Saturday 7 October 2017

Prologue VolvoOceanRace 2017-2018 - Final Training



Sunday 8th October 2017, all 7 Boats in the VolvoOceanRace(VOR) 2017-2018 will start from Lisbon for a final training and qualifying Leg to Alicante, the Start of the VOR 2017-2018.

After the earlier common training races, Zero Leg races, this will be the final option to fine tune and test the One-Design VO65 Boats with the sail settings amongst each other before the real VOR-race will start. No doubt the skippers and sailors will observe each other on this Prologue to gain the last insights as to how to sail a little faster than the other participants.

The qualifier for the VOR 2017-18 was the Leg Zero, a combination of 4 mini-races: 

  • a race around the isle of Wight, during the Cowes week
  • The Rolex Fastnet Rock race, 
  • a race from Plymouth to Saint-Malo, 
  • a race from Saint-Malo to Lisbon, where all Boats will be inspected and where required repaired before the start of the VOR.

MAPFRE was the fastest around the Isle of Wight, which was sailed in stormy winds and tested crew, boat and sails extensively. The time differences were small, 1min.30sec to Team Brunel on 2nd place and the whole fleet finished in a 16 minutes window.


The Fastnet Race, the historic sailing race starting in the Solent, rounding the famous Fastnet Rock on the SE coast of Ireland and finishing in Plymouth, was sailed by All 7 VOR Boats as preparation and qualification race. It was a tight race, which promisse a lot of close finishes in the VOR as well. The winner was Dongfeng Race Team with just a 56 seconds lead on MAPFRE; on 6 minutes 3rd was Team Brunel followed by team AkzoNobel 7 minutes later. Vestas finish another 17 minutes later, followed by Sun Hung Kai after 4 minutes and last over the line came Turn the Tide on Plastic after 4 minutes.

The race from Plymouth to Saint-Malo accross the Channel, was won by MAPFRE , again. Differences were larger, in a low wind race where Maphre made a strategic choice that brought them Victory.

In very weak winds, the final mini-race to  Lisbon was sailed. Vestas 11th  Hour Racing won after a strategic best choice to come out of a region of weak winds to catch the North-Westerlies as a first.

The Overall ranking for the Leg Zero, which is not counting for the VOR 2017-2018, was won by MAPFRE. 
1. MAPFRE                                  29
2. Dongfeng Race Team               24
3. Team Brunel                            24
4. team AkzoNober                      22
5. Vestas 11th Hour Racing          20
6. Turn the Tide on Plastic            12
7. Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag    9

Could this be an insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the different Boats , or will there be a lot of learning from these mini-races to change rankings around during the coming 11 Legs of the real VolvoOceanRace (VOR) ?

The teams have formed(provided no changes will occur)  and you may have a look at the VOR site or look above in my blog under the Team tab.

See you in Alicante 

  • for the In-Port race on 14 October and 
  • on 22 October for the Start of the VOR 2017-2018 for the Leg1: Alicante to Lisbon.