#VOR - Ian Walker and his victorious Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing crew have the chance of a rare double today (Saturday 27 June) when they attempt to win the Volvo Ocean Race In-Port Series Trophy.

They are hot favourites to do so, taking a six-point advantage into the Inmarsat In-Port Race Gothenburg, the final race in a 10-part series.

Only a victory for their nearest competitors Team Brunel (Bouwe Bekking/NED) and a last-place finish, or a failure to complete the course, can deny Walker’s men from collecting another piece of handsome silverware.

They have already sealed the overall offshore trophy with five points to spare, again from the Dutch crew of Bouwe Bekking, after finishing fifth in the ninth and final leg from Lorient, France to Gothenburg, Sweden on Monday 22 June. 

The offshore and in-port double is not unique in Volvo Ocean Race history – Mike Sanderson’s ABN AMRO ONE achieved it in 2005-06 – but victory would be another major feather in the cap for a region, which only entered the 41-year-old event for the first time in 2011-12 under the Abu Dhabi flag.

Walker, 45, was typically taking nothing for granted in the final press conference for the nine-month race today. “We try to win everything we do,” he said. “Basically, we just have to make sure we don’t finish last.

“But it’s a pretty tight race course and there’s plenty of trouble out there if you’re not careful.”

Bekking, 52, could be forgiven for being sick of the sight of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s stern after trying to catch it over 38,739 nautical miles and nine offshore legs since the race started back in October last year from Alicante, Spain.

However, he has not totally given up hope of an upset result that will rely on his opponents slipping up uncharacteristically badly.

“We will fight for it and we still have a slight chance,” he told reporters. “It would certainly be nice to win that trophy.”

Today's in-port race, which concludes the 12th edition of the triennial sailing event, will also resolve some unfinished business in the overall competition as a tie-breaker.

Team Alvimedica’s (Charlie Enright/USA) Leg 9 win in Gothenburg from Lorient via a manic pit-stop in The Hague last week drew them level with MAPFRE (Iker Martínez/ESP) on 34 points, in joint fourth place overall. 

The Turkish/American team currently stand two points ahead of the Spanish crew, but that advantage could easily be swept away on a tight, challenging Gothenburg course.

MAPFRE were boosted by an eve-of-race visit to the boat in Gothenburg from King Juan Carlos of Spain yesterday. He will be an onboard spectator with the Spanish flag-bearers in today's race – if the weather is good.

"I haven't sailed for four years and I'm really looking forward to it," he told reporters.

Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR), presently fourth behind Team Alvimedica, and, less likely, sixth-placed Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA), also have outside chances of a top-three podium place in the in-port series if results go their way.

Team Vestas Wind (Chris Nicholson/AUS) will largely be racing for pride having missed all but the Alicante, Cape Town, Lisbon and Lorient in-port races because of their grounding in the Indian Ocean during Leg 2.

The action will start at 1pm local time and so far the forecasters are predicting strong enough winds to offer the prospect of a fitting finale to a memorable and extraordinarily close-run event all round.

#VOR - Team Alvimedica led the Volvo Ocean Race fleet out on the final ‘sprint’ to Gothenburg today, as the seven teams bade farewell to The Hague after a hugely successful pit-stop in the famous old Dutch port.

The Turkish/American boat skippered by Charlie Enright (USA) retained the 1hr 46min lead they established in the first part of the 1,000-nautical mile-plus ninth and final leg from Lorient, France to Gothenburg in Sweden, having arrived just after 1.30am local time on Friday morning (19 June).

The seven boats have around two-and-a-half days of challenging sailing ahead of them in fluctuating wind and sea states, with the possibility of a compression of the fleet as the breeze drops further into the leg.

They also must steer clear of numerous Traffic Separation Schemes (TSS), which litter their paths and have already caused penalty points for three teams in earlier legs following inadvertent infringements.

