Volvo Ocean Race - Team Brunel in pole position to Auckland

by Robbert Jan Metselaar on 8 Feb 2015 The Volvo Ocean Race fleet got off to an exciting start to its fourth leg this afternoon in Sanya thanks to a pretty strong wind. After sailing some loops and passing the farewell mark for the public, Team Brunel sailed out into the South China Sea in first place.

This fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race is more than 5,200 miles (9,630 km) long and will take the fleet through the South China Sea into the Pacific Ocean and along the east coast of Australia to the city of Auckland in New Zealand. 'I’m proud that we are still sailing with the same team as when we left Alicante,' said skipper Bouwe Bekking before the start. 'Everyone is fit and extremely motivated to achieve a good result on this leg.'

The team are looking forward to the leg to Auckland. Only Andrew Cape and Pablo Arrarte have sailed this route before. So this is the first time that Gerd-Jan Poortman has sailed in this part of the world. 'I’m glad that we’ve put the Indian Ocean behind us. In the Pacific Ocean, you have fewer problems with unlit fishing boats, floating fishing nets or busy shipping lanes,' said the Dutch bowman. 'Particularly for the first few days, we expect a lot of wind from the north east,' added Pablo Arrarte. 'It’s a good idea to be one of the first boats to sail into the Pacific Ocean through the Luzon Strait – the strait between Taiwan and the Philippines. From there on, everyone can sail on a broader reach. And a broader reach generally means more speed. So if you miss your connection there, you can be tens of miles behind within a few days.'

Louis Balcaen and onboard reporter Stefan Coppers are also optimistic about this leg. 'I’m looking forward to a bit of action again,' said the young Belgian sailor. 'They’re forecasting a strong wind from the north east for the first five days,' added Stefan Coppers. 'That means we’ll be heading upwind and bashing into the waves. This is not at all the most comfortable tack but it will provide the best photos and videos.'

'We’re taking a wide range of scenarios into account,' said Bouwe Bekking. 'Like our navigator Andrew Cape said earlier, after passing through the Luzon Strait, if the trade wind is strong enough, we can set sail for the Solomon Islands in the south pretty much straight away. If the trade wind is not strong enough, it might be better to sail to the east or maybe even to the north. During the last race, PUMA and Groupama were not far from Japan.'

'Around the Solomon Islands, we’ll have to cope with the doldrums – an area of light winds around the Equator,' said Team Brunel’s navigator Andrew Cape earlier. 'After the passage through the Solomon archipelago and the doldrums, we should be able to catch the south-east trade wind, if we’re lucky. This motorway will finally take us to New Zealand. Whether we’ll approach the north island from the west or east depends on the current weather system. I expect this leg to take about 22 days and that we’ll arrive in Auckland around 1 March.'

The twelfth edition of the former Whitbread Round the World Race is being sailed over ten legs and includes a so-called 24-hour pit stop in Scheveningen. After covering 38,739 nautical miles (68,000 kilometres) the fleet of seven VO65 boats will cross the finish in the Swedish city of Gothenburg at the end of June.