Four of the six boats in the Volvo Ocean Race, including Abu Dhabi's Azzam, suffered big hits as the Southern Ocean gave the fleet its roughest ride of the round-the-world race in 12 dramatic hours on Tuesday.
Ian Walker, skipper of the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing boat, endured a drama-filled stretch, reporting a, “night of two gybes: a wild one in pitch black with a massive wipeout and then a ‘controlled’ one at 30 knots”.
Matt Knighton, Azzam’s on-board reporter, wrote: “On our first gybe last night we wiped out – broached in the darkness trying to gybe with the spinnaker up.”
Three other boats – Team SCA, Dongfeng Race Team and Mapfre – suffered a rare and sometimes disastrous phenomenon known among sailors as a “Chinese gybe”.
The term usually refers to a sequence when the upper section of the main sail moves across the boat, filling from the opposite side, while the lower section and boom remain on the original side of the vessel. All three boats briefly laid over on their sides, but the crews escaped injury.
Dongfeng Race Team were first to reveal a Chinese gybe, with on-board reporter Yann Riou writing: “It took two to three hours to sort out the mess, the boat was on her side, we took 300 litres of water in to the boat through an air vent.”
Liu Xue, a Chinese member of the boat, said: “This is the first Chinese gybe experience in my life. I can still feel the fear when I think about it. We were about to do a manoeuvre, but before we managed to start it, we were attacked by two huge waves.
“The waves were so huge and we were suddenly pushed right over on to our side. My brain went blank when that happened. I grabbed hold of the first thing I could – the sailor’s instinct. It felt like I was on the Titanic when that happened.”
Team SCA also broached, according to the all-women team’s on-board reporter, Anna-Lena Elled. “We ended up on the side for maybe two to four minutes before slowly getting back in the right position,” she told Race HQ.
Mapfre reported a third Chinese gybe. “Due to a big wave, our boat was completely lying on its side,” Mapfre’s Francisco Vignale wrote.
“We were on deck and it was I who was closest to the water. Xabi Fernandez grabbed my jacket and helped me get out of this terrible situation. Inside the boat the situation was not very good, either.
“The members of the crew who were sleeping were crushed between the berth and deck, a situation quite uncomfortable for those people with claustrophobia.”
Late Tuesday night, the fleet was nearing the northern edge of the "ice limit" zone, with Team Brunel holding a 14-nautical-mile lead over Azzam, the overall leader, with Mapfre a farther five miles back.
Underscoring the volatility of this leg, though, by 6.40am UTC (10.40am UAE) on Wednesday morning Mapfre were in the lead, 9.6nm ahead of Brunel, with Alvimedica now in third at 29.9nm off the lead pace and Azzam just behind in fourth by another 0.4nm.
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