Sweden's Ericsson team produce impressive win in Cape Town

One world record smashed, one leg victory in the bag, and all achieved with one man down, Brazilian Olympic inshore sailing wizard Torben Grael brought Sweden's Ericsson team's offshore contender to an impressive win here yesterday at the end of leg one of the Volvo round the world race from Alicante.

Ericsson 4 had been involved in a ding-dong most of the way down both the north and south Atlantic with second-placed American entry Puma but in the last week Ericsson 4, with British navigator Jules Salter, pulled away to a near 12-hour lead.

Puma, skippered by Kenny Read, was due to arrive just in time for a massive fireworks display as part of the city's oblique nod to Guy Fawkes in the UK.

"We had everything, we had a wonderful journey, very rough weather for a couple of days with a lot of speed," said Grael dockside in the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. "I am very, very happy with everything we achieved."

Behind him Read was in upbeat mood. "In a nutshell this has been a fantastic leg for us. On a tough leg that saw all ranges of conditions we got faster thanks to a lot of sailing near other boats. Our pre-race view that the race will be close and the boats pushed harder than ever has rung very true. We like our boat, that hasn't changed."

Grael took 21 days 17hr 54min to complete the 6,500-mile leg at an average speed of 12.5 knots. The course was different this time and the weather conditions different, but that is a knot and a half less than the winner of the first leg last time, ABN Amro 1, which is competing again this time as Delta Lloyd and carrying mast damage.

At some time or another, five of the eight boats in the fleet have held the lead, including the Chinese-backed entry Green Dragon, skippered by Ian Walker and expected in early this (Monday) morning in fourth place, and Telefonica Black, limping over the last miles with a broken rudder and daggerboard.

Hanging on in third place is the Nordic crew of Ericsson 3, but they will be penalised a further one point for the scoring gate rounding and two for the finish place because of having a fin keel inadmissible by the measurement scrutineers. A new fin, which has been milled in Italy, will be shipped to Cape Town and fitted in time for the next leg.

The win gave E4 a maximum eight points for the leg, which, added to the 2.5 from the prologue inshore races in Alicante and 3.5 for being second at the Isla de Noronha scoring gate off Brazil, gives 14 points to take into the second leg to Kochi in south-west India.

Both the win and the setting of a new world record of 602 nautical miles in 24 hours were achieved after having to evacuate Kiwi crewman Tony Mutter with an infected left knee in the Cape Verde Islands. That left a racing crew of nine, including Grael, plus an embedded media crew in the shape of Salter's brother Guy.

Mutter is recovered, but there will be a long list of jobs for the shore crews to complete before the restart on 15 November, including to Dragon, which is being slowed 10 per cent by a badly damaged keel fairing after hitting an unknown, but boat-stopping, object.

Click here to listen to Stuart Alexander speak exclusively with Ericsson 4 navigator Jules Salter.