525 Nm:
Sally Collison/PUMA Ocean Racing
The two big talking points of Leg 9 were Ericsson 4 wrapping up overall victory and Telefonica Blue running aground at the start and seemingly blowing all chances of a second place finish overall.
The leg itself was 525 miles, many of them challenging as the fleet snaked down the coast of Sweden. No scoring gates, no StealthPlays, no exclusion zones, no gate races.
The fleet passed through Oresund Sound, round the southern tip of Sweden, then left the island of Oland to port, before a final approach to the finish at Sandhamn that also left the lighthouses of Almagrundet, Revengegrundet and Svangedn to port. There was a whole lot of real estate en route.
PUMA took the leg honours while Ericsson 4's third place into Stockholm secured the overall race victory. The mathematics of the leaderboard told the story: 13 points clear of second-placed PUMA with only 12 left to fight for. Time for celebration for Torben Grael on arrival in Sandhamn.
"I couldn't feel any better," said Grael, who added the Fighting Finish Trophy to the five Olympic medals that already made him the most decorated sailor in Games history.
"We had a goal for the campaign and we have reached the goal," he said. "This is a very hard race and you have to work for what you want. We have worked hard and this is the result we have all put a lot of effort for. It feels very nice."
"Preparation, that's what it comes down to," said watch leader Stu Banatynne. "Ericsson committed very early to doing this; we had good funding, got the right people, experienced people, and from there all the right decisions were made."
At the other end of the scale, for Telefonica Blue it was the leg from hell. It had promised much, a short coastal race for a crew with the best inshore record, a team just one point off second.
But it turned sour when they smashed into a rock while leading shortly after the Mastrand start and this seventh-placed result left them seven points off PUMA with just one in-port race and leg to go.
Having run aground the crew watched helplessly as the rest of the fleet sailed off into the distance. The incident mirrored the grounding of Bouwe Bekking's Volvo Open 70 at the pre-start to Leg 5 from Qingdao to Rio.
The team abandoned racing and with the help of local coast guard, emergency services and the PUMA shore crew, the boat was eventually freed and returned to Marstrand for repairs to a damaged keel casing.
The team, predictably, were not in celebratory spirit on arrival in Marstrand four days after the winners. "We know we had an absolute shocker and have given a podium place away," Bekking said.
"On a personal note, this was the leg I have been looking so much forward to, sailing through the home waters, going around a lot of corners, a leg which suited us well on paper, but the opposite happened."
Meanwhile, PUMA finally laid their no-win bogey to rest. Ericsson 3 filled the middle step of the podium in a stunning about-turn of performance.
PUMA had long been the nearly men of the event. They had taken top three spots at 11 of 16 offshore scoring opportunities coming into Leg 9 and only claimed their first win of any sort in the Galway in-port race.
Their lack of success on any of the legs had left a gaping hole on their scorecard. "Winning boat races is something our crew have done their whole lives," Read said. "It has been frustrating, always being the bridesmaid, but you know what? It's better late than never."
Not least because they took a stranglehold on second place on the leaderboard. When Telefonica Blue eventually reached Stockholm - they collected two points, leaving them a full seven off PUMA with an in-port race and a leg remaining.
Ericsson 3 came home, literally, just one minute and 30 seconds behind PUMA. It was a tacking duel up to the Sandhamn finish line that was tight even by the extreme standards of this edition of the race - six of nine legs have been won by a margin of less than 90 minutes - and was only settled when Ericsson 3 caught a sheet on their radar during one of the final manoeuvres and surrendered top spot with the line in sight.
Telefonica Black finished fourth, Green Dragon took fifth on the back of successive podiums and Delta Lloyd was sixth.
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