A powerful 24-hour surge by Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR) piled the pressure on overall race leaders Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) in Leg 7 on Monday, as the battle to finish first in Lisbon gathered pace (full story below).

– Team SCA surge leaves race leaders trailing last on Leg 7

– Atlantic ‘drag race’ ahead all the way to Lisbon

– Fleet expected to arrive on Wednesday morning

– Follow the action all the way on our fabulous App

ALICANTE, Spain, May 25 – A powerful 24-hour surge by Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR) piled the pressure on overall race leaders Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) in Leg 7 on Monday, as the battle to finish first in Lisbon gathered pace.

Team SCA navigator Libby Greenhalgh (GBR) had decided on a northern course to skirt the Azores High in the mid-Atlantic where there was more wind, and by early on Monday, they had all but wiped out an earlier 100-nautical mile (nm) deficit on the leaders to bring them right into play.

By 0942 UTC on Monday, they had overtaken Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and were challenging other boats in the pack, which was being led by Team Brunel (Bouwe Bekking/NED), just over 17nm ahead in the 2,800nm stage from Newport, Rhode Island, USA, to Lisbon, with MAPFRE (Iker Martínez/ESP) hard on their heels (see panel above).

The push by Team SCA left Azzam in an unaccustomed position at the back of the fleet, with their six-point advantage at the top of the overall standings under real threat.

Before the race started last October, their British skipper Ian Walker had targeted a top-three podium finish on each leg to secure overall victory.

Until this point, that plan has been carried out to perfection and has included two leg wins, leaving Walker’s crew with what looked like a firm grip at the top of the standings with two stages to go after this leg.

The Chinese entry, Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA), are currently third, just 1nm astern of Team Brunel.

In the overall standings, they trail Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing by six points in second place and have the opportunity to make big inroads into that lead with a strong finish in this transatlantic leg.

Team Alvimedica (Charlie Enright/USA), chasing a first leg victory, are right in the mix of the action too, just 10.7nm adrift and holding fourth place.

The six boats are now heading for a ‘drag race’ – straight-line racing in good winds and sea state – for Lisbon. They are expected to arrive on Wednesday (May 27) morning between 0500-1200 UTC.

After an 11-day stopover in Lisbon for boat maintenance, the fleet will restart on June 7 for the final two legs to France (Lorient) and Sweden (Gothenburg), the latter via a pit-stop in The Hague.

The race concludes in Gothenburg on June 27 after covering 38,739nm in nine months and visiting 11 ports and every continent.

Current latest standings (low points wins, In-Port Race Series splits ties): 1) Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing 11 pts, 2) Dongfeng Race Team 17, 3) Team Brunel 21, 4) Team Alvimedica 24, 5) MAPFRE 24, 6) Team SCA 35, 7) Team Vestas Wind (Denmark) 44.

via Piling on the pressure| Volvo Ocean Race 2014-2015.

Team Vestas Wind’s (Chris Nicholson/AUS) incredible journey to re-join the Volvo Ocean Race was nearing its final lap on Friday when the rebuilt Vestas Wind emerged out of the Persico boatyard ready for the trip to Lisbon (full story below).

– Rebuilt ‘wreck’ emerges from Persico yard

– Skipper Nicholson acknowledges ‘huge effort’

– Thrilling mid-Atlantic battle to clinch Leg 7

– Keep up with Vestas Wind’s journey to Lisbon

– Follow all the action on and off water here

ALICANTE, Spain, May 22 – Team Vestas Wind’s (Chris Nicholson/AUS) incredible journey to re-join the Volvo Ocean Race was nearing its final lap on Friday when the rebuilt Vestas Wind emerged out of the Persico boatyard ready for the trip to Lisbon.

Australian skipper Nicholson hailed the return to the event as ‘a modern day miracle’ after the team’s Volvo Ocean 65 smashed into an Indian Ocean reef on November 29 during Leg 2, and was initially considered a write-off.

In a huge logistic operation managed by GAC Pindar, the boat was skilfully hoisted off the rock and coral reef on to a Maersk Line ship, and transported via Malaysia to Perisco’s yard in Bergamo, Italy, for a rebuild.

