Volvo Ocean Race - Cape Town Stopover
| First Blood to 'Azzam'. |
| Tuesday, 01 November 2011 14:25 |
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Image above by Paul Todd / Volvo Ocean Race Abu Dhabi Racing have made a dream start to their 2011/12 Volvo Ocean race campaign by taking the win, and the first points on offer, at the Alicante In-Port race. After a great buildup, it was the just the start that skipper Ian Walker would have been hoping for. Walker, a double Olympic silver medallist, won the start on Azzam, a sleek black 70-foot yacht, and pulled away from the five other contenders to win comfortably by 14 minutes on the unique course set a few hundred metres from the Alicante shoreline by principal race officer Bill O’Hara . Onboard was Capetonian Paul Willcox, who was selected for the In-Port race despite taking the role of reserve for the first leg to Cape Town. Light and windless patches during the 72-minute race ensured a tactical contest for the other five, including Mike Sanderson’s Team Sanya who delivered his pre-race goal to deny places to the brand new fleet with his second generation 70-footer that sailed as Telefonica Blue three years ago. Sanderson managed to out-sail his fellow Kiwis on Camper with Emirates Team New Zealand who later muscled back to take third place just ahead of the former race winner. Sanderson was happy with fourth place ahead of France’s Groupama, reputedly the biggest and best-funded team in the race. And the local entry led by Iker Martinez placed an embarrassing last place after being forced into penalty turns just metres from the finishing line when they failed to give way to Sanderson’s charging Chinese entry. However, while a win is a win, an in-port race only counts for one fifth of the points of a full oceanic stage so Walker’s team celebrations remained muted; they may have won the 605-mile Fastnet Race during the summer but nobody wants to risk jinxing a 39,000-mile race on the strength of an eight-mile inshore course. |
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Volvo Ocean Race Podcast
Jeff Ayliffe had an exclusive chat to PUMA Ocean Racing's skipper Ken Read today. When they last chatted, Ken was hoping to be back for the Volvo Ocean race 2011, but they had not confirmed. The team are are not only back, but have experienced a transatlantic victory aboard the new boat 'Mar Mostro', and Read told Jeff he was delighted to preparing for Alicante and the start of Volvo Ocean race action
- Volvo Ocean Race Cape Town
Team Camper’s South African crewman is Michael Pammenter, who sailed with Telefonica Black in 2008. Michael caught up with Jeff Ayliffe just after the boat Was being transported to New Zealand.
- Volvo Ocean Race Cape Town
Puma Ocean Racing’s Jono Swain is the 2nd of 3 South Africans in this years Volvo Ocean race. He chatted to Jeff Ayliffe about sleeping patterns and life aboard a Volvo open 70
- Volvo Ocean Race Cape Town
Capetonian Paul Wilcox is part of Abu Dhabi Racing in the Volvo Ocean Race, and he was chatting to Jeff Ayliffe shortly after the team pulled off a win in the Transnet after a close battle with Groupama.
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