Volvo Ocean Race - And now to the final Podium Battle
by Rob Kothe & Jedda Murphy on 16 Jun 2015
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing - Volvo Ocean Race 2015 Ricardo Pinto / Volvo Ocean Race
Seven boats, 960 nautical miles, with a pit stop and after eight months of sailing and 38,000 miles there are still four boats fighting for two podium places – who will join Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing on the Volvo Ocean Racing 2014-15 podium?
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) have all but secured the overall trophy in Lorient, France, after claiming their seventh podium position (third) of the eight legs sailed so far.
And it one stage it looked like they might snatch second place. In the predawn hours they could easily have run down Team Vestas Wind, struggling with their canting keel jammed on the wrong side. It took skipper Chis Nicholson and Navigator Tom Addis and hour to find the electrical issue, a faulty circuit board and then manually override the hydraulic controls from below decks to move the keel to the correct side, in time to hold off the fast finishing Emiratis.
Even if they finish last in the final leg to Gothenburg from Lorient, starting on Tuesday at 1700 CEST, via a pit stop in The Hague, they still cannot be caught by their closest pursuers, Team Brunel (Bouwe Bekking/NED), eight points behind them.
It would take a couple of exclusion zone navigational errors providing to two or more penalty points and a last-place finish or a major gear failure delivering a DNF into Gothenburg to take the trophy from Abu Dhabi.
Ian Walker said today ‘It obviously great to have a lots of people saying well done. But as team we have decided to put that all behind us and go out there and sail like any other leg.
Navigation challenges lie ahead. As Walker commented ‘We don’t know the exact course yet, this is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, so a lot could happen.'
Waiting for any stumble Bouwe Bekking and his second-placed Brunel crew want to take the second step on the podium but there are three teams ready to spoil a Dutch party.
Only six points separate the Dutch boat (27 points) from Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA – 29 points), MAPFRE (Iker Martínez/ESP – 31 points) and Team Alvimedica (Charlie Enright/USA – 33).
But there are two boats with coastal form likely to increase the points spread.
Leg 8 winners, Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR), and runners-up, Team Vestas Wind (Chris Nicholson/AUS), are each keen to prove that their very popular performances from Lisbon to Lorient can be repeated.
Sam Davies said this morning ‘We decided in Lisbon to keep the same crew for both legs. Everybody is fit and healthy, when the boats are covering each other, taking each other out, we won’t wait for them.
The win into Lisbon will improve our confidence on board, from leg four onwards we felt we were ready to win, we know the next leg is quite similar to the last one and so we expect to do well.
Chris Nicholson ‘upwind sailing is fairly neutral for all the teams, we did well in the last leg by going the right way. In this final leg, again there should be a lot of upwind. We hope there is a lot of crew work, because our team is fresher, while others are tired and a little worn down. With such a restricted course the boats will be staying close together we think.
There are plenty of opportunities for upset in this final, two part leg - especially with what promises to be a massively attended 24-hour pit stop in The Hague, added to the mix on Friday/Saturday (June 19-20).
Bekking would like nothing better than to sail into his home country in the lead – “it’s going to be huge there, it will be crazy but the points are for the race into Gothenburg so we need to stay focussed.
‘It will be nice sailing. As we go north the nights will be getting shorter and that makes crew manoeuvres easier. I'm based in Denmark and have done a lot of sailing up there so hopefully that will give us advantage.
We are not sure if he quite meant it but Bekking said today ‘It’s like a Wednesday night regatta, you want to win it and enjoy it and you take it as it comes.
Dongfeng Race Team’s Charles Caudrelier, having started the race so well is keen to beat his Dutch rival to rounding off a campaign that has already exceeded expectations with four rookie Chinese sailors in his ranks.
He confirmed that the water maker problem is fixed after two failures. “We know the problem now, it shouldn’t be an issue again,” he said. ‘I am very proud of what our team has done, but for sure we are keen to be on the podium in Gothenburg.’
MAPFRE skipper Iker Martínez is happy to be back at the helm after stepping off the boat because of his Nacra 17 Olympic class commitments.
He is blunt about the three penalty points that were given by the ISAF independent jury for infringements on Leg 5 and Leg 7.
‘We are completely pissed off about the penalties, we have to leave it one side, and we are sailors so we are looking forward to that, fighting as hard as well can. It will be a very interesting leg for us all.
“Once we’re in the water it’s much easier for us,” he said. “We know how to manage our boat and go sailing.”
As for Charlie Enright, who has skippered the youngest crew in the race, a podium place would round off perfectly a race in which his team has improved leg on leg as well as scooping two in-port wins including on Sunday in Lorient.
“It would be a great accomplishment, certainly,” he said. “We’ve thrown a lot into this and it would mean a lot to us. We’ve learned so much along the way. If only we knew when we started what we know now. We have incrementally improved as legs go on, we are focused pretty hard on get good results in this leg and in the inport
The seven boats are expected to arrive in The Hague (Scheveningen) on Friday morning and leave after midday the following day following the brief stop.
They will then arrive in port for the final time on Monday (June 22), or more unlikely, the following day, in Gothenburg for a grandstand finish roared on by what is expected to be a packed Race Village.
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