The team had long planned their target to be on the start line of Leg 8 departure on June 7 from Lisbon to Lorient, France.

It was always, however, a very ambitious goal.

A full build of a new Volvo Ocean 65 takes around eight months to complete – the transformation of Vestas Wind from a wreck to a fully-compliant, one-design, race boat for the world’s leading offshore race, has taken four months.

The boat’s emergence into the Italian sunlight on Friday, ahead of its loading onto a truck for a midnight start to the journey to Lisbon, was witnessed by Nicholson.

“It’s good to be on the move. We’re getting out of here. It’s the right time. We’re one day in front of schedule and hopefully we have a faster shipping time, which might actually mean one or two extra days out on the water before our start in Lisbon. So it’s all good,” Nicholson said.

“You think of the journey everyone has been on since the reef and to be here with a boat functioning, ready to go, is a huge achievement for everyone. There were so many things along the way that almost stopped us completely.

“It’s effectively a new boat. There were some old bits from our previous boat – I’m still not sure what to call it. I don’t know whether it’s our ‘new boat’ or our ‘old boat’. I guess it’s going to be a combination of the both.”

He paid handsome tribute to the workers of Persico for completing the mission of returning the smashed boat to the start line in such a short period of time.

“If you had sat back at the start and looked at it on paper, you wouldn’t have taken it on,” he said.

“Persico were taking on risk to do this project. I take my hat off to them for what they’ve done. They’ve made a modern-day miracle. It’s a huge, huge effort from them.

“Without these guys, it wouldn’t have happened.”

The team plan to transport the boat by ship and truck to Lisbon by midweek in time to reunite with the rest of the fleet, which is expected to arrive in the Portuguese capital around May 27.

Meanwhile, in mid-Atlantic, any one of the six boats in the racing fleet could be first into port after the thrilling, 2,800-nautical mile (nm) Leg 7 from Newport, Rhode Island, which has been contested head-to-head so far.

At 1244 UTC on Friday, Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA) held a tiny 0.9nm lead over MAPFRE (Iker Martínez/ESP). Team Brunel (Bouwe Bekking/NED), Team Alvimedica (Charlie Enright/USA), overall race leaders Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) and Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR) were all right on their heels (see panel above).

Later on Friday, the fleet faced a key decision on how to deal with the Azores High. Most of the weather models showed that a northern course would pay in terms of more wind, but the southern route was more direct to Lisbon.

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, protecting a six-point lead over Dongfeng Race Team in the overall leaderboard after six legs, will be tempted to play safe and stay with the main pack.

via Bon voyage, Vestas Wind!| Volvo Ocean Race 2014-2015.

Team Brunel’s Bouwe Bekking was embroiled in the battle for the Leg 7 lead in the Volvo Ocean Race on Thursday, nine years to the day when he was at the centre of one of the most dramatic episodes the race has ever seen (full story below).

– Bekking puts boat sinking memory behind him

– Just 6.9 nautical miles separates well-matched fleet

– Follow the race all the way to Lisbon on our App

ALICANTE, Spain, May 21 – Team Brunel’s Bouwe Bekking was embroiled in the battle for the Leg 7 lead in the Volvo Ocean Race on Thursday, nine years to the day when he was at the centre of one of the most dramatic episodes the race has ever seen.

The 51-year-old is taking part in a record-equalling seventh challenge in the 2014-15 race, having lost none of his competitive instinct in 30 years of competition in offshore sailing’s toughest event.

Team Brunel currently lie in third position in the overall standings and were vying for the seventh stage lead with Spanish boat MAPFRE (Iker Martínez/ESP) on Thursday morning, with just 0.2 nautical miles (nm) separating the two.

The thrilling tussle to reach Lisbon, Portugal, first must seem a million years away from the torrid night nine years ago when his boat began to take on water in the mid-Atlantic.