Leg 9 victory in Gothenburg would taste so sweet for Enright and the youngest crew in the race, which is also peppered with experience including 50-year-old navigator Will Oxley (AUS), who is taking on his fourth Volvo Ocean Race.

Team Alvimedica have yet to score a leg win since the race began in early October, and nothing would delight Enright more than to follow Leg 8 winners Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR) in making the breakthrough.

It would also give them an outside chance of an overall podium place, although a showdown for fourth spot looks more likely for them.

Enright and his crew departed at 12 noon local time today (Saturday 20 June) in around seven knots of breeze.

“Once we get out of here we’ve got a lot of decisions to make,” he told a pre-departure press conference. “There’s the TSS zones and which way we’re going to go. Some of the guys who are still in the dock can sit back and see which way we go and whether it works out for us. But that’s the same for any lead in this race.”

If the positions remain the same on arrival in Gothenburg as when the fleet finished in The Hague, Team Alvimedica would find themselves in the interesting position of being locked in joint fourth place on 34 points with MAPFRE (Iker Martínez/ESP). The Spanish boat left port in third place.

That tie could only then be broken by the In-Port Race Series that reaches its own finale next Saturday 27 June with the Inmarsat In-Port Race Gothenburg.

A similar situation exists for second place, where Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA) are attempting to claw back a two-point deficit on current runners-up Team Brunel (Bouwe Bekking/NED).

The Chinese boat was second out of the harbour in The Hague, 1hr 46min behind Team Alvimedica, in three to four knots more wind speed than Enright’s crew.

Team Brunel, who exited fourth, were given a late royal boost when the Dutch King Willem-Alexander visited the crew prior to their mid-afternoon departure.

Although the race will not receive official figures on attendance for several days, early estimates show some of the biggest crowds of the entire race – measured in the tens of thousands per day – have seen the boats close-up in the port in Scheveningen.

Team Vestas Wind (Chris Nicholson/AUS) and, finally, Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR) were last to leave The Hague, the latter 4hrs 32mins after Team Alvimedica.

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) were simply hoping to avoid any mishaps on their way to what should be huge celebrations for them as overall Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 champions in Gothenburg.

The Emirati boat and crew – including Ireland's own Justin Slattery – hold an unassailable eight-point lead at the top of the standings and only last place in Leg 9, victory for Team Brunel, and a two-point penalty can ruin their moment of glory now.

“We’re in a kind of strange position,” summed up Azzam’s skipper Ian Walker. “It shouldn’t matter where we finish, but of course it does, because we have a lot of pride and we want to do as well as we can. We’ll be very, very careful and just make sure we don’t do anything stupid.”

#VOR - Team Alvimedica made a triumphant entry into The Hague at 1.34am local time this morning (Friday 19 June) and put themselves in pole position to win Leg 9 of the Volvo Ocean Race.

The Turkish/American team, skippered by Charlie Enright (USA), still have 480 nautical miles of the final leg of the nine-month offshore marathon to negotiate to Gothenburg, Sweden, having sailed two days, eight hours and 34 minutes since leaving Lorient in France on Tuesday.

That gave them a 26nm advantage over the second-placed boat Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA), which finished at the Dutch port more than 1hr 45mins behind.

“It always feels good going into the locker room at halftime ahead, but that’s all it really is," said Charlie Enright shortly after crossing the line. "It’s kind of like Cape Horn, no points but still a great accomplishment.”

Enright, 30, the youngest skipper by far in the race, also led his team to the Cape Horn landmark ahead of the fleet on Leg 5, but relinquished that lead and eventually finished third.

If Team Alvimedica can complete the job and win in Gothenburg, they would be the sixth of seven boats in the competition to have won a leg in this 12th edition.

They have already shown their top form, winning the SCA In-Port Race Lorient at the weekend, for their second success of the in-port series.

“It sounds like there’s a fight [behind us]. It’s nice to be watching it and over the line,” he added.

Enright talked through the ‘decision of the leg’ – whether to hug the English coastline or stick, as he did, to the French and Dutch shorelines to the south of the English Channel.

