Spectacular start in Cape Town of the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. The fleet sailed a coastal course with gusts that went from 40 knots (74 km/h) of wind speed to an absolute lack of it which have strongly slowed and accelerated the teams. “MAPFRE” passed the offset mark after the Dutch team, heading towards Abu Dhabi in second place.
© María Muiña
“MAPFRE” is back in the race. At 17h00 Spanish time (18h00 local time), with the last hours of daylight in the South African city, the Spanish boat skippered by Iker Martinez started today the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. They will sail approximately 6,125 long miles in an area not well known. The Spanish are eager to recover from the result of the first leg.
An unusual departure since it was later than the normal starting time of previous editions of the round the world race. “MAPFRE” was the first out of the seven boats of the fleet to dock out and head towards the Table Bay race course.
Iker Martínez already said it would be a peculiar start and in fact, his predictions didn’t fail: “There is quite a lot of wind and we will have to complete the coastal course in the bay without breaking anything because we will probably have 30 or 40 knots of wind. In some areas we may even have more wind, for example, when we pass by the area of influence of Table Mountain, which could create some acceleration”. And there also were some sudden stops.
At the exact moment of the start of leg 2 there was only five knots of wind speed from the south-southeast, where “MAPFRE” stood out regardless of lack of wind caused by the shadow of Table Mountain. 100 meters later you could clearly see how the intensity of the wind had risen, specifically up to 18 knots. “MAPFRE” reached the first mark of the course in the blink of an eye with 30 knots of wind.
Martinez’s team maneuvered without hesitation on their arrival to the second mark, showing the power of these boats. They suffered an occasional problem with one of headsails, but the problem was soon resolved by the Spanish crew, holding the top spot. After racing for 17 minutes, the crew onboard “MAPFRE” decided to reef their mainsail, reducing the sail area and power due to the strong gusts of wind.
Dutch “Brunel” shortly after overtook the Spaniards, who then went to second place. After a sail change, Martínez sent bowman Antonio “Ñeti” Cuervas-Mons to the top of the mast just in the right moment where the wind had dropped drastically.
Then, the fleet completely compressed reaching the next mark, with all the boats lined up and completely stopped due to a new wind shadow. A few minutes later, “MAPFRE” again displayed its power since the wind picked up and the fleet restarted again. Martinez’s crew got out of this compression in third place, behind “Brunel” and “SCA”.
At 17h49 Spanish time, “MAPFRE” passed the offset mark in second place, heading freely towards the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas, which marks the entry into the Indian Ocean.
Good start, therefore, for the Spaniards in a leg which will be very long. “Even with the euphoria of the start we must be patient and understand that there are 30 days and you can after pay the excess” recalled Iker Martínez before docking out.
Which is the main goal onboard “MAPFRE”? “Do it right” sentenced Xabi Fernandez, watch captain. We obviously have in mind to sail a good leg, sail a good race and to be fighting with the front pack”.