Kiwis after bragging rights
Round the world yachting veteran Justin Ferris was leading the push to be the first New Zealander into Auckland in the current race.
Ferris, a helmsman/trimmer on board Dutch entry AkzoNobel, was at the head of the small fleet as they dived towards Cape Reinga yesterday on the sixth leg from Hong Kong.
After an arduous crawl through the Doldrums, the six boats have picked up pace and are plotting their route down the top of the east coast of New Zealand for what is always a tricky entry to Auckland with the local weather around the islands of the Hauraki Gulf set to play a part again.
Ferris, sailing his fourth Volvo Ocean Race, is from Kerikeri in the Far North, as is bowman Brad Farrand who is in his first round the world race.
Their local knowledge will be handy as they had a lead of less than six miles over Turn The Tide Plastic.
These two boats have a handy lead over Team Brunel, who have Peter Burling on board, and Blair Tuke’s Mapfre.
‘‘The current picture to Auckland doesn’t show the pain we thought we were going to see,’’ said Turn the Tide on Plastic skipper Dee Caffari.
‘‘The light airs that we thought we were going to have to deal with – that might have formed a re-start – are getting pushed out of the way. It looks like we’ll come in with pressure and it will stay with us. Fingers crossed that does happen.’’
The leading trio were doing around 19 knots and could get into Auckland some time on Tuesday.
AkzoNobel lie near the bottom of the overall leaderboard and realise a a good result in Auckland will ignite their campaign around the halfway stage of the gruelling race.