Simeon Tienpont led Team AkzoNobel to their first leg win of the Volvo Ocean Race. Photo: Jesus Renedo/Volvo Ocean Race.
Simeon Tienpont led Team AkzoNobel to their first leg win of the Volvo Ocean Race. Photo: Jesus Renedo/Volvo Ocean Race.
In the closest finish of the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race, winner AkzoNobel narrowly beat second-placed Scallyway across the finish line in Waitemata Harbour early this morning.
Just two minutes and 14 seconds separated them after leg six began 10,209km and nearly 21 days ago in Hong Kong. Even more remarkably, the first five boats home were only separated by 28 minutes.
After rounding North Cape, the leading boats engaged in match racing down the east coast of New Zealand; at one stage any one of the first five boats could have won.
It was a sweet victory for Team AkzoNobel skipper Simeon Tienpont, who had been sacked before the start of the race.
Tienpont was dropped by the team a week out from the beginning of the opening leg over a breach of contract - but was reinstated after the parties came to an agreement just hours before the event began.
Now, the Dutchman has skippered the boat to its first leg win of the series, crossing the line first in Auckland in the early hours of Wednesday morning after a sprint to the finish.
"It's a great win. I'm a sportsman, they only thing you want to do is win. We've got a great team, we had a bit of a rocky start but I was always convinced it was a great team and we had a great core of people around us," Tienpoint said. "I believed in them and they believed in me. It was a difficult start in Alicante but the belief was always there.
AkzoNobel narrowly fended off Scallywag to claim the leg win in a race to the finish line off North Wharf that could have gone either way.
"Really, really, really happy. It was one of the bigger battles I think. I thought coming back from 8-1 to 9-8 in the America's Cup in San Francisco was big," Tienpont said with a laugh. "It was pretty cool. It was a big match race and it's really what the race is about."
AkzoNobel had held the lead intermittently through the last days of the leg, but the result was far from a certainty when they hit waters in the North of New Zealand. The vessel was slowed by the winds, putting their chances of claiming the win in doubt.
"I was worried about everyone. It's so hard...we've been really, really sailing around to find the breeze all the time. It was intense."
Team AkzoNobel celebrate their leg win. Photo: Jesus Renedo/Volvo Ocean Race
AkzoNobel finished 2min 14sec ahead of Scallywag, with Blair Tuke and Louis Sinclair's MAPFRE clawing their way into third place about 22 minutes later.
Justin Ferris, one of two Kiwis aboard AkzoNobel along with Brad Farrand, said it was only fair that the boat with two Kiwi sailors took out the leg into Auckland.
"We've been fighting Scallywag off for over a week now, it was an amazing battle."
Team MAPFRE arrive in Auckland at the end of stage six of the Volvo Ocean Race. Ainhoa Sanchez/Volvo Ocean Race
Fellow Kiwis Daryl Wislang and Stu Bannatyne were unable to get the better of MAPFRE aboard DongFeng, just missing out on the podium.
Bianca Cook's Turn the Tide on Plastic finished in fifth, but might have felt like they deserved to finish higher having raced a quality leg only to fall on the home stretch, with Peter Burling's Team Brunel drawing up the rear.
Fleet arrival times in Auckland (NZ time) 1. AkzoNobel - 0117.26 2. Scallywag - 0119.40 3. MAPFRE - 0139.38 4. DongFeng - 0142.36 5. Turn the Tide on Plastic - 0145.08 6. Team Brunel - 0314.19
