Podium finish for PUMA team in leg three of Volvo Ocean Race
December 23, 2008 – PUMA Ocean Racing, skippered by Ken Read (USA) finished leg three of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 in second place late last night (local time). Crossing the finish line at 23:08 local (15:08 GMT) on December 22nd, just 17 minutes after leg winners Telefonica Blue, the PUMA team experienced an exhausting end to an incredibly intense 1,950 mile leg from India to Singapore. Separated from rivals Ericsson 3 and Ericsson 4 by just a few metres as they approached the finish line, PUMA beat the two Swedish boats by a matter of seconds to take second place.
Sticking inshore of the group as they raced along the Malaysian coastline during the last 24 hours, the PUMA team made some excellent tactical decisions to see them maintain their position at the front of the pack. To add to the stress of the tight finish in light winds, the fleet also had to negotiate hundreds of container ships and fishing boats littering the Straits of Malacca, not an easy task in the darkness. After motoring in from the finish line to the race village on Sentosa Island, the team were met by family on the dock, where they celebrated Watch Captain Sidney Gavignet’s 40th birthday.
PUMA Ocean Racing skipper Ken Read commented: “Every time I do one of these legs I come back and say I have never done anything like it before. It was hard work for ten days straight, with not a moment to spare. We are all exhausted – none of us can actually remember the last time we slept or ate or drank, or anything else. It’s just been non-stop for as long as we can remember...it’s gotten like that. That’s what this is about. All these boats are so similar in speed, and nobody’s letting up.”
“This leg was an amazing rollercoaster – you would have to just keep talking yourself out of getting too low when things weren’t going great or too high when things were going fantastic. It was tough but we knew the racecourse before we got into this and you just adapt to it. We knew this is exactly what this leg was going to be, and it lived up to its expectations. Unbelievable. Hats off to the Telefonica Blue guys, they did a really nice job. They just snuck through and didn’t look back. So congratulations to them.”
PUMA’s podium position earns the team seven points, keeping PUMA in third place overall in the race to date. The team will now take a well-deserved rest over Christmas, before competing in the Singapore In-Port and Pro-Am races on the 10th and 11th January, just off the coast of East Coast Park, Singapore.
The Volvo Ocean Race is made up of ten legs, finishing in June 2009 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
By joining the race, PUMA has entered a new premium category and is the only Sportslifestyle company to participate in the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09. For more information about the race, team and the PUMA Sailing collections, please visit www.pumaoceanracing.com
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