Spanish Volvo Open 70 movistar (Bouwe Bekking) has reported a fault with the keel hydraulics on their boat. The fault seems not to have affected their performance today and they continue to close on the leading two ABN AMRO boats. They are still sailing at 11 knots towards the south western corner of Australia, sailing a course of about 68 degrees.

The text of the release from the team is as follows: “movistar has reported a fault with the port-hand hydraulic ram - one of the two rams that operates the canting keel system. The crew and the rest of the boat are fine, and they are maintaining optimal speeds as they near the coast of Australia and close in on the leaders of leg two. They are considering different options, including a stop at the southwest of Australia to evaluate the damage and to make a quick repair before rejoining the race to finish in Melbourne.”

The port of Albany is very close to the scoring gate at Eclipse Island and the boat would be able to score points at the gate, then take a short stop to repair the fault before continuing the 1,300 nautical miles or so to the finish at Melbourne. Given the weather conditions that look likely to prevail for the rest of the 480 nautical mile run to the scoring gate – five to seven knots of wind from initially the northwest, then going easterly – it might be a gentle passage not only for movistar, but also for all the boats in the leading pack.

Volvo Ocean Race Chief Executive, Glenn Bourke, said, “As with every iteration of the Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Race, particularly in the early legs of the race, boats have broken components and this is no change. But allowing for a mandatory minimum repair window of two-hours for outside assistance to affect the repairs has proven to be a beneficial change in the racing rules, allowing the teams to compete right to the end for a podium position.

“Mike Sanderson’s comments of two days ago where interesting when he said, ‘We have to overbuild things and in doing so, bury the gremlin, and we have to find the limits gently as to how hard we can push these new boats. Both of which are possible.’ “

“These boats will evolve very quickly as the race progresses,” continued Mr Bourke. “We never envisaged that they would be anything other than world-class cutting-edge racing machines and they are proving to be just that. “

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