Volvo Ocean Race - Vestas 11th Hour expected to have comfortable win
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ on 28 Oct 2017
Leg 01, Alicante to Lisbon, day xx, on board Vestas 11th Hour Racing. Photo by James Blake/Volvo Ocean Race. 27 October, 2017 James Blake / Volvo Ocean Race
Vestas 11th Hour Racing is expected to cross the finish line around 1230-1300hrs UTC off Lisbon, and take the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race.
At the 0700hrs UTC report supplied by Volvo Ocean Race, the US flagged entry skippered by Charlie Enright (US) was skirting the exclusion zone off Lisbon and enjoyed a 35nm lead over MAPFRE (ESP) the pre-race favourite.
Conditions through to the finish line were projected by Predictwind.com's routing function to remain at a steady 11-12kts toi the finish line, with the lead VO65 sailing at windspeed to the finish.
The only two finishes that are expected to be close are for third and fourth with Dongfeng Racing (CHN) holding a 3nm lead over Team AkzoNobel (NED).
The race for seventh and last place will also be close with Team Brunel (Bouwe Bekking) holding a lead of just 0.6nm over Turn the Tide on Plastic (Dee Caffari)
SHK Scallywag (David Witt) would seem to be assured of fifth place for the leg trailing the fourth placed Team AkzoNobel by 15nm and enjoying a buffer of 17nm over the Team Brunel. At current speeds that translates to a margin in excess of an hour either way.
The leg was extended by race organisers, with an additional 200nm being inserted to get a weekend daylight arrival for spectators.
The finish of Leg 1 will be live on volvooceanrace.com from 01300UTC
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