused problems for the fleet, but the sudden gusts that came out of nowhere and hit the sails of the boats with full force of up to 45 knots, as reported by Paul Meilhat. At times, the boats of Team Malizia, Team Holcim - PRB and Team Guyot were leaning at an angle of 45 degrees when the gusts hit their rigs.

Repair break with broken slat ends

The equipment groaned under the sudden shock load, but for the most part the crews coped with it. However, it was one of these gusts that damaged two battens in the mainsail of the 11th Hour Racing Team. The sailcloth then flapped helplessly in the upper section. It must have been a great relief for Charlie Enright's crew to sail back into the windless part of the race course.

The American team was able to lower the mainsail onto the deck to inspect the damage. It turned out to be relatively minor damage, as team manager Mark Towill explained: "The battens themselves are not broken, but the wing tips that hold the battens in place." The team officially stopped the race. According to the regulations, this meant a minimum waiting time of two hours before the race could be resumed. This applies even if the repair can be carried out much faster.

Charlie Enright: "It's cheaper to stop the race now"

Enright was more philosophical about the damage to his team and the resulting delay. "We didn't make it out of Table Bay completely unscathed. During the last risky manoeuvre we didn't get the headsail around fast enough and possibly rushed the manoeuvre a bit. We realised very quickly that the wingtips in batten one and two had exploded. It wasn't immediately clear whether the battens were broken or not - and as it turned out, they weren't."

Enright also explained why his team did not repair the damage with on-board resources: "We actually have everything on board that we need for the repair. But that would send us south without spares. It's cheaper to stop the race now because you can do it for at least two hours, whereas after the first twelve hours of the race you would have to stop for at least twelve hours."

Break chain reaction on board "Biotherm"

Enright's further outlook on the leg: "A two-hour delay over 35 days with all the different systems and transitions that will happen between now and then probably won't make the difference. I'm not saying the boats won't finish within two hours, but that's probably only the case after the cards have been reshuffled a few times." The American team resumed the race at 16.07 German time after the obligatory two-hour wait.

While the 11th Hour Racing Team felt no need to sail back to the marina at the V&A Waterfront, Paul Meilhat's Team Biotherm did just that. On board the blue and white purist "Biotherm", one problem led to another.

"We broke the double strop on the mainsheet. And one of the padeyes, the rigging itself, exploded. The mainsheet then swung out further than normal when jibing and we blew the end stopper on the boom vang. All the traveller carriages came off the boom vang. In the process, we lost all the carriage balls (ball bearings). Repairing the mainsheet padeye isn't easy either, because we have to seal it. And then the deck fitting of the jockey pole (outrigger) broke off the deck. But that's not too bad, so we should be finished in the two hours we have to stay here anyway."

Sam Davies: "It would have been very tedious to repair it at sea"

Meilhat had ventured a positive forecast for a short repair time before his team realised that obtaining the necessary spare parts on a Sunday in Cape Town would take a little more time after all. Nevertheless, his team-mate Sam Davies was also certain that returning to shore was the right decision, although the team found it painful after a dream start and an initial lead. Davies said: "It would have been a real pain to fix it all at sea because we didn't have enough balls for the touring sledges. So it was a clear decision to come here and do it properly."

And so it was down to business for Team Biothem off Cape Town:

Skipper Paul Meilhat nevertheless took the wild break ride and the setback at the start in his stride: "We are still in a good mood and motivated to continue the race. It's a long leg and it's better that it happens now and not at sea. Fortunately, we decided to complete the coastal section of the start course so that we can set sail again immediately without having to sail all the buoys again."

Click here for the tracker and the intermediate results.