Yachting: Camper skipper reassured by pirate plan

Camper with Emirates Team New Zealand finished second in the opening leg. Photo / Marc Bow-Volvo Ocean Race

Camper skipper Chris Nicholson is preparing for a rugged second leg of the Volvo Ocean race which he hopes will be made safer by measures to limit the threat of pirates along the notorious East African corridor.

If Nicholson needed a reminder of how tough this race is he only needed to watch as Puma, the last boat to finish a damaging first leg, limped into Cape Town yesterday with a broken mast.

Puma was the third of six boats to abandon the first leg due to breakages, with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and Team Sanya also pulling out.

Nicholson's Emirates Team New Zealand boat Camper finished the leg behind Team Telefonica and ahead of Groupama Sailing and have had a welcome five days off. Their next assignment comes on Saturday with an in-port race before the second leg starts on Sunday.

Adding to the challenges for the crews, this will be the first Ocean Race effectively shortened due to the threat of pirates. The boats were due to have sailed through an East African corridor in the Indian Ocean from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi, but after taking advice from marine safety experts and the sport's governing body, they will now race to an undisclosed "safe haven'' port, be transported by ship closer to Abu Dhabi, and then complete the leg. The process will be reversed for the third leg before the race continues to Sanya in China.

According to Ocean Race organisers, piracy is a well-organised and lucrative business and has expanded into a vast area off the coast of Somalia. In 2010 a record 1181 seafarers were kidnapped for ransom by pirates.

"We're very happy with this way of doing it,'' said Nicholson.

"There's parts on that leg up to Abu Dhabi that without it [safety measure] you just wouldn't want to be there.''

Nicholson said his boat had held up well so far and the time in Cape Town had been well spent.

"It allowed us to do quite an extensive re-fit on the boat. It's at time in the race where it's well needed for the boat. We'd done a lot of miles in the boat but we'd never done 7000 miles in one go so you're always discovering a few more hidden problems.''

One thing Nicholson can't control of course is the weather which is shaping up to be a big factor once again. Once out of the Doldrums on the first leg, Camper was battered by strong winds and lumpy seas and the forecast is for more of the same.

"At the moment it looks like it will be fairly rough leaving Cape Town which has almost been a common theme. So it's the old story - how much do we push in the first few days.''

Nicholson said seeing the damage to the other boats wouldn't affect his tactics.

"We stay focused on our own boat and how we sail it. It's a fine line, our boat came into Cape Town in very good condition but we were in some very bad conditions at certain times weather wise which yes I was nervous about and I don't think we were too far off damaging the boat.''