With the weather closing in, skipper Bekking was left with the agonising decision of whether to abandon ship, or attempt to save his stricken vessel. With ABN AMRO TWO’s crew standing by, he opted to put the safety of his sailors first, and movistar eventually sank, never to be recovered.

Bekking was asked about that dramatic night in the pre-departure press conference before the fleet left Newport, Rhode Island.

He said that the episode had served as a vivid reminder of the dangers of the Atlantic, although he had confidence that the more robust, one-design Volvo Ocean 65s, were now better prepared for the challenges of the 5,800nm leg.

The subject also came up in the latest episode of the Race’s Inside Track, daily digital programme on Wednesday evening. The big Dutchman insisted he had moved on.

“I haven’t thought about it at all. At that time, it was a shame because we’d been working for two years on a project, but I haven’t laid awake one night (thinking about it) and I never will in my life,” he said.

Meanwhile, he was forced to cede a narrow advantage at the head of the 2014-15 fleet to MAPFRE, who were able to make the most of slightly better breeze to nudge ahead.

With around 1,950nm and a week’s sailing left before the fleet arrives in Lisbon, all six boats, once again, have a chance of snatching victory.

Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR) made the most gains in the latest position report at 0931 UTC (see panel above), thanks to an extra knot of boat speed, and although they still trailed at the back of the pack, they were only 6.9nm adrift of MAPFRE.

Overall leaders Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) were, as usual, handily placed in third place despite reporting a collision with a wooden pallet.

There was no damage done to either crew or boat, but the team slowed briefly while they cleared the pallet off the keel. In all, they lost about four miles.

via Bad memories buried| Volvo Ocean Race 2014-2015.

The Volvo Ocean Race fleet was still locked together no more than four nautical miles (nm) apart after more than a day and a half of racing in Leg 7 on Tuesday, with overall leaders Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) reporting two cases of sickness on board (full story below).

– Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing hit by double illness blow

– Dongfeng leads but it’s so close as Gulf Stream ‘bashes’ fleet

– Follow the head-to-head racing on our fabulous App

ALICANTE, Spain, May 19 – The Volvo Ocean Race fleet was still locked together no more than four nautical miles (nm) apart after more than a day and a half of racing in Leg 7 on Tuesday, with overall leaders Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) reporting two cases of sickness on board.

The 2,800nm stage from Newport, Rhode Island, after a triumphant stopover there, to Lisbon, already promises to follow the race-long pattern of extraordinarily close duelling between the six-strong fleet with around 400nm covered so far through the Atlantic.

At 0942 UTC, Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA) were protecting a wafer-thin 0.9nm advantage over Walker’s Emirati-backed crew, but even sixth-placed Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR) were right in the hunt, with Team Brunel (Bouwe Bekking/NED), MAPFRE (Iker Martínez/ESP) and Team Alvimedica (Charlie Enright/USA) sandwiched between them in that order (see panel above).

Walker had the immediate headache of keeping pace with the Chinese team who are six points adrift of them in the overall standings and a crew who have been a thorn in their side since the event started in Alicante, back in October.

The Emirati cause will not be helped in the short term by the sickness afflicting bowman Luke Parkinson (AUS) and trimmer Adil Khalid (UAE).

The team’s onboard reporter, Matt Knighton (USA), gave a graphic account of the problems, effectively reducing the team’s firepower by 25 per cent.

“Luke had a raspy cough that has only gotten worse since leaving Newport. You can see the strain on his face each watch as he pushes through it, but lately his voice has turned from the familiar Aussie accent to nothing more than a whisper,” Knighton wrote.

“Adil can barely keep down food and is losing energy. You can see his strength leaving his arms as he was trimming on the main sail with each turn.

“With a quarter of our manpower down, the constant reefs and headsail changes are beginning to slow. The hunt to cover Dongfeng for eight days seems an impossible task. If only they knew how fragile we were.”

The boats can not access their rivals’ blogs from the boats (look here), but all will be all too aware of the challenges of riding the Gulf Stream that the fleet has now entered.

“The waves are generally large but far more concerning is the randomness in direction and timing; there’s no order to any of it and the boat’s movements are unpredictable and sudden,” wrote Team Alvimedica’s onboard reporter, Amory Ross.

