Yachts & Yachting - July 2018

HOME STRAIT

T

he 2978nm double points

transatlanticLeg9from

Newport, USA to Cardif,

Wales was, as expected

crucial to the overall race.

Withaforecastofreasonablewindsona

shorter route, Dongfeng headed north,

Mapfre did the same, along with Turn

theTideonPlastic.Butagangoffour

• AkzoNobel, Brunel, Vestas 11th Hour
  Racing and Scallywag – stayed south.
  NavigatoronboardVestas,Simon
  Fisher commented: “he irst night
  decision was either to gybe early or
  stay south. We felt pre-start that winds
  would not be as strong as forecast to
  thenorth.hebigsplitintheleettook
  agoodfewdaysforthattoplayout.”
  Mapfre paid dearly for their decision
  as skipper Xabi Fernandez explained:
  “Itwastheplanwehadevenbefore
  thestart,hopingtogetthenortherly
  windssoonaterthat,butwenever

found the breeze that was forecast and

insteadwehadaveryslowtransitionto

thenorthwinds,andbythenthefour

boatsinthesouthwerewelladvanced.”

hetwogroupsmergedbeforethey

gybedintotheGulfStreamwitha

solid frontal system. Five of the leet

broke the 550nm Volvo Ocean 65

24-hour race record set by Abu Dhabi

in 2014. AkzoNobel kept the lead,

breaking Ericsson 4’s 596.6nm record

from 2008, with a run of 602.51nm.

As AkzoNobel navigator Jules

Salter explained: “It was a special

set of conditions: a perfectly lined

up, long runway, slightly curved

to the right so you could sail Great

Circle to extend the run; and a

littlebitofGulfStreamunderneath

you consistently for 24 hours.”

hetwoDutchboatsextendedon

the northern boats, with only Dongfeng

able to bridge the gap to slot into third

place, as the winds eased at the end of

the record runway and Vestas 11th Hour

Racing struggled with some speed issues.

Behind them, Mapfre was 60nm from

the leaders in ith place. Fernandez

continued: “hen our hopes were with

the irst high-pressure ridge, around

600 miles west of Ireland, but the boats

ahead of us got through that quickly,

and the distances stayed the same.

We thought we could recover this leg

a little bit, but it did not happen.”

Mapfre inished ith and as a

result, lost the overall race lead.

Behind Mapfre, Turn the Tide

and Scallywag again were marginally

slower than the rest of the leet. hey

fell back during the hard run north

and then sufered as the high ridge

movedeastwiththem,takingthem

completely out of podium contention.

Up ahead, AkzoNobel had stretched

through the high pressure ridge, but

Above

Brunel leads the

fleet away from

the leg start

in Newport en

route to Cardif

JESUS RENEDO/VOLVO OCEAN RACE

For the latest

VOR updates see

yachtsand

yachting.co.uk

10 Yachts & Yachting July 2018 yachtsandyachting.co.uk