Puma still holds the lead but the pack are keeping them honest

25 January 2012

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In a carbon copy of their tactics during the previous leg, Telefónica’s choice to position themselves to the north of the fleet has started to pay dividends with the team jumping into third place.

At the 1600 UTC position update they trailed PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG by less than six nautical miles, travelling half a knot quicker than Ken Read’s team and a knot faster than second-placed CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand.

Telefónica lost more than 10 miles on the leaders early in the leg while positioning themselves to the north, but navigator Andrew Cape was relishing in the fruits of his labour today as his team carved chunks out of PUMA’s advantage.

In the 12 hours leading up to 1600 UTC Telefonica pulled back 11.3 nautical miles on PUMA.

“The [decision to go north] caused a lot of initial pain, and that might have affected other people’s decision not to do it,” Cape said.

“But we knew we’d get rewards in a day and a half so we’re pretty happy now. Two days down the road it’s paying back.

“If you’re winning you’re not going to throw away miles, and going north when we did was a loss of 10 miles instantly.

“Most people don’t want to do that, but we didn’t’ really mind because we were looking at the long term picture.”

With the winds forecast to go ease in the next 24 hours, Cape said Telefónica’s positioning would reward them as their rivals are forced to tack to make it round the tip of Sumatra.

“That’s where we’re looking to make some gains,” he said. “A mile or two every sched would be great. However we still have a tricky zone ahead with a lot of cloud action and squalls so it will be interesting that’s for sure, keep watching.”

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