Volvo Ocean Race - Four round Cape Horn
by Volvo Ocean Race on 31 Mar 2015
March 30,2013. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing leads the Volvo Ocean 65 fleet around Cape Horn. Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race
http://www.volvooceanrace.com
Four out of six boats have made it around Cape Horn today. Team Alvimedica, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, Team Brunel and Mapfre all rounded the infamous rock all in less than one and a half hours.
Dongfeng Race Team suffered a mast breakage earlier today. All sailors are safe onboard and they’re now sailing towards Ushuaia, where they’ll assess their options.
Team SCA is struggling, 340 nautical miles behind the injured Chinese boat. With a broken FRO sail and electronic problems, the magenta crew now has to find the right balance between safety and racing. Sam Davies’ crew has to deal with a low-pressure system chasing them down – they’ve already seen winds above 40 knots and waves increasing to six metres, but are expected around Cape Horn between tomorrow and Wednesday.
Back to the leading pack. The first four boats have outrun the cold front for now but soon will be heading upwind in the expected building breeze. Luckily it was downwind pointing at Cape Horn and they were sailing really fast.
In fact, the Emirati boat covered 550.842nm in 24 hours at 1025 UTC today. This is the record so far in this race.
Official rounding times around Cape Horn*:
• Team Alvimedica – 1407 UTC
• Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing – 1422 UTC
• Team Brunel – 1523 UTC
• Mapfre – 1525 UTC
• Dongfeng Race Team - 32nm from the mouth of the Beagle Channel
• Team SCA – 476nm from rounding Cape Horn
*Times when the teams crossed the Cape Horn meridian. Team Brunel is ahead of Mapfre because of the angle they approached it at.
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