Final three home

An update from Baltimore on the last arrivals on leg five of the Volvo Ocean Race

After the three podium places for leg five were taken earlier today by ABN AMRO One (Mike Sanderson), movistar (Bouwe Bekking) and Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard), the final three boats finished in quick succession.

Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) held off Ericsson Racing Team (John Kostecki) to take fourth place by whisker, finishing 12 minutes ahead of the Swedish boat, while ABN AMRO Two (Sebastien Josse) brought up the rear in sixth position, finishing just under an hour later.

“The last 24 hours were terrible,” said skipper of Brasil 1, Torben Grael. “Everyone is really exhausted. We were all working on deck for the whole day and didn’t have a minute to rest, always checking where the other boats were. This result is good for the team’s morale. We fought for so long for this fourth place and winning it is a confidence boost for the next legs,” he said.

Leg five has seen a shake up on the overall leaderboard. Although ABN AMRO One has an advantage of 22 points as the team stretched their lead to 62.5, movistar now moves up from fourth place overall to second, with 40.5 points, and ABN AMRO Two drops down a place to third.  Pirates of the Caribbean exchanges third overall for fourth but the bottom of the leaderboard is unaffected and Brasil 1 and Ericsson maintain their fifth and sixth places. 

Although ABN AMRO One has a strong advantage in the top spot, the race for second place is very open and there is everything to play for in the next in-port race scheduled to be held in Baltimore on April 29.

“We are somewhat happy with third place," said Paul Cayard on his arrival. "It is tough for us to get used to as we are all very competitive and we want to win. Movistar did a great job hanging onto ABN AMRO One and sailed a really good leg.”

“We are happy to finish third and to be on the podium. I think our points will see us drop to fourth overall but we have closed the gap on second place so we are pleased with that.”

Torben Grael skipper of Brasil 1 gave his views on the leg: “It was very hard leg for us. We made some mistakes early on and did not start the leg very well. We have had some great battles with many of the other teams and are very tired at the end of this leg. We have slept very little especially through last night as we were keeping a very close eye on Ericsson and ABN AMRO Two. It has been very close all the way up the Chesapeake and a very tough finish. It was really good for us to beat Ericsson on this leg so we are pleased with that.”

John Kostecki skipper of Ericsson Racing Team describes how they had lost out to Brasil 1. “It was a tough finish for us. Yesterday was really tough day when we saw 55 knots of wind and ripped our sail. It took us time to recover and we lost out to Brasil 1. All in all it was a good race. We fought hard and I feel good about the result and how much we have improved as a team and moved forward. We were always in the hunt. It was a long race and a long drag race and we didn’t get dropped off the back which is a big improvement.”

Navigator Steve Hayles added: “This kind of racing is pretty hard to beat. We have been out there sailing 5000 nautical miles and have seen another team every day of racing. It is simply fantastic racing and quite addictive. The result is obviously disappointing but we felt positive about how the boat was going. It was good to be in the hunt and racing hard against the fleet.

“You always try and improve your team in races like this. Everyone is making massive improvements and you need to make the same improvements if you want to keep up with them and make even bigger ones if you are off the pace in the first place.”

For the ABN AMRO Two team Leg 5 proved the toughest so far. Despite a strong start in the bay of Rio de Janeiro, the crew had to tackle a series of problems with the boat and constantly challenging wind conditions in both hemispheres. From broken head pumps to broken rigging, the crew focused on sailing within their capabilities. However, the racing conditions throughout the leg presented few opportunities for Seb Josse and the navigator Simon Fisher to catch the leaders. In the end the ‘kids’ only finished a short distance behind Ericsson and Brasil 1 as Chesapeake Bay provided a window of opportunity, but ABN AMRO Two ran out of time and space in which to catch their adversaries.

Speaking from dockside, Seb Josse was in a reflective mood, concluding: “It has been a really close battle but it is not really a good result from us. We sailed really well the first few days but then lost a lot of places in one moment on about day three of the leg and we never really come back from that. The reason I cannot be too disappointed is because our crew work was excellent and I think we sailed better in this leg than in any other, so I can not be disappointed in that respect. I am not too worried with the result as the race is not finished yet and there is still plenty of it left. I really enjoyed the closeness of the racing. It is something that I am familiar with in the singlehanded sailing I do and I find it very exciting. It gives us motivation and makes us push that little bit harder.”