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Dongfeng Race Team earned a spectacular come from behind win on Saturday afternoon in New Zealand

Dongfeng Race Team showed great concentration and resilience in winning the New Zealand Herald In Port Race in Auckland, New Zealand on Saturday.

Conditions were extremely light, shifty and patchy on the Waitematā Harbour, making for plenty of lead changes over the course of the one hour race.

Team AkzoNobel finished in second place, while early leaders MAPFRE completed the podium to retain the overall lead in the In Port Race Series.

"It was very tricky, very difficult," said Dongfeng skipper Charles Caudrelier following the race. "We had a terrible start but there was so much happening during the first leg that it wasn't always good to be in the lead as you just showed the others where the light spots were. We were able to pick up on that and sail around the leaders. "We worked hard on our speed, and managed to come back slowly.”

The race started in spectacular fashion, considering how light the wind was. MAPFRE positioned well to leeward of the fleet, was first across the line, with David Witt’s Scallywag barging through with speed ahead of a big group clustered near the pin end.

But in fact, it was Team Brunel who were causing the pile-up at the pin, forcing three boats outside of the start line, with Dongfeng, Turn the Tide on Plastic and team AkzoNobel all required to re-start well behind the leaders.

That left MAPFRE and Scallywag as the early leaders, charging up what appeared to be a one-tack leg.

But as they approached the top third of the leg, the wind died, and the trailing boats were able to sail around the leading pair on both sides, with AkzoNobel and Vestas 11th Hour Racing squeezing through just ahead of Dongfeng Race Team and Brunel Sailing.

On the nominally downwind second leg, AkzoNobel and Dongfeng found a vein of pressure to grab the lead, and on a shortened two-lap course, it was Dongfeng who were able to ease ahead and hold on for the win.

 "New Zealand Herald" In-Port Race

Vestas 11th Hour Racing is back in the water, with a test sail anticipated later this week. The boat had been shipped to New Zealand for repairs following a collision just before the finish of Leg 4, off Hong Kong.

"It's been an amazing effort by all involved to get the boat back in the water," said skipper Charlie Enright. "The coordination between our shore team, The Boatyard, all the suppliers, the stakeholders... A month ago we said we'd be back on the water on this day, and we've stuck to the schedule. It's amazing.

"We still have to haul it out, put it on its keel, put the rig in, put it through its paces... and we'll be sailing starting on the 7th, which gives us plenty of time ahead of the in-port race and for the Leg start on the 18th. So we're in good shape."

The polar easterlies (also Polar Hadley cells) are the dry, cold prevailing winds that blow from the high-pressure areas of the polar highs at the North and South Poles towards low-pressure areas within the Westerlies at high latitudes.

Cold air subsides at the poles creating the high pressure, forcing an equatorward outflow of air; that outflow is then deflected westward by the Coriolis effect. Unlike the westerlies in the middle latitudes, the polar easterlies are often weak and irregular. These prevailing winds blow from the polar easterlies are one of the five primary wind zones, known as wind belts, that make up our atmosphere's circulatory system. This particular belt of wind begins at approximately 60 degrees north and south latitude and reaches to the poles. When air moves near the poles, cold temperatures shrink the air. This promotes air from warmer latitudes to flow into the area, causing a polar high-pressure zone. Air from this high-pressure zone then rushes toward the low-pressure zone surrounding the sub-polar region. The flow of air is altered by the Earth's rotation and deflected west, hence the name, between high- and low-pressure zones. Temperature and air pressure differentials and the earth's rotation combine to form global currents.

Another example of the phenomenon would be the trade winds, which reach from where the doldrums (areas that receive the largest levels of thermal radiation from the sun) leave off at about 5 degrees north and south latitude to as far as 30 degrees north and south. They are caused by air moving into the area from the subtropics to fill the void left by the doldrums' rising air. The trade winds blow steadily westward out of the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and out of the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere. Sailors in earlier times, traveling by wind current and sail only, counted upon the reliability of the trade winds to help them along on their voyages. Similarly, they sought to avoid the doldrums, where the wind was so scant they risked coming to a complete stop.

