Volvo Ocean Race: Not Christmas for sail cards

11:17 AM Tue 9 Dec 2008 GMT

'Sail repairs in the Ericsson Shore base - Cochin' Volvo Ocean Race &copy

Forget Christmas, the strategists within the fleet's sail lofts have no intention of wasting any cards in the near future. You see, they are in short supply. To last an entire 37,000-nautical mile race each of the teams has only 24 sail cards, one of which gets used every time they have a new sail measured and approved by the race measurers.

'It sounds a lot, but it really isn't in a race like this,' said Nathan Quirk, one of Telefonica's sail makers.

'It's not too difficult to damage them in the conditions we sail in,' added Justin Ferris, who sails on PUMA.

In context, the first and second legs saw the teams carry the maximum 11 sails onboard, not including the storm jibs and trysails, which are not counted in the 24.

'You need that many to cover the wind range,' explained Team Delta Lloyd shore boss Jeff Condell. 'Given how far the boats have to go and the conditions they sail in, you have to be careful not to use all your sail cards.

'In an ideal world you would only want to use a card for tactical reasons like getting lighter sails for lighter legs. If you have to replace sails because of damage or because it's been cut loose, that's not great. But damage to sails is quite hard to avoid.'

Early damage is hard to overcome. Proving that assertion is not difficult. In the second leg alone, there were no fewer than seven publicly reported tears to various sails from the eight yachts. In some cases - like when Telefonica Black cut a sail loose in the first leg - the damage is irreparable and a card might be used to replace it.

'These sails suffer a lot of wear and tear,' Green Dragon navigator Ian Moore said. 'Sometimes you just need to use a card and replace one.'

To that end, the card count is already on.

A quick straw poll of the sail loft dwellers revealed that Green Dragon, Telefonica Black and Team Russia have all used 12, leaving them with another 12.

Ericsson 3, Ericsson 4, Telefonica Blue and Delta Lloyd, meanwhile, all claim to have used 11. PUMA, according to Ferris, have so far measured just 10.

How the remainder are used is where the strategy comes in. 'There are a few things to consider,' Moore explained. 'You want to be in a position where you can deploy lighter air sails for the lighter conditions and you also don't want to be in a position where you use too many of your sails too early.'

Quirk added: 'A lot of the points are available in the second half of the race so it makes sense to introduce some new sails for that part of the track. For us, the lighter air sails are the ones we want to save until later on.'

To that end, the timing of using new sails seems to vary from team to team.

No fun mending sails on board - The crew of Telefonica Black fixing their sails, on Leg 2 - Mikel Pasabant-Telefonica Black-Volvo Ocean Race_?

Telefonica, for example, do not plan to introduce any new sails between now and Singapore. But Green Dragon sail maker Warwick Kerr revealed his team will use a couple of new sails ahead of leg five.

He said: 'At the moment we are in pretty good shape. A lot of the other guys have broken a lot of sails and might have to replace them sooner than we will.

'We will have a couple of new sails between here and China for the long leg. Our sails have been holding out really well so there's no reason for us to not continue with our schedule from the start.'

Delta Lloyd's Condell added: 'We may have one sail (an A6) that is due in the next two legs but primarily we will be focusing on replacing sails from China onwards because of the long leg and the rest of the race.'

Meanwhile, Ericsson Racing Team's Martin Oliver also has a plan in mind. He explained: 'This leg being lighter we are going to take a lighter option. We are in a very good position with how the sails are looking. We may bring on one in Singapore and one in China. The bulk will come on from Rio. Both boats are on the same plan.'

That plan, and those of all the other teams, being that cards are not for giving away at Christmas.

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by Riath Al-Samarrai / Volvo Ocean Race Media