Initially on Thursday it looked as if north would pay, as Dongfeng Race Team, MAPFRE (Iker Martínez/ESP) and Team Brunel (Bouwe Bekking/NED) seemed to be making gains in stronger winds midway through the day.

But Team Alvimedica stuck to their guns and eventually the tides and breezes turned to their advantage for an entrance into The Hague and across the finish line, chased by dozens of spectator boats.

They will head out of The Hague at 12 noon local time on Saturday 20 June with their 1hr 46min 29sec advantage over Dongfeng Race Team, and the rest of the fleet also taking their advantages and deficits over their rivals, in a staggered start.

The seven boats are due to finish the leg in Gothenburg on the afternoon of Monday 22 June, according to the latest estimates.

If Team Alvimedica were to be first into port there too, they would need Team Vestas Wind (Chris Nicholson/AUS) and Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR) to improve on their current sixth and seventh places and sandwich themselves between Enright’s crew, Dongfeng Race Team and MAPFRE, to take an overall podium place.

Team Brunel were hoping to do better than fourth place sailing into their home port, but as Bekking said before the leg started, only the finishing positions in Gothenburg really matter.

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) sailed serenely on to claim fifth place in The Hague, having avoided any major problems on the first half of Leg 9.

They have an unassailable eight-point advantage over Team Brunel at the top of the overall standings.

If the current positions stay as they are, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing would have 24 points, Team Brunel and Dongfeng Race Team 31 apiece, MAPFRE and Team Alvimedica 34 each, Team SCA 51 and Team Vestas Wind 60.

That would leave the Inmarsat In-Port Race Gothenburg on Saturday 27 June to split the ties between second and third and fourth and fifth: the perfect finale to one of the most closely contested races in 41 years of event history.

#VOR - The Volvo Ocean Race fleet set off for Gothenburg from Lorient in perfect sailing conditions today (Tuesday 16 June) with Team Brunel (Bouwe Bekking/NED) leading the chase to reach the pit stop in The Hague.

There was drama from the very first seconds with Leg 8 winners Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR) and Team Alvimedica (Charlie Enright/USA) both finding themselves on the wrong side of the line at the start and were forced back to cross for a second time.

Bouwe Bekking, in contrast, stormed away to the perfect start and was still narrowly ahead as he led the fleet out of a packed Lorient with all six boats in hot pursuit after five laps around the port.

Team Brunel, like three other boats, has a podium position to sail for in this final 960-nautical-mile leg to Sweden after more than eight months at sea, despite Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) already having the overall title virtually sewn up with an unassailable eight-point lead.

The Dutch boat is currently in second place on 27 points after eight legs, two clear of Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier), and four ahead of MAPFRE (Iker Martínez/ESP).

All have the chance of finishing in second if the last leg results go their way, and even fifth-placed Team Alvimedica (Charlie Enright/USA) on 33 points could sneak in to grab the runners-up spot if they end up as leg winners and their rivals finish down the field.

Both Team SCA and Team Vestas Wind, first and second from Lisbon into Lorient last week, will be determined to put a spoke in all their wheels and repeat the previous stage’s somewhat surprising finish.

As Ian Walker put it, meanwhile, his tactics on board Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing are pretty simple on a stage which is full of exclusion zones, avoiding a busy shipping route skirted by rocks: “Don’t hit any rocks and avoid breaking any rules.”

Bekking would like nothing better than be first to reach The Hague in his home country, probably on Friday, a belated birthday present as he turns 52 years old tomorrow (17 June).

“We just have to beat them, it’s easy,” he said in an interview dockside before the action started at 5pm local time.

“We have no strategy as such but, of course, we’re going to keep an eye on the guys. It will be massive to go home [The Hague] but we know it’s just a stop and it’s all about the finish in Gothenburg.”

Another birthday boy, Iker Martínez onboard MAPFRE, who turns 38 today, said that the leg offers fairly unique challenges.

