Volvo Ocean Race – Team Brunel halfway Cape Town

by Team Brunel on 15 Nov 2017 In Leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race Team Brunel is halfway. The team of skipper Bouwe Bekking did an excellent job in in the last 48 hours. First they took over the third place of Team Vestas 11th Hour Racing. After they positioned themselves east of the two frontrunners: Mapfre and Dongfeng. Which makes the Dutch boat now virtually in the lead.

Passing Vestas 11th Hour Racing
After Team AkzoNobel during the weekend, Team Brunel managed to pass Vestas yesterday. Bekking: “One carries one sail, one carries another sail, the majority of the time we've had the better sail up than them. It's a nice thing when you sail together with somebody, the second you make changes you can see if you can go faster by looking at your computer numbers so there is something to gauge against. I just think we just had the better sail up for the longer period of time and I think we've been sailing the boat really well for the last couple of days.”

The route to Cape Town
Due to the prevailing wind conditions, the fastest route to Cape Town is not the shortest route. Navigator Andrew Cape: 'We're in the North East of Brazil and we're in the trade winds belt here so [we've] just got to push as fast as we can and get south where the breeze moves aft, and make a play later on.'

'It's just timing of the front and if you need to gybe towards it, or cut the corner and get on board, and there' s a lot of variation on that. We do our own thing.”

Bekking explains: “Imagine if you had to drive in a car from Holland to England, the direct line is maybe 150 kilometres but unfortunately you need to go south first, take a ferry, and once you've taken a ferry you've got to drive up North. That'll be the same with what we have here as well. So there's a big high pressure in between us and Cape Town, so if somebody were going to sail through that it's like hitting a brick wall. It's a tricky one, but this is how it is.”

For the experienced Australian navigator the decision doesn’t bring any extra stress. Cape: 'The stress comes with the game, you've got to accept that or not do it. It’s always a good leg for that exact reason. This part is the most straightforward part of the leg, and after this it will get tricky again and when we start negotiating the fronts on the way to Cape Town, it's a very tactical situation and the last couple of hundred miles will be the decider, so that's what you've got to get in position for.'

Asked when they going to take the sling shot to South Africa. Bekking: “It's miles away, probably 3 to 4 days to get a bit more breeze but it's still a long, long way”

Leg 2 – Position Report – Wednesday 15 November (Day 11) – 13:00 UTC
1. Team Brunel -- distance to finish – 3,099.4 nautical miles
2. Dongfeng Race Team +1.6
3. MAPFRE +1.9
4. team AkzoNobel +2.3
5. Vestas 11th Hour Racing +15.4
6. Turn the Tide on Plastic +25.3
7. Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag +40.1