South Africa is good ground for Spanish sport. Last year, the footballers from the Iberian peninsula won the World Cup here for the first time, and now Telefonica has won the first leg of the current Volvo Ocean Race in the shadow of Table Mountain. Shortly after 7 pm CET, after 21 days, 5 hours and 14 minutes at sea, skipper Iker Martínez and his ten-strong Telefonica crew fought their way into the harbour on Saturday in strong winds and choppy waves.
"We had absolutely no problems on this section," saidTelefonica's navigator Andrew Cape. "It's nice to be back on dry land. It was wet and cold, but nice out there. A drink would be nice now, of course. The rest of the race will certainly be tight. Our motto: one stage at a time."
At 6,500 miles, the leg was nominally the second longest of the race, and the winning time of 21 days and five hours meant an average of around 309 nautical miles per day. In a field decimated by retirements, the Spaniards were not only fast, but also sailed smartly and had a bit of luck, as their boat remained intact. The winners are credited with 31 points, which means that Telefonica will take the lead in the overall standings after the in-port race in Alicante.
The best time of 552 miles was achieved by Camper from New Zealand, although they were more than 200 miles behind Telefonica in second place. The French Groupama, which had made a mistake by choosing an easterly route at the start of the leg, missed the low-pressure area that Telefonica and Camper raced across the South Atlantic with at the end, leaving them more than 800 miles behind.
While the boys from Telefonica were welcomed to the finish line with the blaring vuvuzela trumpets and Camper and Groupama completed the leg, the race of the three damaged boats came into focus because it had to answer two questions: Will everyone be able to line up on time at the start of the second leg on 11 December, and how competitive will the repaired boats be then?
The unmasted Puma has moored on the island of Tristan da Cunha and is waiting to be transported onwards to Cape Town by freighter, where it will be hastily fitted with the spare rig for the second leg. Team Sanya's damaged boat was also on its way there and will receive the new bow, which has already been prefabricated by the boat builders, in the next few days. Abu Dhabi, the team that initially tried to continue sailing with a replacement rig after the mast broke on the very first day of the race, but decided to abandon the race due to a lack of wind and in order to analyse the error more thoroughly, is to return to the start with a revised replacement rig.
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