Fired up CAMPER bound for Miami

Emirates Team New Zealand Media Update: Fired up CAMPER bound for Miami

22 April 2012

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand is bound for Miami with Leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean getting underway from Itajai, Brazil.

In a 10 knot south easterly CAMPER made a solid start and was third after the fleet finished the in-shore aspect of the course and headed out to sea.

Ahead lays a 4800 nautical mile (nm), 14 day race up the South American coast , through the Doldrums, into the Caribbean, and then a final 1300 nm sprint across the Gulf Of Mexico to Miami.

With 30 points on offer for the leg winner and only 25 points separating the top three boats CAMPER are on the hunt for their first offshore victory and determined to make up for the disappointment of the last leg.

In contrast to previous legs the fleet are in for a relatively moderate opening night at sea with 15 to 20 knot reaching conditions forecast.

CAMPER skipper Chris Nicholson says that morale is high amongst the team and they are looking forward to what is shaping up to be a challenging leg.

“This leg may look like a simple reaching race to Miami from the outside but believe me the reality is very different. This is a tactically challenging leg and requires a lot of thought on how to best position the boat. If you can get set-up to the east of the fleet you should be able to get more pressure and a better angle than the rest of the guys.

“There’s a fair bit of discipline involved and a lot of fleet management required. It’s a thinking man’s track with some big strategic issues to get your head around, so I’m looking forward to it as I feel like we have a good mix in the team to deal with those issues.

“We’ve had an amazingly tough month and got here with very little preparation time, but everybody seems to have actually stepped up a notch because of that. We’ve had a great pro-am day, a solid in-port result and are now fired up for a good race to Miami.

“There’s a great feeling amongst the guys and morale is possibly at an all-time high so we’re really looking forward to getting out there and getting back into some proper ocean racing.”

Pictures of CAMPER, video footage and audio files are available upon request. Further information and race updates will be available on our blog and on our Facebook page

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