Yachting: Team New Zealand learning the hard way

Team New Zealand have learnt some hard lessons about how much one wrong call can cost you in the Volvo Ocean Race.

Camper remains in fourth place after day five of the first leg but is trailing by 173 miles as the team bids to find the best position to benefit from an expected north-west breeze.

Skipper Chris Nicholson says Camper is suffering from a wrong call as they entered the Atlantic.

VOLVO OCEAN RACE TRACKER

"As we left the Mediterranean it was a borderline call whether we went west or stayed in closer to the shoreline. These aren't traditional conditions for this part of the leg and it has been a pretty brutal reminder for us of the importance of getting on the right side of major weather shifts and backing our calls.

"I'm not happy with our performance over the last 48 hours and we've got a lot of catching up to do. Having said that we're getting into a much better position and should be in good shape to take full advantage of this expected frontal change.

"There's 5500 miles to go in this leg and plenty of passing lanes to claw back the advantage and that's exactly what we intend to do. "We've made some difficult decisions but the boat is now going well and we're focused on chipping away at the lead.''

By last night, Camper was just past Madeira Island averaging 12 knots in a 15 knot south/south westerly.

In other race developments, Groupama has a 87-mile lead over Telefonica and Abu Dhabi has replaced a broken mast and re-joined the competition.