With only 53 days remaining until the start of the Prologue from Lisbon to Alicante, now is the time for the teams to complete their final training at sea, their sponsor engagements and safety training.
These few weeks will be precious for Hong Kong entry Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag, who had less than a week of training before starting Leg Zero.
Skipper David Witt and his team have years of experience of sailing together and will now redouble their efforts to extract the best from their One Design Volvo Ocean 65.
“The racing on Leg Zero has shown us what we’re strong at, what we’re weak at,” said Witt. “MAPFRE have dominated, they’ve shown everybody how strong they are and they’ve set the bar where we’ve all got to get to. We are not weak in all areas – there are some areas we are quite good at. It’s good to find this out now rather than on Leg 2 of the race. And now we’ve got five weeks to fix, I’ve got a pretty good idea how to fix it and now we’ve just got to get on with it.”
While it’s tempting to label MAPFRE as favourites going into the race, none of the skippers will be taking anything for granted.
“I think Dongfeng is well prepared and they have been working hard all the winter as well,” said MAPFRE’s Xabi. “The new teams, like AkzoNobel, are coming together with some good experience and improving every day they sail together. There is a good mix of crew across Brunel, very experienced and they will be very competitive.”
Charles Caudrelier, whose Dongfeng team finished second overall and won the Volvo Ocean 65 class in the Fastnet, added: “I think I am happy. I think we had a good speed and a good spirit onboard. I’m pretty sure we can do very well.”
Standing on the dock in Alicante in a couple of months’ time, the crews will have 45,000 miles of sailing in front of them – and the knowledge that anything could happen.
Leg Zero, overall final rankings:
1. MAPFRE 29 points
2. Dongfeng Race Team 24
3. Team Brunel 23
4. team AkzoNobel 22
5. Vestas 11th Hour Racing 20
6. Turn the Tide on Plastic 13
7. Sun Hung Kai Scallywag 9
via MAPFRE set the Volvo Ocean Race bar with overall Leg Zero victory| Volvo Ocean Race.