A frustrated Ericsson Racing Team stepped ashore in Rio de Janeiro (BRA) this afternoon after 20 days at sea. The fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race has been filled with action - a lightning strike, a Chinese gybe, fires onboard and sailing around Cape Horn in all her fury. Despite the team’s hard work and commitment, it didn’t get the result it was expecting.

“This is a huge disappointment,” commented Tom Braidwood. “We did everything we could and it wasn’t good enough.”

It was a perfect end to a disappointing leg for the Ericsson Racing Team today as it crossed the finish line in Rio de Janeiro, to the cheers of hundreds of spectators on the water, against the beautiful backdrop of Sugar Loaf. The leg from Wellington to Rio, concluded at 16.12 local time, after 20 days, 17 hours and 42 minutes of racing. Having sailed 6,700 nautical miles through some of the world’s most hostile waters, Ericsson arrived just 16 hours behind the winning boat ABN Amro One, which goes to show just how competitive this Volvo Ocean Race fleet is.

A week after leaving Wellington, as they were sailing in fourth place, Ericsson was the victim of a Chinese gybe which gave the sailors a shock and cost them precious miles. Remarkably, the crew managed to recover the boat without breaking any gear and a few hours later they were back to full speed. They have since endured a fire onboard and a terrifying rounding of Cape Horn during which Ericsson reached speeds of 27 knots sailing with just the jib. “The boat wasn’t surfing as we rounded Cape Horn,” commented Tom Braidwood, “it was freefalling and it was just wild - everything I could possibly have wished for!”

Even the final day of racing was an eventful one, when Ericsson got hit by lightning during a tropical downpour. “We took a direct strike on the top of the rig which to our amazement resulted in flames at the top of the mast. It looks like the energy was enough to get the instrument wand at the top to actually burn”, commented skipper Neal McDonald. “We have destroyed most electronics on the boat and we were without any sailing instruments, navigation computers, radar, VHF and other navigational gear.”

Looking to the future McDonald said: “We need to work on a combination of things in order to improve. The first 4-5 days out of Wellington things were going well, so we know we have good pace in certain conditions. We now need to go back to the drawing board and analyse every element of the campaign. Missing the first Southern Ocean leg has probably cost us an awful lot and had a bigger impact than we first thought. We know a lot more now than we did before and we must convert this knowledge into better results.”

Ericsson is currently in sixth place on the leaderboard, with 21 points - 5.5 points behind Brasil 1 and 7 points behind fourth placed movistar. ABN Amro One leads the race, with 49 points.

Share or bookmark this story: