Cape Town, South Africa // About a month ago, the in-port race at each leg of the Volvo Ocean Race seemed to be the last thing on anyone’s minds.
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s Azzam did not even train for it seriously until a couple of days before it was to take place.
Ian Walker, Azzam’s skipper, is ultra-competitive, but even he said the in-port races held mostly “entertainment” value.
Charlie Enright, skipper of Team Alvimedica, said he had not “put a lot into it” a day before the race.
Azzam did well enough in the Alicante in-port race, finishing runners-up, six seconds behind Team Alvimedica.
It was difficult to argue with their sentiment.
Unlike the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) of 2011/12, the in-port races would not count for any significant value towards the final standings, having previously accounted for 20 per cent of the overall points total.
The only scenario in which they would become meaningful was if teams were deadlocked when completing the final leg, next summer in Sweden.
The chances of a tie over a race this long, this arduous and so subject to nature are remote, you would think, but it seems that is wrong.
One leg of nine down and suddenly today’s in-port race in Cape Town has acquired a little more importance.
The reason is the nature of Azzam's nail-biting, 12-minute win over Team Dongfeng at the end of the first leg. That thrilling and enervating duel opened up the possibilities of this VOR being among the closest-run in history.
Over the first half of that leg, the seven-boat fleet could barely pull away from each other in a close, claustrophobic start to the race; the one-design Volvo Ocean 65 has evened out the playing field. Suddenly, the idea of boats finishing in a tie is not so outlandish.
“After Gibraltar in Leg 1, I told SiFi [Simon Fisher, the Azzam navigator], we should pay attention to the in-ports, [because] this VOR could well be a tie,” Walker said yesterday.
The competitiveness seems to be catching.
“We’re going for it the whole way,” said Chris Nicholson, the Team Vestas skipper.
“We take it seriously, we’re a proud bunch of people. Points are almost immaterial. We’ll push hard, we’ll try not to damage anything, but it’s competition.”
It is almost summer in Cape Town, but yesterday had little to do with summer as strong, gusty winds, heavy showers and thick cloud blanketed the sky.
That will play a part in today’s race, which should take about an hour to complete.
“It’s going to be windy on Saturday and a real test for the crew,” Walker said.
There will also be several crew changes for the second leg, which begins on Wednesday, and for the in-port race.
The all-female crew of Team SCA, who had such a stirring finish to the first leg, have made changes, with Elodie-Jane Mettraux replacing her sister Justine.
Team Alvimedica, which finished fifth in the first leg, will sail with seven crew instead of eight as Italian Alberto Bolzan has had to see to a partner who has had an accident, although he will be back for the start of the second leg.
On Friday morning, Enright’s crew had an audience with Desmond Tutu, the former Archbishop of Cape Town, perhaps in a bid to inspire them ahead of the second leg.
“A very valuable life experience and a great opportunity to meet an amazing man,” Enright said. “We’ll take any support we can get, and if it comes from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, then all the better.”
The Spanish Mapfre boat will be without skipper Iker Martinez and will have seven crew. Former Azzam crew member Rob Greenhalgh joins them, as does Jean-Luc Nelias, for the in-port race and the second leg, instead of Michel Desjoyeaux and Nico Lunven.
Dongfeng are also rotating crew as planned, leaving Azzam, Team Brunel and Team Vestas as the only unchanged crews.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
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