21 May 2006 - The Ericsson Racing Team finished leg seven of the Volvo Ocean Race at 12.26 GMT today, taking second place on the podium. The arrival into Portsmouth, UK, was a welcome end to what has been one of the toughest legs for all the sailors, both physically and emotionally.

Ericsson enjoyed its best performance to date on leg seven with a brilliant second place, both at the Lizard scoring gate and on the arrival into Portsmouth, earning them 9 points on the scoreboard.

“This is the result we’ve been waiting for a long time,” said skipper Neal McDonald (GBR) on the dock. “The conditions were the most grueling I have ever seen on an Atlantic crossing - like having Southern Ocean conditions for days on end. If it wasn’t for the tragedy onboard ABN Amro Two, we would be immensely happy now. But as things are, we simply cannot celebrate. The race is very secondary in comparison to a life.”

The team had a good start out of New York on 11 May, and despite numerous position changes on the first couple of days, it soon settled into second place. Just three days into the race, Ericsson, along with ABN Amro One, made a critical decision to tack onto port owning the south-east of the course, whilst the rest of the fleet continued briefly on a more direct northerly route.

“There was a key moment early on in the leg. We broke away from the coast and left the fleet, when we were all on the wind,” said McDonald. “This gave us a little jump and then we got into good weather systems. We really worked hard at making the most of any opportunity.”

As a result, the leading boats, ABN Amro One and Ericsson, were the first to be rewarded with reaching and running conditions, leaving the fleet behind, still beating into the wind. The team built up a 60 nautical mile lead over its nearest competition.

In the early hours of 18 May, the devastating news came that a crewmember on ABN Amro Two had been swept overboard. The two yachts closest to the scene momentarily stopped racing and turned back in order to assist with the rescue operation. However, nothing could be done to save the crewmember’s life.

The days following this tragic event proved extremely tough for the exhausted sailors, as a powerful storm with winds blowing up to 50 knots brought them back to the reality of sailing. Pirates of the Caribbean managed to close in on Ericsson, taking advantage of better winds from behind. The boats ended up almost neck and neck as they approached the scoring gate at Lizard Point, Ericsson leading by a mere 12 miles.

“We held off a bit after the tragic incident with Hans and sailed more conservatively,” explained watch captain and helmsman Tim Powell (GBR). “Pirates sailed really fast downwind and managed to close in on us.”

At the same time, the Ericsson crew had to contend with some minor damage - a hole in the deck, a broken spinnaker pole and a malfunctioning keel movement system.

Ericsson passed the Lizard scoring gate in second place, earning them 3 points on the leaderboard. From then on it was plain sailing in moderate conditions towards Portsmouth and after 9 days, 19 hours, 26 minutes and 39 seconds of racing, they finally crossed the finish line.

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