References: wikipedia.org

Restaurants Pelegrini (Šibenik) and 360º (Dubrovnik) received one MICHELIN star, restaurant Monte (Rovinj) managed to keep the star from the last year.

The restaurants Pelegrini (Šibenik) and 360° (Dubrovnik) each received one Michelin star, while the list of restaurants recommended by Michelin (a spoon and a fork symbol) is enriched with 24 new restaurants. This result was brought by mysterious visits to Croatian restaurants by professional Michelin inspectors who in 2017 visited restaurants throughout the country. The new guide for Croatia is published on the Michelin website, the world's most important and most recognized restaurant guide.

"Croatia is located on the culinary map of the world. The new Michelin stars and recommendations awarded to Croatian restaurants are a testament to the culinary scene that they meet very demanding international quality criteria. Michelin is a global synonym for excellence in gastronomy. Michelin symbol gives great promotional potential to the places where the selected restaurants are located. The Croatian Tourist Board will continue to carry out numerous activities to present Croatia as an attractive tourist destination with a rich culinary offer", said the director of the Croatian Tourist Board, Kristjan Staničić.

Following this year's selection, Croatia has three restaurants with Michelin stars and 55 restaurants with Michelin recommendation. This year, for the first time, the Michelin Bib Gourmand symbol was awarded to four restaurants: Konoba Mate (Korčula), Danube (Ilok), Vuglec Breg (Krapina) and Konoba Fetiva (Split). This is a symbol given to restaurants that offer quality menus at affordable prices. Also, with this selection, besides Istria, Dubrovnik and Zagreb, which were included last year, numerous other destinations such as Šibenik, Split, Ilok, Korčula, Krapina, Lovran, Osijek, Varaždin, Velika Gorica, Zadar and others have found their place on the Michelin map.

The list of new restaurants in the Michelin selection is a strong incentive for further refinement of the culinary scene, as well as a great worldwide promotion of Croatia as a top gourmet destination. Let's remember that the first Croatian restaurant which joined the company of elite restaurants with the Michelin star, was the restaurant Monte in Rovinj, which in 2017 received one Michelin star also kept it in 2018.

Nico Poons’ Charisma proved today that there is a new player in town, as they clung on to yesterday’s lead to win the RC44 Calero Marinas Cup, the opening event of the 2018 RC44 championship. But it all came down to the last run of today’s last race when a last curved ball cut the Monaco-based team’s overall lead to just one point from arch-rival, Team Nika.

“You see in the last race how things can suddenly change - going in the last downwind leg we were winning comfortably by five points and then we only won by one point,” noted an otherwise elated Poons. “It proves you have to concentrate right to the very end. It is great sailing in this class – it is high performance, a high quality fleet with a level playing field and great value compared to other sailing projects of this kind.”

With no awkward frontal systems to complicate matters today, Lanzarote reverted to her usual summery self for the final day of competition. The 15-16 knots winds remained reliably in the southwest, which with flat water and a scorching sun that made it seem like June in the Mediterranean. Until the final run…

Charisma tactician Ray Davies explained: “It was all on - there was a big wind shift and we were on the outside of that and the wind increased to 23 knots with a pressed-up angle coming in. The boats were all surfing into the finish line. Any boat that gybed early made a huge gain but a couple of us couldn’t quite lay it. But we did enough, despite finishing with a jib.”

Of Charisma’s performance overall Davies added: “We started really well today which was a big improvement on the beginning of the regatta. We are happy with how the boat is going and the crew work. There are things we can work on for the next event, but we are very happy for Nico to come away with a win. It is just his second in four years. It was nice being up against the likes of Dean [Barker] and Vasco [Vascotto]. All the tacticians in this fleet are of the highest level, so there is always some pride on the line.”

Inevitably the team that did best out of the giant shift was Team CEEREF. Having nailed Saturday’s first race on the right of the run, so Igor Lah’s team nearly performed a similar stunt on the opposite side of course.

