Volvo Ocean Race teams ready for Cape Town In-Port Race

Volvo Ocean Race teams ready for In-Port Race in the shadow of Table Mountain

The Cape Town In-Port Race is scheduled for today, Friday afternoon

The seven best sailing teams in the world will test their offshore Volvo Ocean 65s on a close-quarters race course on Friday during the Cape Town In-Port Race, under the shadow of the majestic Table Mountain.

Racing off Cape Town is notoriously challenging with strong, gusty, shifting winds and tricky currents commonplace. And after racing 7,000 nautical miles from Lisbon to Cape Town last month, the sailors will need to switch gears for short-course, inshore racing.

The leaderboard of the In-Port Race Series is used as the tie-breaking mechanism for the overall Volvo Ocean Race standings, so the stakes are high.

MAPFRE leads the In-Port Race series by two points over Team Brunel and Dongfeng Race Team.

The race is scheduled to start at 2:00pm local time in Cape Town, 12:00 UTC.