Volvo Ocean Race- In Port races do count

by Bob Fisher on 16 Nov 2014 One might be forgiven for believing that the inshore races in the Volvo Ocean Race count for little but that is far from true, as was displayed by the seven boats that raced off Cape Town today, yet there were to distinct approaches to this three-times round a windward/ leeward course.

Firstly the skippers had to decide how much of a windward part I came first or whether indeed it was, and it wasn’t.

It was over 1.5 miles on the opening leg and quickly the fleet split into two, with Ian Walker’s Azzam showing the front on the windward side ahead of Sam Davis with the all-girls team in SCM. On the far side, for an undisclosed reason, Vestas led a small group to leeward of the main group, and it soon became aware that those who had held high on port tack, albeit setting reaching headsails, were well ahead.

And so it continued to be, with Walker and the Abu Dhabi team in Azzam stretching away, as the race progressed. They led easily at the first mark, followed by Sam Davis with SCA and some way back, Bouwe Bekking with Team Brunel. The rest of the fleet, who had gone right off the start, followed in their trail. As a race, it was all but over.

From then on it was simply a choice of sails in what had become a double reaching course and the only change at the front was on the final downwind leg when Bekking in Brunel pressured Sam Davis near the finish to give Brunel second place, But that was the only close pass in this race.

It was anything but exciting, but it was a great spectacle and a possible display of what might happen on Wednesday when the seven competitors gather on the same waters to start the second leg, the Abu Dhabi. It has shown that this race is still wide open, but that Azzam, that won the first leg, and this in-port race, is the team that they all have to beat. On top of which, Ian Walker will be keen to be first into his boat’s home port.