As the UAE capital prepares to roll out an Arabian welcome for the Volvo Ocean Race fleet, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing are battling hard for back-to-back leg wins.
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At midnight on Wednesday, Azzam had made significant progress, slashing down the gap to the leader from the previous 24 hours’ 43 nautical miles (nm) to 21.9nm with about 400nm before the first boat touches Abu Dhabi.
Second-placed Dongfeng Team had cut the deficit to leader Team Brunel down to 6.6nm from the previous day’s 14nm.
Although those on board Azzam have preached that the overall race victory is what matters most, they have also freely admitted that the second leg from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi is the one everyone on board is desperate to win.
Speaking previously about the second leg, skipper Ian Walker had said: “Abu Dhabi is our home port and I hope the second leg to Abu Dhabi will really ignite the team.
“Leg one was important but our main aim is to win the leg coming into Abu Dhabi. We really want this win, it is very important to us.”
But with the first boat expected to touch Abu Dhabi around December 13, time may well be running out for Azzam.
Walker, 44, is one of Britain’s most successful sailors, having won two Olympic silver medals.
He has competed in two previous editions of the Volvo Ocean Race and is a man on a mission in the 2014/15 edition, having finished fifth in 2011/12 as ADOR skipper.
He was also at the helm of Green Dragon in 2008/09 when they also finished fifth.
Although still very early in the epic nine-month round-the-world race, which finishes in Sweden next June, it’s hard to argue that ADOR have been the standout crew so far, although Dongfeng would push them close for that title.
ADOR took ruthless command of the opening leg after Dongfeng experienced several problems, surging south to South Africa in impressive fashion.
Light winds in the shadow of Table Mountain just miles from the finish line caused late tension as a resurgent Dongfeng closed the gap, with ADOR eventually holding them at bay to finish first a mere 12 minutes ahead of the Chinese boat, for one of the closest finishes to a leg in the 40-year history of the race.
The ADOR crew crossed the finish line in Cape Town after 25 days, three hours and 10 minutes of sailing, having been the most consistent ship in the fleet over the course of the opening leg.
Walker was euphoric and the win was a soul-cleansing triumph, coming three years to the day that he had suffered his darkest day in his sailing career.
It was on November 5, 2011 that the ADOR crew were forced to head back to the Spanish mainland on the first night of the opening leg after a Mediterranean storm battered their boat and broke the mast.
Elsewhere, the major stories to have surfaced from the opening two months of the race have undoubtedly been the trials and tribulations of several of the other crews.
The second leg has been dominated so far by the withdrawal of Team Vestas Wind, who were forced to suspend racing on November 29 after they became grounded on a reef in the Indian Ocean.
Although Vestas Wind escaped unscathed, they are not expected to be ready to compete in the third leg of the race, which starts on January 3, and their entire future in the race remains in question.
Team-by-team: How the race has gone so far:
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing
Skipper: Ian Walker
It’s been very smoothsailing for the Abu Dhabi-backed crew, who would cap an amazing opening to the race with a homecoming victory in the second leg, expected to end this weekend.
Overcoming a torn A3 sail and a snapped steering cable, Walker and his crew have been conservative and consistent so far, with the Briton’s calm captaincy likely to hold the key to overall success for ADOR.
Walker has said that the team’s main strategy is to finish in the top three in each leg, which he believes will give his crew an excellent chance of being crowned winners.
Team Brunel
Skipper: Bouwe Bekking
Like ADOR, Team Brunel have been steadily among the leading boats almost entirely throughout the race’s early stages. In fact, the Dutch team have arguably been even more consistent.
Veteran skipper Bekking is a survivor of six Volvo Ocean Races and is the most experienced man on the water among the entire fleet, although he is yet to taste victory in the competition.
Brunel finished second to ADOR in both the first leg and the Cape Town in-port race, although they are leading the charge to Abu Dhabi ahead of Dongfeng and ADOR.
Dongfeng Race Team
Skipper: Charles Caudrelier
Dongfeng were the early leaders of leg one before disaster struck.
First they lost the lead on October 18 after the boat hit an unidentified object and broke their rudder. Then, on November 3, they suffered significant damage after part of the control lines for the masthead sail broke. Miraculously, they pulled off some quick repairs to not only stay in the race, but challenge for the leg win.
They surged to the head of the fleet and were an agonising 12 minutes away from pulling off a miraculous comeback before finishing second to ADOR in Cape Town.
MAPFRE
Skipper: Iker Martinez
Among the pre-race favourites, but it certainly has not gone to plan for Martinez. They slipped down the field at an alarming rate in the first leg, and they were pipped to the post in Cape Town by Team SCA to cap a miserable opening voyage.
Martinez reacted by making two personnel changes. Jean-Luc Nélias, the man who helped mastermind Groupama’s win in the last Ocean Race, took over as navigator from Nico Lunven.
Michel Desjoyeaux, the twice Vendée Globe winner on board for the first leg, was also replaced as watch captain by Rob Greenhalgh.
Team Alvimedica
Skipper: Charlie Enright
Drew first blood when they won the Alicante in-port race in early October. Since then, however, it’s been a hard slog for the youngest crew in the competition, who went on to finish fifth in the first leg.
Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu granted Enright and his crew an audience during the South African stopover, but it didn’t seem to help matters as they finished sixth in the second in-port race.
The biggest contribution they made to the second leg so far has been the assistance they gave to Team Vestas Wind after their issues.
Team Vestas Wind
Skipper: Chris Nicholson
Fourth place in the opening leg has been as good as it’s got for Team Vestas Wind, whose second leg was decimated on November 29 when they ran aground near Mauritius after colliding with a reef.
The crew escaped unscathed, but there is lasting damage to the boat and, ultimately, the crew’s chances of overall success in the race.
Their Volvo 65 boat will certainly not be repaired in time for the start of the third leg early in the new year, and an announcement on the team’s future in the race as a whole is expected to be made in the near future.
Team SCA
Skipper: Sam Davies
For so long left to play catch-up at the back of the fleet, the allfemale crew pulled off a stunning coup on the final day of the first leg to snatch fifth
place from Mapfre.
SCA had looked destined to finish a long way behind all six of their rivals and even on the final day, they trailed the Spanish boat by eight nautical miles, but slowly nibbled away at Mapfre’s advantage.
As the crews edged into Cape Town it increasingly became clear that victory in this two-boat duel would be SCA’s, with Mapfre miserably parked up under Table Mountain in just acouple of knots of breeze.
