SAILING VOLVO OCEAN RACE: EIGHT-AND-a-half months after departing Alicante, Spain, the Volvo Ocean Race ended last night in Russia when skipper Torben Grael, of the Ericsson Racing Team, at last lifted the "Fighting Finish" trophy after victory for Sweden's Ericsson 4.
Although it had been the Brazillian’s race to lose, the near-perfect campaign had secured the title two weeks ago after winning the eighth leg from Galway to Marstrand, Sweden.
Instead, the fighting finish was left to the second Spanish boat of the race and American Puma Ocean Racing to provide a “white night” match-race all the way to the finishing line of the 10th and final leg on Saturday morning.
A tacking duel that saw the pair deliver 22 manoeuvres in 40 minutes, all involving the gruelling chore of shifting tonnes of sails and equipment from side to side, could not have altered the overall standings, but did succeed in handing Fernando Eschavarri’s Telefonica Black their first podium result – and a win at that.
Grael and his crew ambled across the line in fifth place and was at last able to openly acknowledge overall victory with 12 points to spare.
Shortly after dawn, it was the turn of Ireland’s Green Dragon and the Limerick-owned, Dutch-managed Team Delta Lloyd to stage a lesser match to avoid placing last in the leg. Ian Walker’s team took that minor accomplishment in their stride, though it was tinged with some regret that a place higher than fifth overall had not been achieved.
“We haven’t won this race but we have won many battles and achieved more than many dreamed possible,” wrote Walker in his blog approaching the finish. “It has been a very special year.”
Walker’s first-time trans-oceanic competition has left a massive impression on the two-time Olympic silver-medallist. Aside from the boat’s demoralising under-performance in almost any conditions other than downwind heavy-airs, Green Dragon managed a few notable results.
Leg one saw the team sail around the main fleet from behind thanks to navigator Ian Moore’s first of many tactical gems to win the first scoring-gate at Fernando de Noronha. It was to be a precious victory, for it wasn’t until leg seven, six months later, that Walker would finally deliver their longed-for podium place into Green Dragon’s home port of Galway.
In spite of the disappointment of fifth overall, the success of the Galway stop-over may yet prove as important a result as an overall win or even a runners-up slot.
But last place overall went to Team Russia who, after suspending racing last December, secured sufficient funding to sail the final leg, only to be refused by the race director for failing to comply with safety provisions.
And so Stig Westergaard and his crew were obliged to shadow the fleet across the Gulf of Finland to the finish before later leading the other seven into their home port and the city’s rain-lashed welcome at the fortress of St Peter and Paul.
