ABN AMRO Two and Brasil 1 arrive

The latest news from Cape Town

Second arrival into Cape Town at the end of leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race was Seb Josse's crew on board ABN AMRO Two, which in a dying breeze crossed the line at 1956 GMT yesterday afternoon, just six hours behind their team mates on ABN AMRO One.

“We are really delighted with where we have finished,” said skipper Sebastien Josse as he stepped ashore.  “It is wonderful to sail this time with a full crew, and the crew work exceptional.  It was great to come in second.”

Navigator Simon Fisher added: “Absolutely fantastic result. We thought we could do something special if we sailed really well.  We were disappointed to be fourth round Fernando de Noronha but we really dug our heels in during the second half of the race and we’re delighted to get second. It has been fantastic arriving because the most stressful part of the race has been the last few hours, especially knowing that Brasil 1 was doing 20 knots behind us!  We have obviously got a rocket ship here in certain conditions and we’re very happy with the boat. “

After reaching the Fernando de Noronha scoring gate in fourth place, the under 31 crew on ABN AMRO Two worked hard to overtake first Neal McDonald's Ericsson and then Torben Grael's Brazilian team, all three boats seemingly stuck together with glue as they sailed south down the Atlantic.

ABN AMRO Two pulled ahead of Ericsson as they rounded the south Atlantic high and once into the big winds preceeding the front last weekend extended further to move into a solid second place behind ABN AMRO One. The last weekend saw Josse's team beating movistar's 24 hour record, but not the new 546 mile record set by ABN AMRO One.

After a long night for those waiting ashore, Torben Grael's Brasil 1 team ghosted across the finish line at 0458 GMT, shortly after dawn in third place. The Brazilian team now lie in joint second place with Ericsson who are expected to finish late tonight or early tomorrow morning.  Both with 10.5 points, Brasil 1 and Ericsson are only one point off the lead of ABN AMRO One on 11.5 points in the overall rankings.

“It was an extremely good race and it is very important for us to be in second place overall," commented Torben Grael on his arrival. "The boat is in good shape and I am very pleased with the performance. “ Navigator Adrienne Cahalan added, “We are very pleased with the result. It was a really tough race and everyone fought hard for podium positions and it was not over until the end. It was a very enjoyable but hard leg. I can’t believe it has taken nearly seven hours to do the last 20 miles.  We were quite relieved because even though we knew Ericsson was a long way behind, they could have appeared over the horizon at any time. “

The Brazilian team were something of an unknown quantity prior to the start of this leg, but lead the charge down the north Atlantic until they were overtaken by ABN AMRO One. Brasil 1 sailed very much their own race, taking a more easterly track down the north Atlantic and once again splitting from Ericsson and ABN AMRO Two to take a more easterly track down the south Atlantic, which on the official scoring at one point had them back in the lead.