“It’s a true bathtub bashing, but at least the water’s warm; 21 Celsius compared to last night’s eight!”

The sailors are predicted to complete this challenging and key leg between May 27 and 29.

They will enjoy a brief respite in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, before setting out from June 7 for the frenetic finale of the race with the final two legs leading to its conclusion on June 27 (see route here).

via Sickness on board! | Volvo Ocean Race 2014-2015.

Olympic sailing events may be moved

07 May 2015

This NASA image highlights Rio on the left side of Guanamara Bay. Around 70% of Rio’s raw sewage apparently flushes into the bay

RIO OLYMPICS: At long last, it appears the ISAF is taking notice of the complaints lodged ever since Guanabara Bay in Rio was announced as the venue for the 2016 sailing events.

The bay is essentially an enormous drain into which Rio’s sewers empty. That’s raw sewage from 7,000,000 people a day…

So sailors have been coming down ill with skin conditions and various illnesses after falling into the fetid waters.

Many of those duckings were caused by the sailors’ boats hitting submerged objects, causing damage to the boats and tipping crews into the appalling foul waters.

Check the rubbish for yourself by entering ‘Guanabara Bay pollution’ into your favourite search engine…

After an exceptional campaign mounted by journalist Glenn T McCarthy, who writes for the Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation newsletter and the ChicagoNow blog, ISAF is now actually pushing Rio to get the Olympic sailing venue moved.

Emailed

Mr McCarthy actually emailed every journalist he could around the world. He also emailed every country’s Member National Authority (MNA), telling them what was happening.

Now it appears Mr McCarthy’s efforts seem to be having an effect. More articles have appeared – like this one – highlighting the awful truth. National newspapers have run articles supporting Mr McCarthy’s views.

And things are beginning to happen. Like the ISAF now pushing to get the 2016 Guanabara Bay Olympic sailing venue moved.

But the Brazilian government’s immediate response to articles demanding the venue should be changed was to get Rio de Janeiro’s State Environment Secretary – André Corrêa – to jump into the water during a television interview.

However, onlookers – including Brazilian ex-Olympic sailor and ex-politician, Lars Grael – pointed out Mr Corrêa took his dip fully clothed at the mouth of the bay and at the top of the tide when clean Atlantic Ocean water enters the bay.

“Here it is just like the beach at Ipanema,” Mr Corrêa is reported to have claimed.

Then again, BB can think of another suitable quote from many years ago: “He would, wouldn’t he”.

Infectious disease

Even then an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro claimed the high ranking Mr Corrêa could have become severely ill as a result (of his short immersion).

But is it likely the ISAF’s demand to move the venue will be met?

Alastair Fox, the head of competitions for the ISAF, said: “If we have to race all the races outside the bay, if that’s what it comes to, to ensure a fair regatta, then that’s something we’re going to explore and could do.”

Mr Fox said the ISAF had asked the Switzerland based International Olympic Committee (IOC) to pressure Brazilian politicians.

According to Mr McCarthy, previous Olympic venues have been moved.

The Los Angeles 1984 event moved its sailing venue four times. And for London 2012, the venues for gymnastics and badminton were changed 18 months before the games opened.

Two venues

The organising committee for the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games had offered two different venues for sailing in its bid package.

Like Rio, Barcelona was heavily polluted and the proposed marina was part of a major shipping port – and that really wouldn’t have worked.

So the then president of the ISAF, Canadian Paul Henderson (often called the ‘Pope of Sailing’) negotiated with the Barcelona authorities to build a new marina away from the commercial traffic.

He also got them to clean up the sewage that was being dumped into the Mediterranean.

Apparently, Barcelona came through and, while the water wasn’t perfect, it was highly improved by the time the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games opened.

So there should be no reason why the Brazilians can’t offer sailing something similar…

via Boating Business – Olympic sailing events may be moved.

