Team Alvimedica expecting a dust-up in Leg 8 of Volvo Ocean Race

by Richard Gladwell and Eugenia Bakunova on 4 Jun 2015 At a media conference this morning, Team Alvimedica’s Mark Towill said that the month the team spent training from Lisbon was crucial to their holding out Dongfeng Race Team on the last few metres of Leg 7.

The US/Turkish flagged team finished third on the Leg, less than a minute ahead of Dongfeng after a match race up the river.

“The breeze was light and transitioning in the morning and we made a conscious decision to get closer to the land than the other boats. That was one thing we did know”, reflected skipper Charlie Enright. “That allowed us to sneak past Abu Dhabi and eventually Dongfeng. Twenty tacks later, it was nice to be back on the podium”, he added.

“Our journey with Alvimedica began here in Lisbon. It was where we put the team together and started sailing the boat,” Towill explained to a media session ahead of Thursday's Practice Race.

“I think some of that local knowledge helped us at the end of leg 7. It felt very familiar being here in the River once again,” he added.

Looking ahead to Leg 8 that many expect to be a three or four day coastal race, Alvimedica’s navigator Will Oxley(AUS) told the media group that most of the legs had a coastal component as the boats exited the various ports.

“It is not unfamiliar for us to be sailing for two or three days along the coastline. The difference here is that will be it. It looks as if we will come out of the river in light air, and then tack up the coasts of Portugal and Spain. At Cape Finisterre, it looks like there will be a lot of wind. The boats will be quite close because of the Traffic Separation Scheme. Then there will be some decisions to be made as to how we get across the Bay of Biscay.”

“We have two-course options at the end of this leg which is a little unusual. The Race Committee will tell us about 30nm away from a rounding mark off the French coast whether we are going direct from there to Lorient or whether we go to La Trinite before heading for Lorient.”

“At this stage the majority of the leg looks like it will be upwind, and there is potentially some strong wind at Finisterre. It is going to be important to look after the boats. We haven’t seen a lot of heavy air, upwind sailing in this race.'

“Finistere has a reputation for being able to turn on the strong wind, and I think we are going to see some of that.”

“We have a very close situation on points”, Charlie Enright noted. “After yesterday’s Jury decisions we now have two ties on points. Potentially those could be broken by the In Port scores at the end of the race. So there will be even more of an emphasis on the outcomes of the In Port racing.

“Lisbon is tricky in the river. It looks like we will have the breeze coming off the land and not down the pipe. So we will have some reaching starts with some short windward leewards. We’re expecting to see a heavy and shifty breeze on Saturday.”

“We will look to be minimizing the mistakes in what will be an intensive race.”

In response to a question about the value of reconnaissance of the leg finish before the start of the race, veteran navigator Will Oxley responded saying it is routine if you have the budget. On Camper in the last race, we did a simulated finish into Lorient (FRA), we were planning to come to Lisbon but ran out of time.“

“We flew to Sanya (China) – it is a big part of the race, and the knowledge you gain from being in these places makes a big difference. With Alvimedica, we had a test finish into Newport.”

Alvimedica will have some local advantage on the next leg with bowman/trimmer Sebastien Marsset (FRA).

When asked if he was the secret weapon on board the boat. Marsset replied ‘I don’t know about that. I am one of the weapons on board”, he chuckled. “I am just trying to add what I know from this area. Will (Oxley) is working with the weather team and is well aware of what is going on in this area. I don’t want to interrupt Will’s work!”

“We’ve sucked Seb dry of all the information he has – but we have a few other sources!” Oxley interjected.

“With strong winds there is always the potential for leaders to break masts and the boats to have serious problems. If the race leader has a bad second to last leg (Leg 8) then there is the potential for the whole race to be decided on the last leg (Leg 9)”, Enright commented.

“It is a little flippant to say that the team that sails the best usually wins, the Alvimedica skipper added. “While that has been true of previous races, in this race it is much more so, because of the one design boats and the closeness of the performance. When you sail well, you certainly seem to be rewarded. That wasn’t always the case when boats were different, and had design sweet spots.”

Neither Charlie Enright or Mark Towill would be drawn on what will happen with the Alvimedica campaign for the next race, saying that most teams would be leaving such decisions until after the current race was finished.