AkzoNobel lead after series of Fastnet gambles

The Volvo Ocean Race fleet has been forced to sail in amongst the rocks off the Cornish coast as they struggle to make good progress in a light edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race.

Team AkzoNobel had trailed the leaders MAPFRE and Dongfeng overnight but made an aggressive move just before rounding the Lizard Point, shaving the coastline to get out of the counter current. AkzoNobel navigator Jules Salter said it's going to be a struggle later in the day. "There's a light patch ahead of us this afternoon. Our job is just to keep the boat moving really." 

In a call to MAPFRE when they were rounding Land’s End, the entire crew were perched on the bow, along with all the sails and any other moveable weight onboard. Moving weight forward presses the bow into the water, lengthening the waterline of the boat for speed and lifting the wider aft part of the boat out of the water to reduce drag.

Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag caught up with the pack after rounding Land’s End by joining Vestas 11th Hour racing in a daring move to sail down a 260-metre wide channel in between the Longships rocks. MAPFRE and Brunel chose a more conservative route closer to the mainland shore but got caught in lighter winds and dropped two positions.

We've got these light winds for most of the day until we get to the Rock so it will be interesting to see how we go given that we are a fair bit lighter than everybody else. This is one of the conditions where we thought it would be advantageous to take less people

David Witt, Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag

After struggling all day with light and variable winds the teams can finally look forward to strengthening conditions after 1800 UTC as they head north westwards into the Celtic sea. After the light conditions, the fleet is now due to round Fastnet 0700-0900 UTC on Tuesday.

For now, it's the heat, and stress, rather than the wind that is building.