Volvo Ocean Race: Flying Dutchmen: Team Brunel with a lightning start in leg 9

First the sun broke through the fog just in time for the start of leg 9, then the yellow boat took command and led the fleet from Newport on course for Cardiff. Team Brunel continues to sail on the wave of success after recent strong results and the dominant victory in the harbour race off Newport. Around two and a half hours after the start, the Dutch team opened the transatlantic leg, which is worth double points, with around half a knot more speed than their closest rivals at the time, Dongfeng and Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag. The seven Volvo yachts still had around 2900 of the 3300 nautical miles to complete before reaching the British harbour of Cardiff. They are expected to arrive there in just over a week.

Whether Team Brunel, after a weak start to its skipper's eighth round-the-world race and the impressive improvement over the past two months, can still intervene in the battle for overall victory will depend crucially on this stage. The basic prerequisite would be another top result and - from Brunel's point of view - ideally other teams who can push themselves between Brunel and the teams Mapfre (53 points) and Dongfeng (50 points), who are currently ahead in the overall standings with a good points cushion. This is because Brunel has only been able to collect 42 points as the third-placed boat, despite its recent great results. This means that they could still make up eleven points on the leaders.

"We know that we have to beat the red boats," said Bouwe Bekking before the start, referring to Mapfre and Dongfeng. "Ideally, we win the leg and they finish in 6th and 7th place, but we can't control the second part. We can only sail as well as we can and work for a good result."

Here is the complete broadcast of the start of the ninth stage from Newport to Cardiff

The start of the leg off Newport was a spectacle worth seeing for the fans along the shores of Fort Adams. Beforehand, the entire fleet had bid an enthusiastic farewell to America's sailing capital, Newport. Bouwe Bekking's compatriot and Akzo Nobel skipper Simeon Tienpont had said: "It was a gift to be here. Everyone is so interested in this race. The whole city is built around sailing."

Before the start, the teams described the weather forecast for the current leg as "complex" because several weather systems are involved. The Gulf Stream also needs to be interpreted correctly. "It's a challenging leg. We have to make a decision early on that could lead to a split in the fleet. It could be the key situation of this leg. After that we will get strong winds. We'll put the pedal to the metal. There is a danger of stepping on the gas too much. But we have no choice, we will give 100 per cent and it will be interesting to watch from land because we will be really fast."

Before the start of the ninth leg, the skippers and skipper Dee Caffari talked about the challenges ahead