Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing's boat Azzam, with two Emirati sailors amidst its 11-member crew, will be looking to make the most of home advantage and pick up the maximum of six points on offer in today's Etihad Airways In-Port Race.
The 60-minute in-port race is part of the Volvo Ocean race and five boats are in the race along with Abu Dhabi's Azzam. The home team is currently placed in the fifth position.
Led by Ian Walker, Abu Dhabi will be looking to garner a maximum number of points from the six on offer in today's In-Port race and another six points on offer for the winners of the Leg 3 Stage 1 sprint starting tomorrow.
"It's amazing just how passionate the fans here are," said Walker. "You get this feeling that everyone just wants you to do well, and it makes you want to do your very best. I'm pretty confident things will turn out well for us."
The Etihad Airways In-Port Race starts at 1400 local time and the course will be set up to last 60 minutes. Team Telefonica are leading with 66 points, eight ahead of CAMPER with Groupama on 42, Puma Ocean Racing on 28, Abu Dhabi on 18 and Team Sanya on four points.
"You never know how the race is going to finish so we have to fight for every single point," said Telefónica skipper Iker Martínez. "Very light airs inshore races are probably not the easiest conditions for us so we have been training here and working on our boat handling manoeuvres."
Light sail
"We're in good spirits," said Groupama skipper Franck Cammas after winning the Leg 2 Stage 2 sprint into Abu Dhabi and following that up with victory in the non-scoring practice race on Wednesday.
"We had a new light sail, a masthead zero, that we deployed for the first time in the practice race and we were as fast as CAMPER at the start."
PUMA Ocean Racing skipper Ken Read said, "I think the whole race needs to get into a rhythm. That won't be for a while with the shipping to come on Leg 3 but everyone's looking forward to it. This sort of race is hard, even in light airs. It doesn't have to be pretty but we have to be error-free."
Fans in the capital are all set to soak in some exciting action on the water while the Destination Village has laid out an array of activities for families on the Abu Dhabi Breakwaters on the Corniche.
After completing the Leg 3 Stage 1 sprint out of Abu Dhabi starting tomorrow the boats will be loaded onto a ship and transported through piracy-affected waters to a loading/unloading port in the Indian Ocean. That follows the similar measures, taken in reverse, for Leg 2 from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi.
