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Early morning finish for Amer Sports too

Lisa McDonald’s Amer Sports Two glided across the Sydney Opera House finish line at 02:59:22 local time, 15:59:22 GMT. The all-women team were swarmed by a small, but impressive considering the hour, group of spectator boats in the dying southerly breeze.

It has been a tough leg for the Amer Sports Too crew. Though leading the fleet alongside John Kostecki’s leg winner illbruck Challenge two days after the Cape Town start the team soon found themselves slipping behind the fleet.

"We had good surfing on the way in," said navigator Genevieve White. "But unfortunately we had a lot of upwind sailing. Considering it was a tough leg anyway we are just really really happy to be here."

So where did it all go wrong? "Unfortunately we fell out the back of an important system and never managed to recover," said a disappointed navigator Genevieve White. Once out of the system the team struggled to remain in contention. When tearing across the Southern Ocean at speeds in excess of 30-knots spending only six hours outside in lighter winds out the back of a weather system can mean losing some 100 miles on the pack.

To make matters worse the team were dogged by damage and loss. When their jockey pole was lost overboard the team were restricted to sailing angles along the Southern Ocean where a course directly downwind was required. "This made the job of navigating that little bit harder, we couldn’t follow the exact course I wanted, and it actually added miles to our route," explained White.

Though seventh out of eight on this leg the team were still last across the line, following Team Tyco’s early retirement due to rudder failure, and some three and a half days behind sixth placed Assa Abloy. "We’re extremely disappointed. It almost felt like déjà vu to have missed a system again," said White. "It never looks good not to be in the same system as the fleet in front."

Two of the longest legs are now behind the Amer Sports Too team and so they can look forward to some shorter legs on which to prove themselves. "We worked well as a team in all the manoeuvres and everything else we did," said White of her overall impression of the team’s performance. "We are of course proud of what we have achieved, we’ve sailed a lot of miles on a tough boat."

The question still remains as to whether the team are capable of beating some of their rivals. With two of the longest legs now completed and seven stages still remaining the team still have plenty of opportunity to prove themselves. It is interesting to note that when the team were leading on November 13 after nearly two days of sailing they had sailed further than the shortest leg in this nine-stage marathon ocean race.