Abu Dhabi: Overall Volvo Ocean Race (VOC) leaders Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (ADOR) are currently third behind SCA and Vestas Wind on the third day of the eighth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race from Lisbon to Lorient.
Ian Walker’s side are ahead of the two boats closest to them in the overall standings, Brunel and Dongfeng, and will look to stretch their six-point lead over the pair in a race that looks likely to go down to the wire before a final stopover in Gothenburg via a pit-stop in The Hague.
Victory in the eighth leg of the voyage would be a fairy tale for the all-female crew of SCA, who held an 8.5 nautical mile (nm) lead with just over 400nm of the stage left to negotiate, on Tuesday.
The female crew have improved leg on leg since the race began in October but haven’t posted a result better than sixth to date.
Victory would also be a major coup for Vestas Wind, who were declared a write-off after a collision with a reef in the Indian Ocean last November during leg two of the voyage. Yet an incredible effort and near total rebuild restored the crew to the eighth stage start line in Lisbon.
Few expected Chris Nicholson’s crew to be competitive after such a long layoff, but they have been at the forefront of the seven-boat fleet from the first night on Sunday and only trailed Sam Davies’ SCA crew by 8.5nm early on Tuesday.
The rest of the fleet now face a dilemma: whether to follow SCA and Vesta Wind’s course further offshore, or hug the Spanish French shorelines, where the winds may be stronger.
Either way they are racing under difficult conditions. Volvo Ocean Race meteorologist Gonzala Infante said: “It’s blowing a solid 30 knots in four-metre waves, it’s on the edge. We haven’t seen proper upwind sailing like this so far in the race.”
SCA’s navigator Libbt Greenhalgh also said the wind and sea state meant that they were delaying their planned tack back towards the French coast as they approach Brittany in 24 hours.
Infante added of the predicament, “Just because the winds are stronger nearer land, doesn’t mean that the boats there will go faster. There’s the sea state and stability of the boats to take into consideration.”
The boats are currently estimated to arrive in Lorient on Thursday between 0200-0400 UTC. They will have a short maintenance period before setting off for the climax of the nine-month, 38,739nm marathon the following Tuesday, June 16.