Alvimedica score Leg win at last..Abu Dhabi confirms Overall Volvo win

by . on 22 Jun 2015 Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for June 22, 2015

New Zealand sailors Ryan Houston and Dave Swete finally got the leg win that had eluded them for nine months, when Team Alvimedica crossed the line first at the end of Leg 9 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

They had a practice run on Stage 1 of the Leg from Lorient to the Stopover in The Hague - leading the fleet home by 26nm and were able to restart over 100 minutes ahead of the second finisher.

The result for Houston and Swete is a much better outcome than their last Volvo Ocean Race in 2011-12. There they had a very disrupted race aboard the recycled Volvo 70, Sanya, completing two of the legs aboard a ship and failing to start in Leg 6.

Congratulations too to Daryl Wislang in being part of the winning crew aboard Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and achieving a magnificent victory in a tough, very closely contested race.

The contrast with the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race could not have been more marked.

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Aside from Team Vestas Wind planting the Cargados Carajos Shoals 240 nm north east of Mauritius, on Leg 2, and Dongfeng losing their topmast near Cape Horn on Leg 5 through operator error, this edition of the Round the World race has been marked with close finishes, and usually the whole fleet finishing within the one live TV slot.

There is no doubt that the objectives of the race organisers have been more than achieved when they made many bold changes at the end of the last Race, and they now have a revamped event, which has a very bright future.

The test, of course, will be how many boats, crews and sponsors return for the 2017-18 edition. Indications are that most if not all sponsors will be back and that there will be a fleet of nine entrants as a minimum.

The experiments with requiring mandatory youth crew have been very successful and look to be extended, with the age limit set to be dropped.

Despite being tail-end Charlies, or should it be Charlottes, for much of the race, the women's crew aboard Team SCA have performed very well - underscored by their leg win in Leg 8 with some of the toughest sailing in the race. It was always going to be a big ask to close up a more than ten-year absence from the race, and limited opportunities for women in the domain of apparent wind sailing.

Sponsors willing the women's crew will be back and will hopefully be joined by more talent that have come from the ranks of the Olympic 49erFX.

The advent of an Asian entry in the race has lifted the profile of China in World Sailing and indeed in World Sport. They were only one of two entries to win two legs - and that has to be a significant achievement for China in what is very much a sport that is dominated by the West. Like the Women's and Youth aspects of the race, the efforts and achievements of Dongfeng will only encourage more Asian entries and participation in future races and expand the sport.

We'll have more reflections on the Volvo Ocean Race in subsequent editions of Sail-World.com

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Although not reported yet in Sail-World.com, last Friday's High Court victory is a massive blow for the preservation of the Waitemata Harbour and the rights of recreational users.

The arrogance and deviousness of the Ports of Auckland aided by a weak Mayor, and an incompetent Council were only checked by groups and individuals standing together.

Sadly, any celebration by those who care about the Harbour must be tempered with the concern that the Council and Port Company might take the Decision to Appeal - using their financial might to crush the very people who they are elected to represent and the rate payers who are their owners.

Of course, the commercial claims by the Port Company are a load of codswallop - designed purely to expand their commercial position. Reports seen by Sail-World undertaken by a highly reputable consulting company revealed that the expansion required by Ports of Auckland could be easily taken up by Northport and Tauranga, with no expansion required in Auckland.

The time has come to get the car dump out of Downtown Auckland and remove the multi-story empty container stacks that are just a total eyesore and would not be tolerated from any other business or industry.

The pursuit of a fruitless legal process to defend the indefensible should be stopped immediately by the spineless Mayor and Council.

Follow all the racing and developments in major and local events on www.sail-world.com, scroll to the bottom of the site, select New Zealand, and get all the latest news and updates from the sailing world.

Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

sailworldnzl@gmail.com

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