Wednesday cover: Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing just barely out in front of volatile Leg 2

The National's Sport cover for the Wednesday, December 3 issue, featuring Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing's Azzam, leading the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race.

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The National's Sport cover for the Wednesday, December 3 issue, featuring Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing's Azzam, leading the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race.

The leg, from Cape Town, South Africa to Abu Dhabi, has proved treacherous so far, with one team even needing to be rescued from their beached boat along a reef in the Indian Ocean.

Writing about the leg's progress, Osman Samiuddin notes: "Nearly two weeks into the leg, it has proved a crazy journey, as impossible to ignore as it is to predict. Race organisers send out a position report every three hours for the duration of a leg and they have painted a compelling picture.

“The lead has changed 14 times, averaging roughly one lead change a day.

“Until yesterday morning, an average calculation of what the distance between the front two boats has been during the leg came to only 5.25 nautical miles.

“A degree in sailing is not needed to appreciate the competitive qualities of a race that, more than 3,000 nautical miles in, produces only that tiny gap between the leaders.”

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