Charlie Enright's Team Vestas 11th Hour Racing has won the penultimate harbor race in the Volvo Ocean Race. Before Gothenburg, the Danish-American crew prevailed against the Dutch team AkzoNobel and the Spanish team Mapfre. The third-placed Spaniards have won the special ranking of all harbor races ahead of time and won the inshore trophy. For the overall standings, however, the result of the harbor races is only important as a "tiebreaker" if several teams are tied at the end of the race around the world.
Gala performance of Vestas and AkzoNobel in the harbor race off Gothenburg. Both teams also benefited from Brunel's problems on the third section of the course
Xabí Fernandez's Team Mapfre created an exciting scene right at the start on Sunday at 2 p.m. local time, because the Spaniards had only one task on their way to winning all port races early: to reach the finish line before Dongfeng. So the Spaniards and their helmsman Pablo Arrarte had devoted themselves to the rival Dongfeng Race Team according to all the rules of match racing, took close cover and slowed down. The Dongfeng Race Team found no remedy and after the lost infight in the one-hour race, they couldn't get past last place. Even before the final port race in The Hague on June 30th, the Spaniards can no longer be ousted from first place in the overall ranking of the port races.
Adios, Dongfeng! In the match race duel, Team Mapfre had cleverly slowed down the Dongfeng Race Team at the start and then left them behind
Bouwe Bekking's team Brunel, on the other hand, acted unhappily on the 55th birthday of his skipper, of all things, after the many recent successes. Brunel had dominated the race after a successful start until half-time, the ideal birthday present for Bekking was already within reach. But then the "yellows" had dropped to sixth place on the third section of the course due to a handling error when changing sails.
Happy Birthday, Bouwe Bekking! The Brunel skipper turned 55 on Sunday. With the win in the harbor race as a gift, however, it did not work out. What Bekking can get over, because his goal is completely different: He wants to finally win the race of his life on the eighth attempt. For this he has to finish the last stage in the home port of The Hague better than Mapfre and Dongfeng
A determined and strong start to the race, then dropped by five (!) Positions on section three: Team Brunel was unhappy on the 55th birthday of skipper Bouwe Bekking
The harbor race was only the prelude to the upcoming showdown in the Volvo Ocean Race: the last stage of the marathon will take the fleet of seven boats from Gothenburg over 700 nautical miles to the port of destination The Hague from June 21st. With Brunel, Mapfre and Dongfeng, three more teams can win the 13th edition. The race has never ended so exciting in its 45-year history.
Hundreds of thousands of fans are expected to cross the finish line in The Hague, hoping for Brunel's victory. Record participant Bouwe Bekking has never won the race of his life, but now has the best chance at his eighth participation. He could follow in the footsteps of Cornelis Van Rietschoten with a triumph. The "Flying Dutchman" and Dutch national hero, who died in 2013 at the age of 87, was the only one to win the races twice in 1977/78 and 1981/82 with his fast "Flyer" yachts, and thus a passion of his compatriots for the sea that continues to this day. Marathon established.