Volvo Ocean Race

Stay up to date with our handy guide to the current state of play in the race.

What’s the story?

Groupama sailing team kept a steady lead as the fleet continued south towards New Caledonia. Tensions were running high after the fleet split in two round the Solomon Islands, and at 0100 UTC on Monday it was the westerly boats who were reaping short term benefits.

PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG skipper Ken Read described how a blown-out sail nearly ended their hopes of a podium finish in his latest blog.

Quote of the day:

"The boats out east might have a slightly better wind angle and a bit better breeze but we have cut a big corner here. Time will tell and we will see how the dice rolls for us" - Mike Pammenter, CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand

Raw feed:

Everything that comes off the boats from the dedicated Media Crew Members is made available to view at Livestream. Check out the main page here and don’t miss the dedicated team channels. For other ways to follow the race, click here.

The big picture:

Team Telefónica stole the headlines in Sanya, arriving into the Chinese city first to claim the Leg 3 win and make it three out of three in offshore races, before also taking maximum points in the Sanya Haitang Bay In-Port Race. A third-place finish in leg three and fifth in the in-port race for CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand allowed Telefónica to open the gap at the top of the overall leaderboard to 18 points.

Huge waves left over from a tropical monsoon in the South China Sea led race organisers to delay the start of Leg 4 by 18 hours. The teams started on time but instead of heading for Auckland sailed a 43 nautical mile course up to Sanya’s famous Guan Yin of the South Sea statue and back to decide positions for a rolling start to Leg 4.

PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG’s delight at finishing second in the in-port race was ended when they went from first place to last in the ‘Buddha race’ after sailing into a wind hole. Telefónica went on to win the first stage, starting Leg 4 at 2300 GMT on February 19. PUMA, the last of the fleet to leave Sanya, started 39 minutes behind Telefónica.