PROVIDENCE – Vestas 11th Hour Racing placed third in the third leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Cape Town, South Africa, to Melbourne, Australia. The team finished the leg in 14 days, nine hours, 52 minutes and 11 seconds.
Team MAPFRE placed first in the leg at 14 days, four hours, seven minutes and 21 seconds.
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The leg was worth double points in the race – placing the Vestas 11th Hour Racing team in third place over all with 23 points, six points behind the overall race leaders, MAPFRE, which has 29 points.
“It was a tough leg, both physically and mentally,” said team co-founder Mark Towill upon finishing. “We are happy to be on the podium again and happy to be on land for Christmas.”
Sam Greenfield, onboard reporter for the team, was more colorful in his description of the trip from Cape Town to Melbourne, which ran close to the Antarctic Ice Exclusion Zones, or ice gates, created to keep the yachts from racing close to icebergs.
“Cold. Tired. Stiff,” said Greenfield. “Gybe after gybe after gybe. Grinding along the ice gate has turned us into a boat of the gybing dead.”
This year, Rhode Island’s Charlie Enright and Nick Dana are on the Vestas 11th Hour Racing team. Enright is skipper for the Vestas crew following his debut campaign as skipper of Team Alvimedia in 2014-2015.
Vestas 11th Hour Racing has placed first in the first leg and third in both the second and third legs of the race so far.
The next leg of the race will be from Melbourne to Hong Kong.
