Azzam claim victory to take control of Volvo Ocean Race

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ador) took a big step towards winning the greatest competition in sailing by capturing the punishing Leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race late Sunday night.

Ian Walker’s crew fought off three competitors during a “drag race” of nearly 2,000 nautical miles up the east coast of South America to be the first to arrive at Itajai, Brazil, about 400 kilometres north-east of Sao Paulo.

The victory on the leg encompassing the fraught Southern Ocean passage and rounding Cape Horn at the tip of the continent gave Ador’s boat, Azzam, an eight-point lead in what had been a tight race through four legs.

“The last couple of days has been quite tense,” Azzam skipper Ian Walker told Volve Race control. “We just didn’t want to throw it away after so much hard work. It’s been an epic leg. Just that feeling of not wanting to throw it away.”

The complexion of the race turned last Monday.

That was the day overall co-leader Dongfeng Race Team suffered a broken mast near Cape Horn and, after struggling to port at Ushuaia, Argentina, soon was forced to drop out of the race.

The Chinese team was charged six points for finishing behind the rest of the fleet and another two for not completing the leg. After taking one point for finishing first, Azzam lead the fleet on nine points. Dongfeng are on 16.

If Sunday’s order held true at the finish, the Dutch entry Team Brunel and the Spanish boat Mapfre are on 18 points and the American-Turkish entry Alvimedica on 19.

Azzam had been slightly behind the leaders for much of the stretch across the Southern Ocean, during which they were one of four boats to be laid over on their side, albeit briefly.

When Dongfeng’s mast broke, Alvimedica took the lead and was first around Cape Horn, a feat so rare that more people have reached the summit of Mount Everest than have sailed around the famous passage, according to race organisers.

Soon after, Azzam passed Alvimedica and led nearly the whole way in the charge up South America’s coast, giving way only occasionally and never for long.

Race chief Knut Frostad congratulated ADOR.

“To win the biggest leg is a big, important thing a very prestigious thing for the sailors,” Frostad told Volvo Race control. “The other thing is, this is the leg that the have picked up some points on the fleet, and made a gap on the rest of the fleet. But anything can happen. Never say never.”

Azzam also took the 24-hour record of 551nm, the best distance in a 24-hour period, and Walker said: “Awesome. It’s been such a monster of a leg, and we were so, so stoked with the 24-hour record ... I wanted to get it just before the horn. that was got us back in the lead.”

“I’d been in two races when we weren’t fast enough. The great thing about the one-design is if you sail well, you do well.

He added: “It was a pretty nasty night, and we backed off a fair bit. Dongfeng breaking their mast was big psychologically for us. We wanted to be sure we finished. We had 50 knots of wind on several occasions. “In hindsight, it looked like pretty shrewd decision.

“We obviously don’t know what damage everyone else has had. I can only speak about our boat, and our job list is shorter than any other boat in this race. A lot of credit has to go to the shore team for preparing the boat … and maybe a little bit of nursing by the sailors, but we managed to keep it in one piece.”

It was a sweet victory for Walker. During the 2011/12 Volvo race, the previous incarnation of Azzam, which he also skippered, suffered a delamination problem in the hull and put in at a port in Chile and quit the leg.

Four legs remain in the round-the-world race: Itajai to Newport, Rhode Island, in the United States; across the Atlantic to Lisbon; north to Lorient, France; and the final leg, finishing at Gothenburg, Sweden, in mid-June.

Not only is Leg 5 the longest of the race, it also is the most taxing and most dangerous.

Annie Lush, a sailor with the all-woman Team SCA, which trailed the field late last night, said: “Since we had the wipeout, we really backed off and took a more safe-mode approach and sailed the boat at 70 per cent performance.”

The boats that finished last night can count on two weeks of rest ahead of the in-port race on April 18. Departure to Newport is scheduled for April 19.

poberjuerge@thenational.ae

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