Rick Tomlinson / Volvo Ocean Race
Friday 24 October 2008 07:00 GMT
There is a five-way tie at the top of the Volvo Ocean Race overall points standings after the leaders passed through the Leg One scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha. Overnight (GMT) the backmarkers scored their points, and the entire fleet is now heading for Cape Town.
Green Dragon led the way at 12:24 GMT to earn four points, while Ericsson 4 won the battle with PUMA to round in second place at 13:59 for their 3.5-point windfall.
Ken Read's men pocketed three points when they rounded at 14:16. Telefonica Black, meanwhile, passed the landmark at 14:48 to collect 2.5 points. Their brothers in arms, Telefonica Blue, scored 2 points by passing the gate at 19:42 GMT.
That was enough for Bouwe Bekking's men to lead the overall pecking order - based on the Alicante in-port race performances (see provisional overall points standings below).
"Two points collected, which is more than we hoped for when we were in Gibraltar," wrote Bouwe Bekking. "It could have been better, but it's too late to worry about that. We just have to play catch up once again. We seem to go fine in these conditions, we just have to keep working hard."
Then, in the closest battle for scoring points at this gate, Ericsson 3 crossed at 23:43 GMT, with a fast-paced Delta Lloyd just nine minutes behind. Ericsson 3 scores 1.5 points (but will have one point deducted as per the Jury instructions) while Delta Lloyd collects 1 point.
Finally, Team Russia came through at 04:35 on Friday morning, to earn half a point.
Green Dragon leapt into the lead on the approach to the Doldrums by taking an extreme westerly crossing point – so far west, they couldn’t actually lay the scoring gate without putting in a couple of tacks to hitch a few miles to the east.
“We’re delighted on board. We’ve been leading for a few days now and every single position report we’re watching to see if they’re closing in us, but we’re holding them off,” said skipper Ian Walker as the boat roared through the scoring gate.
Meanwhile, tales abound of encounters with King Neptune as the fleet crossed the equator. Watch the videos here.
Rounding positions at Fernando de Noronha:
1 Green Dragon - 12:24 GMT - 4pts 2 Ericsson 4 - 13:59 - 3.5 3 PUMA - 14:16 - 3 4 Telefonica Black - 14:48 - 2.5 5 Telefonica Blue - 19:42 - 2.0 6 Ericsson 3 - 23:43 - 1.5 (less 1 point as per Jury decision) 7 Delta Lloyd - 23:52 - 1.0 8 Team Russia - 04:35 - 0.5
*Provisional overall points standings (including first scoring gate):
*TIES: When there is a tie on total points between two or more Boats, the tie will be broken in favour of the Boat with the most first places counting Legs and In Port Races, and, if the tie remains, the most second places, and so on.
If after completing the procedure described above a tie still exists, it will be broken in favour of the Boat that has the highest place on the last Leg.
Any ties still remaining shall be broken in favour of the Boat that has the highest place on the next-to-last race (Leg or In Port race) and so on until all ties are broken.
On an In Port Race day when there has been two races completed and there is a tie between Boats after the two races, the tie will be broken in favour of the Boat with the highest placing between the tied boats in the second race on that day, and shall be reapplied if ties remain.