VOR in the USA

The eighth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race has drawn to a dramatic close in Newport, Rhode Island, with Team MAPFRE capping off a stunning comeback that saw them move up from fifth to first place in the final 24 hours. Passing Team Brunel for the lead within the last 500 meters of the race, MAPFRE’s margin of victory would be an incredible 1 minute and 1 second after nearly 16 days of sailing from Itajaí, Brazil. The ‘home team’, Vestas/11th Hour Racing, rounded out the podium just 15 minutes back of the Spanish leaders, while a disappointed Dongfeng team came in fourth, at the tail end of the lead group of four.

The racing from Brazil was fast and intense with a quick doldrums crossing and steady trade winds allowing the fleet to sail at more than 20 knots — roughly 500 miles per day — for much of the leg. Once outside Newport, however, the fleet went from warp speed to drifting in what must have felt like an instant. Creating a virtual restart just outside the finish, the light air out of Newport massively compressed the fleet, allowing last-placed Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag to regain more than 100 miles on the leaders and finish just three hours astern of MAPFRE.

The light air that reshuffled the fleet’s finishing orders in Newport also had a significant impact on the overall standings of the race, helping MAPFRE build a scant 3-point lead over their mostly French rivals on Dongfeng (53 points to 50 points), while Brunel sits a further 8 points back in third place with 42 points. Despite scoring their first points since Leg 3, Vestas/11th Hour Racing remains in fifth place.

The Newport stopover, located at Fort Adams, has been open since Tuesday afternoon and will remain so until the start of Leg 9, which will take the fleet some 3,300 miles across the Atlantic to Cardiff, Wales. Leg 9 will start on Sunday, May 20, and will be the final ‘long’ leg, with the European portion of this around-the-world race consisting of shorter, ‘sprint’ legs.

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