In one of the closest finishes in the race to date, Ericsson 4 held off the recently resurgent PUMA and Green Dragon teams to win Leg 8, and claim their third consecutive leg win and fifth in the race so far. The victory puts Ericsson 4 in an all but unassailable position on the leaderboard.
"We're very close to winning the race," says Ericsson 4 skipper Torben Grael to the official race web site. "But we're not there yet."
His team now holds a 15-point lead with just three scoring opportunities left (for a maximum 20 points) before the finish in St. Petersburg.
This may have been one of the shorter legs of the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race, but the intense sprint from Galway to Marstrand was no less testing for its short duration. The leg threw a bit of everything at the crews, who were exhausted beyond all sensibility by the time they reached the finish off the small island of Marstrand.
The battle for second place, between PUMA, who made a late pass, and Green Dragon, was particularly close (less than a minute separated the pair), as was the fight for fifth, where Delta Lloyd stole past Telefonica Black just metres before the finish line for a 19-second margin of victory. All seven teams finished within one hour and 19 minutes.
Ericsson 4 is in a very strong position to lock up the race on the next leg, the short Swedish sprint to Stockholm. Meanwhile, PUMA and Telefonica Blue appear destined to fight for second place until the very end.
After two poor legs, Ericsson 3 will need to start looking over their shoulders at Green Dragon, now just 5.5 points behind. Similarly, Telefonica Black is suddenly less comfortable with Delta Lloyd lurking just 7 behind.
The teams are on a restricted regime now in Marstrand due to the 'pit-stop' designation here. In general, all repairs have to be made by the crews, and no new sails, or food, or other material is permitted to be brought on board. Crew substitutions are allowed however and Telefonica Blue have previously announced Tom Addis will step down for Simon Fisher.
Follow the race on the Volvo Ocean Race official website >>