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<\/a><\/p>\n(March 29, 2015; Day 13) \u2013 The Volvo Ocean Race may be a marathon, but at this stage of Leg 5 from Auckland to Itaja\u00ed, it\u2019s pretty much a 350nm sprint east to Cape Horn.<\/p>\n
With winds from the northwest, the boats have now gybed their last gybe and stacked their last stack. Their ears are pinned back and have their foot to the floor, as the 30 knot winds and 2.5 to 3-metre waves are allowing the teams to see what the VO65s can do.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that we\u2019ve all more or less settled in for a long port tack run to the east the big question on everyone\u2019s mind is just how hard to push,\u201d reports Amory Ross on Alvimedica. \u201cIf there\u2019s anything we\u2019ve learned so far this race it\u2019s that the leaders aren\u2019t afraid to redline the revs when challenged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apart from SCA, the entire fleet \u2013 separated by 20 nm between Donfeng to the north and Abu Dhabi to the south \u2013 has covered more than 500 nautical miles in the last 24 hours, with the top five averaging over 20 knots as they fight for the lead. But Ross reminds that trophies aren\u2019t determined at Cape Horn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel fast, as fast as anyone, and when you feel fast nobody wants to slow down because in the back of the mind we\u2019re telling ourselves we can be first to the Cape,\u201d observes Ross, with Alvimedica positioned to the north. \u201cBut this leg will be decided along the coast of Brazil, and if we push too hard now we may never give ourselves that chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pulling the throttle back may occur soon as the sea state is about to get rough. Waves are expected to build over the next 24 hours as the sailors get closer to the continental shelf \u2013 and Cape Horn.<\/p>\n
As for SCA, with no fractional gennaker after damaging it earlier this week, they simply can\u2019t match speed with the fleet. Forced to use the smaller J1 jib, they are suffering for speed and angle and, with reduced routing options, will continue to fall behind the pack now.<\/p>\n
Leg 5 (6,776 nm) Position Report (21:40 UTC)<\/strong> What a difference a day makes. The headlines yesterday were pedal to the metal. Today dismasting. Heavy weather sailing is about knowing when to ease off the pedal. Volvo Ocean Race can confirm that Dongfeng Race Team broke its mast early on Monday (GMT, March 30) but fortunately nobody has been injured and there … Continue reading KNOWING WHEN TO SLOW DOWN<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[693,333,309],"tags":[2323,692],"class_list":["post-9901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-volvo-70","category-volvo-ocean-race","category-weather","tag-dongfeng","tag-volvo-ocean-race-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9901"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9906,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9901\/revisions\/9906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n1. Team Alvimedica, Charlie Enright (USA), 2293.3 nm Distance to Finish
\n2. MAPFRE, Xabi Fernandez (ESP), 2.3 nm Distance to Lead
\n3. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, Ian Walker (GBR), 6.4 nm DTL
\n4. Team Brunel, Bouwe Bekking (NED), 7.0 nm DTL
\n5. Dongfeng Race Team, Charles Caudrelier (FRA), 11.2 DTL
\n6. Team SCA, Sam Davies (GBR), 401.4 nm DTL
\n7. Team Vestas Wind, Chris Nicholson (AUS), Did not start<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"