“There are lots of rocks involved, and our first priority is not to hit the rocks," he put it matter-of-factly.

“There’s going to be lot of current, but it’s difficult to know where the key of the leg is going to be. We could arrive in Scheveningen and then the whole thing starts again. The best thing is to be in front in any case.”

Charlie Enright of Team Alvimedica agreed, adding: “We are in a really complicated situation – but at least we know it’s complicated.”

The boats will be precisely timed as they pass the interim line in Scheveningen, near The Hague, on Friday 19 June. No points will be awarded for how they finish there.

From 12 noon local time onwards the following day, they will depart for Gothenburg with whatever advantage or deficit they took into the pit stop on their rivals. They are expected to arrive in Gothenburg on Monday 22 June 22 or possibly the following day.

The nine-month, 38,739-nautical-mile marathon event will finally come to a halt in the famous maritime Swedish city on Saturday 27 June with the Inmarsat In-Port Race Gothenburg.

#VOR - Team Alvimedica claimed their second Volvo Ocean Race in-port race series victory in Lorient, France today (14 June) after leaving their rivals trailing following a delayed start due to lack of wind.

The victory, which follows their triumph in the opening in-port race in Alicante eight months ago, bolsters the hopes of Charlie Enright’s crew to claim a much-coveted final podium finish in the series that concludes in Gothenburg, Sweden on 27 June.

The SCA In-Port Race Lorient victory will also lift their chances of a top-three finish in the overall standings.

The series acts as a tie-breaker for the tightly contested second and third places in the offshore competition that also finishes in Gothenburg the week after next.

A lack of breeze on the race track kept the fans in Lorient waiting some 30 minutes before the action started, but there was drama aplenty from the off.

MAPFRE (Iker Martínez/ESP) were forced to duck behind the rest of the seven-strong fleet as a premature start loomed and they immediately conceded seemingly costly ground on their rivals in such a key race.

Team Alvimedica had no such problems and led the boats on the windier right hand side of the course, giving them a good advantage in the chase to the first gate.

Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR) and Team Vestas Wind (Chris Nicholson/AUS), first and second respectively in Leg 8 from Lisbon to Lorient, chose the lefthand side of the course and that stored up problems for them as they approached the first mark.

Both were ordered to take penalty turns: the all-women crew for apparently failing to give MAPFRE enough space (or rather, water) as they tacked around the mark, and Team Vestas Wind for committing a similar offence against Team Brunel (Bouwe Bekking/NED).

The fleet split right and left on the next leg, while Team Alvimedica cruised untroubled away at the head of the fleet, building their lead to around 300 metres.

By the fourth leg, the young Turkish/American-backed crew continued to stretch away with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing heading the chasing pack and quite happy to consolidate their position at the top of the overall in-port race standings if they could.

The result now was in no doubt in terms of who would win, but Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, Team Brunel and Dongfeng Race Team were still separated by only metres as the fifth leg continued.

As the leg finished, Azzam and no less than three other boats converged on the mark with Team Brunel, MAPFRE and Dongfeng Race Team scrapping for second place with the Emirati boat.

Into the final leg, MAPFRE steamed through in the closing stages with a perfect angle and extra wind to snatch second from Walker’s crew and Dongfeng Race Team also bypassed the Emirati boat as the line approached, leaving them fourth.

Team SCA then won a three-way showdown for fifth, just ahead of Team Brunel, with Team Vestas Wind taking seventh.

The results leave the in-port standings perfectly poised for the final deciding race in Gothenburg.

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, the overall event winners elect, are still top on 25 points, six clear of Team Brunel (31), with Team Alvimedica (32), Team SCA (33), MAPFRE (34) and Dongfeng Race Team (36) all with good chances of podium places.

Team Vestas Wind, who missed all the in-port races from Abu Dhabi to Newport, Rhode Island because of their rebuild following a collision with a reef, are on 66 points.

