Bow to bow, the Dutch boats of the AkzoNobel and Brunel teams head towards the Cardiff harbour. Late on Sunday evening, the purple and yellow boats were no longer separated by a single nautical mile around 230 nautical miles from the finish line. The two teams are constantly sailing within sight of each other and know what lies ahead. While Charles Caudrelier's Dongfeng Race Team (19.8 nautical miles behind) and Charlie Enright's Vestas 11th Hour Racing (41.2 nautical miles behind) are pressing from behind and the Spanish team Mapfre, which is in fifth place and leading the overall standings, is still struggling to catch up with the leading group 60 nautical miles behind, the "flying" Dutchmen are not exactly facing a rally course to the finish.
The forecast is for a strong tide and little wind on the approach to Cardiff in the Bristol Channel. Will there be another dramatic calm finish like the last one in the final sprint of stage 8 to Newport, when the Spanish team Mapfre managed to catch the Dutch team Brunel in the final metres after the latter had led for a long time?
AkzoNobel skipper Simeon Tienpont said on Sunday afternoon: "We don't want to lose this first place! The tide will play an important role. At the moment I still believe that there will be enough wind until Cardiff. And with Jules (navigator Jules Salter, ed.) we have a man with local knowledge on board. But if there's not enough wind, we'll keep the anchor ready." It cannot be ruled out that boats will have to anchor so as not to be pushed backwards by the tide in the very light winds.
Team Brunel's skipper Bouwe Bekking also sounded combative on Sunday: "Perhaps we have sailed the most miles of all. But who cares as long as you're in front! The number one goal for this leg was to beat the two red buses (the teams leading the overall standings ahead of Brunel, Mapfre and Dongfeng, ed.) so that our chances of overall victory are still alive. Let's do that first. And we have the feeling that we can pass the front runners. And that's important, of course, because three points can make a big difference between victory and second place on this double stage."
The eighth day of the stage began on Sunday evening. However, it is quite possible that it will not finish until the ninth day with a slow-motion final sprint. Late on Sunday evening, the latest forecasts predicted that a southerly approach to the Bristol Channel along the coastal towns of St Yves, Newquay, Port Isaac, Hartland and Ilfracombe - i.e. close to land - would be a little more pressurised than a central approach. The finishing poker has already begun, and it will be interesting to see who will master this British obstacle course at sea the best and perhaps also the happiest.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
