Ericsson 4 arrives first into Marstrand. Image copyright Oskar Kihlborg/Ericsson Racing Team.
by Victoria Low
Ericsson 4 led Ericsson Racing Team's return to its homeland by winning Leg 8 of the Volvo Ocean Race here this morning just after daybreak.
Ericsson 4, skippered by Brazilian Olympic medalist Torben Grael, crossed the finish line at XXXX and added another 8 points to its total. Stablemate Ericsson 3 finished in the 1250-mile leg seventh place arriving at finish line in the resort of Marstrand, an island near Gothenberg, at 6:16 am local time (0416 GMT).
Torben Grael: a happy skipper. Image copyright Oskar Kihlborg/Ericsson Racing Team.
"It's a good position to be in now," said Grael, 49, of Niteroi, Brazil. "It was a very rough leg. A bad result would've put us under a lot of pressure, this result does the opposite. For us it couldn't be any better. Winning the leg, it's fantastic."
The win gives the international team a 15-point cushion at the top of the results table.
The final 20 nautical miles were nail-biting for the sailors and fans alike. Ericsson 4 held a 4 mile lead clearing Skagen on the northern tip of Denmark, but led into lighter winds and watched the bow lights of the competition behind grow brighter. With 10 miles to go Ericsson 4's lead was down to 2 miles, but that was as close as it would get.
"We're all very tired," Grael said. "We're a little better now than when we were at Holland. That was the time when we were most tired."
The International crew had an eventful leg, one that saw them clear out the port steering wheel and part of the helmsman's guard rail in a spectacular broach last Saturday, the first night offshore from Galway.
Trimmer Tony Mutter said the crew was pushing hard when a squall came through, and they got caught with too much sail area flying.
"We had about 40 knots," Mutter said. "We tried to persevere. It went well for awhile, but then we wiped out at high speed. There was so much water over the leeward rail. We treated the boat pretty badly, but she got us here."
The crew recouped and led at the Scilly Islands, but then got passed by Green Dragon and Telefónica Black, both farther out in the English Channel and taking advantage of a wind shift.
Ericsson 4 celebrate their leg win. Image copyright Oskar Kihlborg/Ericsson Racing Team.
Ericsson 4 got back into the lead two days later approaching the Rotterdam Loop. Ericsson 4 got to the west of Green Dragon and Telefónica Black and found a building and lifting breeze off the Belgium coastline from a low-pressure system and led the fleet up through the North Sea.
The final 130 miles were a game of covering the competition and Ericsson 4 kept a tight clamp on its competition.
"But this leg was really hard," said bowman Phil Jameson. "On average the guys got two hours sleep, if they were lucky. I reckon we got six hours each for the trip. Everyone's tired and worn out, but thrilled with the results. It was great racing, tight all the way."
Ericsson 3, skippered Magnus Olsson of Stockholm, were disappointed with their seventh place finish.
"It hurts so bad. We're completely disappointed with the leg but happy to be in Marstrand," said Olsson, competing in his sixth Volvo Ocean Race. "We got it a bit wrong. After that we never succeeded to catch up."
Ericsson 3 got stuck on the wrong side of a low pressure system off Belgium and never managed to recover fully however, in the closing stages they did pull within 14 nautical miles of the lead.
Ericsson 3 arrive into Marstrand. Image copyright Oskar Kihlborg/Ericsson Racing Team.
"We came back quite well," said navigator Aksel Magdahl. "Today we crossed some tacks with Delta Lloyd and Telefónica Black. But they got into a cloud and disappeared in a second."
"Two hours on the wrong tack ruined the whole leg," said the navigator. "I think it was a combination of being tired and not being alert."
Olsson said the leg was difficult because of the many maneuvers required the ever-changing conditions, and vowed to review the leg to be ready for the next.
"We were there, we just got it wrong," Olsson said. "We're going to talk about it and see if we can understand what happened. It hurts so bad."
Ericsson Racing Team
Volvo Ocean Race
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