Volvo Ocean Race – Gothenburg now set for Inport Showdown

by Rob Kothe Sail-World on 15 Jun 2015 Team Alvimedica impressively claimed their second Volvo Ocean Race in-port race series victory in Lorient, France, on Sunday afternoon.


The victory, which follows their unexpected win in the opening in-port race in Alicante Spain last October, boost the hopes of Charlie Enright’s Turkish-American crew to claim a much-coveted final podium finish in the series that concludes in Gothenburg, Sweden, on June 27.

The SCA In-Port Race Lorient victory will also lift their chances of a top-three finish in the overall standings as the Inport series acts as a tie-breaker for the tightly contested second and third places in the offshore competition that also finishes in Gothenburg in two weeks.

A decided lack of breeze on the race track kept the fans in Lorient waiting some 30 minutes before the action started, but there was drama aplenty even before the gun.

MAPFRE (Iker Martínez/ESP) were on the start line early and had to sail back thru the fleet to avoid an OCS and they were stalled behind their rivals as the gun fired.

Team Vestas started at the pin, SCA was one up. Brunel was the early leader, while Alvimedica up near the committee boat tacked onto port and found good pressure. A few minutes later Dongfeng followed. Alvimedica hard on the right, made good gains and they were first to the top gates.

Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR) and Team Vestas Wind (Chris Nicholson/AUS), first and second respectively in Leg 8 from Lisbon to Lorient, came in on the port lay line to the top mark.

SCA and MAPFRE protested each other at top mark, the jury ordered circle work for SCA, Team Vestas wind was protested by Brunel and similarly had to take to take penalty turns. both the offenders failing to give their opponents enough room as they tacked around the mark.

The fleet split right and left on the next leg, while Team Alvimedica sailing with clear air able to take the shifts untroubled at the head of the fleet, building their lead to around 300 metres.

Alvimedica led still at bottom mark from Abu Dhabi, third behind them Dongfeng headed to the right.

On their second lap, the young Alvimedica crew continued to stretch away with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing heading the chasing pack, at that stage they looked set to consolidate their position at the top of the overall in-port race standings.

Alvimedica with a lap to go were 400 metres ahead from Abu Dhabi, Team Brunel and Dongfeng all close together.

As the leg finished, Abu Dhabi and no less than three other boats converged on the mark with Team Brunel, MAPFRE and Dongfeng Race Team scrapping for second place with the Emirati boat.

Alvimedica took the gun impressively and behind them capitalizing on a big wind shift MAPFRE took second, Dongfeng third, then came Abu Dhabi, while SCA narrowly beat Brunel and Team Vestas Wind right on the line.

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, the overall event winners elect, are still atop the Inport leader board with 25 points, six clear of Team Brunel (31), with Team Alvimedica (32), Team SCA (33), MAPFRE (34) and Dongfeng Race Team (36) all with good chances of podium places.

Team Vestas Wind, who missed all the in-port races from Abu Dhabi to Newport, Rhode Island, because of their rebuild following a collision with a reef, are on 66 points.

Team Brunel if they win the final race in Gothenburg, would snatch the Inport trophy at the expense of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing since they would have the most individual victories in the series.

Walker, who is already assured of the main offshore trophy as long as his crew do not pick up a batch of penalty points in the final leg from Lorient to Gothenburg, was satisfied with Sunday’s performance.

“It was a good result for us,” he told media. “We were just trying to cover Team Brunel and to get enough points to get the series won. We’ve not quite done that, but we’re in a pretty good position.”

Enright then summed up: “We had a really, really good start which made it pretty easy to execute our game plan. We need another good result in Gothenburg to close the deal.”