12-Metre regatta on San Francisco Bay

12 May 2015

The America’s Cup yacht Freedom, sailed by Dennis Conner in Freemantle in 1980 – photo: wikipedia.org

12-METRE REGATTA: Tom Ehman, a former America’s Cup executive, is launching the Golden Gate Yacht Racing Challenge to be sailed annually on San Francisco Bay beginning in July 2017.

According to an Associated Press report yesterday, the event will be an updated version of the venerable 12-metre class designed to “restore stability and style to yacht racing”.

The regatta will offer yacht racing’s largest purse, $500,000, have a strict nationality rule and be contested in the strong, steady breeze that blows in through the Golden Gate Bridge.

Mr Ehman said he envisions the Golden Gate Challenge as the Wimbledon of yacht racing in that it will be held every year at the same venue. Unlike the America’s Cup, Mr Ehman says all teams will be challengers, meaning they’ll start on an equal footing each year.

While Mr Ehman hopes to attract some big name owners and skippers, but points out the star of the regatta could be the 12-metres themselves.

They were used in what many consider the golden era of the America’s Cup, from 1958-87, when larger than life personalities, such as Dennis Conner and Ted Turner, dominated racing held in Newport, Rhode Island, and then Fremantle, Australia.

The 12-metre era ended when Mr Conner won back the America’s Cup in the big wind and waves off Fremantle in 1987.

Mr Ehman said he’s having designers look at modernising the 12-metres and hopes to keep the cost below $3 million per boat.

All boats would have the same hull shape, which would make the regatta a test of sailing skill, rather than a design competition, helping to hold down costs.

He’d like the hull to look like Freedom, which Mr Conner sailed to victory in the 1980 America’s Cup.

Beyond the cost of a boat, Mr Ehman believes a team can compete in the Golden Gate Challenge for less than $1 million a year, far less than staging an America’s Cup campaign.

via Boating Business – 12-Metre regatta on San Francisco Bay.

Volvo Race plans for next edition

18 May 2015

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, Team SCA and Team Brunel lead away from the Newport start – photo: Marc Bow/Volvo Ocean Race

VOLVO RACE: Knut Frostad, CEO of the Volvo Race, unveiled his ideas for the future of the race to stakeholders in a presentation in the USA on Saturday May 16.

According to a story in The Daily Sail, Mr Frostad has set a target of eight to ten boats for the next round the world race in 2017-18.

He also Frostad revealed the costs for a newly built Volvo Ocean 65 one-design had been pegged at the same basic price of €4.5million as it cost at its launch three years ago. “That’s a massive achievement,” he said.

All seven identical boats, which will finish the current race in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 27 June, will be returned for use in 2017-18, but more will be built on demand.

“We want new teams to join us, but our priority is to get as many existing teams as possible back on the start line,” said Mr Frostad.

The race will look into what can be done to improve the boats on a number of fronts including energy generation and consumption, and communications.

These improvements will be announced at METS in Amsterdam over 17-19 November this year. The fleet would then be refitted between November 2016 and May 2017.

Mr Frostad added that a new and better sail design would be ready for delivery by 1 March, 2017, ahead of the next race scheduled to start in October that year.

He also admitted that the race needed to make it easier for new sponsors to enter and that would be spearheaded by a major editing of its rules book for teams and ports.

This currently runs to 247 pages “and that’s too long”, said Frostad. The new, more concise version would be ready by September this year.

Improvements

Frostad said he also wanted to see onboard communications improvements to keep pace with the ever changing media landscape. One would be the introduction of GPS directed camera drones, which could offer fans far more aerial coverage of the boats at sea than is currently available.

“Each boat will carry one of these drones. I’m 100% sure that will happen,” he said. He also announced plans for longer and better training for Onboard Reporters, starting in the summer of 2016.

The route for the next edition would be revealed in January 2016. Several ports, including the start in Alicante, had already been settled for 2017-18 and Newport, Rhode Island, has been given a two-month exclusive period to negotiate a new deal for the next race.

Mr Frostad also said the event had proved a much more effective vehicle for business-to-business activity than ever before.