Should Team Brunel win the final race in Gothenburg, they would lift the trophy at the expense of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing since they would have the most individual victories in the series.

Walker, who is already assured of the main offshore trophy as long as his crew do not pick up a batch of penalty points in the final leg from Lorient to Gothenburg, was satisfied with Sunday’s performance.

“It was a good result for us,” he told reporters. “We were just trying to cover Team Brunel and to get enough points to get the series won. We’ve not quite done that, but we’re in a pretty good position.”

Enright then summed up: “We had a really, really good start which made it pretty easy to execute our game plan. We need another good result in Gothenburg to close the deal.”

#VOR - Team SCA have built slightly on their slim advantage ahead of the pack with just 12 to 15 hours of racing left till port in Lorient in the eighth leg of the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race.

Currently 10.6 nautical miles clear of their closest rivals in the returning Team Vestas Wind, the all-women squad have put in their strongest performance of the race thus far, notwithstanding their previous in-port race victories.

Yesterday (Tuesday 9 June) they were the first boat to reach the Bay of Biscay to the west of the main pack.

And what makes their current performance all the sweeter are the tough conditions they face in the Atlantic on what's the shortest leg of the round-the-world race.

“It’s blowing a solid 30 knots in four-metre waves, it’s on the edge. We haven’t seen proper upwind sailing like this so far in the race,” said Volvo Ocean Race official meteorologist Gonzalo Infante on yesterday's sea state.

The conditions delayed Team SCA's tack back towards the coast on their approach to Brittany, according to team navigator Libby Greenhaigh.

But any worries have been blown away by just a cursory glance at their current dashboard position – a streak of magenta far ahead of the tight multicoloured pack.

Within that pack, the sailing is at a knife-edge, both between MAPFRE and Team Alvimedica, jockeying for fourth place within half a nautical mile of each other, and the now back-marking Team Brunel and Dongfeng Race Team, almost neck-and-neck with just a 0.2 mile split between their positions.

The latter two - struggling with on-board breakages since yesterday morning that have hampered their progress – are fighting to keep their dreams of overall victory alive as Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing seem set for a comfortable third-place finish, and the all-important points that come with it.

Not that that's come easy for Azzam skipper Ian Walker, who's reportedly barely slept over the past two days.

Meanwhile, back at the front of the fleet, Team SCA are under no illusions that the race is still wide open.

"It is a different position to be leading the fleet and making the first moves or seeing the fleet make a move you chose not to," wrote Greenhaigh, sister of MAPFRE crew member Rob, on the team blog.

“We haven’t been shy to make the first move or a different manouevre before, but when you are leading, it feels like so much more is at stake.”

#vor – Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR) found themselves leading the fleet after a night of thunderstorms and fluctuations as the Volvo Ocean Race Leg 8 entered the first full day in the Atlantic on Monday.

The first all-women's crew to enter offshore sailing's toughest contest for 12 years have improved leg on leg since the start of the race in October last year, but their finishing positions have not reflected that so far.

However, skipper Sam Davies and her team have always eyed the shorter final legs in Europe as their best chance to shine against their male counterparts, and so far on the 647-nautical mile (nm) stage from Lisbon to Lorient, France, they have sailed impeccably.

There is still a long way to go on a leg that is expected to conclude in Brittany in the early hours of Thursday, but the women were certainly enjoying the unaccustomed feeling of being at the head of the competition on Monday.

At the 0645 UTC position report, Team SCA led by 5.5nm from overall race leaders Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker), having taken the route nearest to the coast of Portugal, where the wind was at its strongest (see panel above).

Overnight leaders Team Vestas Wind (Chris Nicholson/AUS) were caught in a large thunderstorm around 0500 UTC and dropped from first to fifth.

They will be delighted with their progress so far, however, showing good boat speed despite some six months out of the race while their boat was re-built following a collision with a reef in November on Leg 2.

Team Brunel (Bouwe Bekking/NED), who need to beat Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing to close their six-point deficit on them at the head of the standings, were tucked in fourth place while Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA) were last placed, 8nm further astern.

