Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing emerged victorious on Sunday after 6,776 nautical miles (nm) of immensely challenging racing in leg five to take a big advantage at the top of the Volvo Ocean Race standings.
Briton Ian Walker’s crew now stand seven points clear of their nearest rivals, Dongfeng Race Team.
The Chinese boat, Dongfeng, suffered a broken mast in the Southern Ocean last Monday and were later forced to pull out of the leg, having started the stage level at the top of the standings with Abu Dhabi.
Dongfeng were not the only team to encounter serious problems with Spanish boat MAPFRE and the all-women’s crew of Swedish Team SCA also crashing to their sides in so-called ‘Chinese gybes’ before righting.
Additionally, several of the boats suffered damage to their sails along the way.
Walker, as usual, barely had a wink of sleep over the final 48 hours of a three-week leg as he staved off challenges from MAPFRE, Turkish-US boat Team Alvimedica and Team Brunel of the Netherlands, to clinch victory.
An elated but exhausted Walker certainly was not taking overall victory in the race for granted after sailing into a packed Itajai harbour following the 19-day crossing through the South Pacific, Southern Ocean and south Atlantic.
Instead he was simply savouring a very hard-earned win with only 32 minutes to spare from the chasing pack.
“Awesome. It’s been such a monster of a leg, we are so, so stoked,” said the 45-year-old after beating their closest pursuers by just 32 minutes.
“We have sailed very, very well but it was a very tight finish.”
The leg was incredibly closely contested with MAPFRE, Team Alvimedica and Team Brunel, contesting the lead with Abu Dhabi all along the Brazilian coast and eventually finishing in that order with less than an hour separating first to fourth.
Team SCA, who suffered more problems when one of their rudders broke on Sunday, are expected to complete the leg on Tuesday.
The fleet will next sail from Itajai for Newport, Rhode Island, on April 19 and Dongfeng face a race against time to nurse their stricken boat to the south-eastern Brazilian port and then fit a new mast.
From Newport, the boats will tackle an Atlantic crossing to Lisbon, before the race concludes with two shorter European legs, taking the fleet to Lorient in France and then Gothenburg in Sweden, the latter via The Hague in the Netherlands.
In all, they will have covered 38,739nm, visited 11 ports and every continent.
The 41-year-old race, generally reckoned offshore sailing’s toughest and most prestigious challenge, is held every three years.