The in-port race off Lorient remained exciting right to the end. And that was not down to the winners. The American team Alvimedica quickly took the lead of the fleet after the start and extended it to almost half a kilometre in places. The team led by Charly Enright and their young Italian helmsman Alberto Bolzan sailed the boat calmly, under control and faultlessly around the course. It was Team Alvimedica's second in-port victory. The team moved up to third place in the In-Port ranking with a total of 32 points behind Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (25 points) and Team Brunel (31 points).
Behind the American leaders, however, the positions in this race off the coast of Brittany were constantly changing. The race, which could only start after a 30-minute delay due to light winds, presented the crews with major challenges due to unpredictable wind shifts. Again and again there were tight roundings of the buoys. Both Team Vestas Wind in the battle with Abu Dhabi and Team Brunel and Team SCA in the infight with Mapfre received penalties from the umpires on the water.
In the second half of the race, it looked for a while as if Abu Dhabi and Team Brunel could secure second and third place. But when the two rivals decided to stick together on the right-hand side on the final section of the course and let Mapfre and Dongfeng slip away uncovered to the left, another violent wind shift turned the results upside down once again. Behind Team Alvimedica, the Spanish team Mapfre, which had come up strongly on the last section of the course with the wind shift, crossed the finish line in second place. Mapfre's skipper and 49er Olympic champion Iker Martinez said: "We had to fight hard today. The start was difficult. Then there was a collision with the women. But we will have repaired the small hole in the hull by tomorrow. The last section went really well. We were able to catch Abu Dhabi just before the end."
Charles Caudrelier's Donfeng Race Team also squeezed in ahead of Abu Dhabi. Ian Walker's men ultimately had to be satisfied with fourth place. Even worse was to come for Bouwe Bekking's Brunel team, which had been in second place at one point, when the SCA women's team suddenly came out of the middle ahead of them. In a metre decision, the women still managed to take fifth place ahead of Team Brunel after trailing far behind. The Danish team Vestas Wind was left with only last place in the tight three-way battle of the tail-enders.
This means that the last in-port race on 27 June in Gothenburg may be of great importance. Before that, the seven teams in the Volvo Ocean Race will complete the ninth and final leg of this twelfth edition from Lorient via the pit stop harbour of The Hague and on to Gothenburg. The starting signal will be given on Tuesday. Should there be a tie in the fight for second and third place on the podium after a total of almost 38,000 nautical miles, the teams' positions in the in-port classification will be used as a tiebreaker. With a six-point lead in this classification, Abu Dhabi has not only secured overall victory in the Volvo Ocean Race with one leg to go, but is also on course for victory in the in-port classification.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
