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  A big week for American sailing—Sailing news from the U.S. and beyond
 | | 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 |
The first points in the 2017/2018 edition of the Volvo Ocean Race have now been posted to the scoreboard following the completion of Leg 1, which took the fleet offshore from Alicante, Spain, to two turning marks before spinning back towards the finishing line off of Lisbon, Portugal. After some seven days of racing, the American-flagged Vestas 11th Hour Racing crossed the finishing line ahead of the Spanish-flagged MAPFRE and the Chinese-flagged Dongfeng Race Team to take first blood in this fully crewed around-the-world race.
“Can't argue with the results,” said Charlie Enright, Vestas 11th Hour Racing's skipper, after his team's big win. “For us, it has always been the process and improving every day. We prioritized getting the right people and this provides us with a lot of confidence. I can't say enough about the squad on the boat and the ones on the shore.”
 | | Charlie Enright (USA) driving on Day 5 – Volvo Ocean Race Vestas 11th Hour (USA) © James Blake / Volvo Ocean Race |
Enright and several of his core crew, including team director and co-founder Mark Towill, it will be remembered, competed in the 2014/2015 edition of the Volvo Ocean Race aboard the co-flagged American and Turkish Team Alvimedica, but this earlier race was Enright's first VOR dance, and it's fair to say that his results to date in the 2017/2018 edition represent an impressive sea change in performance.
(To be fair, Team Alvimedica won the final leg of the last VOR, but the point remains that this showing represents a massive level of improvement for Enright, Towill and their talented team.)
 | | Charlie Enright (left) and Mark Towill (right) © Amory Ross / Team Alvimedica |
“To kick it off this way is a strong sentiment to the team,” reported Towill in an official team press release. “We have a long way to go for sure, and this is a great way to start the event.”
Although Vestas 11th Hour Racing led the seven-boat strong fleet for virtually the entire race, their seemingly insurmountable lead was in jeopardy when Enright realized that a ballast-water hose had become disconnected and had filled the boat with some 200-plus gallons of speed-sapping brine. Fortunately, the team was able to make this repair without loosing any significant miles to their competition.
While Enright and company clearly have reason to celebrate, they are careful to keep the enormity of the race fully in mind, and to maintain the right mindset needed to repeat this performance in the coming months. “We pride ourselves on not getting too high or too low and I think we executed that on this leg,” said Enright in an official team release. “It's about having confidence in ourselves and committing to the process and now we're starting to see the results of that.”
 | | 28 October, 2017 - Vestas 11th Hour Racing wins Leg 1 in Lisbon - 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race © Jesus Renedo / Volvo Ocean Race |
Leg 2 is slated to start in Lisbon on November 5 and will take the seven-boat-strong fleet from Portugal to Cape Town, South Africa, a distance of some 7,000 nautical miles. The leg will give teams their first real taste of the sort of offshore conditions that will become increasingly pronounced as the fleet approaches the windswept depths of the Southern Ocean in Leg 3 (Cape Town to Melbourne, Australia).
Congrats to Enright, Towill, Nick Dana (USA) and the rest of the Vestas 11th Hour Racing crew, and be sure to stay current with www.sail-world.com for the latest VOR news from the Lisbon in-port race (Friday, November 3) and from Leg 2 (Sunday, November 5), starting this weekend.
 | | Vestas 11th Hour Racing at the Strait of Gibraltar – Volvo Ocean Race © Ainhoa Sanchez / Volvo Ocean Race |
Meanwhile, in Olympic sailing news, Erika Reineke, from Clearwater, Florida, took Gold in the 51-boat Laser Radial class at the Enoshima Olympic Week, which is the first major regatta to be held on the waters where the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will unfurl. This victory represents an important win for the U.S.-flagged team, which has suffered a long series of defeats and disappointing finishes since their last Olympic Gold medal, which was won by Anna Tunnicliffe-also in the Laser Radial class-at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
'I'm happy to come away with gold here in Enoshima, and hopefully in three years I can repeat that,' said Reineke in an official US Sailing press release. 'I think Enoshima is an awesome venue... The fact that [it's] on an island is kinda cool; it's very secluded. The sailing conditions can be hard, and it reminds me of the Charles River in Boston where I did a lot of sailing for Boston College.'
 | | Erika Reineke, Laser Radial, US Sailing Team. - 2017 Enoshima Olympic Week © Will Ricketson / US Sailing |
Hopefully Reineke's recent performance, coupled with her enthusiasm for the next Olympic venue, will spell great things for her and her teammates come 2020.
So while there's still a lot of sailing to go until the VOR comes screeching into their final port of call at The Hague in late June, and even more (metaphorical) miles to go until the start of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the simple fact remains that our country has some great things to celebrate as we turn the page from October to November.
May the four winds blow you safely home,
David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor
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