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  The 2017/2018 VOR ride begins—Sailing news from the U.S. and beyond
 | | - Start Volvo Ocean Race - 22 October, 2017. © Ainhoa Sanchez / Volvo Ocean Race |
If you love offshore sailboat racing, yesterday's start of the 2017/2018 Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) on the waters off of Alicante, Spain, likely felt a lot like Christmas mornings of yore, when you'd paddle down the stairs to see what the tubby man in red pajamas brought you, care of the North Pole, Rudolph and your family's chimney. While there are no portly athletes sailing in the VOR, there are plenty of people running around on deck wearing red foul-weather gear, and while Santa might be interested in returning to the North Pole after his yearly duties are over, the seven-strong feet of VOR boats are far more interested in punching south and deep into the heart of the Southern Ocean, where they will (eventually) spend considerable steeping time during this race, likely wet, cold and tired of the dark (read: much like Santa when he visits children in the Pacific Northwest). But first, they need to complete Leg One, which is taking the sailors from Alicante to Lisbon, Portugal, by way of Porto Santo.
 | | Alicante stopover. Start – Volvo Ocean Race © Ainhoa Sanchez / Volvo Ocean Race |
For anyone who missed the race's start, the crews started dropping the hammers the second that the Race Committee fired their starting gun, with a rather dramatic port-starboard crossing situation that unfurled between Dongfeng Race Team (the starboard boat) and Team Brunel and MAPFRE, the later two of whom were forced to gybe, as the boats came screaming into the final turning mark that would lead the fleet into open water.
While contact between the boats was avoided, the teams were reportedly within one meter of each other at times, leading the on-the-water umpires to penalize Team Brunel and MAPFRE for not taking enough precautionary moves and keeping clear.
 | | Alicante stopover. Practice race. Photo by Ainhoa Sanchez/Volvo Ocean Race. 13 October, 2017 Volvo Ocean Race |
Still, this drama was nothing compared to the ongoing staffing circus surrounding team AkzoNobel. As we reported last week, there was a meltdown between the team's corporate sponsors and skipper Simeon Tienpont's management company, which was responsible for paying crew wages, amongst many other line items. While the story quickly devolved into a situation of great finger pointing, the salient points are that Tienpont (NED) was removed as skipper prior to the VOR's in-port race (October 14), but-following a trip to the Dutch Arbitration Institute-was reinstated as skipper prior to Sunday's Leg One start.
The drama didn't end there, however, as four of the team's strongest sailors (Brad Jackson [NZ], Jules Salter [GBR], Joca Signorini [BRA], and the team's newest hire, Rome Kirby [USA]) stepped off the boat, leaving Tienpont to sail the first leg with a shorthanded and fairly inexperienced crew that consists of reserve-list sailors and even a sailor (Antonio Fontes [POR]) who was “borrowed” from the Hong Kong-flagged Sun Hung Kai Scallywag.
 | | Brad Jackson (NZL) foreground, with Jules Salter (left and Simeon Tienpont (NED) on the helm of team AkzoNobel Volvo Ocean Race |
While gambling men might immediately consign team AkzoNobel to the ash heap of history's failed VOR campaigns, a glance at the leaderboard puts the American-flagged Vestas 11th Hour Racing at the top, followed by Tienpont's team AkzoNobel and MAPFRE, however with north of 1,000 nautical miles to go, this leg is still anyone's game.
 | | Vestas 11th Hour Racing at the start of the Volvo Ocean Race © Ainhoa Sanchez / Volvo Ocean Race |
Moreover, while Leg One undoubtedly has its share of challenges and hardships, these factors will only increase in scale and complexity as the teams punch way offshore in Leg Two (Lisbon to Cape Town, South Africa), before Leg Three takes the fleet from Cape Town to Melbourne, Australia, by way of the Southern Ocean.
 | | Leg 01, Alicante to Lisbon, Start Day on board AkzoNobel. Photo by Konrad Frost/Volvo Ocean Race. 22 October, 2017 Volvo Ocean Race |
These legs will test each team's heavy-weather sailing skills, as well as each skipper's leadership skills, so expect things to get increasingly spicy as the legs progress.
In the meantime, don't forget to stay tuned to www.sail-world.com for the latest VOR news, as it unfurls.
May the four winds blow you safely home,
David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor
Atlantic Double - Start Leg 1 - RORC Transatlantic Race
Trish Jenkins, 
A record entry is expected for the fourth edition of the RORC Transatlantic Race, starting at Marina Lanzarote, Canary Islands, on 25th November, 2017. Close to 25 teams are expected, racing a huge variety of ocean going yachts. Nine different nations will be taking the challenge, racing 3,000 miles to Camper & Nicholsons Port Louis Marina, Grenada, West Indies.... [more]
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