12:25 PM Thu 29 Jan 2009 GMT
Kenny Read/USA, guided Puma through the finish of Volvo Ocean Race leg four in Qingdao, China today at 0817 GMT (1617 local time) to claim second place after an unbelievable effort, which saw the team break their boom and drop anchor in the Philippines order to make repairs.
On arrival in Qingdao, Puma's skipper, Kenny Read said: 'Our crew really became a team on this leg. We have really found our legs. After our problems we came back with an unbelievable effort. We came together.
'There were many times when I was sat behind the computer, looking for safe havens. It was always at the back of my mind, if we needed to go to a safe place quickly.
'All of us have used storm sails, but none of us has had to do it three separate times on one leg. Even with that, we almost had too much sail area, but last night was the best night of sailing we had on the leg.'
Puma's navigator, Andrew Cape/AUS, a veteran of three Whitbread/Volvo Races, added: 'It was a not very pleasant course, but we had to do it. We threw the lead to survive and we came second in the end. It was nasty with lots of wind and big seas and there seemed to always be a rock in the way. It was the most difficult leg I have ever done. '
Torben Grael brought Ericsson 4 alongside just under an hour later, to claim six points for third place.
Grael said: 'This leg has been very hard on the boats, but our boat has taken it well and at least we got here, but you are never sure. The crew has been perfect.
'The weather has been better than expected, and the temperature only dropped in the last few hours, when it became very cold, so we had good wind all the way in.
'I think we all want to win, but we all wanted to get here in one piece. We had lots of trouble with fishing boats and nets, we had to back down three times and there were so many boats out there. But it is the way it goes, you win some you lose some. I feel bad for the other boats. I was in that position last race and I know how it feels. It is hard for the sailors.'
Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR) is still racing, with 347 miles to go, and is anticipated to finish in fourth position on 31 January.
Three other boats have either retired (Telef?nica Black/Fernando Ech?varri/ESP) or suspended racing (Delta Lloyd/Roberto B?rmudez/ESP), Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE).
GREEN DRAGON LEG FOUR DAY 12 QFB: received 29.01.09 0118 GMT
Well the Dragon has made it across. We are all pretty happy and have just been taking it all as one step at a time.
Luck has changed our way and we had a good trip across to China with about 20-knots of wind and mostly pointing at the mark. Then a few lucky shifts and we are now down to about 400 nm to go, almost a Sydney to Gold Coast race.
A few days ago Ian wanted us to have another go at strengthening the bulkhead. We tried a different approach this time and used our existing repair as a base and glued and bolted sail battens up the bulkhead. This has worked a treat and appears to spread the load up the face of the bulkhead well.
Getting pretty cold on board and even Neal McDonald has got a balaclava and gloves on. We are going to approach the real cold spot in the next day or so. Water temp at the moment is about 10 degrees and should get down to 2 degrees. Madness. Hopefully the weather stays kind to us until the finish and we get the Dragon there in one piece.
Go the Dragon.
Tom Braidwood - pitman/trimmer
Leg Four Finishing Order Qingdao
1. Telef?nica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) 8 points
2. PUMA (Ken Read/USA) 7 points
3. Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael) 6 points
Overall Leaderboard (Provisional)
Ericsson 4: 45 points (FINISHED)
Telef?nica Blue: 41.5 points (FINISHED)
PUMA: 38 points (FINISHED)
Green Dragon: 22.5 (RACING)
Teams that have suspended or retired from this leg will be assigned points by the race committee at a later date.
Ericsson 3: SUS
Delta Lloyd: SUS
Telef?nica Black: DNF
Team Russia: DNS
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