#VOR - MAPFRE has won Leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race into Cape Town, South Africa and will take the overall lead on the points table.
The Spanish-flagged entry crossed the line in Cape Town this afternoon (Friday 24 November) at 5.10pm local time (3.10pm UTC) after a 7,000-nautical-mile marathon from Lisbon in Portugal.
“It's amazing, we’re super-happy. We came here in one piece and in front of the others, we can’t ask for more,” said skipper Xabi Fernández moments after finishing.
“This is what we will see all the way around the world. Super-tight racing, everyone has good speed and small mistakes are very expensive. This time we were luck to do the least mistakes and that's why we won.”
For most of the first half of the leg, MAPFRE trailed Dongfeng Race Team on the long charge to the south.
But last weekend, after crossing the Doldrums 14 days into the leg, navigator Juan Vila and skipper Xabi Fernández made the winning move: a quick gybe to the southwest that Dongfeng didn’t cover.
Within hours, the decision paid and MAPFRE had a tactical advantage they would never relinquish over the final week of racing.
The team earns eight points for the Leg 2 victory (seven points plus one bonus point for the win) which is enough to take the overall lead in the race regardless of the finishing positions behind.
For Leg 2, MAPFRE sailed 7,886.5 nautical miles over the ground at an average speed of 17.3 knots.
Dongfeng Race Team and Vestas 11th Hour Racing, the latter with Ireland’s Damian Foxall on its team, will be the next boats to arrive at the V&A Waterfront later today.
Leg 2 provisional results, Friday 24 November at 3.10pm UTC:
- MAPFRE – Finihsed 15:10.33 UTC (19 days, 1 hour, 10 minutes, 33 seconds)
- Dongfeng Race Team +37.2 nautical miles
- Vestas 11th Hour Racing +62.1
- Team Brunel +131.6
- Team AkzoNobel +447.1
- Turn The Tide on Plastic +449.4
- Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag +451.3
A previous version of this article erroneously suggested that Damian Foxall was sailing on Leg 2 with Vestas 11th Hour Racing, when he was on shore in his role as sustainability manager.
