Volvo Ocean Race 2015

You wait 20 days for a Volvo 65 to turn up and three arrive in eight minutes.

Leading the Volvo Ocean Race night time charge from Sanya in China to to the finish line off Auckland’s Viaduct Basin breakwater, Xabi Fernandez’ Mapfre maintained their pole position, followed closely by Ian Walker’s Abu Dhabi Racing (4min 25 secs behind) and then Charles Caudrelier’s Dongfeng Racing (8min 2 sec behind the leader).

The finishing times would have been acceptable for an inshore race but were made all the more impressive given the 5,250 nautical mile leg. A leg in which there had been multiple lead changes with boats going from hero to zero and back again.

Fernandez was quick to acknowledge how tricky the conditions had been and how late they had snatched the lead.

We were struggling with Abu Dhabi and Dongfeng at the beginning, we were a bit slower, and in the Doldrums too, he said. This morning [day before the finish] we saw them very close and managed to pass them. Since then we led the whole way!

Launching themselves onto the podium for this leg has provided a welcome change to the team’s fortunes so far, but they were also quick to clarify that one leg win didn’t mark a step change in their performance from now on.

There are still big speed differences across the fleet, said crew member Rob Greenhalgh who joined the campaign on Leg 2. Dongfeng has speed to burn on just about every angle, at least that’s how it looks at times. We feel that we’re still very much on the back foot as there are big areas of our polars that we don’t have much data for. You need accurate polars for this race and ours aren’t there yet.

“Because we didn’t have the time to train as much as some …read more