Vestas 11th Hour Racing crossed the finish line of the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Alicante to Lisbon, on Saturday 28th October 2017 at 15:08, in Lisbon, on the mouth of the Tagus River. The American-Danish team thus won the first leg of the race.
The American skipper Charlie Enright and his crew thus gain 8 points in the rankings (7 + 1 bonus point for stage victory). And this victory is well deserved, as the crew has led the fleet from almost the start, even as they approached the Portuguese coast. The wind had dropped as they approached the Portuguese capital, and the 34-mile lead over the chasing MAPFRE this morning was only 10 miles when they crossed the line.
The crew held fast through a series of tacks in 8 knots of wind, to make their way to the line, opposite the deck on 25 April, under the gaze of Christ the King. Charlie Enright is the third American skipper to win the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. His two predecessors were Paul Cayard in 1997-98 on EF Language and John Kostecki in 2001-02 on Illbruck.
All the more so because at the time, the two skippers had won the first leg of the race. Will it be the same for Vestas 11th Hour Racing?
