Team Brunel reports on start of Volvo Ocean Race
by Team Brunel on 22 Oct 2017
Team Brunel started in Volvo Ocean Race Ainhoa Sanchez/Volvo Ocean Race
Conditions couldn’t have been better for the start in Alicante, Spain on Sunday afternoon.
The fleet of seven of the best sailing teams in the world including Team Brunel started Leg 1, a 1,450 nautical mile sprint to Lisbon, Portugal in bright sunshine and a 15-20 knot Easterly breeze.
The bay off the Alicante sea front was crowded with hundreds of spectator boats, ringing a short inshore race course, before the fleet was free to fly off, downwind, towards Gibraltar.They were treated to some of the most intense racing ever seen in the opening minutes of a Volvo Ocean Race.
About four nautical mile out of the coast Gerd Jan Poortman, ambassador of the Volvo Ocean Race finish in The Hague jumped of the boat. Poortman, in the last race crew member of Team Brunel was excited afterwards.
Poortman: “The atmosphere on board was good. The communication was clear and I could see that everyone knows his place and task. Not everything might be the way they would like it at the start but there was no panic. These men and women are really in control. Bouwe already gives the responsibility to the youngsters on board. That’s beautiful and good to see.”
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