Tactician with the uncanny nose for these shifts is Team CEEREF’s Adrian Stead, who explained:  “It had gone a little bit right just on the way into the top mark and then when we looked up we could see it all along the shore. So it was opportunist but we weren’t too far off taking it all the way to the finish.” From being a deep fifth at the last top mark rounding, the Slovenian RC44 managed to pull out a third. 

Team CEEREF also won the opening race, having led it from start to finish. “This is our best first regatta of a year for ages, so it is great,” said Igor Lah. “It was a lot of fun, especially that last leg - we had nothing to lose so we went to the left immediately after the mark and there was a big wind shift and great breeze.”

After posting a couple of deep results, Vladimir Prosikhin's Team Nika was back on song for race 2. Early on the first beat they and John Bassadone’s Peninsula Petroleum opted for the right where they struck gold. The two boats were respectively first and second at the top mark, positions they maintained until the finish.

However it was the final race and challenging Charisma that was on Prosikhin’s mind: “We had some problems at the start - somehow we lost speed, which was a major problem. After that we were between CEEREF on one side and Charisma on the other – our two main competitors. If we tried to escape right and Charisma tacked on us and if we tried to escape left then CEEREF tacked on us! We were like a pinball – blam, blam, blam. Like Rocky! Finally we escaped and were still ahead, but unfortunately Charisma finished right after us, which was not enough.”

Prosikhin also enjoyed the final downwind dash with CEEREF. “The wind came from behind and they gained a lot on us and then we picked it up too. Then we were surviving - trying to push the boat as hard as we could, in danger of broaching all the time – very enjoyable! We had good technique, we survived and we finished ahead of them and protected second place. The RC44 is great pleasure to sail and it is such a nice fleet. Today I had one of the best days in my racing career.”

Today’s outcome would also have been different for Team Nika due to a top mark incident in today’s first race. “We had a bow to bow with Team CEEREF and had to gybe around – which was expensive,” explained tactician Dean Barker.

While all eyes were on the outcome of the last race in terms of the overall event points, it was also notable Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing rounding the top mark in first. However on the run Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing had overhauled the French team and hung on lead for the remainder of the race, despite the monster final shift.

Competition now returns to Portoroz, Slovenia, birthplace of the RC44 for the second event of the 2018 championship over 9-13 May.

Video RC44 CALERO MARINAS CUP 2018

Team AkzoNobel has won Leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, racing 6,344 miles from Hong Kong to Auckland in 20 days, 9 hours and 17 minutes and 26 seconds.

It was a tremendous win, and came after an epic final 24 hours, when a ridge of high pressure off the north east coast of New Zealand stalled the progress of the leading boats, allowing those behind to close what had appeared to be an insurmountable gap. For team AkzoNobel and SHK/Scallywag, the buffer they’d built up over the past week was only just sufficient, and they were able to match race down the coast all the way to the finish line in the Waitematā Harbour, usually sailing within hailing distance of each other.

In the end, the margin at the finish was just two minutes between first and second place.

“It’s been a 6,500 mile match race, it’s unreal,” said Tienpont. “I’ve never sailed a race like this in my life. We’ve always been in each other’s sights. They were always there. It’s been neck and neck. Huge respect to Scallywag, they never stopped fighting and we never stopped defending. I’m so proud of our crew. They never flinched.”

It’s the first leg win for team AkzoNobel and earns the team an important 8 points on the leaderboard, after fighting all the way to the finish with Scallywag.

“Our team never gives up,” said Scallywag skipper David Witt. “We just didn’t pull it off this time. We had our chances, but AkzoNobel were just a little bit too good this time. But we’ve come a long way since leg one.”

The second place finish in Leg 6, combined with a leg win into their home port of Hong Kong, has elevated SHK/Scallywag up to third place on the overall leaderboard.

While the weather pattern of the last 24 hours has made for a heart-stopping finish for race fans, it also led to a heart-breaking result for Dee Caffari’s Turn the Tide on Plastic.

