Volvo Ocean Race: Has the critical leg been won at the start?
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/nz 21 Jun 2018 13:34 BST
22 June 2018
The three front runners get away to a quick start to Leg 11, from Gothenburg to The Hague, start day. 21 June, 2018 © Jesus Renedo / Volvo Ocean Race
A start-line incident involving one of the race favorites had a big impact on the opening stanzas of Leg 11 of the Volvo Ocean Race.
The Spanish flagged MAPFRE misjudged the leeward end of the start line and was unable to lay the mark, and she was forced to bearaway and come back underneath the fleet. She was last away.
One of her rivals for overall honours, Team Brunel was immediately to windward and while the yellow hulled entry was able to lay the leeward start mark, they were late for the start, but had a good angle for the opening stages out of Gothenburg. The boats at the windward end got the better of the start, with Team AkzoNobel first away, followed by Dongfeng and with SHK Scallywag, steered by her owner Lee Seng Huang hitting the line right on gunfire and set up nicely on the hip of the two lead boats.
It was a close reach for the opening stages to the first rounding mark, sailing in a 15-18kt breeze, it was a procession to the first mark before the boats turned and headed upwind.
Those behind were able to split tacks with the leg leaders to clear their air, however MAPFRE paid a heavy price for her starting error and appeared to have difficulty settling into her work.
There were plenty of whitecaps greeting the seven boats, kicked up to some extent by the relatively shallow water off Gothenburg.
As the fleet cleared the Swedish coast it was Vestas 11th Hour the most leeward yacht was only just leading from Dongfeng, with the other two points table leaders sitting in sixth and seventh places. MAPFRE was .8nm (1700metres) behind the Dongfeng, with Team Brunel 1100metres behind the leg leader.
The course although called as being 700nm will be stretched to suit finish time objectives in The Hague - and looks set to be 900-1000nm of sailing distance. They are expected to be off Aarhus, Denmark at midday Friday - in 24 hours time. At that point it will be more apparent just how long the leg will be allowed to run.