With one day remaining Green Dragon, PUMA and Delta Lloyd were battling it out for fourth, but the final day was set to play out a little differently than the three chasing boats had planned. At 0900 GMT Telefoncia Black came out of Stealth Mode and popped up on the racecourse ahead of PUMA and Delta Lloyd. But the Dragon had also gone into Stealth disappearing at 0700 GMT. For the chasing boats it was a hard pill to swallow as the difference between finishing fourth and seventh grew even closer as they all approached the finish. For Green Dragon every point would count. The battle for the remaining points was on. At 1030 GMT Green Dragon came out of Stealth (under race rules once a boat is within 50 miles of the finish line Stealth Mode must be turned off). The Dragon was still the most westerly boat and PUMA and Delta Lloyd had extended by 16 miles.
By 1200 GMT time was running out for the Dragon. Telefoncia Black who had made a clever tactical move playing the Stealth card late last night, had held onto their lead and took fourth spot. PUMA were soon to follow at 1222 GMT, with Delta Lloyd stealing sixth at 12:29 GMT. Ian Walker and his crew crossed the line at 13:08 GMT. It will be disappointment for the Dragon after sailing against the odds to stay with the leading pack for the majority of the leg. But it is a fantastic result considering they have sailed for twelve days in tricky conditions without a boom. It has been a challenge, but three points at the scoring gate and two points from the finish mean that they stay in contention for the overall race holding joint fourth on the leaderboard alongside PUMA.
Skipper Ian Walker talking at the finish
“It was nearly a great result. I think that’s what’s most disappointing is that it would have been an outstanding result but it feels like we have had it all taken away. At the moment we are very disappointed, having said that it was a good race, with three boats in sight for the finish and we were part of that, I guess that’s sport, that’s racing”.
Watch leader Neal McDonald
“It was a bit like snakes and ladder at the end, a bit disappointing but it was great racing. We were all in sight of boats for a lot of this leg, we had some really good racing. Sailing without the boom definitely made life harder, in reality there were certain times in a steady state, when the wind was steady and at certain angles, it made very little difference. But there were other times when the wind was changeable, which made life harder. We had to adapt, a day of sailing with it and trying to set it up and you know we have a boom for a reason. We don’t spend all that money on a piece of carbon for nothing! You do need a boom there is no doubt about it. Bu the guys did a great job, but it made steering a lot harder as you couldn’t release easliy. Once you got the mainsail where you wanted it, you could ease the pressure, but ultimately the steering was much much, more tricky”.
OVERALL POINTS AFTER TWO LEGS
1) ERICSSON 4 - 26 points
2) TELEFONCIA BLUE - 19 points
3) ERICSSON 3 - 14.5 points
4) GREEN DRAGON - 14 points
4) PUMA - 14 points
6) TELEFONCIA BLACK - 8.5 points
7) TEAM RUSSIA - 6.5 points
8) DELTA LLOYD - 4.5 points
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