MAPFRE takes first Victory in Alicante In-Port race.

MAPFRE have shown in the preparation time, the Zero Leg and the Prologue already that they are a strong sailing team and now with a Victory in the Alicante In-Port Race, they have given a warning to the other Boats. 

Mapfre leads on the 1st top buoy

Allicante offered a nice Easterly breeze of about 8 Knts, a good condition for nice sailing. Mapfre had not such a good start, crossing the start line as penultimate Boat, but they had a different strategy, sailing on Port tack on the 1st leg. It paid off as they were first at the top buoy and even could make an extra tack, which costed them some boat-lengths but that played into their strategy to continue. They sailed away and had no danger from the other boats anymore; GREAT strategy, maybe due to their local knowledge.

The fight for the other Podium places was fierce with many changes in positions.
Vestas and Clean Seas had a good start.  On 1st leg, Sun Hung Kai followed Mapfre and Dongfeng was 3rd, Vestas lost some ground, Clean the Tide was last as they make some more tacks.
On the 1st downwind leg, Dongfeng sailed fast but looked to sail too far to the coast, allowing Brunel to take 2nd place from 6th , Vestas 3rd. 
Vestas tacked on the 2nd rounding of the top mark but got a problem in the tack, causing Brunel to slow down, with Dongfeng on their stern.
Dongfeng again sailed fast on the 2nd downwind leg passing Vestas and crossed just ahead of Brunel this time.
Brunel sailed well on the last upwind leg, and crossed ahead of Vestas now though the difference on rounding the mark was negligible. Such that Vestas could pass Brunel on the final donwwind leg and take the Podium.


The scorecard for In-Port Races looks like below after the 1st race. This scorecard will only help Boats in the ultimate VOR results as a tie-breaker when the score between Boats in the Legs scorecard resulted in a tie. 

Scorecard after Alicante In=Port

Next main event is the Start of Leg 1 Alicante to Lisbon on 22 October 2017 at 12:00 UTC.