Paul Cayard, from San Francisco, USA, steered his black and red boat, The Black Pearl, over the finish line in the Hudson River to claim the second place for his Pirates of the Caribbean team in leg six of the Volvo Ocean Race in New York today. Finishing at 06:47:11 (local time, 10:47:11 GMT) this podium position brings the Pirates up to second place overall, with 47.5 points, just half a point ahead of movistar (Bouwe Bekking) who finished in a disappointing fifth place.

On reaching the dock, a visibly shattered Cayard said: “It has been a very tough 40 hours, there was really strong wind off New Jersey and the boat has been really slamming hard. We have had our fair share of problems, but the guys did a great job. Last night was really quite stressful as the wind died all together and the boats were very close and that is where we had little bit of luck on our side. ! I can’t recall anything much tougher on this race so far.

“New York is a really impressive city and I am really proud, as the only American skipper in the fleet, to be here. Second overall is an added bonus for us and we will certainly take it!”

Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) brought his largely Brazilian team home just nine minutes behind the Pirates to take the final podium place. Three minutes behind, in fourth place, was Ericsson Racing Team with Neal McDonald (UK) back in charge, while the Spanish team of movistar finished under a minute later in fifth place.

“Of course we very pleased with the result,” said Grael. “It was by far the hardest leg of the race in terms of the physical effort required and the lack of sleep. Because it wasn’t a long offshore leg, the whole crew were working throughout and it has been very hard for them. Every manoeuvre required everyone up on deck in their full foul weather gear,” he explained.

Brunel (Grant Wharington) has 15 miles to go to the finish, followed by ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) a further 10 miles behind.

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