Volvo Ocean Race - Team Brunel second in the In-Port Race

by Team Brunel - Robbert-Jan Metselaar on 15 Mar 2015 Volvo Ocean Race - Team Brunel finished second in the Auckland In-Port Race this Saturday afternoon. Thanks to this good result Bouwe Bekking and his boys are in equal first position in the overall In-Port series ranking, together with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing.

Despite the approaching cyclone Pam the weather conditions were remarkably calm. At the start, the wind speed is no more than 8 knots. Team Brunel start in fourth position just behind Dongfeng Race Team. Some minutes after the start, Team Brunel tack and chose for the left side of the race course. This appears to be a right decision, because in a few minutes the team of skipper Bouwe Bekking takes over the third place. Just before the downwind gate Team Brunel tacks again. They drop the Code Zero headsail and hoist the smaller J1 sail. Team SCA rounds the upwind gate first within their wake Team Brunel follows second. After rounding the gate the Dutch boat sets course to the left side of the track.

The fleet is sailing upwind now towards the Auckland harbour bridge. Team Brunel succeeds in taking over MAPFRE's second position with the big A3 gennaker hoisted. The biggest breeze was obviously on the left side of the track. MAPFRE lost distance to Team Brunel and Bouwe Bekking's guys were gaining on Team SCA. They put the pressure on the leaders and reduced the girls lead to 71 metres. Just before the Harbour bridge Bekking chose to hoist the J1 as well. Team Brunel passed the downwind gate in second position.

In the second upwind leg the lead of Team Brunel and Team SCA on the rest of the fleet only got bigger. Meanwhile the breeze increased giving Team SCA the opportunity to round the last gate in first position. Team Brunel was still in second position with 120 metres behind the girls. A couple of minutes later Team Brunel finished in a well deserved second place.

'These boats are not made for short track racing,' says Dirk de Ridder straight after the race. 'But because of the One-Design boats it's extremely exciting. We had a good start but we were unfortunate not to be able to catch up with the girls. Because we changed our Code Zero on time with the J1 we were able to hoist our gennaker quicker compared to the other teams after rounding the downwind gate. This made it possible that we could overtake the Spanish boat MAPFRE.'

Thanks to this good result Team Brunel is in equal first position now in the Overall In-Port series together with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing.