ALICANTE, SPAIN // Skipper Ian Walker took two risks which paid handsome dividends to earn his Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing boat an early advantage in the Volvo Ocean Race by winning the marathon event's opening in-port race yesterday.
Walker's early flyer, perilously close to a false start, followed by a well-practised sail shift heading for the first mark, earned Azzam early crucial ground on closest challengers Puma and Camper and they never looked back, winning in a time of 53 mins 44.6 secs.
Asked in the early morning if the winner of the first in-port race would win the Volvo Ocean Race, Walker said: "I would say probably not." By afternoon, Walker stood by his studied rationale, but as that winner.
With shrewdness at the second marker, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing's Azzam routed the six-yacht field, assuming the initial - and traditionally fleeting - lead in the nine-month, 10-stop, 39,000-mile haul.
That vaulted Azzam atop the table with six points, followed by a 5-4-3-2-1 sequence just below. Offshore ocean legs such as the one that starts next Saturday bound for Cape Town count for 30-25-20-15-10-5.
"We won it more than anybody else lost it," Wade Morgan, the bowman and boat captain, said.
"It's just a nice moment for the team," added Walker. "And everybody in Abu Dhabi can feel like they're on a winning team."
cculpepper@thenational.ae
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