Nélias boosts MAPFRE
There is no need to hide the truth. Leg 1 didn’t go well for MAPFRE.
Skippered by Iker Martínez, the Spanish team arrived last in Cape Town on Friday.
Well, they would have secured sixth spot had they not ran into an almost windless area under Table Mountain shortly before the finish. Team SCA took advantage to sail in on a more favoured course and snatched sixth instead.
Three days later, it’s time to move forward. After a team debrief, the crew has taken some key decisions.
Jean-Luc Nélias, the man who helped mastermind Groupama’s win in the last race, will take over as navigator for the second leg, starting on November 19.
The navigator for Franck Cammas’s winning crew in 2011-12, Jean-Luc has already been working with MAPFRE as a weather analyst, and now replaces navigator Nico Lunven onboard.
The team also announced that Michel Desjoyeaux, the two-time Vendée Globe winner onboard for the first leg, will not be sailing any further stages but remains available to assist the team from onshore.
tl;dr: Navigator Nico Lunven and French sailing superstar Michel Desjoyeaux are out on Mapfre. They will be replaced by Jean-Luc Nélias, who navigated for Groupama, winner of the last VOR, and another crewmember to be named later.
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Tags: vor, volvo ocean race, team mapfre.
