Yachting: Camper gambles with weather

Team New Zealand. Photo / Supplied

The sleepless nights have continued aboard Team New Zealand's round the world entry Camper, as the team fight to pick up an elusive approaching front.

It has been a punishing 24 hours for Camper with the unstable weather conditions and winds going from 5 knots to 25 knots in minutes, making for countless sail changes and an exhausted crew.

The extremely variable conditions are making for frustrating sailing and a changeable leaderboard.

Last night's position report had Camper in fifth place, 71 nautical miles behind race leader Telefonica. But the placings are slightly deceptive in that Team New Zealand is the most eastern boat in the fleet, but has chosen a route much further to the south of Telefonica.

No boat has yet managed to exit the weather trough that has had the fleet in its grip for the last few days and all are still in a race to see who will pick up the approaching front in the best shape. All teams are still waiting to see what tactical gamble will work out best in the race to get north and up the Indian Ocean.

Camper skipper Chris Nicholson remains confident Team New Zealand's positioning will pay off.

"All our models and data are suggesting that this is still the best position to be in the long-term and will pay off when it comes to heading north," he said.

"It is an extremely complex and challenging weather situation though and one that is changing by the hour. We've all taken a gamble here and the reality is it's going to pay off for some of us and not for others."

Nicholson said the difficult conditions had made for an extremely taxing few days of sailing, both mentally and physically.

"At the moment though this remains anyone's race and we're determined to make it ours. The amount of effort the guys have been putting in over the last few days is just outstanding," he said.

"This would have to be one of the most intense periods of racing I've experienced."

Puma skipper Ken Read said that even though there were more than 160 nautical miles separating the fleet from the northernmost boat to the southernmost, the race was still incredibly tight.

"It is anyone's race, more so than any race I've been in in my life," he said. "This is crazy. It's 100 per cent a second start line," he said.

Puma lies in fourth place, more than 60 miles off Telefonica, with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing in second place and Team Sanya in third.