Brunel wins the TransAtlantic, Leg 9 in the VolvoOceanRace from Newport to Cardiff, UK.
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| Brunel winners of Leg 9 |
And what a Leg it was.
Brunel made a fantastic start by winning the starters parcours in Newport and leading the fleet into the Atlantic in between the different exclusion zones.
Normally the fastest route is going North as much as possible, as the winds are stronger there and the distance is the smallest. But when the crucial point came to turn North, Brunel did not, contrary to Maphfre and Dongfeng.
Brunel stayed in the storm that had good speed pushing them to the East, and later that breeze was even better than expected. Once that was over and the fleet converged, Brunel with AkzoNobel and Vestas cut in front of the northern boats and with the next westerly depression could only extend their lead.
The High pressure ridge, that stalled all Boats was rather fair and released the Boats in order of arriving. The strong tide towards Cardiff was friendly as well, as it truned inwards the moment the leaders approached.
AkzoNobel, was constantly close to Brunel and took sometimes the lead. In the end however Brunel won with about 4 minutes. AkzoNobel however sailed the longest distance in the Atlantic in a 24 hrs period, 602.5 Nm; breaking the old record of Torben Grael on , Ericsson 4 at 596.6 Nm.
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| Fast Sailing |
Now the ranking at the top of the Overall scoreboard has become very tight, promissing a hard fought victory in the last 2 legs.
Next event will be the Cardiff In-Port Race on Friday 8 June at 1300 UTC.
Next Leg 10 to start Sunday 10 June 1500 UTC from Cardiff to Gothenburg.
