Yachting: Camper profits from Puma's mishap

Puma Ocean Racing, skippered by Ken Read from the United States, pulled out of the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race with a broken mast. Photo / Amory Ross, Volvo Ocean Race

A dramatic night has given Team New Zealand a slim chance to challenge for the lead in the Volvo Ocean Race.

The Camper-sponsored boat moved into second place yesterday after Puma Ocean Racing was forced to retire from the first leg from Alicante to Cape Town with a broken mast.

Despite a few setbacks of their own, Camper made the most of the strong southerly front, making good ground on race leader Team Telefonica yesterday. By late last night Team New Zealand trailed by 93 nautical miles, gaining over 50nm in 24 hours.

Another strong day of racing today would see Camper begin to put pressure on the Spanish team with less than a week to go on the first leg of the round-the-world race.

Puma is the third boat to retire from the opening leg, following Team Sanya and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, who each received catastrophic damage in the first 24 hours of the race.

The rig on board Puma failed early yesterday morning in the southern Atlantic Ocean, about 2150nm from Cape Town. At the time the boat was in second place, trailing Telefonica by 31nm.

The Puma team, skippered by American Ken Read, will motor to the small island of Tristan da Cunha, about 700nm away, to have the damage assessed.

They are aiming to have the mast repaired in time for the start of the In-Port Race in Cape Town.

"As you can imagine, there aren't a lot of smiles right now, but one way to make it even worse would be to proclaim that there wasn't a chance to make the next leg," said Read.

"This is about earning points in this race. We think by sacrificing points on this first leg, it gives us a chance to actually earn points for the second leg and the In-Port Race. So that's our goal."

The damage to Puma's mast capped off a dramatic couple of hours for the Volvo fleet, with Camper bowman Mike Pammenter injured over the same period in the 8m to 10m waves.

The South African received a broken tooth, a gash to the face and bumps and bruises after being thrown into the boat's shrouds while doing a sail change.

He was stabilised immediately by onboard medic Tony Rae and after further medical advice from Volvo Ocean Race headquarters received three stitches and the affected tooth area was anaesthetised.

Camper skipper Chris Nicholson, whose 2008-09 race with Puma was cut short after seriously injuring his knee in similar circumstances, said while they do everything they can to minimise the risk of accidents, they are an unfortunate part of the race.

"This sort of injury shows the extreme nature of this race and while we take all due care there's still a pretty high degree of risk in pushing these boats hard in these types of conditions. That's just part of the race - you don't want it but you can't avoid it.

"These boats are on the edge a bit but that's what they're meant to be."

After initially slowing down to assess and treat Pammenter's injuries, Camper was quickly back to full pace and continued to chip away at Telefonica's lead.