Volvo Ocean Race: East to north

(April 23, 2018; Day 1) – The beginning of Leg 8 for the Volvo Ocean Race fleet fulfilled the forecast by delivering a tricky opening night of unpredictable weather. There was little chance for the sailors to acclimatize slowly as constant variations in wind direction and strength meant numerous sail changes.

“It’s very unstable – the wind is up and down by ten knots, and 30 degrees left to right,” said team AkzoNobel skipper Simeon Tienpont. “We’ve got plenty going on on deck, that’s for sure.”

Onboard Turn the Tide on Plastic, skipper Dee Caffari welcomed the slightly more stable conditions that greeted the teams with sunrise.

“The first night at sea is always interesting,” she said. “It takes a little while to get back into the routine and with all the boats so close together it can change the way you sail.

“Even now at first light we can all see everyone clearly and we are all on the same sail combination doing the same thing. We had a few clouds in the early hours resulting in some wind shifts, some changes in pressure and some rain, but now the skies all seem a bit more consistent.”

MAPFRE were the early leaders in the opening hours but Xabi Fernandez’s crew were reeled in after they got caught out by a cloud.

While the course from Itajaí, Brazil to Newport, USA takes the fleet to the north, the teams had been battling upwind to get east as quickly as possible so they can hook into stronger breeze that will fire them around Brazil’s most easterly point.

But as the wind shifted right today to the north east, all seven teams tacked to starboard with bows pointed toward the Brazilian coast just beyond Rio de Janeiro.

The online ranking, which is calculated to a series of waypoints without taking into account routing due to weather, will remain live for the first 48 hours of the leg.

For crew lists… click here.

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

Leg 8 – Position Report (19:21 UTC)
1. Dongfeng Race Team (CHN), Charles Caudrelier (FRA), 4843.6 nm DTF
2. MAPFRE (ESP), Xabi Fernández (ESP), 2.1 nm DTL
3. Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag (HKG), David Witt (AUS), 2.3 nm DTL
4. Turn the Tide on Plastic (POR), Dee Caffari (GBR), 4.1 nm DTL
5. Team Brunel (NED), Bouwe Bekking (NED), 4.6 nm DTL
6. Team AkzoNobel (NED), Simeon Tienpont (NED), 5.5 nm DTL
7. Vestas 11th Hour Racing (DEN/USA), Charlie Enright (USA), 6.0 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