LEG 6: Hong Kong to Auckland
Bouwe Bekking’s Team Brunel extended to a narrow three mile lead after 24 hours of racing in Leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race. Team Brunel lead the way towards Taiwan. The six boats are tucked towards the southern tip of Taiwan, anticipating a turn to the north after leaving Taiwan to port. On the 0700 UTC position report on Thursday, Brunel had eked out a narrow lead, but most of the teams will be in sight of one another. Team Brunel hit early problems with plastic caught on the boat. The performance hit was too much, and they did a double tack to clear the debris from their rudder. As a result, Brunel had about a three-mile lead for much of the morning on Thursday as the teams race towards Taiwan. After passing to the south of Taiwan, the fleet were expected to head to the north, further away from the direct route to New Zealand, in an effort to avoid a developing area of light wind and to pick up favourable conditions before diving south. It means more upwind sailing, so progress towards the finish looked to be slow and hard-earned for the early stages of Leg 6. Conditions were fast, wet and wild for the Volvo Ocean Race fleet on Sunday 11th Feb. as they charge to the southeast, finally heading in a direction where miles sailed translate into miles towards the finish in New Zealand, still more than 4,000 nautical miles away. With the passage of a front, the wind shifted to the north and the boats were on a tight reach in 18 to 25 knots of wind, making 20 to 25 knots of boatspeed. It’s not comfortable. But it’s fast But it wouldn’t be the first time that Auckland has played host to a grandstand Volvo Ocean Race finish. In fact, the City of Sails has seen some of the closest battles in the Race’s history, and this week, we could be adding another to the list.
At 0130 UTC, the leaders, team AkzoNobel and Scallywag have been bumping up against a high pressure system that is slowing their progress. They’re match racing just boat lengths from each other. But Turn the Tide on Plastic, further offshore, had also closed to within three miles, and even MAPFRE and Dongfeng, over 100 miles back less than 24 hours ago, were now less than 10 miles behind and closing every minute with better speed. This leg is going to be a close finish This leg shaped up to be an historic finish, with five boats racing within sight of each other - less than seven miles separating first placed team AkzoNobel from fifth placed Dongfeng Race Team. Team AkzoNobel has won Leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, racing 6,344 miles from Hong Kong to Auckland in 20 days, 9 hours and 17 minutes and 26 seconds. It was a tremendous win, and came after an epic final 24 hours, when a ridge of high pressure off the north east coast of New Zealand stalled the progress of the leading boats, allowing those behind to close what had appeared to be an insurmountable gap. For team AkzoNobel and SHK/Scallywag, the buffer they’d built up over the past week was only just sufficient, and they were able to match race down the coast all the way to the finish line in the Waitematā Harbour, usually sailing within hailing distance of each other. In the end, the margin at the finish was just twominutes. Akzonobel Scallywag Mapfre Dongfeng Turn tide on platic Team brunel