Just 24 hours ago, Caffari and her team appeared poised to claim their first podium of the race, even while challenging for the leg win. MAPFRE and Dongfeng Race Team, first and

It would have made for a well-earned and popular result for an underdog team. But as the leading trio bumped up against an unavoidable patch of calm winds, MAPFRE and Dongfeng roared in, closing the gap down minute by minute.

As darkness fell on Tuesday night and the wind picked up for the final 60-mile sprint to the finish, the two powerhouse red boats were within striking distance of Caffari and her team, just 2 miles back. And over the next 90 minutes, they were able to grind their way past, pushing Turn the Tide on Plastic back into fifth place with 20 miles to run.

While Caffari and her crew showed incredible fighting spirit, clawing ahead of Dongfeng Race Team once again as the boats raced through the Hauraki Gulf on the final approach, they couldn’t hold on, and would need to settle for fifth place, behind both MAPFRE in third and Dongfeng in fourth.

“It’s been a crazy 20 or 21 days, match racing all the way here,” said MAPFRE skipper Xabi Fernández. “We’ve been fighting with Dongfeng like crazy. We never stopped, we fought so hard, and now we feel very happy of course. We were hoping for opportiunites in the doldrums and they never came, but finally they came today, and we did it.”

“We’re sorry for Turn the Tide on Plastic,” said Dongfeng skipper Charles Caudrelier. “They did a fantastic race and I think they deserved a third place finish, but that’s sailing, they’ve been unlucky today and we managed to come back… It was a good surprise.”

Overlooking the immediate disappointment of the day, this marks the best result of the race to date for Turn the Tide on Plastic and is a sign of progress for a young and improving team.

“We’re gutted, I don’t even know what to say,” said an obviously disappointed Caffari dockside. “We had a good race, and we thought we were going to have a better result. But those pesky red boats always seem to get it their way.”

Team Brunel remains on the race course, speeding towards the finish approximately 90 minutes behind their fellow competitors after falling victim to a bold tactical choice over the weekend that backfired and put them behind the rest of the fleet.

Vestas 11th Hour Race did not sail in Leg 6 after being shipped to Auckland for repairs. The team has lost ground on the leaderboard, with both Scallywag and AkzoNobel overhauling them to hold down third and fourth place, with Vestas 11th Hour Racing sliding to fifth. The team is expected to release an update over the coming days.

An incredibly close finish to the hottest Leg of the Clipper Race from the Whitsundays, Australia, to debut Host Port of Sanya, China, saw all eleven Clipper Race teams finish the 4,300 nautical mile course within 21 hours.

After 23 days of racing, PSP Logistics, Qingdao, Dare To Lead, Sanya Serenity Coast, Unicef and Visit Seattle crossed the finish line during the night in China just outside Sanya’s Serenity Marina between 12:41 UTC and 20:38 UTC on Thursday 22nd February. Liverpool 2018, Nasdaq, Garmin, HotelPlanner.com and GREAT Britain arrived in daylight between 02:41 UTC and 09:07 UTC on Friday 23rd February.

PSP Logistics overtook Qingdao just days from finishing to claim first place, crossing the finish line at 12:41UTC, and although Qingdao was the second team to cross the line at 18:17:39 UTC, Dare To Lead’s redress of 1 hour 24 minutes means it took second place, with a revised finish time of 16.53 UTC. The redress was for going to the assistance of Liverpool 2018 during the fourth day of racing to transfer a spare part for the team’s onboard watermaker

The Forever Tropical Paradise Race, the seventh of thirteen individual races, was a tough, hot endurance test that included a Doldrums Corridor, Equator crossing, King Neptune Ceremonies, a Scoring Gate and an Elliot Brown Ocean Sprint.

Flying the flag for China: Sanya Ambassador Kobe arrives into his home port.

On arrival into Sanya, the organising committee put on a spectacular welcome for the podium teams and its team entry, Sanya Serenity Coast. The top placed teams were greeted by a lion dance procession which leading to the Clipper Race Arrivals Stage for a performance. Afterwards, the teams where presented with their pennants by members of the Sanya delegation and a Champagne spray finished off the celebrations.

