Volvo Ocean Race: Locked and loaded

(April 26, 2018; Day 4) – Over the past 48 hours, each of the seven Volvo Ocean Race teams has thrown their cards on the table, lining up west to east and committing to the routing they think will best fire them towards the steady, favourable breeze the trade winds offer.

Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag plumped for the most westerly position, setting themselves up around 100 miles off the Brazilian coastline.

Fifty miles further out to sea, and on the same parallel, Turn the Tide on Plastic were the most easterly boat, pinning their hopes on being the first to pick up the new breeze when it arrives in the next 24 hours.

Splitting the difference was Vestas 11th Hour Racing, positioned just ahead and amid the chasing pack.

“We have finally settled down onto starboard tack and any crazy cloud activity not withstanding, we could remain on this tack until we reach the Bermuda highway up there in the Northern Hemisphere,” reports Vestas 11th Hour Racing navigator Simon Fisher.

“The snakes and ladders have continued, but rather than being the simple, fun game I like to play with my kids, this version is rather more complex. Sometimes it feels more like snakes and snakes and at other times you realise that the short-term snakes are actually long-term ladders and vice versa! Despite all the ups and downs though, we have partly by luck and partly by judgement, managed to manoeuvre our way to the good end of the fleet.

“However, whilst it presents a welcome change from staring at transoms we now are forever looking over our shoulder as each cloud rolls in and presents and opportunity for our rivals to pounce! At this point we have to hold our nerve, stick to our strategy and hope that the clouds play ball as there looks like another couple of days ahead of plenty of convective activity.”

The next 24 hours are so crucial to the outcome of the leg that the race tracker has gone live, giving race fans real-time information about the position of the boats.

For crew lists… click here.

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

Leg 8 – Position Report (19:32 UTC)
1. Turn the Tide on Plastic (POR), Dee Caffari (GBR), 4244.7 nm DTF
2. Vestas 11th Hour Racing (DEN/USA), Charlie Enright (USA), 7.8 nm DTL
3. Dongfeng Race Team (CHN), Charles Caudrelier (FRA), 11.3 nm DTL
4. MAPFRE (ESP), Xabi Fernández (ESP), 12.7 nm DTL
5. Team AkzoNobel (NED), Simeon Tienpont (NED), 16.0 nm DTL
6. Team Brunel (NED), Bouwe Bekking (NED), 18.7 nm DTL
7. Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag (HKG), David Witt (AUS), 26.6 nm DTL
DTF – Distance to Finish; DTL – Distance to Lead

COURSE: Starting on April 22, Leg 8 takes the teams from Itajaí, Brazil to Newport, USA. Race organizers choose to estimate the tactical distance for each leg rather than list the actual distance, an unusual decision that’s revealed once the race starts and the tracker lists the actual distance to finish. The organizers say Leg 8 is 5700 nm whereas the actual distance from the tracker is 5027 nm.

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