Volvo Ocean Race: Final approach to USA

(May 7, 2018; Day 15) – The Volvo Ocean Race teams have had a lot thrown at them in the past 24 hours, but skipper Bouwe Bekking and his Team Brunel remain in the lead for the final miles to the finish of Leg 8 in Newport, RI.

After crossing a cold front harbouring SW winds of 30 knots, the fleet endured a tricky transition into a north-easterly breeze which has seen Brunel’s lead vary while MAPFRE weaved its way through the fleet to move from fifth to third in the ranking.

If Brunel were to hang on it would be their second consecutive stage win but helmsman Kyle Langford is predicting a photo finish. “There’s going to be plenty of action on deck and not a lot of sleep,” he said.

Hoping to spoil the party is overall leader Donfeng which is positioned to the east of Brunel. “All the team is in inshore mode and on standby,” reports skipper Charles Caudrelier. “We have to keep this second place or pass Team Brunel, but ahead of us we face a very tricky situation and there are lots of options and maybe a re-start in light air. We need maximum concentration.”

The Volvo Ocean Race tracker will remain live until the end of the leg and the latest ETA for the leading boats is tomorrow between 0600 and 1000 UTC (2:00am to 6:00am local time). The weather forecast calls for arrival temperatures in the high 40s° F increasing to 62° F with full sunshine by noon.

For crew lists… click here.

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

Leg 8 – Position Report (19:00 UTC)
1. Team Brunel (NED), Bouwe Bekking (NED), 126.4 nm DTF
2. Dongfeng Race Team (CHN), Charles Caudrelier (FRA), 7.3 nm DTL
3. MAPFRE (ESP), Xabi Fernández (ESP), 10.4 nm DTL
4. Vestas 11th Hour Racing (DEN/USA), Charlie Enright (USA), 21.6 nm DTL
5. Turn the Tide on Plastic (POR), Dee Caffari (GBR), 22.0 nm DTL
6. Team AkzoNobel (NED), Simeon Tienpont (NED), 53.3 nm DTL
7. Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag (HKG), David Witt (AUS), 80.8 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