It will be very interesting if MAPFRE and Dongfeng both take the eastern route, along the beach, while Brunel goes outside the exclusion zone to the west. The whole race could come down to the decisions and sailing over the next few hours.
They’ve done a lap up and down the Skagerrak and the Kattegat, and it’s a tight duel between Dongfeng (in the lead) and MAPFRE (less than a mile behind) for the overall Volvo win.
Brunel trails by 12 miles, which is a lot at this point, given how little racecourse there is left before the finish at The Hague. That high-wind reach they’ll be doing after rounding the virtual waypoint up by Norway should be good for Brunel; those are pretty much the conditions in which they blew past Dongfeng and MAPFRE to take the last leg and put themselves in the three-way tie, but I don’t know; that’s a lot of distance to make up. Bouwe’s going to need some luck at this point.
Can we appreciate the fact the vestas, calculating redress, would have 67 points in the end (so an average of a little more of 6 per leg). One of the 0 legs was double points so that would be 5(ish?) Points more. 72 (probably more).
The winner will have 72 points overall. I feel so bad for vestas…. Way too unlucky. I know there’s a lot more to factor into what the actual score would be but damn they deserved some more good luck.
There definitely was a lot of luck, good and bad, that got unevenly distributed in this edition of the race.
Also, as of a few minutes ago, there’s a new leader (tracker has them even, but MAPFRE is ahead of Dongfeng and to weather as they beat toward the virtual waypoint). ¡Vamos MAPFRE! 😀
They’ve done a lap up and down the Skagerrak and the Kattegat, and it’s a tight duel between Dongfeng (in the lead) and MAPFRE (less than a mile behind) for the overall Volvo win.
Brunel trails by 12 miles, which is a lot at this point, given how little racecourse there is left before the finish at The Hague. That high-wind reach they’ll be doing after rounding the virtual waypoint up by Norway should be good for Brunel; those are pretty much the conditions in which they blew past Dongfeng and MAPFRE to take the last leg and put themselves in the three-way tie, but I don’t know; that’s a lot of distance to make up. Bouwe’s going to need some luck at this point.
This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
