From the jaws of defeat

Assa Abloy sneak victory in leg five

Positions at 0800 27 March 2002

	Yacht	Latitude	Longitude	DTF	DTL	DTL-C	SMG	Pts
1	Assa Abloy	25 48.40N	080 05.72W	0	0	0	0	28
2	illbruck	25 48.40N	080 05.72W	0	0	0	0	36
3	Tyco	25 48.40N	080 05.72W	0	0	0	0	24
4	SEB	25 41.24N	079 44.20W	21	21	-20	6.2	17
5	News	25 41.12N	079 38.72W	25	25	-15	2.7	23
6	Amer One	25 45.16N	079 23.72W	38	38	-19	5.7	25
7	djuice	25 34.84N	077 09.60W	164	164	-20	6.8	19
8	Amer Too	25 38.44N	077 06.16W	166	166	-20	7.5	8

In the closest and most thrilling finish to a leg of the Volvo Ocean Race so far, Assa Abloy finally sneaked in under illbruck's nose in the small hours of Wednesday morning.

As so often seems to happen, the outcome of a leg of the Volvo Ocean Race has rested more on current than wind. Careful positioning by Assa Abloy navigator, Mark Rudiger, saw the golden Kevlar hulled boat sneaking in out of the tide just a few miles short of Miami. With illbruck helplessly drifting backwards in an area of no wind Neal McDonald and his crew proved victorious.

Visibly exhausted after a week of exceptionally close racing, McDonald admitted to celebrating his second leg win by taking a quick nap on the way in from the finish line, commenting with characteristic understatement, "it has been very intense during the past couple of days."

"You don't really know quite what was going to happen. The weather was pretty unpredictable. If it had been a nice steady wind to the finish, it would have been a lot easier. But with the clouds and the storms and all that nonsense, it was quite hard work."

For race favourite, illbruck the end of the leg marked one of many dips in a roller coaster trip. Soon after the start in Rio illbruck were hit by SEB in a port/starboard collision leaving them trailing the fleet. Undaunted, they sailed through the whole fleet to claim and reclaim the lead several times in a game of cat and mouse with Tyco and Assa Abloy.

For more than a week, illbruck, Assa Abloy and Tyco sailed within sight of each other, constantly swapping positions. Three days ago illbruck lost an all important spinaker overboard and finally to surrender leg victory in the swirling current off Miami.

Tyco sailed a constant leg with good speed and clever tactics. This is Tyco's third top three result in a row, showing a consistency that was only broken up by the rudder damage on leg two. They have now overtaken News Corp in the overall standings and moved up to fourth place.






illbruck - pipped at the post