It was beautiful sailing weather, stable strong winds and only small waves.
Brunel made a blistering Start and got was soon in the Lead, only to take it to the Finish. Rounding the 1st buoy, was a close battle with SunHungKai/Scallywag, and though they were somewhat faster around the buoy, it is Brunel that squeezed themselves back in the lead.
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| Brunel already in the Lead, In-Port The Hague |
For Brunel it was important to win from AkzoNoble with at least one Boat in between, in order to get the 3rd prize overall in the In-Port race series. With Dongfeng sailing a strong race and taking the Runner-Up place, it was exactly what brought the 3rd prize to Brunel.
Another very important battle was between TurntheTideon Plastic and SunHungKai/Scallywag. Both had same scoring on the Overall VOR scorecard, and thus the standing in the In-Port serie would decide who would take the 6th and who the 7th place.
SunHungKai, was nicely in the lead and had nothing to fear,till............. their ruder got hooked on the rope of a mark. This allows TurntheTideonPlastic to pass them and once SunHungKai got released their disadvantage was that big that TurntheTideon Plastic was long gone.
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| Dee Caffari smiling already before the race, or did she know the good result to come? |
Dee Caffari sailed a strong race, and was able to pass Vestas in the last leg, while Mapfre made an easy sailing and was no threat at all.
So TurntheTide on Plastic, got a 4th place and with this won a 6th place in the Overall standings.
This was the last event of the VolvoOceanRace 2017-2018 and hopefully in 3 years time we will have a new VolvoOceanRace.
