Camper going all out during final leg

Camper is right on the pace seven hours into the mad dash from Lorient, France to Galway, Ireland on the last ocean leg of the around-the-world yacht race.

Team New Zealand’s entry is 0.2 nautical miles off the early pace being set by Team Telefonica, though the fleet is tightly bunched, as expected.

Overall race leader Groupama is 1.2nm behind, while Puma is a further 0.2nm back. Abu Dhabi and Team Sanya are both within 4nm of the lead.

The 550nm sprint should take less than 48 hours to complete, and will see the fleet head out of the Bay of Biscay, across the English Channel, past the iconic Fastnet Rock and up the south coast of Ireland to the finish line in Galway.

It is the last ocean leg in the marathon race after nine months and 39,000nm of racing, and although Groupama looks comfortable in first place overall, everything is left to play for regarding the remaining podium places, with only four points between second-placed Puma and third-placed Camper.

With 30 points on offer for a leg win, a topthree result should ensure an overall podium position for Camper, with only the inport race in Galway remaining after this leg.

Camper got off to a less than ideal start after being penalised during the pre-start manoeuvres for failing to keep clear of Telefonica and forced to complete a 360-degree penalty turn. However, the team fought back in the inshore aspect of the course, and as the fleet headed out to sea they had clawed their way back from last to second place.

Camper skipper Chris Nicholson said the team would be treating the short sprint as more of an in-port race than an offshore leg.

‘‘The intensity will go up another notch for this one. I don’t think any of us will be getting any sleep, and we’ve stripped the boat down to an absolute minimum to make it as light as possible.

‘‘It’s going to be port tack reaching for 95 per cent of the leg, which a few months ago would be doom and gloom for us, as that’s not our strong point of sailing.

‘‘However, I think we’ve improved significantly on that point of sail, and for this leg we’ve dramatically configured the boat for maximum performance on port tack. We’ve shifted everything we can down below to the port side of the boat to get as much weight as possible to windward.

‘‘Effectively, we’ve now got the equivalent of a few extra guys sitting on our port rail, so I’m more confident than what I ever have been before of our performance while jib reaching on port tack.

‘‘We need to go out of here and get as many points on the board as possible. It’s a hell of a fight with Puma and Telefonica for second overall, and we’re leaving nothing in the tank in an attempt to win this one.’’

The fleet is expected to arrive in Galway late tomorrow.