Galway ready to acclaim Cammas victory

SAILING:SKIPPER FRANCK Cammas was yesterday taking no chances for the final 100 miles of his first Volvo Ocean Race. Barring disaster, by the early hours of this morning overall victory would be secured.

Arguably the best of France’s younger generation of offshore sailor, the 39-year-old will have defied predictions that his first-time campaign could deliver the goods, in the process busting a slew of myths such as the winner of the first leg of the race emerging overall victor.

That was eight months ago and back then Cammas was still getting to grips with ocean fleet racing in a 70-foot monohull yacht compared to his recent history in fast multihulls including the Jules Verne Trophy record for circumnavigating the planet in 48 days.

The Groupama 4 team was built largely around French sailors but Ireland’s Damian Foxall was a crucial early signing for his experience in building a crew of sailors around the unique requirements of the Volvo Ocean Race. For the Kerryman, victory would signal his first Volvo race win and a lifetime ambition realised.

Last night, as the fleet tracked up the west coast in a fading breeze, Cammas opted to remain in fourth place, avoiding getting mixed up in a potentially costly scrap at the front of the fleet where Ken Read on Puma was delivering on his goal of leading the fleet into Galway.

The American needed to win this leg but also for Cammas to place worse than fourth and the overall standings would shrink so that Saturday’s one-hour in-port race in Galway Bay would decide the 39,000-mile race.

However, not only was the French skipper happy to pace the leaders less than two miles behind, but the six-boat fleet had separated into two packs that saw Ian Walker’s Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing trail in fifth place close to Mike Sanderson’s Team Sanya bringing up the rear. The trailing pair were almost 20 miles behind, a handy buffer if conditions became tricky close to the finishing-line.

For some, having the round the world race decided on an in-port race might seem like the ultimate finale. However, many of the crews regard such an outcome as heresy; given the rigours and privations of the deep ocean, a 10-mile sprint would be hard to stomach if it decided the overall winner.

But other factors have been in play in this edition of the race that started life in 1973 as the Whitbread Round the World Race. Boat breakages, dismastings and gear failure have befallen every team to a greater or lesser extent.

Chief victim among these is Read, whose Puma team was making a second attempt at lifting the trophy and for whom dismasting in the first leg necessitating a mid-ocean shipping operation may have cost him that honour. He subsequently won two legs and has easily rivalled Groupama 4’s performance.

Yet in another sense, gear failure is part and parcel of ocean racing and if Read was to lift the overall trophy in Galway, what then would the purists say about a round-the-world race winner that hadn’t sailed the entire distance around the world?

And so the eyes of the sailing world and beyond turn to Ireland.