Furious, cheeky and successful: together with front runner AkzoNobel, skipper David Witt, his navigator Libby Greenhalgh and the Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag team have turned the interim results of the first week upside down. Their initially very northerly course and the initially almost painful "sailing behind" paid off. They were able to utilise the front from behind earlier than the boats that had previously been in the lead. And this carried them - now positioned to the west of the competition on course for Auckland - faster to the south. After more than a third of the leg from Hong Kong to Auckland, Simeon Tienpont's Dutch team AkzoNobel and the Hong Kong-flagged team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag are leading the fleet.
At the same time, the Spanish team Mapfre, who are leading the overall standings, and their fiercest rivals in the battle for victory in this 13th edition, the Dongfeng Race Team, are in such a close duel that the two boats have often only been recognisable as one boat on the tracker since the start of the week, even at maximum magnification. The two red yachts are sailing within sight of each other and often within hailing distance. When their positions were updated on Tuesday afternoon, they were separated by no more than 0.1 nautical miles. Mapfree's skipper Xabí Fernandez said in a recent interview at sea: "Our goal is still to win the leg. But of course we also have to watch out for Dongfeng."
Bouwe Bekking's Team Brunel, positioned slightly to the east of Mapfre and Dongfeng, recently benefited from this red-red match race on the high seas and slightly better wind, sailing up from penultimate to third place on Tuesday morning. Dee Caffari's Team Turn the Tide on Plastic, on the other hand, dropped back a little on this seventh day of the sixth leg and was more than 11 nautical miles behind Xabí Fernandez' fifth-placed Team Mapfre on Tuesday afternoon.
David Witt and Libby Greenhalgh provided the most hilarious scenes of the day. Witt said in an interview about the courageous stage opening: "Libby Greenhalgh has done it again! She should be applauded." The skipper, known in sailing circles as "Witty", continued: "She's a great navigator, does a super job. I'm more of a dinosaur when it comes to dealing with modern technology. We are an unequal team, but we seem to meet in the happy medium." The pithy Australian, who will celebrate his 47th birthday on 5 March, then laughed so loudly about his team's latest successful coup that it was infectious. When asked how he liked the current position of his crew, Witt explained: "If I could now hire a helicopter to pick us up and take us to a desired position, then - apart from the finish line - it would be exactly where we are now." This will be Witt's second start in the Volvo Ocean Race, after sailing with Knut Frostad on "Innovation Kvaerner" in 1997/98, and his first as skipper. Witt's team started this edition as outsiders, but has since become a favourite and serious contender for a podium place.
Interviews, technical information and a sporting summary: the daily programme of the Volvo Ocean Race provides information about the latest events
New Vestas information announced
After a long period of radio silence and news blackout, there was also brief news on Tuesday afternoon about Team Vestas 11th Hour Racing, which is not taking part in this sixth leg. The American-Danish team's damaged boat arrived in New Zealand on Monday and is now being repaired in Auckland. In addition, a new bow section, built at the Italian shipyard Persico Marine, will be used to refloat the blue boat under the supervision of an independent expert in accordance with the regulations. The organisers of the Volvo Ocean Race pointed out in their "Tagesschau" on 13 February that the investigation into the collision between the Vestas 11th Hour Racing team and a boat not involved in the race, which resulted in the death of a Chinese fisherman, is still ongoing. It also stated that Vestas' skipper and co-skipper are expected to appear on one of the live programmes before the end of the leg and will presumably be able to provide more details about the tragic accident.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
