The Irish Finish Line
By Christina Bohnstengel
On May 24, Ericcson 4 sped into Ireland’s Galway harbor in first place for the seventh leg of the Volvo Ocean Race around the world, followed by the yacht, Puma, in second and Green Dragon taking third. The sailing yachts started their engines, so to speak, in Boston on May 16 and spent the next seven days and 2,550 miles navigating what some skippers described as heinous seas. Five hours and four minutes separated Ericcson 4 from the last sailing yacht to arrive.
Ericcson’s skipper Torben Grael and crewmember Dave Endean commented on the difficulty of this particular leg, specifically when sailing out from Boston, as they were forced to navigate between a grid of lobster pots. “It felt pretty taxing, it was hard on the boat, hard on the guys. We hit something like six pots in about 10 minutes. I’m sure the front of our keel is just trashed. We felt a bit unlucky. We know the boat’s limits and I think this leg tested them more than any of the others.” The second place Puma also faced adversity after suffering a broken port rudder and temporarily falling into fifth place before fighting its way back up. Last place finisher, Ericcson 3, was happy to see the finish line at all after a literal run in with a whale.
The next leg of the Volvo Ocean Race sails to Marstrand beginning on June 6.
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