They suffered a small tear in their Code Zero sail when it caught on the spreaders. The crew have successfully repaired it.

The Chinese boat also needs to finish ahead of Azzam to boost their chances of overall victory in the final port of Gothenburg.

#VOR - Team Vestas Wind have passed their biggest test yet in their quest to rejoin the Volvo Ocean Race in time for the eighth leg from Lisbon to Lorient.

As Jonno Turner writes for the official VOR website, crowds lined the waterfront at the Lisbon Race Village yesterday (Saturday 30 May) to see the team take their rebuilt yacht on the water for the first time since running aground in the Indian Ocean last November.

“It’s a massive hurdle to have overcome. It’s something we don’t have to think back to anymore, it’s about enjoying the future," said shore manager Neil Cox.

And what that future holds is shaking up what's been a highly competitive six-boat race since the start of the year. Here's looking forward to Irish journalist Brian Carlin's onboard reports.

#VOR - Spanish team MAPFRE celebrated their first in-port series win of the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race in Newpor, Rhode Island yesterday (Saturday 16 May) in a contest notably title-sponsored by the absent Team Vestas Wind.

And as the official VOR website reports, no other boat really had a look-in, as Iker Martínez's yacht and crew secured an early lead -opting for the left gate at the first mark and benefiting from the extra pressure available on that side of the course.

While the victory hasn't changed MAPFRE's lowly sixth place on the leaderboard, it did close the gap between them and Team Alvimedica – now just three points apart – as the race enters its crucial shorter homeward legs.

The first of these sets sail in a little over eight hours time, as the six-boat fleet heads across the Atlantic to Lisbon - and a date with the rejoining Team Vestas Wind.

#VOR - Musandam-Oman Sail skipper Sidney Gavignet has been added to Dongfeng Race Team's crew as they prepare for the start of Volvo Ocean Race Leg 7 from Newport to Lisbon this weekend.

Gavignet comes fresh off the MOD70 trimaran's smashing of the Round Ireland speed sailing record last week to stand in for fellow Frenchman Eric Peron, who will return for the final two legs.

It also marks the latest in a series of crew rotations by skipper Charles Caudrelier on the Leg 6-winning yacht, after Kerry sailor and fellow VOR vet Damian Foxall lent his experience on Leg 5.

“He’s a Volvo Ocean Race expert, and I’ve been wanting to sail again with him for a long time," said Caudrelier of Gavignet. "We sailed together 12 years ago and it went really well so I can only hope this leg will be just as good.”

In other crew change news, Team Brunel have added CAMPER sailor Adam Minoprio to their line-up for the remaining legs.

The youngest ever sailor to be a match-racing world champion "could just make the difference in the last three short legs," said skipper Bouwe Bekking.

And Team Vestas Wind will welcome Australian sailor Tom Addis and Simeon Tienpont, Dutch veteran of the most recent America's Cup-winning crew, when their yacht is ready to rejoin the race in Lisbon for Leg 8 next month.

Their return to the fleet after their devastating grounding in the Indian Ocean late last year is sure to bring more eyes to the action as the finish line draws closer.

No one could be more pleased than VOR chief Knut Frostad, who tells the Yacht Racing Forum about the race's improving commercial position in a still-tough economic climate.

Another happy man is Ian Walker of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, who feels his team's performance in the race so far is set to eclipse the "injustice" of setbacks during the 2011-12 race, which included a broken mast in the first race, and limping towards Brazil in the Auckland-to-Itajaí leg with hull damage.

But as he tells Yahoo! News, the Azzam skipper is hesitant to call their current performance "revenge".

"It's like a Formula One race. If you haven't got the car, never mind how good the driver is. We had the potential to win but we never had the opportunity to demonstrate it."

Walker adds: "The race is not over yet at all. But we are in a strong position, a position where we don't have to beat Dongfeng in every leg. Which is important."