Team Telefónica surged to victory in Saturday’s Volvo Ocean Race in-port race in Cape Town, South Africa, to strengthen their overall lead.

Team Telefonica during the Cape Town in-port race

Telefonica boosted its overall lead with in-port victory - photo Ian Roman/Volvo Ocean Race



Telefónica, first into Cape Town at the end of Leg 1, led from the start in warm sunshine and breezes averaging 14 knots in Table Bay, only for Puma’s Mar Mostro to sneak past them at the first mark.

Ken Read’s team, who only arrived in Cape Town midweek after becoming the third team forced to retire from Leg 1, then looked to be in a strong position but a sail handling mistake allowed Telefónica and Camper with Emirates Team New Zealand to streak past them on the way to mark five, after which there was no way back.

Telefónica, last in the first in-port race in Alicante, finished the Cape Town V&A Waterfront In-Port Race in 52 minutes 55 seconds, with Camper with Emirates Team New Zealand in second 43 seconds back and Puma third a further nine seconds behind them.

“We are very happy,” said skipper Iker Martínez. “It was important for us to do well here in Cape Town after struggling in Alicante.” The result sees Telefónica consolidate first place overall with 37 points, followed by Camper with 34 and Groupama 24. Puma and Abu Dhabi are tied on nine points, with Sanya on four.

"Second is good but unfortunately it puts us further behind the leaders on points,” said Camper skipper Chris Nicholson. “The start cost us but after the start we had a nice march on. Hats off to the guys on board. The crew work was very nice. There were some high pressure manoeuvres that came through nicely."

For Puma and the other two teams forced to retire from Leg 1 – Abu Dhabi with a broken mast and Sanya with a massive hole in their hull – it was a real achievement just to make it to the start line.

That Puma hinted at one of the great comebacks in the race’s history was scarcely credible. Puma, who lost their rig in the south Atlantic in Leg 1 and had to seek refuge at the impossibly remote Tristan da Cunha, only got the boat back to the shore base in the early hours of Wednesday morning. After hours of round-the-clock graft, they had the replacement mast back in and on Saturday it looked like they had never been away.

In-Port Race Results:
1. Team Telefónica (Iker Martínez), 52:55
2. CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand (Chris Nicholson) +0:43
3. PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG (Ken Read) +0:52
4. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker) +1:19
5. Groupama sailing team (Franck Cammas) +1:49
6. Team Sanya (Mike Sanderson) +4:10