VOR: Blair Tuke (NZL) video interview following the tumultuous Leg 7 aboard MAPFRE

ITAJAÍ, BRA – The waves were much, much bigger than on the leg before. It was much colder. Without having had the other leg [in the Southern Ocean, Cape Town to Melbourne] under my belt it would have been pretty full on. It was another step up from that. We were compromised but would have liked to have been able to push harder. When one of those big fronts comes through it is cloudy and dark, so you have no horizon. When you are driving, you are driving with no horizon and are driving down these waves that you cannot see and doing 30 knots plus and just with your instruments and keeping the boat under your feet. It's pretty full on, and then daybreak comes - and you can see the size of the waves you back off a little bit. It's an amazing place for sailing. –Blair Tuke, Olympic medalist and AC winner, in a revealing video interview about his experience as a crew on MAPFRE, specifically during this last Leg 7 just completed (Auckland to Itajaí), and how he sees the balance of the 2017-18 VOR shaping up.

To watch the video click here, or on the screengrab of Mr Tuke from that video, below.

Blair Tuke (NZL), Olympic gold medalist (Rio, 2016) in the 49er, ETNZ crew when they won AC35 (Bermuda, 2017), and doing his first VOR aboard overall leader (now by only one point) MAPFRE. If MAPRFE manages to win the Volvo, Mr Tuke will be the first sailor to win what Sailing Illustrated calls the Triple Crown of Yacht Racing – the AC, an Olympic gold, and the VOR.