Before the Newport stopover, more than 19,000 business guests had attended and, in the short, two day pit stop next month in The Hague, 11,000 corporate places had been sold by the Dutch city alone.

Frostad added that Gothenburg would “at least, match that number”.

And that means the previous record of 25,000 corporate guests achieved in the 2011-12 edition would be at least doubled by the end of the race on June 27.

via Boating Business – Volvo Race plans for next edition.

AMERICA’S CUP: Artemis Racing became the first America’s Cup challenger to launch its AC45 Turbo development catamaran in Bermuda on May 15.

The Swedish team’s foiling AC45 Turbo began sea trials in the Great Sound on Tuesday after being launched from its new temporary base at the Royal Naval Dockyard.

The team says the first two days of sailing provided a real insight into what it can expect ahead of America’s Cup World Series in Bermuda this October, and the finals of the 35th America’s Cup in 2017.

Helmsman Nathan Outteridge commented: “We’re really excited to be the first challenger out on the Bermudan waters on the AC45. There have been a number of critics of the Bermuda venue, but foiling around in 10 knots of breeze here, in flat turquoise water is pretty sweet.”

Team manager Iain Percy said: “We were really just out there exploring the course on day one and checking the equipment after it’s journey from San Francisco. Over the last few days we’ve learnt that it is a tricky venue, it’s really shifty and gusty, and further to that, it’s tight.”

After the mandatory system checks the team was soon flying round the Great Sound, travelling to the boundaries of the course, managing to get a solid four hours under their belt on day one.

via Boating Business – Artemis launches AC45 Turbo in Bermuda.

The Volvo Ocean Race fleet marked a sad anniversary early on Leg 7 on Monday as they raced across the Atlantic, nine years to the day that the last sailor to lose his life in the event was drowned (full story below).

– Sad anniversary of Horrevoets who died on this leg

– Dongfeng Race Team edge to early lead

– Follow the action all the way on our App

NEWPORT, Rhode Island, May 18 – The Volvo Ocean Race fleet marked a sad anniversary early on Leg 7 on Monday as they raced across the Atlantic, nine years to the day that the last sailor to lose his life in the event was drowned.

Dutchman Hans Horrevoets, 32, of ABN AMRO TWO, was the last of five fatalities in the history of the 41-year-old race and the tragedy serves as a vivid reminder to the sailors in the 2014-15 edition of the dangers of the race.

He was washed overboard at night, some 1,800 nautical miles (nm) from Lands End, England, on the New York to Portsmouth leg of the 2005-06 race. Although the crew recovered his body, they were not able to resuscitate him.

ABN AMRO TWO’s team then experienced further drama on the stage when they rescued the crew of movistar, the challenge led by Bouwe Bekking (NED), shortly before the Spanish-backed boat sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic.

Bekking, returning for a record-equalling seventh challenge in the 12th edition of the race on board Team Brunel, spoke of the dangers of the 2,800-nm transatlantic stage the fleet is now navigating, at the pre-departure press conference.

“If you just look at history in this next leg, lots of rigs have been broken, a boat has sunk, a person lost his life and we know we’re going to Europe, so people will push so hard on this leg,” he said.

The leg, which is expected to take about nine days to complete, had a spectacular start on Sunday with a master class of in-shore seamanship and strategy in front of a packed shoreline and huge flotilla of spectator boats in Newport, Rhode Island, on Sunday.

The race’s first stopover in Newport, famous as the long-time host for the America’s Cup until the early 1980s, was a huge success, with tens of thousands streaming into the race village.

Race CEO, Knut Frostad, described it as the most successful American stopover of the seven he had experienced in more than 20 years as a sailor and organiser of the event.

Sail Newport, which managed the stopover, is now embarking on two months of negotiations with race organisers to seal a deal to bring it back again in the next edition in 2018.

Meanwhile, out in the Atlantic, racing was predictably tight (see panel above from 1240 UTC) with Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA) holding a slim 2.1nm lead ahead of overall race leaders, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) in building breeze (see here).

