If they are not careful, we might have to start thinking of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s Azzam as a German boat. Or at least as we remember the German football sides of the 1980s and 1990s.
Famously, those sides were always there or thereabouts at major tournaments. Often they would win, but oftener they would be in a position to win, in the last four, or the final. Teutonic efficiency we labelled it.
That is something we might now throw at Azzam after they finished second in the third leg of the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR), arriving three hours behind winners Dongfeng Race Team.
Here was another podium finish, which ultimately meant that Azzam are the only team to have finished on the podium not only in each of the three main legs but also in the three in-port races.
That last feat, given the closeness of the race so far, will come to matter more and more as the race progresses.
Consistency is its own goal, especially in mastering as unmastered an entity as the oceans. To be so consistent despite the myriad obstacles this race throws at sailors is a prize in itself and one skipper Ian Walker has been stressing from the start.
“It is a big deal to get that consistency,” Walker said soon after arriving in Sanya. “We know with ourselves, Dongfeng and Team Brunel being so strong it’s almost like we need to be the top two in each leg, not top three.
“Our overriding philosophy is to be consistent and to be in the top three. We’ve been that in every race we’ve done.”
The result breaks the three-way tie at the top when this leg began but leaves Azzam only one point off leaders Dongfeng in the overall standings. Significantly, given Brunel’s fifth-place finish here, Azzam have given themselves some breathing space with a three-point gap over Brunel.
It is, as Walker pointed out, a “very good space” to be in.
Given the weirdness of the way the leg developed, Walker was right in saying it felt like they had won the leg when they arrived. Essentially it was two races in one. Dongfeng were leaders for almost the entire leg and were, for much of the second half, sailing on their own.
In the race within the race, Azzam were battling for second place with three others. Every now and again the chasing pack would close in on Dongfeng, before swiftly falling behind again.
Azzam got to within 10 nautical miles of Dongfeng last weekend but fell back in light winds. Given they were as far back as fourth place at one stage, it is easy to feel why Walker feels as he does.
“It was very much a light-air leg, with some places in which there wasn’t much wind at all,” he said. “So everybody slows down, catches up to the leader but they get out of the light wind and get away again.
“We call that a piece of elastic – it stretches, springs back and then stretches again. The most obvious area where it happened was off the bottom of Sri Lanka. We got stuck in there and ended up losing a lot. We managed to get back in control and defended it all the way to the finish. Arriving here in China feels to us like we won the race.”
Walker, and in fact nobody in the race, needs reminding that a lot of water remains to be covered. Longer, more treacherous legs await, legs which could finally snap wide open the elastic tension the leadership of the race is wrapped in right now.
Then again, it could break at any point. It is not easy to forget the fortunes of Telefonica in the last race, who won the first three legs yet finished fourth overall. A broken mast, a crew injury, a crash – this could happen at any time and break a race for one of the boats. The potential of sudden calamity is intrinsic to the nature of the race.
It is why Walker stresses the consistency. Stay there, hang on, push at the death. He sees the last four legs as the ones where moves will be made.
“As long as you do VOR, there is always an overriding fear that something major may happen. It’s about chipping away and being consistent and crossing off each leg.
“Once we’re in the Atlantic, once we’re in the last four legs of the race that’s when you can really focus on the points and the boats that are close. Until that point, you’re building the foundations of success and that is about consistency.”
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
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