Volvo Ocean Race: Four Beating Two

(February 9, 2018; Day 3) – Early numbers from Race Control suggest that the northern gamble isn’t paying off for team AkzoNobel and Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag for Leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race from Hong Kong to Auckland.

With the fleet pounding upwind, the two boats tacked immediately after passing the southern tip of Taiwan to split the fleet, and at the 1900 UTC position report, they find themselves over 115 nautical miles behind leaders Team Brunel, who along with the other three teams, delayed their tack to starboard.

“We tacked off too early in hindsight,” admitted team AkzoNobel navigator Jules Salter. “We’re really disappointed. We made the decision quite quickly to tack, it looked like everything lined up, Scallywag went and the first sched was ok, the second sched not so much. The first four have now gone, and now it’s just us two left racing.”

Meanwhile, Brunel, MAPFRE, Dongfeng Race Team and Turn the Tide on Plastic are still within sight of each other in brutal upwind conditions.

“It’s super close, and very tough,” said MAPFRE’s Sophie Ciszek. “We have Dongfeng on our bow, and I just spotted Turn the Tide too. The racing has been full on and the conditions haven’t been nice – it’s been upwind, unpleasant and wet, and we’ve had quite a few J1 to J2 peels which are pretty much the most unpleasant peels we can do in terms of water on deck, so we have a few people not feeling very well.”

She continued: “We’re going for the safer option – the vibe onboard is to stay with the other guys and there’s tension to keep racing hard and keep up our speed. Not much sleep going on, we don’t want to let them out of our sight.”

Beginning on February 7, Leg 6 is listed as a 6,100 nautical mile course from Hong Kong to Auckland, New Zealand.

For crew lists… click here.

Damage: Only six of the seven teams are competing in Leg 6 as Vestas 11th Hour Racing is still repairing their boat following the collision with a fishing boat as they neared the finish line of Leg 4 in Hong Kong. The team shipped their boat to Auckland to complete repairs in time for the March 18 start of Leg 7 to Itajaí, Brazil.

Race details – Tracker – Scoreboard – Race route – Facebook – YouTube

Leg 6 – Position Report (19:00 UTC)
1. Team Brunel (NED), Bouwe Bekking (NED), 4761.6 nm DTF
2. Dongfeng Race Team (CHN), Charles Caudrelier (FRA), 0.5 nm DTL
3. MAPFRE (ESP), Xabi Fernández (ESP), 1.5 nm DTL
4. Turn the Tide on Plastic (POR), Dee Caffari (GBR), 7.8 nm DTL
5: Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag (HKG), David Witt (AUS), 115.8 nm DTL
6. Team AkzoNobel (NED), Simeon Tienpont (NED), 117.4 nm DTL
DNS. Vestas 11th Hour Racing (DEN/USA), Charlie Enright (USA)
DTF – Distance to Finish; DTL – Distance to Lead; DNS – Did Not Start

Overall Results (after 5 of 11 legs)
1. MAPFRE (ESP), Xabi Fernández (ESP), 34 points
2. Dongfeng Race Team (CHN), Charles Caudrelier (FRA), 30
3. Vestas 11th Hour Racing (DEN/USA), Charlie Enright (USA), 23
4. Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag (HKG), David Witt (AUS), 20
5. Team Brunel (NED), Bouwe Bekking (NED), 18
6. Team AkzoNobel (NED), Simeon Tienpont (NED), 15
7. Turn the Tide on Plastic (POR), Dee Caffari (GBR), 9

2017-18 Edition: Entered Teams – Skippers
• Team AkzoNobel (NED), Simeon Tienpont (NED)
• Dongfeng Race Team (CHN), Charles Caudrelier (FRA)
• MAPFRE (ESP), Xabi Fernández (ESP)
• Vestas 11th Hour Racing (DEN/USA), Charlie Enright (USA)
• Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag (HKG), David Witt (AUS)
• Turn the Tide on Plastic (POR), Dee Caffari (GBR)
• Team Brunel (NED), Bouwe Bekking (NED)

Background: Racing the one design Volvo Ocean 65, the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race begins in Alicante, Spain on October 22 2017 with the final finish in The Hague, Netherlands on June 30 2018. In total, the 11-leg race will visit 12 cities in six continents: Alicante, Lisbon, Cape Town, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Auckland, Itajaí, Newport, Cardiff, Gothenburg, and The Hague. A maximum of eight teams will compete.

Source: Volvo Ocean Race