Speaking about the race, which was also first win for PSP Logistics, Skipper Matt Michell said: “It’s awesome. It was pretty tense with every schedule when we got the position reports in and each time it did, we thought we had dodged a bullet. We dodged the final bullet this morning and we’re really pleased we managed to hold the others off.”

Speaking at the Serenity Coast Arrival Press Conference, Sanya Serenity Coast Skipper Wendy Tuck thanked Vice Mayor, Xu Zhenling, for the warm welcome and spoke about the tough race to the team home port. After Sir Robin announced that Sanya Serenity Coast will still lead the overall Clipper 2017-18 Race leaderboard, she said: “We don’t have to be the strongest, we need to be the smartest”

With the full fleet now in Sanya’s Serenity Marina, the only five gold anchor platinum status marina in Asia, a whole host of celebrations, tourist events and cultural experienced are planned for the coming week.

Kicking off the events is a tourism day tomorrow, Sunday 25 February, some 40 crew members from 8 different nationalities will be attending a special day of sightseeing to experience the very best of tropical Sanya; Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone and the Binlang Valley.

The Race Village will also open, and alongside sampling the finest local delicacies and enjoying the Tsingtao Beer Zone, locals, tourists and crew members can try their hands in the Lego building centre, test their sailing skills with model yacht races, show their fearless side with the Zorb Ball game area and take part in cosplay. The Clipper Race Dome will also open and visitors can experience what life is like on board, via virtual reality goggles, or try their skills at the Marlow Rope Knot Tying Station.

Team Brunel emerged from Stealth Mode overnight as the furthest east in the fleet, and by the 1300 UTC position report on Saturday, Bouwe Bekking’s team was in second place as measured on distance to finish, despite being the northernmost boat in the fleet.

“Yesterday, it was obvious we were falling off the pressure the three leading boats had,” explained skipper Bouwe Bekking. “You can keep following them, but then you know you’re going to keep losing.

“The models we had were telling us to sail the direct course towards the north cape of New Zealand. That’s why we went in Stealth Mode… Fortunately for us, the others kept reaching (out to the west), so we didn’t lose any distance to the mark to these boats. That was the good thing about going into Stealth.”

It’s clear now that Brunel will be pushing the direct route to New Zealand. They will be sailing far fewer miles than the other leading group who are committed to the west, hoping to find more wind to compensate for the additional distance sailed.

“The key goal for us is to get south,” said Scallywag navigator Libby Greenhalgh. “The forecast is still uncertain, but there is definitely pressure to the south and the more we can hook into that the closer we’ll get to New Zealand before the forecast becomes very unclear.

“It’s one of those situations where you kind of have to pick your side and try to win your side. For us, if we can catch AkzoNobel and beat them to win our side, then the worst case scenario is a fourth and best case you win the leg.”

Behind and taking a middle option on the East/West axis is Dongfeng and MAPFRE, the top two boats on the overall leaderboard, now racing in unfamiliar territory at the back of the fleet.

But all hope is not lost, as they claw their way back in terms of distance to the leader, which is now down to just 37 miles.

“The weather forecast keeps changing quite a lot in the files we receive during the day,” said MAPFRE skipper Xabi Fernández. “We have nearly 1000 nautical miles to go so we will keep our hope until the very end.

“The crew is having as much rest as possible and getting ready for any opportunity that may come at the end of the race. Our particular race with Dongfeng keeps being exhausting and we all know it is going to be that way the whole way to Auckland. Let’s see how it finishes. Hopefully we can have Brunel join the battle too.”

Scallywag’s Greenhalgh agrees it could be a fantastic finish: “This is going to be another spic finish with the teams exceptionally close and possibly a full foam up coming in. Will be awesome to watch as fingers crossed we arrive in daylight.”

In Auckland, the Volvo Ocean Race Event Village opened on Saturday. Everything is ready, awaiting the stars of the show.

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