Volvo Ocean Race - Alvimedica wins Leg 9, Abu Dhabi takes the double

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com NZL on 22 Jun 2015 Team Alvimedica sailed by the crew with the youngest average age in the race, won Stages 1 and 2 of Leg 9 in Gothenburg Sweden.

The leg win means that of the nine legs sailed, there have been six different leg winners, with Dongfeng, Team Brunel and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing scoring two wins each.

Overall race winner, Abu Dhabi Ian Walker ghosted over the finish line in less breeze than that enjoyed by the other teams. However a clean finish was more important than a glorious finish for Abu Dhabi to take both the Overall and Inshore race trophies - a result of remarkable consistent effort and excellence.

Team Alvimedica laid the foundation for the leg win with a piece of slick navigation in the tidal gates off the Brittany coast to win the first stage heading into the Stopover at The Hague.

That move gave the Turkish/USA flagged team a 26nm lead at The Hague. An earlier start in lighter winds eroded that advantage somewhat - a situation compounded by the other competitors who cut the corner by sailing between the Exclusion Zones, while Alvimedica had sailed around the outside.

Alvimedica became the hunted as a group of three boats chased her along the coast of Denmark - as Charlie Enright and his crew tried to get across the bows of the chasing pack and then control the race tactically.

Although their lead shrank from 10 miles to less than a mile as they entered the estuary to Gothenburg, Team Alvimedica picked the right options covering when they had to and extending when the opportunity offered.

The wind dropped completely in the estuary, but fortunately for Alvimedica, the breeze also faded for those behind her.

The only upset came when Mapfre (Iker Martinez) squeezed past Dongfeng in the final mile. The third place finish lifted Mapfre onto 34pts the same as Alvimedica, and fourth place overall will be decided by the InPort points where Alvimedica currently holds a two point advantage over Mapfre. It would only take Mapfre to finish two places ahead of Alvimedica to take the fourth place.

The boats are so close on countback in a tied in Port points situation that they can only be separated on the basis that Alvimedica has two fifth places compared to Mapfre's single fifth place. In terms of wins to fourth placing they are all equal.