The stage is by far the shortest of the race so far and offers crews who have yet to win a leg, such as Team Alvimedica (Charlie Enright/USA) and the all-female Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR), their best chance yet of taking maximum points.

MAPFRE (Iker Martínez/ESP) will also fancy their chances after following up their victory in the Team Vestas Wind In-Port Race Newport on Saturday by leading the fleet out of the sailing-crazy Rhode Island town a day later.

The boats are expected to arrive in the Portuguese capital in seven to eight days before taking on the final two legs to Lorient, France, and then Gothenburg, Sweden, where the race will be concluded on June 27.

via Remembering Hans| Volvo Ocean Race 2014-2015.

Spanish boat MAPFRE (Iker Martínez/ESP), winners of the in-port race a day earlier, were again the class act as they led the six-boat Volvo Ocean Race fleet out of Newport at the start of Leg 7 after a hugely successful stopover (full story below).

– MAPFRE show skill and style around Newport’s Narragansett Bay

– Atlantic crossing offers mixed challenges to six-strong fleet

– Follow the action all the way to Lisbon on our App

NEWPORT, Rhode Island, USA, May 17 – Spanish boat MAPFRE (Iker Martínez/ESP), winners of the in-port race a day earlier, were again the class act as they led the six-boat Volvo Ocean Race fleet out of Newport at the start of Leg 7 after a hugely successful stopover.

The crews now face an Atlantic crossing to the Portuguese capital of Lisbon that will test their seamanship to the full, but they could be forgiven for taking one, last, backward glance to the packed docks of the sailing-crazy Rhode Island town.

The only North American stopover of the nine-month offshore marathon race has delivered hoards of fans every day to see the boats close up since the fleet completed Leg 6 from Itajaí, Brazil, on May 7.

The stopover has been so successful that race officials have changed their normal protocol and offered the Newport organisers a two-month window to seal a deal as the next race’s only North American stopover in 2018.

Although official figures will not be announced for a couple of days, Sunday’s attendance in perfect, sun-bathed conditions was estimated by race officials to have topped the previous peak days.

Certainly, the crowds who packed the shoreline, or joined the huge spectator fleet to watch Sunday’s action, were treated to enthralling racing which demonstrated the high level of in-shore skills within the fleet.

Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA), so determined to cut their six-point deficit to overall race leaders Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR), were quickest out of the blocks, reaching the first mark with a comfortable lead.

But the racing in Narragansett Bay is rarely straightforward and MAPFRE, buoyed by their Team Vestas Wind In-Port Race Newport win on Saturday, beat off the opposition to take the lead as the fleet left Rhode Island behind and raced off into the Atlantic.

In contrast, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing laboured at the back of the fleet for the opening circuits of the Bay, just behind local favourites, Team Alvimedica (Charlie Enright/USA), who could not give their homeport quite the farewell they would have liked.

Behind MAPFRE and Dongfeng, Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR) and Team Brunel (Bouwe Bekking/NED) tussled for third place.

But these were very early skirmishes in a 2,800-nautical mile leg that will take some eight to 10 days to complete.

Although Leg 7 is much shorter than those which have preceded it, the route ahead is as challenging as any in the race and memories are still raw from the 2005-06 edition when Dutch sailor Hans Horrevoets was tragically drowned after being swept overboard from ABN AMRO TWO.

In the same race, movistar, skippered by Bekking, sunk mid-Atlantic on the same leg and the crew had to be rescued by Horrevoets’ boat.

For the first 24 hours of the leg, the fleet should experience comparatively light winds before harsher conditions and the Gulf Stream make their presence felt.

There is also ocean debris, whales, shipping and wildly fluctuating weather to contend with in the North Atlantic.

No wonder, Azzam skipper Ian Walker commented at the pre-departure press conference last week: “Our first priority? Easy – to arrive safe.”

After the Lisbon stopover, the boats will contest the final two legs of the race to Lorient, France, and from there to Gothenburg, Sweden, via a pit-stop in The Hague. The race concludes on June 27.

via Match racing masterclass as fleet leaves Newport| Volvo Ocean Race 2014-2015.